Bet you weren’t expecting that title, were you? To be honest, neither was I.
Easy and Hayduke are not words you usually see together in a sentence, unless it says something along the lines of: ‘Easy to get lost on the Hayduke,’ or perhaps: ‘Easy to run out of water on the Hayduke’.
But once I had passed the halfway point of the trail, things got considerably easier for quite a while. Yes, I mean easier in relation to the rest of the trail. By now, I had gotten used to slow miles, hard terrain. Gotten used to bushwhacking, scrambling, climbing, sliding, slipping, tripping and trembling. And let’s not forget: dehydrating.
When being tired and thirsty becomes a way of life, any change that lets you sleep, rest and drink water, is equal to living the high life. Last time we spoke, I had reached the halfway point somewhere along Hackberry Canyon in Utah.
400 miles done, 400 left to go.
I was all ready for some more hardship, but the terrain levelled out, and I got to make miles. That, in turn, brought with it another consequence:
I had permits arranged for the Grand Canyon section of the trail, and hiking buddies that would come and meet me there, so I had no wiggle room for arriving earlier. If I started moving too fast, I would arrive way too early!
Talk about a luxury problem…
All of a sudden, I found myself hiking on level, open terrain, and not being in any rush. Still, the amount of water and food I could (and did) carry, limited the amount of time I could waste. Eventually, I would run out of either or both.
From Hackberry Canyon, the trail leads you along the Paria River, then eventually spits you out at Willis Creek. From there, it’s an easy detour to the town of Tropic, to resupply and visit Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is not officially on the Hayduke, but I had never been there, and had some time to kill, so of course I was going there!
Apart from the usual town amenities such as an unlimited supply of fresh food, showers, laundry, an actual bed (you know, with pillows and all), towels and internet reception, Tropic also gave me a chance to repair my malfunctioning gear.
Should you ever consider doing the Hayduke, make sure to bring gear that is either very sturdy, or old and ready for retirement. Because, let me tell you: the Hayduke is not kind on your expensive ultralight gear. By now, everything that had a zipper was protesting the abundant presence of fine sand. Two of my tent zippers had given up, my fanny pack kept splitting open, my fleece vest zipper was starting to malfunction. Also, my stove was refusing to screw onto gas canisters, one of my hiking poles had been bent during a minor mishap and my brand new backpack now sported several abrasions and holes in the side and mesh pockets from hauling it across the rocks with a rope.
With lots of elbow grease and some luck, I managed to temporarily fix most of the gear, but had to resort to sowing one of my tent zippers permanently shut. It’s also a good thing that cold soaking is easy in the desert, so who needs a stove anyway?
After a leisurely stay in Tropic, Bryce was breathtaking, but busy. I had not seen this many people all together in one place since I left Las Vegas back in March. It took me a while to get used to the throngs of tourists. Getting used to more people around always takes me longer than getting used to no people around. As I wandered around the park, marveling at the alien spires and bright colors all around, I heard the languages of the world spoken around me. I was not the only one under the spell of this mindblowing landscape. As I sat on a bench overlooking Bryce Point to eat my lunch, I stared at the rocks and tried to visualize how these wonders were created. Besides me, a couple was discussing if they wanted to hike down from the rim trail to the Queen’s Garden. I encouraged them to go. “It is a pretty special place, and you might only be here once, right?”
“Yeah, but we already walked five miles today,” the man said. “And what are you eating anyway? That looks awful.”
I looked down at my peanut butter tortilla wrap and had to agree. It did not look very appealing, but it would get me through my 20+ miles for the day. I decided against saying this out loud, though, and wished them a pleasant day.
As popular as the park is, once you step away from the main pathways, the throng turns into a trickle, and soon, I was alone again. Though I remained suspicious, expecting that any turn up ahead would bring me more trials and tribulations, the going stayed surprisingly easy all the way to the Grand Canyon. Not until I dropped down the Nankoweap Trail and had to start boulder hopping along the Colorado River would I start cursing again. I will tell you more about that section next time though.
For now, the trail brought me to the small town of Kanab for another zero, and when I met up with my former PCT-tramily member Spreadsheet, we had a leisurely amount of time to get ourselves to the North Rim along 60 miles of the Arizona Trail (The Hayduke follows the AZT from the terminus at the Utah-Arizona border to the North Rim).
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not claiming the AZT is a walk in the park, but compared to what I just came from, it was sheer lazy bliss. There was an actual, visible trail to follow. We had all the time in the world to take long lunch breaks in the shade of trees, eat cookies at Jacob Lake Inn, and walk as little as we felt like each day. Yes, I admit, when the weather got rather erratic and freezing cold up on the North Rim, we even camped near a (frozen) spring after a two-mile day once. Hardships, you know…
Every AZT hiker we encountered, had heard of the Hayduke Trail, also a new experience. As they were nearing the end of their 800-mile thruhike, almost all of them exclaimed how hardcore we were for doing the Hayduke. Meanwhile, we felt like the laziest hikers in the world. I had already forgotten all about the hardships of the previous weeks and now just felt slightly embarrassed and way too well-rested to be a thruhiker. Not to mention hydrated! For the first time since I had started this hike, I was not actually thirsty all day long. Compared to the Hayduke, the Arizona Trail offered a veritable cornucopia of water sources and caches.
It was a good thing, then, that I knew all of this luxury would soon cease…
Want to know more about my hike? Previous articles of my trip can be found here, or sign up to get notified when my next article hits The Trek website at the bottom of this page!
