Utah Backpacking and Housesitting in Nevada City

In what has become an annual tradition with my friends Paul, Kevin and Joel, we all met up in Salt Lake City, UT on October 24 to go backpacking. Kevin flew in from Michigan, Joel flew in from Seattle, Paul drove down from Montana and I had driven from Denver with Ginny. This was later in the season than we typically go and we were a little concerned about cooler weather as a snowstorm had just blown through the region the day before. Fortunately we were heading about six hours south of SLC to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area where we hoped the temperatures would be a little higher. My friends had done a similar trip eight years ago but I missed that trip as we were living in New Zealand then. But I had heard all about the red rocks, the massive canyon walls and those arches… “Sam, you just gotta see these arches!” So you could say that I was pretty jazzed about the trip and knew that it was going to be quite different than pretty much every other backpacking trip that I’ve done.  

We started by hiking a couple miles across the mesa before dropping down into the canyon at a spot called ‘hole in the rock’. It required a bit of jimmying and lowering of packs to get down some cliff faces to the canyon below. After a few more miles of hiking, we hit the canyon floor and entered the Escalante River which was quite frigid. Kevin and Joel promptly changed into their river sandals and Paul continued to hike in his trail shoes. I didn’t have ‘river sandals’ and made the poor choice to navigate the river in a combination of bare feet and knock-off Crocs. As I trudged down the river, I struggled with feet eating quicksand and stubbing my toes on river rocks and my mood gradually soured despite the absolutely stunning scenery on the canyon walls above. This resulted in me throwing a pity party a few hours later (Sorry, Joel) as my feet were absolutely freezing and my overall body temperature was plummeting like a lead balloon. Like a petulant five year old, I think I said something like “This is not fun and I don’t want to do this anymore!”. Shortly thereafter we made it into camp and my friends assured me that the trip would get better and that once we reached Coyote Gulch, ‘everything would be totally different’. Coyote Gulch, which was the main destination of our trip, is a tributary into the Escalante River and therefore wouldn’t be flowing as strongly nor be as deep. I begrudgingly accepted that this could be true and got out of my funk aided by the copious amounts of whiskey that we always haul along on these trips. 

The next day we started out by hiking up to this amazing waterfall that was coming off of one of the canyon walls. It was a truly spiritual spot that we all felt and took the necessary time to acknowledge the powerfulness of the place. After breaking camp, we headed back up the Escalante River from which we had come and this time I opted to keep my trail shoes on which was a very wise move. While my feet still got pretty cold, I could move much faster and not be so concerned about stubbing my toes on the many river rocks and the shoes were a good kryptonite to the feet sucking quicksand. Before we knew it, we had made it to Coyote Gulch where the water flowed much clearer, shallower and also seemed to be a little warmer. We made camp a few hours later in a clearing on the banks of the river. Paul and I slept under the stars for the second straight night which ended up being a bad call as some pretty stiff winds picked up during the night making for a chilly and noisy night with minimal sleep. 

The next day we hiked further up Coyote Gulch seeing many spectacular arches and massive red rock walls. We passed the location where we would be climbing out of the canyon the next day and it didn’t look too sketchy but would definitely require some scrambling with four points of contact. After seeing very few people the first couple days, we ran into a number of other parties on this day and they all seemed a little strange. It felt like a mix of characters out of ‘Deliverance’ and ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ - yes, that kind of strange! Anyhow, we made our last camp of the trip on a sandy bench under some awesome red cliffs. That night as we were playing cards we heard the call of a Western Screech Owl which was super cool. The next morning we celebrated Kevin’s birthday with some trail cake (see photo below) before starting our trek out of the canyon and back to civilization. I found the climb out of the canyon to be a little more challenging than it looked from the bottom and when a party above offered to throw their rope down, I gladly accepted and used it as a hand line to pull myself up the steep section. Despite the fairly cold conditions, the trip was really amazing and unlike any backpacking trip that I’ve ever done. And just like the scenery, the company was absolutely fantastic - thanks for a great trip, Kevin, Paul and Joel. Most photos below are courtesy of Joel although I think Paul has a photo credit as well.     

After the Coyote Gulch backpacking trip, I flew from SLC to Sacramento where Ginny picked me up to head up to Nevada City where she had been housesitting all week. Unfortunately we only had a couple days of overlap at the housesit as she was scheduled to fly out on November 2 to visit her folks in Taipei. We had a great time that weekend though going out on the lake with the dogs with both stand up paddle boards and a canoe. The housesit was at this 20 acre property that is right on a reservoir that doesn’t allow motorized craft so it’s really peaceful and quiet. The dogs (Kaeki and Huracan) were really fun to take care of and were great runners as well. I took them out every morning on a trail along the lake for anywhere from eight to ten miles. It reminded me of running with Scout as they were constantly tearing off into the forest only to return a few minutes later to check on me and make sure that I hadn’t lost my way. 

When Ginny left for Taiwan, she took all of the good weather with her as things turned downright frigid for the rest of my stay in Nevada City. It was still fun to go out with the dogs but I’d come back from most adventures with frozen hands and toes. Last week a snowstorm hit the area and we got nearly six inches of snow which turned the landscape into a winter wonderland. Two friends from UC Davis (Dan and Andy) came up to visit and we went out on the lake with the dogs and then did a hike up to the upper reservoir. It was great to see them and share this magical spot with old friends. 

I left Nevada City on Friday and now I’m in Groveland (right outside of Yosemite National Park) doing another housesit this week. There are three dogs here and they’re decent runners but nowhere near the caliber of Kaeki and Huracan. There are some great trails here so I’ll see what I can do to whip them into shape by the time their owners return next weekend!