Grand Gulch backpack, 3-17-16

[DAA]

Did a three night backpacking trip in Grand Gulch last weekend with my son and our friend Pete (OnOff).


Drove down Wed. evening, with just a stop in Hanksville for fuel and dinner at Blondies. Was pretty chilly that night and dang cold Thur. morning. Rangers at Kane Gulch said it was 13* that morning.


Dropped Logan and Pete off at the ranger station and I drove back to the Bullet Canyon trail head. I left my truck there and rode my bike back to the ranger station, which took me about an hour.


From there, we started our backpack! Just walked across the highway from the ranger station and started down the trail. We eventually camped that night at the mouth of Todie canyon.


Bunch of pics from day 1.

- DAA

 

[DAA]

Day two started off frosty! Woke up to, my guess, high teens. Day turned out real nice though!


On this day, we started at the mouth of Todie canyon and ended up camped at Green Mask. Bunch of pics from day 2.

Anasazi femur?

One of the things very frequently seen in Anasazi alcoves, are the ubiquitous mud balls stuck to the ceiling. Randy, Jared and I have speculated that it was the children amusing themselves by flipping or shooting or throwing or however they propelled them. On this visit to Green Mask, Pete noticed that it sure looks like they were trying to hit the namesake pictograph .

- DAA

 

[DAA]

That night at Green Mask would be by far the warmest of the trip, I think it just barely dipped below freezing.


Day three, we started at Green Mask and camped at Jailhouse spring. Bunch of pics from day 3.

- DAA

 

[DAA]

Day four started off frosty again. Not the coldest morning of the trip, but definitely well below freezing. But, just like the previous days, it warmed up and turned very nice.


This day was basically just hiking out of Bullet canyon to the truck. We took one snack break, but didn't stop to visit any ruins or anything. Couple pics of the hike out.

We stopped in Hanksville to eat at Blondies again. All three of us had the Rueben - highly recommended!


Plan, was to motor straight for home from there. But... South of Wellington, we ran into a couple miles of backed up and barely moving traffic. Wreck somewhere ahead. After half an hour, I said screw it. Turned around and went back down to the Green River cutoff and drove the 45 miles of dirt across the Swell to Castle Dale. Nice scenic detour .

And that, was about it. Heavy traffic from Price on, but otherwise uneventful drive the rest of the way home.


Great trip! Don't get to go with my son very often anymore and Pete is always a super fun companion. Even if he is getting pretty old .


- DAA

 

[rholbrook]

Nice. You should do this more often because I enjoy the read. Thanks for sharing

 

[DAA]

I've gotten to be pretty lazy with not posting trip reports. Will try and post them more often!

- DAA

 

[lhracing]

Excellent report and great pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

[I Lean]

I've gotten to be pretty lazy with not posting trip reports. Will try and post them more often!

- DAA

Not sure you can call it "lazy", since you get out and do stuff a LOT more than most of us. We just have to live vicariously through your pictures when you're motivated enough to post these reports.

 

[thefirstzukman]

Awesome report Dave, I need to get out and do some backpacking soon.

 

[Hickey]

Awesome trip report Dave. I hope the knee treated you well.

Your trip reports absolutely inspire/push me to get out more. You make me feel irresponsible with my free time.

 

[DAA]

The knee did good. Started off hurting some going downhill but got better as the trip went along. I was super careful with it and did less miles than usual but by the last day (all uphill) it didn't hurt at all.

I was icing it and hitting the anti inflamatories for ten days leading up to this trip too.

- DAA

 

[DAA]

Might add I was taking ibuprofen three times a day whether it was hurting or not the whole trip. My buddy Pete has a medical background and he kept reminding me like clockwork. Said it was smart to stay ahead of inflation if possible.

- DAA

- DAA

 

[sixstringsteve]

Great report. That's great you can spend so much quality time witg your son. He's a lucky guy. Grand gulch has been on my bucket list for a while now.

 

[DAA]

It's a special place. I'm going back for another backpacking trip in a couple weeks to do the last section I haven't seen yet. By the time that one is done I'll have walked the entire length of it. Which has been on my bucket list. Plus I've hiked all the major tributaries and most of the minor ones.

But I'm already looking forward to revisiting parts of it . And actually there are many that I've already done more than once. Almost all of this last trip was revisit for me but Logan and Pete had never seen any of it before and both noticed things I'd missed on previous visits. It's that kind of place that you are always finding cool new things every time you go.

What I find myself doing now is going slower. What most people do in two days I'm taking three or four days and really getting off the trail a lot to explore.

- DAA