We went to the Paria Canyon/ Buckskin Gulch area for a backpack trip. We originally expected to go down the narrows of Buckskin Gulch but cold weather and high water levels encourage us to change our plans. Instead we decided to hike along the rim of the Paria canyon with hopes of better weather the next day, and a route down the trail that would allow us to down climb to the river, and then travel back up it. In our packs were three days worth of food, titanium cook gear, a small white gas stove, a Bibler two- man tent, cold weather gear, and a ceramic water filter.
We spent our first day in the bliss of the spring desert. Even in the wet, cold, weather there is something special about the high desert plains. The sage and juniper mix with wet sand stone and fresh red earth to create alchemy. Our hike starts at 0830 and lasts till 1800, or so. We experience every kind of weather imaginable, except warm sunny skies. Rain, high winds, grapple, hail, snow, we get it all. Our concerns about a fresh water source evaporate as the slick rock collects water and runs it down the crevices and nooks an crannies, creating a world of small water falls.
Finally, we find a good bivy spot, the rain stops. We are all wet, cold, and hungry. Our whisper light stove ignites and soon a warm cup of chicken soup is thrust into my shivering hands with a brisk order to drink it all. My husband has ordered me to the tent, not just to change to dry clothes, but to keep our tent from flying over the cliffs down into the river. The world seems a better place with hot, satisfying food and good companionship. Our conversation is lively, ranging from the scariness of our president, to an interesting book that our friends have listening to on an audio book. The darkness sneaks over the canyon walls, and finally in the silence of the night, we shuffle off to bed.
My husband is a skinny guy, at six feet tall he weighs about 160 pounds. He has a high resting metabolic rate, and lucky for me that means he is like a furnace burning in our tent. I sleep warm and awake rested. Our breakfast consists of instant cereal and hot tea with powdered milk and sugar. Amazing how good it tastes even though we have a limited amount of water and the cereal is sticky. We had been planning on springs that feed into the Paria river for a water supply. The river itself is way to silty for our filter, but small springs along the way feed into the river. Our decision to stay high on the rim has compromised our trip. Aside from a few slim puddles, there is no water.
We spend the day looking for a route to down climb to the river. About noon, while snacking on cheese and buttery Ritz crackers, we admit defeat. The weather is still marginal, so we make a decision to hike back. We follow the trail we made on our hike in. Sometime during the night a mountain lion has sniffed out our trail and followed along in our footsteps. For some reason the fact that we are not alone at the top of the food chain gives me some satisfaction. We scramble up on the red slick rock that crumbles beneath out shoes like those wafer cookies. Finally we find a down route and scramble to the river at last. Off come our hot, sandy, sweaty shoes and the cool river soothes our feet.
There is such a different view at the bottom of all that sandstone and slickrock. The river tumbles along as it has for years and years. The wind still blows, kicking up dust devils that whirl around the canyon walls and whip through our hair and clothes. The high afternoon sun is finally warm and the last few hours of our hike are idyllic. When we reach our camping site we fire up the stove and make couscous with veggies and indulge in a homebrewed beer. We sleep well that night in the back of truck with expedition weight bags and cushy therma rests.
I carefully calculated our caloric needs and planned meals around those numbers. My careful plans go awry in the first few hours. The snacks I had planned just don’t sound good. Lunch seems to complicated to prepare. We find that the easy, eatable things are what appeals to us. Rich and fatty cheese and buttery Ritz crackers are what we crave. In the end, we both consume the calories that were recommended for our activities. For Allen 5000 Kcals are required, for myself about 4500 Kcal. That seems like an awful lot compared to what we normally eat. During the hike, we tended to graze on granola and chocolate, and saved our big meal for the end of the day when we could sit down and relax.
Even thought the weather is chilly we still drink quite a bit of water. After a fortuitous gully washer we were able to replenish our water bottles and fill pots for supper’s cooking needs. We manage to filter about 7 litres of rain water. We each drink a litre while waiting for supper to cook. Our meal takes about 1and a half litres. After supper we filter two more litres for over night. There is nothing that tastes as good as cold rainwater to drink in the middle of the night! Next morning, two more litres are squeezed from our supply. After tea and instant cereal, there is about a litre left. We clean our trusty ceramic filter, and manage to squeeze another litre to last us for the day. As a group, we decide that because of the lack of water and the continuation of marginal weather we need to head out of the back country.
Although our trip did not go as planned, it was enjoyable and safe. Having adequate nutrition gave us the energy to hike miles and to explore the wonderful desert country. Knowledge about caloric needs is helpful, but honestly, being in the back country is not a science. You need to be prepared and you need to have experience and knowledge in order to be safe. However, every little detail can’t be planned out. Flexibility is necessary and that is one of the things that makes being outside so much fun.