Day 194 (HDT 10)

Day 194 (HDT 10): 25 miles

We began the morning continuing our cross country across the Red Benches before finally descending down into Hatch Canyon and the Dirty Devil River. It was a beautiful canyon from above and it was cool in the bottom too, but this was probably one of my least favorite parts of the trail so far. The more I hike the more I become a cat and don’t like to get wet so fording the river like 10 times wasn’t exactly in my lane. But even putting that aside, the river was kinda gross, there was thick and slippery mud everywhere, and it was kinda smelly. I would probably just describe this area as kinda gross. Maybe I was just in a bad mood idk

The guidebook warns of quicksand in this area. There was thick mud that was annoying, but there was much worse quicksand in courthouse wash when we went through it after rain. I did however make sure to double knot my shoes TIGHT here. After a short stretch in the thick mud, I was worried about my shoes staying in my feet cause it was so strong.

This section could’ve been much worse though. The river was at a safe level. It rained a few days ago, but not a ton. If the water level was higher this section would’ve been much more miserable. I had one ford that went up to my short line but that was only cause I forded at a dumb area. Most of them were at the knees or below. There is a high water alternate if the water level is too dangerous,

Along with the thick sticky mud, there was also super slippery mud where it is impossible to get a solid step and even difficult to stand up straight. While walking on the bank of the river, I took a nice slip and fall, full cartoon style, and ended up on my back. I’m not sure who put that banana peel there.

I was overjoyed when we finally forded the Dirty Devil for the last time and we took a long break under a cottonwood tree on our way to a dirt road nearby via a wash. When we got to the dirt road, we were a little bummed out. It was tough hiking before that in a cross country section and then along the Dirty Devil, so we were looking forward to easy road miles. But this was really tough hiking for a road. It was soft sand which made getting a solid step difficult and it was much more tiring. And later in the day, the road was flooded/a mud pit for about a mile. Even when you think it’s gonna be easy, the Hayduke always has a surprise for ya!

On the bright side, we ran into some construction guys on the road and they gave us ice cold water which felt like heaven. It was cool they knew about the Hayduke and had met some other hikers doing it before.

Gosh damn I’ve never had this much poison ivy on my legs. So itchy.

We’re camped just a few miles shy of 95 and we’ll head into Hanksville tomorrow morning. This stretch from Needles to Hanksville has been pretty damn difficult.

Song of the day: remedy-seether