David Ryder

Awesome trip! It wasn’t necessarily a physically difficult hike but the lack of water definitely complicated things. The flash flood covered up most of the springs so the several reliable springs became a few hard-to-find seeps. Ram walked by a rattlesnake when it was coiled ~2ft from his path. I being in the lead got to identify all the drop-offs in the river and locations of quicksand, doing a lot of swimming and quicksand-escaping. Ram fell off a ledge sideways into a pool of cakemix-like mud – the very mud he was trying to circumvent. My dad got buried to his chest in quicksand requiring rescue. We followed some big cat tracks to our campsite one night. We were all forced to ration water – invoking thoughts of the joys of drinking the coolest, most abundant drinks. I believe we experienced a form of divine intervention.

As with any large-scale hike, a lot of lessons were learned. Rationing water, the importance of pack weight, and the importance of navigating and orienting all have been reinforced effectively. With what I know now and the experience I had I would still not be talked out of going when we went.

Total mileage: 50

Day 1: race day!
Distance: 16 miles

There are a few ways you can traverse Paria Canyon and the most popular is a 37 mile hike starting at a trail head called Whitehouse. 7 miles down this trail meets the confluence of Buckskin Gulch and continues on for another 30 miles. The way we took was through the beginning of Buckskin Gulch which meets that same confluence of Paria River 16 miles down. There is no way out of the gulch and there are no sources of water besides acidic, stagnant, swampy puddle water. What this means is you have to do all 16 miles before camping. Otherwise you are in danger of flash flooding and are without water. This was no small task. Along the way were pools of water that spanned the entire width of the gulch so there was no way around them. Some of them were shin deep, some went to our stomachs. It seemed there was an endless amount of these and walking through mud and water is quickly exhausting. Every break we took – which I timed to keep us on pace – was spent wringing the mud and water from our socks and drying feet. We made it to the confluence after a long ten hours and set up camp and ate.

And now, I lay here in the red sand with a small rock for a pillow. The light is quickly fading and the only thing I can see I the silhouette of the ridge of the steep canyon walls towering hundreds of feet over me. Paria river makes no sound. I asked “are those crickets?” and heard my voice following the walls of the canyon before disappearing seconds later. Indeed, they are crickets and that is the only sound I can hear, aside from the occasional rustling my party members make as they shift in their temporary beds.

It is pleasantly cool and the light from our miniature lantern is softly illuminating a part of the canyon wall behind me. Its crazy that it’s so dark with the lantern off that I can’t see my hand in front of my face. I can still see the outline of the canyon walls. Not many stars tonight, hidden by cloud coverage.

Day 2: flash flood day!
Distance: 12 miles

At about 11oclock last night we heard a loud rumbling sound coming from the gulch and thought – or rather, hoped – that it was a plane flying overhead. About five minutes later the 2 inches of water in the Paria River quickly turned into 12 – instantly. We were concerned as we were not on very high ground and only a tenth of a mile from the confluence we didn’t know where high ground was. Plus we weren’t packed up or ready at all. The river only rose about 2ft in an hour and it wasn’t budging so we decided to sleep. To our dismay the water hadn’t receded the next morning. After a bit of debating we decided that it would be best to continue on motivated by the potential of a major flood coming through and making it impossible to move.

For the next nine hours we were forced to cross the river more than fifty times as the banks always seemed to end and shift sides whenever the canyon made a turn. I got quite an unexpected workout on my inner and outer thighs fording the rushing, deep river. We had many encounters with quicksand – at one point my dad had to be pulled out by Ram and I. At places in the river unbeknownst to us were sudden drop offs that plunged us to our chests sometimes forcing us to swim. The water was very muddy and sandy, akin to thick soup. Anytime we stepped in the water thick sand and mud clung to our packs, clothes, and bodies adding pounds of weight. I was regularly wringing the mud out of my socks and emptying my pockets of handfuls of it. The river has since receded but there is still a rushing water sound that can be heard from both directions of the river. Never have I wished to not be able to hear the river.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of today was the malfunctioning (clogging) of our water filter. We ran out of water last night and had hoped to find the spring marked on the map 5 miles into the hike today. We couldn’t find it and out of desperation began to filter water coming from a seep (small outlet from a spring). It was clear but apparently had a lot of sand in it. It stopped pumping after about 9 liters – and we need between the 3 of us 12 liters per day. We rationed what we had and after we cooked tonight we each have about a liter remaining. Our spirits were slightly broken today but there is a silver lining in the fact that we traveled another ten miles. This leaves us with about 20 miles to cover in 3 days.

Day 3: search for water day!
Distance: 14 miles

Starting the day today we had 2-3 liters between the three of us. 12 would have been ideal. We had hopes that we would find the spring on the map 4-5 miles downstream. We never saw the spring and concern was rising quickly. We were short yesterday and today it was starting to look like there would be no water. The side canyon that “has clear water running for most of the year” was either dry or we passed it as well. Last night we filled up 7 liters with river water and hung them upside down hoping the sediment would settle to the bottom by morning. It worked but just moving containers mixed it up again shattering hope. And at one point today we tried filtering the river water (sludge) with a spandex t-shirt and boiling it but it was still too sandy and soupy to drink.

I was almost in complete despair and was walking in a daze after about 4 hours in the sun. I felt like I had been eating sand for two hours. Then the most unbelievable thing happened to us. I said “how awesome would that be if we just came across two gallons of water in the sand” and moments later there appeared two gallon jugs tied together! There was about a half gallon remaining and if miracles or divine intervention is reality, then that is what occurred today. It looked like someone tied the jugs to a branch and the branch broke (still remained tied to the rope) and got swept away by a flash flood. Of course whoever was watching would have to make it appear rational .

We went on for another hour before ram spotted a spring on the edge of the riverbed. It was flowing extremely slowly and was surrounded by quicksand. Ram dug a hole around it and we found shade and napped while the hole cleared out. We came back to clear spring water. Victory! I detached the hose from my camelbak bladder and filled all of our water containers up including the jugs (20liters!!!) we found by sucking out one hose at a time. The slightest movement in the water – even a drip of water – would stir the sediment up in our small collection area so we had to be very cautious.

Now we are even more grateful that we found those jugs because we aren’t sure we will find water in the remaining 10-12 miles.

It was such a strange thing that happened during our parchment today. We were imagining what awesome drinks we would drink when we finally got off the trail. I have never longed for liquid in this way. I have done fasts in the past where I only drank water and I always imagined what I would eat when it was over but never fasted from liquid. It’s expected but I have never experienced it. Just another humbling experience that gives me an idea of how much is taken for granted daily. You can’t be thankful for every available item daily but it is nice to be faced with something occasionally that makes you appreciate the most simple things in life that we all take for granted. I am curious to know how long these thoughts will linger every time I fill up my Nalgene at the water fountain at work, or have a cold glass of milk, or pick up a chilled gatorade at the gas station… or even a Slurpee from 7-Eleven. Mmmm, all sounds so yummy.

Day 4: victory!
Distance: 8 miles

We weren’t sure exactly how far we had gone but we had estimated that we had approximately 12 miles remaining based on previously known landmarks. If the river eased up and we had few to no crossings today we could have pushed on and made it off the trail by nightfall. We would have had to find water somewhere along the way if the 12 miles was split up into two days.

About 30 minutes into the hike I thought I recognized a notated feature on the map with accompanying mileage. Trail leaves river on right bank and comes back to the river after rockslide. I checked the map for confirmation and happily informed ram and my dad that we had 7 miles to the registration box and another mile from there to the parking lot.

Water became an issue very quickly as we were completely exposed to the sun with the canyon opening up completely. The 110* heat and desert sun beating down on us and reflecting off the white sand quickly depleted our already short water supply. The trail kept taking us away from the river so it was hard to find a spring – if there was one. We conserved water efficiently but we quickly became severely dehydrated. In worst shape than yesterday we decided to take no breaks and I traded my dad an empty water jug for as many heavy items from his pack that would fit into mine. This helped our pace tremendously.

We came across another marked feature on the map: abandoned homestead – 4 miles from registration box. I had hoped we were farther but at least we knew exactly how much more we had to go. It was nearing noon and the suns intensity was growing. We marched on. I estimated that we would be to the registration box by 2pm. At 1:45 we came across something that wasn’t on the map: another abandoned homestead/horse corral. I mentioned that this may have been the homestead and that our original estimates of remaining mileage was correct. Nobody responded and continued walking. Not even two minutes later ram said “I see a sign”. I immediately drew the conclusion that it was actually the registration box and my spirits blindly soared. I was right!

We vigorously hiked the last mile and I drank every bit of my remaining water with overwhelming satisfaction. Rarrrr!!!

We rinsed off and changed at the fish cleaning station, drove straight to Jack In The Box in Page, and was on Lake Powell by 3:30. Laying out, cliff diving, swimming, and relaxing. Couldn’t have ended such an intense hike on a better note!