The Grand Canyon Escalante Route

 

I just returned from eight days backpacking along the Escalante Route, (and a bit of the Tonto Trail to the Grandview Trail), so there is no bicycle content here.  Here is my friend, Randy, walking toward the Anasazi ruin above Unkar rapids.  I'm happy to report my back did hold up, though it is still bothering me some at night.

I took my Olympus OM-1n, which is my usual default camera, but I left it in my pack much of the time.  The shot above was taken on my cell phone.  I hate to admit it, but cell phone photographs turn out just fine.  I have to use up the last couple of frames on the roll of Kodak Gold that I have in the Olympus before sending it off to the Darkroom to be developed.

I found myself wondering how much longer I'm willing to navigate the Grand Canyon routes.  I like getting out to the relative solitude to be found on the routes, but I get tired of feeling that if I accidentally tripped over my feet, not only would I be injured, but I would also fall in such a way as to disappear from sight.  The Escalante Route, in particular, has about two days of traversing on narrow trails along steep slopes.

That is about as narrow as it gets, but it gives the general picture of the situation.  I don't know how well it will show up on the blog, but you should be able to spot the line of the trail along the slope in this photo below.  That is the trail in between Cardenas Beach and Escalante Beach:

But then there are the fun things, like seeing four bighorn sheep, with a little tiny baby, coming down the cliff to drink from the river, or this frog, that hung out next to me most of the day at Hance Creek, while we were taking a rest day: