Back to the Mesa
BJ returned from Mexico with some more color in his cheeks and lots of stories about surfing and late nights. We quickly filled up on food, water, and clean laundry, and started driving to Gooseberry Mesa, just outside of Zion National Park, to meet up with Tim and Mary Lynn, as well as Dan, Rebecca, and their two kids Sydney and Sam. With four of us working for Vertical Media, it seemed as if we were opening an office atop a remote mesa in Southern Utah’s desert. Of course, each travelling party had their own camper van as well.
But when we arrived, it was as if the plague had swept across the mesa. All parties were down and out with a stomach bug. But we couldn’t resist joining camp. With views overlooking Zion, nice shady trees, and an entire camp to ourselves, life on the mesa is just too good. So we drew a line in the sand, whipped out the hand sanitizer and baby wipes, and spoke to our fellow campers from a distance. Luckily our tummies felt fine all week and eventually the rest of the crew came around.
We have never visited the mesa without mountain biking and I am somewhat ashamed to admit that our only outings on the bike were the quick pedals to the pit toilet every morning. Our excuse? My rear shock for my bike was spending a fortnight at the Fox repair shop and we would be one bike down for most of our time on the mesa. Even without biking the awesome slickrock trails on the mesa, it was still hard to pack up and leave camp this week.
One of the highlights of our time down in Zion was an overnight hike we discovered last weekend. If we had had two functioning bikes, I’m not sure we would have opted for an adventure on foot. So I have my busted shock to thank for a weekend of hiking.
On Saturday morning we drove down from the mesa, parked our car at the Checkerboard Mesa turnout inside the national park, and stuck a thumb out to hitch a ride to the nearby town of Mt. Carmel Junction where we would begin hiking. The Barracks Trail is a 20 mile one way trek along the East Fork of the Virgin River. The West Fork actually runs through the main Zion National Park canyon. It seems that the only ones who explore the East Fork are cattle and ATVers … that is, until you reach the “narrows.” We didn’t realize that the “trail” was actually a river. There was no trail marked on the map, no signs along the river, and no defined track on the terrain.
We followed a dirt road in from Mt. Carmel for a few miles, crossing the river numerous times. In an attempt to keep our shoes dry, we continuously removed our shoes and either forded the stream barefoot or in flip flops. After so many crossings, we finally just started walking barefoot or in flip flops for long sections of the sandy road. I mentioned the cattle … let’s just say they have a way of murking up the water and banks so that the mud squished just perfectly between our toes. “Gross,” we would say at almost every crossing. The first part of the trail was obviously not our favorite. But when the ATV trail finally veered off course and the walls began to narrow in around the river, we started to get a glimpse of what we were in for. From this point forward, we didn’t see another soul until we reached the road on the other side, 15 miles away.
After 4 hours, we hadn’t made it very far by the time we decided to make camp up on a sandy shoulder in the red rock. We attributed the very few miles to our dawdling in flip flops and bare feet and after putting a few numbers together, we came to the realization that we would be tackling roughly 12 miles down a river bed the following day. After a little debate and “what ifs” we agreed that as long as the weather looked good in the morning, we would push on. I can’t say I’ve ever been on a hike that even comes close to comparing. Because the trail was the river and the river was the trail, it was pretty easy to follow. But at some point we would be hiking out of the river on an unmarked trail. This made it important for us to know exactly where we were along the river. We referenced our trail guide and maps often.
As we set out on day 2, we wore our shoes with intensions of getting very wet. While our shoes were soaked, the water level never rose above our thighs. We would splash down the narrow river, ranging from 3 to 10 feet wide, for a ways and then bushwhack along a sort-of trail on the bank. The bank would run into a cliff wall and we would have to re-enter the river. We might cross to the bank on the other side until that bank ran into a wall or just walk down the river for a ways. We reached a few sections of narrows, where huge cliff walls met the river on either side. The cow crap that we walked through the previous day quickly became well worth it.
While there was no need for ropes on this hike, there was one crux move where we would either go for a swim or a short climb. Although we had to remove our packs to fit through some of the rocks in the “climb around,” it was much easier than we expected. Just down river from this pool, we entered the most impressive narrows of the hike. In this section, the cliff walls were close together, rising up from the river, and actually blocking out all sunlight and sky. We soon left the river, following a much more defined trail than we had anticipated up a steep climb and then across a series of rolling rock hills to the Checkerboard Mesa from the east side.
Having explored most of the trails in the park, hiking the seldom visited Barracks Trail made for an epic day in the wilderness. It was a total treat.
We returned to the mesa to reunite with everyone for another couple of work days on the mesa and then finally packed up for good, said goodbye, and pointed the van towards Boise. A shower, laundry, and a detailed van cleaning were deeply in order and BJ’s dad and stepmom let us bring our dirty selves in and clean up. After a 24 hour visit with BJ’s dad and brothers, we once again said goodbye and pointed the van to the northwest. Unlike last weekend spent with no one but ourselves, this weekend we head to a three day music festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in central Washington. We are looking forward to some great music and that festival feeling.
