HDT Day 28: Navajo Canyon to Reese Canyon

Daily Miles: 18.1, Total Miles: 363.9

I thought that the weather system had moved on but rain off and on again all night. This is not the place you want to be in a flash flood – the high-water marks are amazing.

Moved on down the canyon and turned up into sparsely vegetated, but coal rich Navajo Canyon. Made good time for awhile but was then met with huge boulder falls and pouroffs. These required some time and effort to get around these puzzles.

I won’t tell Mrs. Haze how I did it – just say Grandpa Free Solo! Plus all the clay and thick, sticky mud added 5 pounds per shoe. I was constantly scraping my shoes on rocks.

Had to climb out of Navajo Canyon to avoid a pouroff

Made the turnoff into Surprise Valley, climbed to a ridge and was able to surprise Mrs. Haze with a rare phone call.

I followed a dirt road all the way into Reese Canyon and wove my way down to Last Chance Creek. This is where I was expecting the last good water for 30 miles. Running well but easily the most silty, chocolate milk I have seen so far. Beggars can’t be choosers – will just have to backflush my water filter more often.

I thought I would take a pic before setting up camp and noticed my iPhone was froze up. It wouldn’t respond to anything so I started pushing buttons, hoping to unfreeze or power down. Looked like it was powering down but then wouldn’t stop churning until the batteries drained hours later.

I’m going to sleep but thinking about the loss of GPS, navigation and maybe everything else.