Day 7: August 17th, 2008 – Welcome to Nowhere. Population ME

Blanding --> Hite Recreation Area (Lake Powell)

I was so accustomed to lumpy soil being my bed that I was restless in the comfort of a hotel bed. I spent the night tossing and turning in that soft luxury. It seemed that my body was starting to enjoy the challenge of harsh conditions, and it was a damn good thing because I was in for a fresh new hell in the heat of the desert.

I headed into the 76 miles of no services with full packs of water and plenty of excitement. This land that had been referred to as vast nothingness was all but that. The outcroppings and formations that flanked the road in shades of red, orange, yellow, and white were magnificent to say the very least. I stopped to check out some 1100 year old cliff dwellings right off the side of the road and met two brothers, one a geologist the other an archeologist, traveling the country together after packing up their things from an excavation site they had been working for months in Arizona. They were very curious about my tour and they even recommended an ultra-light ancient Mayan micro-grain that was the lifeblood of their civilization and is now famed for its recovery capabilities. I guess people really are defined by what they study; doctors see sickness and health, teachers see ignorance and genius, athletes see winners and losers, and archeologist see ancient Mayan grains.

After leaving the brothers, I cut through a stone ridge the size of Samford Stadium into Comb Wash, a deep ravine offering surreal perspectives of the increasingly outlandish landscapes. The climb out of the Wash was blisteringly hot and contained grades over 14%, but after the climb I still hadn’t lost the desire to take the 30 mile detour into Natural Bridges National Park considering they had the only water for many miles. I filled up my plastic bag like canteens and rode the loop of the park that bordered the White Canyon. The White Canyon is as stunning as any canyon you’ll ever see and it formed the valley that I traveled all day to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. While taking a picture of the Bears Ears, ironically a formation known to the ancients as one that caused mischievous deeds, my camera spontaneously broke.

It could have been the 106 degree heat, or maybe the hundreds of pictures I was taking, but that was the end of picture taking for the day. It is fitting that I couldn’t capture the rest of the day on camera because I doubt that any photo could do the scenery of the rest of the day justice. The images of the Martian like landscape of places like Fry Canyon, Jacob’s chair, and Cheese Box Butte belong in my mind alone.

After 102 miles of fighting wind, heat, and blistering sunburn so severe that it appeared that hundreds of drops of milky wax had dripped onto my forearms and quadriceps, I finally began the decent into Glen Canyon and the water that now fills it, Lake Powell.

Hite Recreation area offers the only service within a 150 mile span of Utah wasteland, and it would be my home for the night. The paradise known as Hite consists of a payphone, a barebones market open three hours a day, a well water spigot, and Jerry the Ranger who had passed me in his truck five hours before. It was odd knowing that Jerry, his wife, and I were the only people for about 70 miles in any direction. After a good talk with Jerry, I set up camp on the shore of the lake and took a well deserved dip in the enormous 186 mile black water of Lake Powell..

Day: 102.06 mi

Total: 584.31 mi

Elev. Climbed: 3000 ft

Elev. Difference: -2400 ft

Elev. Peak: 7100 ft