Zion National Park Traverse, May 11-12 2012
The Team: JUN, Scott Wesemann, JSH, Dorsimus, MatthewVH
Craig Lloyd "JUN" recruited me to be part of his pacing/crewing team for his attempt at the 96 mile double traverse of Zion. A week before, I dropped out because of persistent IT band pain in one of my knees. Then a few days before the scheduled trip to Zion I felt better about my knee and I was back in. I don't want to make the knee problem the focus of my story so I will say this: For most of the 55+ miles I completed, I felt a stabbing pain in my left knee. Sometimes it would be light, other times it was intense enough to cause me to limp badly. I took a calculated risk running a long distance on an inflamed, irritated IT band but I felt it was manageable, and best of all I didn't miss out on one of the best adventure runs of my life.
Thursday evening we slept in a one and a half star Cedar City motel. I made the mistake of inspecting the room too closely. Is that pubic hair on the blanket? What is that brown smudge under the bathroom doorknob? Looks like pudding. After a night of not much sleep for me, the five of us arose at 5AM, got dressed for the day and headed out. We drove to Kolob Canyon where about 6:15AM Craig began his 96 mile journey, with Matt "Dorsimus" Williams and Josh "JSH" running with him as far as they could. Matt was on the healing side of a flu bout, and Josh has had persistent knee problems but they all took off running strong down the hill into the Kolob Canyon fingers area. Up on the road we could see the tiny figures of our friends running on a red-dirt ridge top. Looks like fun, boys. See you in thirteen miles at the Hop Valley TH.
Scott and I had a couple hours to spend before meeting the runners at their first crew stop. We drove into Hurricane and got some breakfast food. Because I wouldn't be running with Craig until he began his second park traverse at 4 or 5 in the afternoon I allowed myself to consume an egg sausage muffin from McDonald's. Plenty of time to process that saturated fat. Scott and I arrived at the Hop Valley TH and looked for the guys. Craig estimated he would cover the first 13 miles in 2h30m. He came in ten minutes early, running strong. Matt and Josh were nowhere near. Later I learned that Matt had to deal with issues related to his recent illness and Josh took a wrong turn and ran many extra miles looking for the way. He arrived to rejoin Matt and Scott 3 hours after Craig had come in. With no sign of either of them, Craig asked me to saddle up and run the next leg with him. B-b-but I just ate an Egg McMuffin! With sausage! Can I really run with that thing oozing through my arteries? The hell with it. I'm going for it. All suited up now, I ran with Craig from the Hop Valley TH at mile 13 to the East Rim TH at mile 48.
It was a clear, warm summer day. Yes, the calendar says month of MAY but it felt like a perfect summer day. It was warm but not oven warm. We ran the Wildcat Canyon trail then connected to the West rim trail. I really did not have much of an idea of where we were. It was conical forest overlooking one of the branches of Zion Canyon. We gained altitude but it was gradual and easy. There were some rises and dips along the way, and we passed several backpackers. Ultrarunning! I would yell as we sped past. One shirtless, solo backpacking dude simply smiled at us and exclaimed F*** yeah! It was a beautiful day.
For most of this leg Craig had low energy. We did not stop very much but kept moving, even if he had to walk. He was fast on downhill where I fell behind because of the knee, but I could catch up. Miles clicked by and I enjoyed myself. At the edge of a great cliff of the canyon rim we found a spring and re-filled our hydration packs. We were both completely empty at that point so the spring was fortunate. It was getting very warm and we would be without tree cover the next 5 miles. Craig filled first, then I filled mine and got it packed. I looked up and Craig was gone. No problem, he is not far. Then I went in the complete wrong direction. Downhill instead of up, then onto a trail that just did not seem right. Overgrown, not much use. I turned around, then wandered around for 20 minutes backtracking, criss-crossing a meadow. I went back to where we had seen a few signs above the spring. I looked closely and one pointed down to The Grotto. I took it and went steeply down the trail cut into the canyon rim cliff face. The cut rock trail was blasted and paved by depression-era ingenuity and hard working Americans. I blasted down the switchbacks hoping to catch Craig. Did I mention it was getting hot? More down, running on white sandstone. Several solo tourists heading up - but not your usual fatty tourists. These were super tourists. Only the super ones made it this far up the trail, 2500 feet above the canyon floor. I feel kindred to their spirits.
I rounded a corner and could see the road 2,000 feet below. Large groups of people were milling about on a saddle near Angel's Landing. No time for fun here, I had to keep running and dodging hikers down the paved switchbacks cut into the red sandstone. Ran without stopping. This is what I had come to Zion to see and do, these awesome cliff trails. At last I arrived at road level, crossed the bridge that spans the Virgin River and found my friends waiting for me and attending to Craig at the Grotto shuttle stop. Craig looked like shyte. I had a cool cola soda drink and dressed my now blistered feet and was ready to go. Meanwhile, Craig had revived and was also ready to go. We started off again, walking up the canyon road toward the Weeping Rock trail where we would make the 2,000 foot climb out of the canyon. We went straight into it, never stopping. Just a steady fast hike up and up. I enjoyed winding through the folds of Hidden Canyon, but honestly, mid-day on a hot day is not the right time to be up there to linger and savor the features. I felt sorry for the college students up there in the heat, glad I was just passing through. After a while we left all people behind and it was just us again. The terrain changed as we climber higher. We followed rock cairns that marked the twisting trail. We did stop for brief 30 second breaks in the shade to help keep our body temperatures down. Eventually we reached the rim level and were in forest. We could now run if we had the ability but Craig was now battling a problem with his diaphram, causing shortness of breath. He couldn't run for more than a minute or two at a time. We got into a run/walk pattern and just kept moving forward. Again our water supplies were low and we were glad to find an active spring running from a pipe. All filled up again, and Craig seemed to feel better so we set out for the final five miles of the Zion traverse.
I could describe the final 2 miles of the Eastward Zion traverse in one word: sandy. Mostly downhill was nice but the sand was an annoyance. No matter, just grind it out. I came in a few minutes before Craig which means he picked it up pretty well in the last few miles and moved steadily toward the completion of his first traverse of the day. Notwithstanding the problems he had most of the day, never once did he indicate abandoning his plan to go back and repeat the full 48 miles. I told the boys I was not going back up that sandy trail in the other direction. Really, it was my knee that hurt a lot at this point, but to run on sand uphill confirmed it for me. No way I wanted to go back into that. I did, however, come up with a plan for me to get the full traverse. That would simply be to meet Craig back at the Hop Valley TH sometime early the next morning to run with him the last thirteen miles in the opposite direction. Scott would also be with him, as he left with Craig to run the full traverse on the reverse lap. Matt and Josh fixed up Craig and re-supplied him for another 11 miles and we said goodbye to him and Scott. We agreed to meet them at the Grotto three hours later.
On the road back toward Zion Canyon I decided I was not done for the day. Despite my aching knee, I wanted to go back up the switchbacks and summit Angel's Landing, a 5 mile round trip hike some 1,500 feet straight up from the canyon floor. Matt and Josh stayed with the van and I shuttled in alone and arrived at a deserted Grotto. After a short break at the restroom I tapped my timer and began a run up the switchbacks. I told myself I could stop and just hike but running actually felt better than hiking up the steep trail. It was after 6PM and not many tourists were on the trail so I did not have to dodge anyone going up. I climbed up from Scout Lookout, making full use of the chains (Altra Instincts were almost useless on smooth, sandy tilted rock steps), impressed with how sustained the climbing was on this route. At the top is a natural rock cairn about 6 feet tall. I tapped it and looked at my timer: 49 minutes from road to summit. Could have been faster on a different day but I was happy with it. I lingered on top for ten minutes then made the descent. Near the bottom it was dark enough to switch on the headlamp and I met Craig and Scott just as I crossed the river bridge. They were heading up the switchbacks, hooting and full of energy. They had made a fast eleven mile run from the East Rim TH where I had last seen them, even arriving at he Grotto 17 minutes ahead of Matt and Josh (who had to ride the shuttle in).
Matt, Josh, and I boarded a shuttle back to the van and then drove into town for a delightful meal of fast food tacos. The girl taking my order told me I smelled of sunscreen. I thought she was gonna say I smelled like a bum. We then drove to the Hop Valley trail head to wait several hours for Scott and Craig to show up after their 24 mile leg from the Grotto. I decided that yes, I wanted to go the last 13 miles and therefore complete the full Zion traverse. But because my knee was the one thing that would slow me and the others, I thought it would be a good idea to leave an hour before it was estimated Craig and Scott would come in to their last crew stop at Hop TH. After a nap in the van I got up and left alone, in the dark, and began walking toward Hop Valley. I did not mind the darkness. It was a beautiful night. What I did mind was the sand. Sand! Miles of more sand. Matt told me to become friends with it. As I hiked deeper into the wilderness I was hoping, expecting to see in the next few hours the bobbing headlamps of Craig and Scott behind me. Nothing. The trail descended several hundred feet into a cold, moist, dark canyon. Hop Canyon. The place was spooky. I heard nothing but the ambient desert night sounds. Water trickling. Ground birds whistling in the dark. I wondered if any big cats were following me.
Although I had never before been in the canyon, I had a map and some directions from Matt. Just follow the footprints and you cannot go wrong. There are lots of footprints. You will come to a T in the trail. Go left. OK, easy. I followed the obvious trail which followed a sandy creek. Then I came to a place where the footprints disappeared. I began to doubt. I looked for signs of foot traffic. Some appeared old and not nearly enough for a high traffic area. I wandered the canyon from side to side, up and down a section, for hours. I kept looking for headlamps which I expected to appear in the darkness up canyon. They never appeared. I felt lost. Had I taken a wrong turn? But there were no turns! I decided to just wander around in the same area looking for clues that corresponded to the elementary map I had of the area. But really, I had to move around just to stay warm. I was wearing two shirts, running tights, a light hooded jacket, a knit cap and light gloves. Dawn finally arrived and I decided to backtrack up canyon and look for any side trail I may have missed in the darkness. I also was wondering if Craig and Scott were even going to be covering the last 13 miles. Maybe one or both of them were too wrecked to continue past Hop Valley TH. Any number of things could have happened to one or both of them on their run up from the Grotto. With morning light filling the canyon, I walked back to where I had hiked in hours before and what a relief to see a figure wearing a read shirt and black shorts walking toward me. It was Craig, and Scott was not far behind. I was happy to no longer be alone, but that happiness was quickly replaced by dread of now having to cover 7 miles after wandering around all night, with a bum knee, serious blisters, and waning energy. Plus, the guys were not too happy to see me. They both experienced bonkeyness up on the West Rim trail and arrived at Hop TH after 5AM. They were grumpy. Craig and Scott were on the last leg of a 96 and 48 mile run through Zion, respectively. The time for pleasantries had passed. Quickly I fell behind, my left leg was almost useless. I tried to run but the best I could produce was a grotesquely asymmetrical and bumpy limp. Six miles of this? I cannot do it! I'm effed! But I had to. I didn't want to get left behind, and following Craig was my only ticket out. He knew the way. We climbed up and out of Hop Valley and instantly the air temperature changed from cold to pleasantly warm. We ran down to the LaVerkin creek (one of the prettiest I have ever seen, especially in the cheery summer morning sun) and followed the trail all the way back to the Kolob Canyon road.
The last five miles out weren't all that bad. It was tough, for sure, but I managed to run a significant portion, even did the ultra shuffle up hills. I came in a few minutes behind Scott, and Craig finished several minutes before both of us. There were four of us there to celebrate and cheer his victory, the first known back-to-back double Zion Traverse. Awesome.
I felt good about completing a full traverse, and treating myself to a touristy run up to Angel's Landing, especially when only a few days before I was doubtful I could run more than a few miles on a bum knee. Would I go back and do it again? You bet your asteroid, kid.
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