Fastpacking the Trans Zion Trek

Get your jammies on kids, it's story time.

          This week I was lucky enough to go spend some time out in southwest Utah, mostly in Zion, and made it a point to run a network of trails named the Trans Zion Trek. This series begins in the northwest section of the park and ends on the east side, though I ended up skipping the last part due to time and logistical constraints, and ended at the Grotto in the main canyon. By the end of it, when you include the amount of side trips I did along the way too, I had run 40 miles in 3 days.

    I say that I was lucky not just because it's a real treat to go spend that amount of time there, but also because I picked Memorial Day weekend to visit, and everything was booked solid. It was a miracle that I got one of the few back country slots for an area in the middle called Wildcat Canyon, and the other night I had to actually leave the park by running down the road, and finding a spot on Bureau of Land Management property.

       The night before I started, I also got one of the last sites available in the park which happened to be a remote back country spot in the lower desert region. It was nearly a 6 mile run up a dry wash through the desert, then up onto a slick rock section of the cliff overlooking the wash. I almost couldn't even find it but just as the sun was going down I saw the little stake with a campsite symbol on it. What's the first thing I found next to it? This:

        As best I can tell from comparing it to tracks I've found online, that is indeed a mountain lion paw print. Very cool!
       My trek begins by hiring a driver to cart me the 40 miles up to the trail head, a ride which I share with 2 others who are doing the same thing but with much more luggage. Since I'm running it, my load is light. There are no luxuries in my bag. I've packed, unpacked, and repacked a hundred times to get only the necessities to fit. First I put on my Ultimate Direction SJ vest backwards, so that I can utilize the space on the front of my chest for a 2 liter water bladder and a small pouch for things that I need handy like the map and some snacks. Over that goes my Fastpack 20 liter bag which has food and sleeping stuff. There's no inflatable ground pad, no pillow, no tent, just a bivy sack which packs down to the size of a water bottle.  The 2 other hikers put their enormous 50 pound bags in the truck, then look at mine.
     "Where's the rest of your stuff?"
     "That's it."
     "You mean you're getting a shuttle all the way up there just to do a day hike?"
     "Nope, I'm coming all the way down, 3 days."
       I receive the same amount of bewilderment from every hiker I meet along the way. It's definitely not for everyone. Sleeping directly on the ground is something that requires a little getting used to, but I needed the extra space for food.
       We start at Lee Pass and wish each other good luck as I take off running down the path. A creek runs alongside the trail, so every once in a while I whip out my Sawyer water filter, drop down and drink directly from the creek using the filter as a straw. The filter comes with a bag that you fill up from the water source, then attach to the filter, so it can be squeezed into a clean bottle. Well wouldn't you know it, I forgot the bag... Not a life threatening situation, but again, a comfort thing that most people wouldn't be cool with. Any time I had to filter water, I sucked it up through the filter into my mouth, and spit it back into a bottle. So for 3 days I was basically drinking backwash. Anyone want a sip?
      Miles go by with a few pit stops to enjoy the view and have a few snacks, but the real fun comes when I descend down into the Hop Valley.

         Red cliffs go up on either side, with a bizarre flat and pleasant green meadow in the middle and a quiet gentle breeze sifting through the grass. It almost feels like you're in some kind of terrarium. The clouds get dark, and thunder starts ripping through the sky. There was nowhere to hide, so I find a spot high enough to avoid any flash flooding in the creek, and low enough to avoid a strike. I crawl in my bivy sack to stay dry, curl up in a ball, and just wait it out. It's at least a good time to catch a few more winks. It clears up enough that I can keep trucking along, but then hail starts dropping on me. This time I'm able to find a small rock outcropping and cram myself in there. At this point I'm silently cursing the 2 girls I shared the ride with, because they were raving about the place they stayed the night before that had a perfect outdoor hot tub.
     "Oh that hot water was JUST what we needed at the end of a long day!"
     I'm about ready to go off trail and hunt down this tub when the sky clears up enough again for me to keep moving, eventually into a nice sunset through a field full of desert sage that smelled out of this world.
                                      

         Day 2 starts me out in the twilight zone. I knew I had wandered around a little bit the night before looking for a place to camp, but as I get further up the trail I keep seeing my own footprints. I had just gotten a pair of Altra Lonepeaks and recognized the print. For nearly 8 miles I keep tracking down whoever has the same shoes as me, and I finally find him just before the sky dumps down on us again, this time with nearly marble sized hail. I sit there in my bivy sack thinking about how the forecast for today was 75 and sunny, while I peek out once in a while to see my new friends frantically putting on their rain gear. I end up hiking with them for a while with me in front.

     "Ok now I'm really losing it....I just found the guy with the same shoes as me, and still I'm following my own footprints."
      Sure enough, a few miles later and we bump into a 3rd guy with the Altras. All 3 of us have the same damn pair of shoes on. If one of us got lost and search and rescue was relying on footprints, we'd be screwed. This is as good a time as any to reveal why all 3 of us had the same shoes on. Quite simply, they're the best shoe I've ever worn. For some reason this company finally caught onto the idea that shoes shaped like feet are actually more comfortable than every other shoe that pinches toes together into a point. I have an uber wide toe box, like the animated Tarzan, and my Altras actually give my digits enough room to live a happy life. After my ultra this year, I had 6 toenails fall off with blisters the size of grapes. By the end of this 40 miles, even with all the steep downhills, I had nothing more than a baby blister.
          This is as good of a bonding experience as it gets, so we all end up camping together. By the time they unbuckle their extra grande packs, I've already laid out my bivy sack with my sleeping bag inside.
       "Aren't you going to set up camp?"
       " I did. This is it"
       They're not sold on the ultra light thing either.
       The morning of day 3 comes and I run down the West Rim Trail, definitely the most scenic part.

    My spirits are as high as the sky is clear, and I burn through the last 14 miles. One particularly steep section opens up into an enormous canyon. Since nobody else is in sight, I let out a woop to see if I can hear the echo. Disappointed that I don't hear anything, I carry on, and only then do I finally hear the echo. That's how big this thing is!

On the way down, the trail passes Angel's Landing, a side peak that involves shimmying along a 1400 foot high cliff on either side of you while you dangle from chains bolted into the rock. Luckily I had done this as a day trip just before starting my trek, because as I pass by it, there's a huge line of people waiting to go up. Apparently someone on the top broke his leg ( I won't make any judgements since I wasn't there, but I did hear that it involved doing something really stupid.) A quick break in my run allows me to watch the rescue helicopter swoop in, drop a line down with a rescuer, and then fly away with the 2 of them dangling from a cable while they move through the canyon. One hell of a way to experience Zion.

        Finally down at the Grotto, I can kick my shoes off and put my nasty feet in the icy water.

This was a really rewarding and beautiful trip. By the end of doing something like this, you've got a little more grit and a thin exoskeleton of sunscreen, dirt, bug spray, and congealed sweat. It challenged me at times, I learned a few things, like making sure to remember all the parts to my water filter, and I can't wait to do something like it again. Even with the calorie deficit that I'm pretty sure I was running, and no more than a few hours of sleep every night, I felt like I was running on all cylinders, totally jazzed by the scenery all around me. I loved laying there at night watching shooting stars, smelling the desert sage in the wind, and meeting everyone else on the trail. I loved the cold oatmeal in the morning, the remote solitude, and every drip of sweat that drizzled down my sunglasses.  Fast packing is definitely my new favorite hobby.