welcome to the escalante river trail the purpose of this trip is to test out some new gear to take
it on a trial run i finally retired my osprey aura 65 liter backpack which i've had over five years
the last trip i took it on which i did not film here in escalante area and death hollow it just
finally is giving out and then also my tent needed to be replaced so i have a new tent
and a new backpack so i'm testing them both out for the first time i got the ula
circuit backpack it felt very different putting it on for the first time but so far so good i've
gone in on the trail for about a mile now and it's feeling pretty comfortable i haven't even set up
my tent yet for the first time so i'll be doing it out in the field which i wouldn't recommend
but i'm going to go ahead and do it and it should be just a nice overnight trip
here along the escalante river i'll probably hike about five miles in and then turn around and hike
five miles out just a short overnight to test out the new gear came across some beautiful rock art
so
the murky waters made it impossible to see boulders below the surface
i needed to tread with care
i'm stoked for this cool weather i would say it's in the mid 50s with a nice cool breeze
this hike can be brutal if it's sunny and hot you're slogging through the sand there's
a lot of sun exposure i've done it when it's been a lot warmer this is the way that i've
come out from death hollow both times i've done the entire lower death hollow and yeah
it can be brutal if the sun is beating down on you and it's warm very thankful for this
do
inside this huge overhang are some pictographs let me check those out
so
some water came through with some force
here
sweet this looks good to me
okay this is going to be home for the night i'm probably about a mile and a half to two miles away
from the confluence with miami creek which goes up into death hollow the scenery doesn't change
much from here to there and i hadn't planned on going up death hollow anyhow i've seen a couple
groups large groups of people go by so i'm a little nervous that there wouldn't be anything
available at the confluence so i thought i'd nab this spot it's very nice nice level spots and
make sure i get my tent set up as i mentioned i've never set it up before so just want to make sure
i get it dialed in before it gets dark i have water nearby and this is a really great spot
so okay she's all set up it took a little more time than it would my old tent
however i could probably set my old tent up with my eyes closed after over five years
both my tent and my new tent and my new pack are lighter than my old tent and old pack
that's why i went with different brands i wanted to go lighter i'm not going ultra light
however i figure when i do need to replace items if i can go lighter i might as well
one of the reasons i like this nemo also is because it has two doors and two vestibules my old
one i had only the front door and i had to kind of crawl in to get into it so i like the fact that
this has two exits and two entrances the new pack it rode really well however the belt buckle
is having trouble clamping closed and i think it's because there's dirt in there so i'm a
little bit worried about that i'm going to go ahead and clean it off with some water
and see if it'll close but that shouldn't be happening so we'll have to see how that goes
the water looks like pure mud i think i'm going to have to
boil it as well as filter it and it's probably gonna wreck my filter
yuck
it is just about dinner time so i'm about to rehydrate some mountain house beef stew
i've had it before it's very good the winds have definitely been a challenge this spring
on the last three backpacking trips i've done my tent and my sleeping bag and everything
inside all of the contents are covered in sand this is definitely not glamping and
being out here you need to deal with the elements whatever they may be and that's just part of
it so i'm not complaining just part of it i can wash it off and dust it off and it's no
problem
just a little sandy in there
good morning yum coffee it is a beautiful morning the winds have not kicked up yet
however they are going to it is supposed to get really windy today like guess over
40 miles per hour but it's not supposed to start until noon so i'm going to make haste
and i've already got camp pretty much packed up i just need to throw
all the rest of the my items in the backpack and get on out of here before that happens
i had a really good night's sleep the gear is working out great for me so far i think the hip
belt thing is just dust inside that's getting in the track and just making a little bit more
difficult but i'm gonna put some water on it today and hopefully that will solve that problem
it's gonna take a few more trips before i have a more educated opinion as to the gear but it worked
out great for me on this trip i thought it would be a good idea to test it out on a short trip
before taking it out on a long trip and finding out that something is malfunctioning anyhow
i'm going to go ahead and finish up my coffee have a clif bar for breakfast and hit the trail
you