We’re camped in Lower Monday Canyon this Monday evening. Sorry I couldn’t resist. We’re sharing the canyon with the wiliest, boniest cows I’ve ever seen. Of course, they’ve completely destroyed the canyon. Why anyone would think to raise cattle out here is beyond me. They simply don’t belong here. This morning was a cold one, boding well for the day, as we will be hiking without water through the harsh desert terrain for at least 30 miles, depending on how long the water lasted in Last Chance. We lucked out, though, and the last potable water was about ¼ mile upstream form Reese. It was totally some of the best water we had seen since the stream started fading out yesterday.
Reese canyon was home to some truly bizarre and intricate rock formations. Sometimes it seemed the stone had some sort of geological leprosy. I kept a close eye on the twists and turns of the canyon and it was a good thing too. The road coming down from the croton Road was little more than an ancient unused bulldozer track high on the hillside. I climbed up to I and watched as Sharon began to walk by.
“Sharon!!”
“What are you doing way up there?”
“I’m on the road.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup.”
We climbed easily up to Croton Road, following a variety of streambeds and very seldom-used road tracks. Somewhere along the way, Sharon misheard something I said, “What did you say? It sounded like ‘Muppets.’
From then on whenever we misheard something, instead of, “what was that? Or say again? Or Huh, I didn’t hear you,” we’d just say, “What’s Muppets?” I think it will last the rest of the trip.
The descent down surprise valley and Navajo Canyon was surreal. Thick tamarisk/oak vegetation choked the upper drainage, which was fairly flat. The canyon then plunged down a steep boulder field choked with a maze of invasive exotic Russian thistle, aka tumbleweed. I soon took to calling it “Devil Bush.” The damn things are covered with burrs that creep down your socks and cause the most intolerable annoyance. I took to climbing unnecessarily on the steep, loose side of the canyon to avoid them whenever I could.
Still, the canyon was gorgeous and toward the bottom almost all the vegetation faded away. The devil bushes ere the last to go, of course. And we were left with a surreal moonscape of beautiful rock walls above gray canyon scree sprinkled with boulders from massive rock falls.
We then climbed a series of “toes” below the ships-prow cliffs between Navajo and Croton Canyons. Going up Croton/Rodgers/Monday was like Navajo in reverse, except without the impressive views. The canyon walls were short, boring, and close in, blocking any expansive views. Also the cows left nothing but cactus, devil bushes, and the stench of cow shit. We finally found a reasonably stench-free spot and stopped for the night. Thankfully because of the cold, we didn’t use much water.
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