Day 1

October 29, 2017

Sowats Trailhead to Jumpup Canyon



 


Click on photos to see larger image.

Today's route stats: 

    Distance: 5.5 miles

    Elevation Gain:  400 feet

    Elevation Loss:  2800 feet

As per usual, we got up at first light, ate breakfast, and organized gear.  We then drove to the trailhead (only a mile away) and started down the trail.  We started hiking around 8:30.  We would never be too far from water, so we didn't need to carry more than one liter each.   The trail starts out by dropping down a shallow drainage that leads to a large pouroff.  There the trail turns north and contours in the Toroweap for a half mile or so.  I like this section of the trail -- it is well constructed and almost level, plus it has wonderful views down onto the Esplanade.  After contouring, the trail zig-zags  down a steep talus slope, all the way to a small grove of Cottonwoods on the Esplanade.  After a short walk past where the trail turns north towards Sowats Canyon, we dropped down to Kwagunt Hollow drainage at the lower end of the Cottonwoods.  Although there was flowing water there, none of us needed to get any.

 

Resting in Kwagunt Hollow.

 

 Hiking Down Kwagunt Hollow.

 

 Hiking Down Kwagunt Hollow.

 

After a short break we continued straight down the Kwagunt Hollow drainage.  There is actually a pretty good use-trail for the first mile or so.  So the hiking was easy, and the canyon was gorgeous.  I absolutely love well-watered Supai canyons, and on this trip we would hike through several.   

 
Kwagunt Hollow.

 

 Lower End of Kwagunt Hollow.

 

 Pictographs.

 

We reached the mouth of Kwagunt at Jumpup in early afternoon.  We dropped off our cache in some brush near the mouth of Kwagunt Hollow.   There was no water flowing at the mouth of Kwagunt.  We decided to hike up Jumpup until we found a nice campsite with nearby water.  There was no water flowing at the mouth of Sowats either.  The creek bed was dry as we hiked up Jumpup, but after close to half a mile we came to a nice campsite with a short section of flowing water.  I think we camped here a year ago.

My back was killing me when we reached camp.  A little Everclear before dinner helped. 

 
Kwagunt or Jumpup Canyon. Supai Tower in Jumpup Canyon. Campsite in Jumpup Canyon.

 

During the night I continued to listen to an audio book that I started during my drive from New Mexico, titled Our Mathematical Universe:  The Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, by Max Tegmark, who is a physicist and cosmologist at MIT. Although the only math needed to understand the book was some basic algebra, I still had a very hard time understanding it.  I finally gave up and began listening to Tegmark's latest book, titled Life 3.0:  Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.   The start of the book was wonderful and I was looking forward to listening to more of it on this trip. 

 
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