Hayduke Day 3 - I am the Roadwalker

After a pretty awesome complimentary hot breakfast, I left the Aarchway (this is not a post sponsored by the Aarchway Inn). Did a nice alternate taking me past the Maverik station to grab a couple things and I was on my way out of town. Before making my way along the Colorado River, I stopped by my first cache of the trip. While I have used caches before, it is always a relief to find them actually there when I return. I'm sure by writing this I have jinxed myself for caches further down the line.  The road walking was pretty nice for the most part. The asphalt wasn't as painful as I could be, as it probably will be later in the trip. Weather was great. I developed a small case on sunbumps on my hands, so I've been trying to keep them covered as much as possible. 

I came around the corner near the Amasa Back trailhead and saw the hill I would have to climb and decided to take a break. I'm usually very anti-technology in the backcountry, but this was road walking, not the backcountry. I started listening to the million podcasts back logged on my phone. That really did it for me. Got me up that hill. On the morning of Day One I had heard on the radio about how it's bad to listen to music or movies or podcasts all the time when you work out, about how disassociating from your body makes it impossible to pick up on signals from your body. Here I was doing exactly that! Oh well, I just gotta hike my hike. 

Made it up the hill. At one point, I'm taking a break in the shade of a boulder when I hear a side-by-side stop and there's conversation. I peek around the corner, and two hikers are getting in the side-by-side. I wonder if those are Hayduke folks? Come to find out later, they are! Those are the two that started a day ahead of me! The night I spent in Moab, they spent out in Lockhart Basin where the winds shredded their tent. That is what inculminated from passers by and the internet. I was THIS close to meeting other Haydukers. Oh well, maybe further down the trail. 

I did have a guy stop and ask how I was doing. He said had seen me earlier in the day, but had had a transcendent experience since then. When he saw me again, he felt he had to stop. I thought it was awesome that he stopped to check on me. I wish I had been more than a mile from my planned campsite. Oh well, you can't get them all exactly where you want to. I am sending him more good vibrations for thinking of me.