WARNING! Paria Canyon is not for the...

Rupophobic! 

Yes, if you fear dirt, dust, mud and scrunchy sand getting into any and all orifices, hiking Paria Canyon might not be your cup of silt. If that’s not enough of a shudder, there’s lots of ankle-to-waist deep “too thin to plow, too thick to drink” River wading miles to deal with too.  Oh! Did I mention the shoe-sucking quicksand?

Yes, Paria is both beautiful yet messy. The Paiutes Indians tried to warn us White Folks. They gave the River it’s name. Paria means “muddy water.” Hydrological studies have occasionally found two pounds of silt/mud in a Mason quart jar of so called Paria water. No wonder my trail runner shoes began to weigh as much as Fabiano boots. 

While picking up the backpacking permit in Kanab, the nice BLM folks informed us of a series of flash floods that temporarily changed the Canyon’s conditions. 

“A flash flood caused a rock slide to block a portion of the river. Hikers were practically swimming for a few miles.” She went on to inform us “Another flash flood came through and cleared the rock debris. You won’t have to swim.”

Brad (brother from another Mother) and I had to deal with mud, mud and more mud. Solid footing was a rarity. On one particularly greasy stretch, I wiped out and wallowed in the muck three times. Sure footed Brad only went down once. We were moving at a less than two mile/hour pace. A cold front chased us out of the canyon a day earlier. We covered the 38 miles in three long days. 

In October, 2009, I visited the Canyon with another brother from another Mother. Nelson and I had to deal with another set of obstacles. A flash flood had gouged out three deep pools. There was no getting around them. The pool’s depth was tall.  Nelson and I are short. Neither of us wanted to wade through with our dry clothes on. Our solution was to run them in the raw. I went first. The waterline went up to my chest. The temperature of the pool was hypothermia inducing. It wasn’t a leisurely swim. 

We did three deja vu’s of this scene. After our immersion in the third pool we were shivering. It was time to stay high, dry and walk in the sun. The rest of our hike was pleasantly uneventful except for having to be fished out of a few pockets of quicksand. 

Despite these travails, Nelson and I were both smiling at the end.

Here’s my point: Canyons like people, change. Mother Nature is dynamic and so are we. In a relatively short time I’ve gone from a full-time traveler to a homebody sprawled out on a La-Z Boy recliner with a comforter encapsulated me.

I’m not complaining. 

But here’s what hasn’t changed. The human requirement for wild places. 

When I maneuver out of this cozy chair, I still want the views, the open spaces, the places devoid of people, the dust, sweat and mud that comes with being alive and active Out There. I’m OK with the mess. Apparently I’m not rupophobic.

I’ll leave you with three quotes from the not-so-rich but famous. 

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

John Muir

 “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

Edward Abbey.

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.”

Edward Abbey.

It’s safe to say, I’m a defender of Wilderness. 

Let’s fight the good fight to protect and preserve wild places.

Jeff