This part was 2.0 miles, 202’ ascent, 409’ descent, 1:46 elapsed time.
You can see that I followed Barge Creek some more, then started up the side of the canyon.
Starting up the side of the canyon, and then steeply down into Boulder Canyon
It was light outside, and cloudy, when I decided to wake up for good. My back was very sore, and my feet hurt a lot. I had no blisters, but the skin felt abraded. I would have to take it easy and not be in a hurry today. Today I met lots of interesting creatures. While boiling water for coffee and packing things up, 2 ladies and a dog (probably the one I heard bark last night) passed my camp. I packed up and started walking. It was cloudy, which kept the sun off me and the heat away. The beauty just went on and on. Backlit by the sun rising in the eastern sky.
My “bedroom walls” first thing in the morning
The 2D photos just don’t convey the immense, overwhelming scale of these structures.
Footsteps get washed away in the creek beds when it rains, and the trail is invisible. So cairns to guide the hiker have been constructed over the years, and moved, as the creek beds and washes move around due to erosion.
Walking along, counting chameleons and caterpillars, I looked up just after crossing the creek bed, and saw this little guy (or doll?) heading toward me on the trail:
He saw me before I saw him, and we both stopped and stared. I began snapping photos. He did not.
Gila Monster
After 30 seconds or so, he decided to turn around and then crawl off the trail. They move very slowly - even more slowly than I.
I didn’t really want to bother him, so I took a wide circle off the trail and went around him, letting him be, and hiked on.
Looking back through the canyon as I rise up
As I was ascending the canyon wall, I saw 2 F-35s (I think) cruising overhead. Can’t see them in the photo above? They probably had enabled their Suliban stealth cloaking technology. One of them turned if off and I got a clear shot (below) as she swooped down through the canyon.
Having climbed up the ridge and turned the bend, I could see north up the Boulder Canyon. At first I thought there was a building or a village up there, but then I realized it was just a wide, deep spot in the creek that was still full of water.
The maps and guidebooks all say that Boulder Canyon can have high water. It had spots of water in it, but nothing I would call flowing.
Rounding the bend to descend steeply into the canyon, I met a couple guys hiking up and taking photos. They were from Minnesota and wanted to know if I had met their 3rd guy on the trail. I hadn’t. They thought he missed the turn, as they had hiked south on Boulder Canyon, and were planning to hike Cavalry back the way I had come from. We chatted a bit, and then I moved on. At the base of the climb I met the other guy - he had figured out his mistake and was coming back to catch them up.