I flew home yesterday. Dan picked me up from the airport. I leaped into his arms. Home looms, and folds me back in right away. I cuddled my goat. I slept in my bed and dreamed I was hiking, and in the dream being home was a dream that I had to wake up from so I could finish the trail. What a trail!
Thank you all for reading! For commenting! I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have your eyes, your thoughts, your time. I want to apologize for all the typos. The autocorrect function on my phone is like a rabid, yappy little dog, very busy and sure of itself. Blogging on a smart phone from the trail is like putting zeroth drafts out into the world, so for your patience with that I am very grateful.
I’ll be posting some afterthoughts here in coming weeks, but mostly the blog will dwindle into artifact from here. If you have any questions or thoughts or comments, feel free to post them or contact me. And thank you!
Hiking the Hayduke Trail 2015 
Hi Katherine! I’ve read along with you as your trip has unfolded and wanted to let you know I’ve been lurking around, vicariously (and sometimes literally) experiencing parts of your travels. Jonathan and I were just in Moab last week for their annual jam and hiked in Arches. We got home Monday night. Funny we didn’t cross paths at the airport! I imagined you back in Arches months before and thought about how the landscape might have changed since then. We saw Courthouse Wash in the early morning as we drove in before the park opened. We watched the park become overrun with tourists by mid-afternoon and our trip there is divided into two separate days in my memory, as if we visited twice and had radically different experiences each time.
Reading about your hike has been inspiring. I’ve never been out on a solo trip, but I think I’ll be hiking the first leg of a trip around the Wonderland Trail alone this fall. I’m worried about not being able to sleep (cold, rain, bears?!) and hopeful that on at least one night I’ll find a spot and be in a state of mind where I can just let go of all the worries and be curled up on the ground in a tent at ease. We’ll see.
I like that Jonathan and I visited the place where you started your trip just as you were ending it. Our trip was short by comparison but it was still a few days of a simpler way of living, and living in a more immediate relationship with what is necessary. I jumped right back into work Tuesday morning. I still have to unpack my backpack, clean out the tent, fluff the sleeping bag, find a missing fork… examine the gear for changes.
I hope your unpacking goes well/has gone well too!
See you back in the city,
Kori
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Such a great adventure. Thanks for letting us tag along.
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Welcome home!! Glad to have you back and looking forward to seeing you soon. Xoxo
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Over the years I’ve been on many of the sections of the second half of the Hayduke, so I really enjoyed reading your posts and seeing both familiar and unfamiliar spots. I’ve also appreciated some of your reflections on the places, and what it means for you to be in those places. Hiking the whole trail, with all the water challenges, is quite a feat. Congrats!
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Thank you Katherine for taking the time to share this crazy awesome hike with all of us. Even though my feet are stuck in the Sierra, the desert is a beautiful place and your pics reflected it well.. Thank you.
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Thank you for allowing me to follow along on your amazing trip. And thank you for helping to document an amazing trail, I will likely never hike it, but I appreciate that the information is out there.
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Katherine- what an incredible, amazing journey you had! I loved reading your blog. You truly have a gift for writing and bring the trail to life in our minds. Your pictures are just gorgeous. I would like to know what kind of camera you have ? And something that I have been trying to figure out is what brand of hiking shoes did you wear ? I live in Arizona and day hike in the cooler months. I had never even heard of the Hayduke hike until I read a post on a facebook group page. I had no idea this trail even existed. I would love some day to be able to do sections of it. Thank you for sharing your story!
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Thank you Katherine
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Thanks so much for bringing us along on your adventure! You experienced so much in such a short (relatively) time, and through you we too got a glimpse into places many of us have never been. I love reading what you have written as well (typos..bah). It is intellectual poetry in places, and I reread passages just to delight in how you turned a phrase inside out and spun your words around like a top. Altogether, a fantastically enjoyed journey, led by a heroic host. Thank you Katherine!
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Katherine, really, really enjoyed following. What an accomplishment! A follow up post on what gear you liked, or didn’t, would be fun.
What’s next???
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I very much enjoyed following, thank you for sharing this slice of your time.
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Welcome home Sweetie!! All I can say is WOW! A most incredible journey, physically & spiritually. Looking forward to seeing you & Dan.
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It was a real pleasure to travel along with you by reading your notes. Being a long distance backpacker from the 90’s I could really feel what you went through and feel those same emotions from past hikes. It was like reading an adventure novel in almost real-time. Thank you so much for taking the time to share. You are a kindred soul.
TrailWizard
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Hello there, just want to say thanks for a truly wonderful vicarious adventure. Your writing is lovely, with a perfect blend of adventure, reflection, and information about the landscape you are traversing.
It would be interesting to know more about how your experiences on this trip fit into the larger context of your passion for hiking, love of the natural world, and interior journey. If you decide to continue writing I for one would be grateful to read more.
Warm regards, Hal
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Welcome home! What an adventure. You’re amazing!
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Hi Katherine,
I met you at the spring in Upper Salt Creek, near the beginning of your Hayduke hike. Thank you so much for writing so eloquently about your hike and thoughts. I love the canyons so much and have spent time in many of the places you passed through. It was so amazing to be able to be there with you in a way.
I was glad for you that you did this hike during one of the wettest and coolest springs we have had in many years (according to my weather journal- I am a weather dork). Especially when you were in the Grand Canyon. I waited anxiously to read about your hike through the Three days of Terror. I have done most of that route but in February so we weren’t dealing with the harshness you were. Good move heading back across the river!!
I would love to follow you when you do your next big hike. You capture with your words the scenery, solitude and how one feels when out is such a remote place. Congratulations on completing such an amazing journey. What an inspiration!
Anne Clare
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No Katherine, thank *you* – it’s been a privilege to follow your adventure. I hope you have the proper feeling of achievement that you deserve!
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Welcome Home Katherine, ah I see your goat is happy for your safe return.
Because of you and being in the Grand Canyon hiking a small piece of it with my
grands I now call my self a hiker wannabe .
Blessing on you and your choices in life , see you on the dance floor.
hugs, joan
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Good for you! Roy
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Good Heavens ! Although I have heard of the Hayduke trail….I had no real idea of the rigor of it until I read thru your blog just as you were finishing. i have stayed at the Bright Angel Campground a few times and have stood at Plateau Point and looked carefully across the gorge at that bench on the other side……..the scale of the landscape is staggering and I wondered how many people had hiked that trail less side. It seemed near impossible to me
because of the water demands. Anyway my wife and I live in Bellingham but are often in Seattle visiting our kids / grandkids……..If you and your husband would like a free dinner sometime…….you name the restaurant…….and we will get it scheduled. Your blogpost on “why” resonated with some of my past thoughts from the backcountry. Thank you for all the extra work of posting after long exhausting days. Bruce
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Just discovered your blog and used your daily entries as a devotional tool. For over ten years, I’ve experienced the calling of the Colorado Plateau;once a year flying across the country to enjoy a week’s worth of day hikes -longing for a deeper sisterhood with it. Thank you for sharing your spirit- you have nourished mine.
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