We were driving through Hurricane at six oclock Saturday morning when the cop pulled us over. I was with Hubba, my old friend from my short stint in the Marine's and we were heading for the Kaibab Plateau where we planned to backpack into the Kanab Creek Wilderness. The cop was a pain in the ass but after he told me to fix my headlight and he got the green light from headquarter's that I had no warrant's or price tag's on my head we were on our way. We made it to the trailhead without further incident. We through our pack's on our back's and started down the jumpup-nail trail under clear blue skies and a chilly temp. We warmed up quickly as we dropped from the pines into the low desert. Once we hit the bottom we jumped straight into Kwagunt Hollow which we followed for a little over a mile. This red rock canyon was pretty with a little spring fed stream that ran over and under the smooth sandstone. We climbed over house sized boulder's and bypassed 30 foot waterfall's with clear pool's and yellow leafed cottonwood's. After more walking than we had guessed from studying the topo we finally hit Jumpup Canyon. We traveled five mile's down this beautifull canyon at which seemed record speed after the slow going through Kwagunt. Jumpup had a basically flat rocky river bottom with no large boulder's that allowed us to move quickly. Through most of this canyon the wall's on each side 10 to 15 ft up are so rock tumbled smooth that when the light hit's right they look wet. At this point we were racing the sun and moving at a brisk pace as we walked, talked, bitched and laughed about life. After a good half hour of wondering if or when this canyon would end suddenly and dramitcally a wall was in our way. We had hit Kanab Creeek. This is the lowest and closest to the Grand Canyon I have been in Kanab. The wall's are streaked red , sheer, intimidating and of course beautiful. We had come almost 8 miles over pretty rugged country and were bolth happy to slide our pack's to the dirt. After making camp , eating a simple dinner and staring into a whiskey lit fire we slept the pleasant and fullfilling sleep of isolation. The next morning was cold but not at all bitter. I lit the fire once more to catch a little warmth while we ate a quick breakfast.. After packing camp we swung our pack's into place on our back's a little more painfully this time and started the walk back to higher elevation. As usual the hike out was quicker even though our bodies felt half as strong as the day before. Eight mile's later and 16 miles total arriving at the truck and dumping our pack's for the last time we looked back at the top's of the rugged maze of canyon's below where we had only hour's before been in amazment.
