Eagle Has Landed

 On the way down from Angel's Landing, someone asked me how far it was to Scout's Outlook. I said about 15 minutes. Apparently that was too far for her. She said she's heart broken even though she was not going all the way to the Eagle's Landing. She meant Angel's Landing, of course. But the Eagle has landed the same and the milestone has been accomplished.

So I made it to the top of Angel's Landing. From Scout's Lookout, you are practically going up vertically on your hands and knees. When you are not, you are pulling yourself up with the chain. The end result is 5.3 miles and 1600 feet elevation gain, a little bit longer and a little bit flatter than Castle Crags. But it is also rated strenuous because you are going up vertically for the last half a mile after Scout's Lookout. It's also rated the scariest hike in America because you have to tight-rope the ridge of the vertical cliff. There are a few places that felt dangerous, but the trail overall was not as scary as it was hard. 

It is the first milestone of this trip. The next is the Coyote Creek in Escalante, which will be 6-8 miles but not as strenuous other than roping down 200 feet and then climbing back up out of the gulch. The 3rd one is Ouray Perimiter trail. It looked pretty on a YouTube video, but I'm sure there are more stunning trails in Colorado. I'll research some more and play by the ear.

I planned to get on the first shuttle at 6AM for Angel's Landing. I got up and 5:30 and ended up on the bus around 8AM. The drive to the visitor center took an hour and then I had to plug in the car, have breakfast, make a pit stop, fill up the water bottle, etc. The line for the shuttle actually got considerably shorter by the time I got in the line. Everybody apparently had the same idea of getting up early and starting out early.

Getting to Scout's Lookout through switchbacks and cool canyon was easy enough. I don't remember taking too many breaks. By the time I got back on the trail however, I was getting cramped all over. That got me worried that I might cramp in a hairy section and lose the handle on the chain. I slowed down and stopped twisting too much to grab on to the chain, and the cramp eventually went away. I was also worried about blacking out and falling off the cliff. Blacking out wasn't a problem though. Maybe Rush Creek trail in June Lake will have been the last episode of blacking out. Hope strings eternal.

It took about the same amount of time to get to Angel's Landing from Scout's Lookout as it took to get to Scout's Lookout, it seems. The one lane trail had to be shared and people had to wait for the traffic in the other direction to pass. People naturally organized themselves into packets and shared the bandwidth by alternating the direction.

The view at the top wasn't unlike Yosemite Valley viewed from Taft Point. The Angel's Landing juts out into the middle of the valley and affords the view of the canyon trailing off into distance in both directions. It's the best view of Zion canyon.

I got back to the visitor center between 1and 2PM, so the whole trip must've taken about 5 hours, I think. That's an excellent performance. I don't remember taking too many breaks either. I sat down whenever I felt I should rather than pacing by taking a break at every half a mile. I am making progress and this trip is unfolding just as envisioned.