There was an ulterior motive for the increasingly-longer hikes A did this past summer: training to hike half of the Whole Enchilada MTB trail in October. (Technically, what I did was somewhere between half and three-quarters, but "Half Enchilada" is easier to say.) The WE is an iconic Moab MTB trail, starting way up in the La Sal mountains and dropping over 7,000 feet in 28 miles to the Colorado River. I have always wanted to ride the WE but have come to abandon that dream - there is no way I will ever be a good enough MTBer for it. But I can [section-]hike it.
We've actually done a lot of the WE over the years as short day hikes (the Hazard County portion, middle and lower parts of the Porcupine Rim, little bits up by Warner Lake). What I was fixing to do was to hop on where Hazard County segues to the Kokopelli Trail at the La Sal loop road and then walk to the river; that would leave just the very first part up to Geyser Pass untrodden. We settled on Tuesday for me to do it, having noticed over the years that Tuesdays seem to be the least busy in Moab; since the WE is a very popular trail, I wanted to be on it with as few MTBers as possible.
The only problem with waiting until October is that you have to wait for the sun to come up. About 6:45 a.m. we three got in the truck and drove to the trailhead. This took 45+ minutes (it was a little further than we remembered it being) so it was light enough when we got there, although the sun hadn't come up over the mountains yet. I shouldered my pack (fairly heavy with extra water, lots of snacks, a first aid kit, knife, whistle and a long sleeved shirt for sun protection), waved goodbye to H and M, with promises to text my progress, and headed off down the Jimmy Keen connector to the Kokopelli Trail.
It took a couple of miles for my nerves to calm - I was a little worried about black bears and/or mountain lions, plus I had about eighteen miles ahead of me - but soon I settled into it. It was cool and quiet, with no one else around and fantastic views. I was just on JK for a quarter mile, then followed the Kokopelli, which is a kind of boring, rutted 4x4 road in that bit, to the Upper Porcupine single-track.
Because the WE is such a popular trail, it is very well-signed. The UPS (and the next section, the Lower Porcupine single -track) is in part of the Sand Flats Recreation Area, so there were a number of exit options to the Sand Flats road, campgrounds/pit toilets and the Raptor Route MTB trails. I crossed paths with two MTBers on the UPS (hike running total: 3.6 miles) and the LPS but as it was so early, my guess was they had gotten on the trail from one of the campgrounds.
The LPS connects with the Porcupine Rim trail near the Castle Valley overlook (7.5 miles). This is the last chance to bail out: the Porcupine Rim segment is eleven miles and pretty much the only way out is through. The first half of the PR is also a combination trail, both MTB as the WE and a 4x4 route. This bit was probably my least favorite: it was getting hotter and since it's a 4x4 road, it's wide and loose and rocky.
When the WE and the 4x4 road diverge (12 miles), I felt like it was the home stretch (not quite). I switched to my long sleeve shirt and kept on walking, now back on single-track. It was on this segment that I finally started to encounter MTBers (14 miles), making their way down the WE. The trail goes along the rim of Jackass Canyon, where I got my first glimpse of the Colorado River. But when the WE turns to follow the cliffs above the river, there are still two miles to go - which was a bit of a mental blow.
No way out but through, though, so I kept going, drinking my water, getting out of the way of descending MTBers (only thirteen all told) and making it to the end of the WE where H and Milton were waiting for me. With beer, coconut water and Gatorade! I ended up walking 17.84 miles in 6 hours and 16 minutes, suffered no blisters (although I was a little worried about that), tried to eat from my snacks (soy curl jerky, Swedish fish, trail mix, fig bars and homemade potato chips) every three miles and made sure to drink water every mile at a minimum.
I can see the appeal of a long distance through-hike where your main/only job is to put one foot in front of the other. I didn't listen to any music or other media, just tromped along quietly for six hours. I'm really glad I did it and am really glad I trained for it: although my feet and lower back were a little sore, my legs felt fine, even after all that distance.
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