I went through multiple different possibilities regarding a backcountry 100 miler through Cedar Mesa and the Bears Ears area. This became the one I was most stoked about, and now that I’ve done it, I absolutely love it. I picked a course with good access for crew and a good mix of roads and canyons so I don’t have to be out there 3 days. I wanted the course to be somewhat easy to repeat for anyone that is interested, so I kept it mostly on established trails that will be hard(er) to get lost on.
I started near highway 95 with a pacer and dropped directly into Upper Fish Cyn. The top of the canyon was lots of boulder hopping and slow moving. I will take Fish all the way to the junction to McCloyd Cyn where I will go up McCloyd to the Moonhouse trail, take note; there are 2 pourovers that require tree ladders to get up out of. Get your beta dialed in. After that I started onto Snow Flat Road where I got to my first gear cache. I took Snowflat west to connect onto the Bullet Canyon TH and drop in. Taking Bullet and Grand all the way down to the Government exit and out Government to the road to my next crew access. Next, take the road all the way to Slickhorn 1 drop in. Slickhorn was treacherous and we were starting to have rain for the whole night, lots of boulder hopping and falling and slow moving all night long. I had a pacer for the last 40 miles. We connected to the old mining road and headed East all the way into John’s Canyon and another gear cache. From there I continued to travel east on a John’s canyon road until my watch clicked over to 100 miles. Absolutely incredible and wild experience, supported was definitely the style for me, I think it would be very dangerous otherwise. Water is available most of the way but be warned that the Grand Gulch section might not have any. That area is always difficult to find good water. Overall an amazing experience, it would be cool to have someone repeat it one day.
if interested I have more write-ups and information on Instagram @sanjuancountyadventures thanks
