Buck30 - Other Trail Journal - 2021

Resupply Summary

Here are my resupply notes/thoughts:

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Getting to Start: I've flown into Page, AZ twice and it's easy and convenient. It's usually not as expensive as you'd think for such a small airport. From here it's a hitch west to a dirt road that goes to the wildly famous Wave or Buckskin Gulch where you are headed. These are not too far apart. This hitch should'nt be too bad although I imagine your first ride will drop you at the dirt road and your 2nd ride will be from a tourist 10 miles down the bumpy road. There's also a trail angel in Page named Ashley, check the AZT Facebook group. She frequently posts there and gives rides, make a nice donation. In Page there are lots of motels, Safeway and many places to eat. It's very touristy.

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Bryce Point. You could take the shuttle bus from here over to the North campground general store. It doesn't have much trail food to buy but they do have pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, etc. so totally worth it. The bus stop before is the Lodge which has fine dining but also sells pizzas. Warning, when you take the bus back you'll have to get off for a required stop and since it's out of the Park the bus driver will most likely ask to see your park entrance ticket. I got stuck paying $ 20 due to this. Alternatively you could walk the Rim trail to the store and take one of the many scenic trails back down to the DHR. I started to do this but wanted a diet coke so bad I did the roundtrip shuttle.

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Tropic: Tropic is pretty small. Rustler's restaurant is probably your best bet for a good sized place to sit and eat and there are a bunch of tables with outlets. The grocery store is connected and is pretty good for a small town. It's not cheap but it's also not brutally expensive. I almost sent a box here but not needed. Lodging is pretty expensive in town and does fill up due to Bryce. The Red Ledges Inn is probably the cheapest option and will probably still run close to $ 100 depending. When I hiked the Hayduke in 2013 it was an America's Best Value Inn and I recall pretty nice, I didn't stay this time. I got HEET at the Ace Hardware, they had 1 bottle left. The grocery had red bottles only but maybe sometimes carry Yellow.

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Bicknell/Torrey: You can hitch 7 miles east to Torrey which is small but bigger than Bicknell which is 2.5 miles west. I went to Bicknell as I liked the idea of being able to walk in and then I did an alternate route out of town that worked nicely, I think LB will add this alternate to his maps.

Bicknell is very small. You definitely need to send a resupply box here to the PO. It would not be fun to resupply for the next 130 miles from the very small gas station which has good fountain drinks. There are 2 motels, I stayed at at Sundance which was $ 50 and really good for that price. It's old like you would expect but for $ 50 I was very pleased. Good TV, big room, fridge/microwave, good air conditioner and hot shower. The Aquarius is a bit nicer but also was $ 85, it does have a pool/hot tub and laundry. I was unable to do laundry with my place. The upside about mine was also that the diner is in the parking lot and pretty good and reasonably priced, made for convenient eating as the only other place in town is a strangely famous Curry Pizza place at the end of town. Very good but pricey for more than 1 nice meal. There's an auto parts store down there too where I was able to get a bottle of Heet. Oh there's also a tiny movie theater that has a cafe. Be careful about Sundays, it seemed that basically everything is closed on Sundays including both restaurants and gas station. That would be brutal to walk into town actually and have nowhere to get any food!

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Fairview:

I decided to go to Fairview as it was a shorter hitch. Huntington was a fair bit longer on a windy road although most likely your ride would be going all the way there. Also I think the motel in Huntington didn't sound that great. I enjoyed Fairview even though it was pretty small. The motel was $ 70 and nice for a small town. You can only make a reservation by calling and they only have 10 rooms so it probably makes sense to try and call before you get to town. There are 2 good gas stations, each has a grill/cafe. You could resupply between the two but it would be expensive of course and the options would be limited. I sent a package to the PO. There are a few decent restaurants in town and no laundry.

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Map mile 64 (before climb to Provo): Several parks and campgrounds along this route. Pavilions should have outlets per town website. Continue west for 0.4m along golf course to golf course snack bar. Quite good and reasonably priced for a golf course. Burger/fries/drink $ 10. Eat up and get ready to climb!

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Provo (Orem on resupply chart)

Provo is a very nice town, it's basically BYU. If you are good talking to people I'm sure you could get a ride from the Vivian Park trailhead or take a $ 20 Uber. I chose to divert on foot into town down the popular Rock Creek Canyon trail 4 miles and then 2 more miles of sidewalk to my motel. The Baymont and Days Inn are your cheapest and closest choices to however you come into town. On the way out there is the popular Provo river bike trail 10 miles all the way back to the Vivian park trailhead. Overall this adds a few miles but I enjoyed walking into and out of town and I consider Dry Saddle a giant PUD after having just climbed Provo peak! Near the motels is a Walmart grocery and several nice restaurants like Olive Garden and the Pizza Pie Cafe is one of the best $ 10 pizza buffets you'll ever have.

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Ogden: Across from the Maverick you can take the 455 bus into Ogden to the Walmart as noted in the databook. Bus is $ 2.50, Uber a bit more. I'd suggest going one stop further to the Wendy's/McDonald's. Wendy's is a great place to hang out if needed with outlets and across the street is a big grocery, much better than Walmart. And it's on the way out. I didn't stay over but the Days Inn another 4 miles north looks to be the cheapest. You can take the bus there too.

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Hyrum: There is a small store/cafe in Paradise. The tiny convenience store is open 11-8 Mon-Sat. The attached cafe is only open 11-8 Thurs-Sat.

Hyrum has everything except a motel. Good grocery and fast food. There is a free local bus to Logan which is bigger and has lots of motels. Can catch it across from the McDonald's and other places. The Super 8 in Logan is probably your cheapest option although it was $ 100 for me but I think that was unusual post pandemic, etc. It's a good spot with Walmart and lots of food nearby.

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Grace/Soda Springs: The trail walks through Grace which is a small town with 1 cheap/good motel that was full for me (they rented the entire place for the week I think due to the county fair being in town or something). It's quite a small town and I much preferred nearby Soda Springs although it's probably not worth going there unless you have to. I walked an alternate into Soda Springs, there's several motels. JRs was good. The Caribou Lodge is cheap but also more like a hostel setup and you could have a shared bathroom and no AC. Several fast food places and 2 grocery stores. Maverick gas station.

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Pocatello - The Travelodge in the north part of town is cheap and good for the price (it's run down but my room was actually nice enough). Motel had laundry. There's tons of food and a Walmart nearby. There's a bus system too if you wanted to stay elsewhere. I just walked the state highway north to Fort Hall from my motel, there was a good shoulder. I assume the mapped route is quieter.

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Arco: I'd recommend the DK motel motel for its location. Nearby gas station has pizza and grill/lots of hot food. Also near grocery which was pretty good/reasonable prices and Family Dollar. Motel has laundry and is basic but clean, not my favorite motel but owner is very nice and location was good. A bit of a pain to hitch back to the trail as you have to walk about a mile if you want to get to the edge of town, otherwise you'll be hitching from busy town which is kinda weird. Motel owner gave me ride back, she's very nice.

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Ketchum: Not a fan of billionaires Ketchum. There's no way you can afford to stay here and everything is expensive. Most restaurants open at Noon or 5pm, not looking for fine French dining! There's a large local network of free buses. Take the free bus 20 mins south to Hailey and enjoy the McDonald's, Subway and Albertsons! It's possibly still too expensive to stay unfortunately. Maybe depends on timing but it was over $ 200 still. I stealth camped out Croy creek road just over the river which was totally fine.

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Stanley - Stanley is less of a town and more of a state highway intersection with businesses spread out. The grocery is good, few restaurants and basically nowhere affordable to stay. Only a few choices anyway. If you walk the 1.5 miles or so to Lower Stanley you can legally camp on Nip and Tuck road, many of the local guides, etc. drive further down and live there all summer. There's basically nowhere else to stealth camp in Stanley, there are no trees and it's all private land. Not a good trail town.

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Getting home from Stanley: It's an easy 60 mile hitch down to Ketchum. The airport is called Sun Valley but is actually located 20 miles south in Hailey. There's a free bus system from Ketchum to Hailey or your hitch might just be going there. I got a pretty cheap flight out although I'd plan ahead to not get stuck with high prices, it's a small airport. Hitching the other way to Boise would be much further and more of a pain.

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