As printed on the site
Named for Hayduke, after Abbey
The homepage says the trail is named after George Washington Hayduke III, a fictitious character in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. The purpose printed next to that name is homage to Abbey for his defense of public lands, and a push to conserve the places the page says people have come to need and love.
The site does not add a biography. It prints five Abbey lines, one on each of the main pages except the gallery, and it prints Joe Mitchell as creator and co-founder. This note stays with those lines and that credit.
The name, as the homepage prints it
George Washington Hayduke III is identified as fictitious. The novel is named. The homepage does not quote the novel beyond that identification, and it does not describe the character's actions. The trail, the page says, seeks to pay homage to Abbey for his tireless defense of fragile and threatened public lands.
The same paragraph ties the name to a public aim: heighten awareness and promote the conservation of those wild places. That is the homepage's account of why the route carries a novel's character rather than a geographic name alone. The note on the 800-mile claim is the rest of that homepage: public land, six parks, and a line that is not meant to be the shortest.
Joe Mitchell is the person the homepage and the links page both name as Hayduke Trail creator and co-founder. Both point at info@hayduketrail.org. The links page does not add a second name beside his. The Monkey Wrench Gang is named as the novel and is not summarized. No scene from the book is retold on the homepage or on the route page.
The line on the homepage
Under the title, the homepage prints: may your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. The attribution is Edward Abbey.
The adjectives match the route page's warning more than they match a scenic overlook caption. Crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous. The route page says the trail is largely off-trail, unsigned, and dangerous enough that only a very experienced desert backpacker in peak condition should attempt a section. The homepage quote is not a set of trail rules. It is the line the site chose to put under the title.
The pictures beside that quote on the homepage are credited Brian Frankle Photo. One frame is the wide view the gallery also captions near Rainbow Point. The quote and the credit are separate lines. The site does not say Abbey wrote the line about that photograph. The route page's line about getting out of a car is a different sentence, on a different page. Neither line signs a junction. The quote is not a set of rules.
The line on the route page
The route page prints a different Abbey passage. It says you can't see anything from a car, that you have to get out and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe.
That passage sits above the warning, not inside a section description. The warning then drops the literary tone and states the conditions: extremely challenging, dangerous, off-trail, unsigned, 1,800 feet in the Grand Canyon to 11,419 atop Mount Ellen's South Summit. The page says its descriptions are insufficient for a safe journey and are meant to familiarize a reader with the course.
The fourteen-section note lists those sections with the mileages the route page prints. The Abbey line does not change a mileage or a permit. The 1,800-foot figure is the Grand Canyon. The 11,419-foot figure is Mount Ellen's South Summit. Both sit in the same warning, above every section. The page does not split that warning by section.
The lines on the maps, updates, and links pages
The maps page prints: a journey into the wilderness is the freest, cheapest, most nonprivileged of pleasures. Anyone with two legs and the price of a pair of army surplus combat boots can enter. The attribution is Edward Abbey. Under that line the page is a list of fourteen section titles, each a link to an overview drawing.
The updates page prints: the idea of wilderness needs no defence, it only needs defenders. The spelling is the page's: defence, not defense. The attribution is Edward Abbey. Under that line the page is Ryan Choi's 2008 notes, with mile marks, page numbers, and dated water lines.
The links page prints: wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. Edward Abbey. Under it, the page lists a guidebook, a Skurka bundle, Li Branfors' maps and tracks, Buck 30's 2013 data, a Facebook group, trail journals, the park sites, and three organizations. The gallery has no Abbey line. It has captions and an invitation to send photographs. It does not add a sixth Abbey line.
What the name does not settle
The name explains the homage. It does not mark the route, sign a junction, or rate a spring. The route page is blunt that the trail is not signed. A reader looking for the character's story will not find it on these pages beyond the novel's title and the statement that Hayduke is fictitious.
The conservation sentence is the site's purpose statement, not a membership pitch. The organizations named for further reading are on the links page: the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West. The site does not describe their programs.
Photo credit stays with the names the pages print. Brian Frankle on the homepage and on several gallery captions. Joe Mitchell Photo on the links page and on gallery frames that include Kanab Creek and Surprise Valley overlooking Tapeats Creek. Justin Lichter Photo on a run of gallery frames that include a mule deer fawn, an arch near Arsenic Canyon, and the bighorn skeleton in Canyonlands. Those credits are labels on the gallery, not a new expedition roster.
Questions
Who is the trail named for?
George Washington Hayduke III, described on the homepage as a fictitious character in Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang. The page does not retell the novel.
How many Abbey lines does the site print?
One each on the homepage, the route page, the maps page, the updates page, and the links page. The gallery has captions instead of a quote.
Who is named as creator?
Joe Mitchell, Hayduke Trail creator and co-founder, on the homepage and again on the links page. The contact address printed with that credit is info@hayduketrail.org.