ststephen
04-10-2010, 09:46 PM
Day 1: Spa Treatments and Mud Baths
It's become a yearly tradition to do a spring break trip somewhere in the Colorado Plateau. Once you have a school age kid your vacation times become limited to Summer, Christmas and Spring Break. This year it was different because Aaron decided he wanted to go on a school-sponsored educational trip to D.C. So Robin and I were on our own for the first time in many years.
We arranged our flights to coincide with Aaron's. Unfortunately, his trip was only from Friday night until Thursday night which limited our time. To make it a tad worse bad weather in San Francisco backed up all the flights and we got to Las Vegas at 1:00 AM. Saturday we drove on to St. George to pick up some supplies like rolls, cheese and isobutane. Of course, we hit the Desert Rat to get the fuel!
I was worried about high water levels in the Paria and maybe Buckskin too and wanted to bring something to float our packs. I tried to find a place to pick up some inner tubes locally but couldn't find anything in the last days before I left. I found a truck tire store in St. George but they were closed on Saturday. Bo came to the rescue and picked them up for us (actually his coworker did). What service!!!
It was great chatting with Bo at the store and we couldn't help drop some change there when we saw some sweet jackets at 60% off. I also found a vest to use for running that I had my eye on at REI. I almost bought it for full price there the week before and instead now snagged it at -60%. Nice!
Saying our goodbyes we headed on towards Page. I already had my permit and didn't stop at the BLM office near the White House trailhead. But as I passed the other BLM office closer to Page I thought better and decided to inquire about conditions. The young lady at the office didn't seem to really know anything about backcountry conditions. But then said, "Oh, did you say *Buckskin*? **Buckskin???". Uh, yes I did. She got this incredulous look on her face as if to say "are you mad?" and pointed to a color photocopy on the desk in front of me. It showed a smirky looking gent in a BLM cap standing next to the entrance to the Buckskin narrows with a torrent of water flowing below him and on into the slot. His expression was clearly designed to say "See it's impassable"! Handwritten on top of the page was 04/10. This was 04/03/10 so it had to be quite recently taken.
I decided not to show that photo to Robin :naughty:
On to Page. We decided on a whim to check out the Wal Mart and found some lighter swimming pool float rings to take instead of the truck tubes. But fear not Bo, we brought the truck tubes home and hope to use them on the Merced in Yosemite this summer!
The next morning we met Betty at Lee's Ferry. Just like Kev we got the time mixed up! I think it's partly Betty who makes the time confusing by not always just saying X-o'clock Arizona time. Anyway were were a little early so as not to be actually that late. Betty is a character. Part tour guide, part outfitter. She stopped to give us a eye test to see if we could spot a "cow" in the desert varnish on a rock. We failed :crazycobasa:
Then she was explaining about recent folks' experience in Buckskin/Paria. She told us the water would be mostly waist deep but then must have said 3 times "Except the CESSPOOL will be chest deep" (emphasis hers). She also added that of course, "the scorpions and rattlesnakes are out now". Making it sound like it would be like night crawlers on the sidewalk after a summer rain with the snakes and arachnids littering the trail on all sides. This was not helping Robin to feel at ease :facepalm:
Soon enough she was driving away and we were shouldering our packs down the Wire Pass trail as some Pinyon Jays squawked in the pines nearby. We made great time down to the Buckskin and on to the start of the slot. No torrent of water. Whew. Talking to Betty we learned that it had been flowing a 2 days earlier when there was a big melt of recent snow from Buckskin Mountain. In about 30 minutes more walking we came to the first pool. We switched into wetsuits and Keens with running socks under Neoprene socks. This first pool wasn't more than knee deep and soon ended. But on the other side it was quite muddy. Sometimes there was a trail of footsteps which had stamped out a less muddy path but other times the mud was too wet and we had to step carefully through it lest we slip and boy was it slippery. It dawned on me that this mud was probably the result of the recent flow I saw in that photo at the BLM office.
Here's some shots from this earlier part of Buckskin Gulch:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4509307959_5712f3123b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2747/4509408334_aecd44b8fc.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2152/4508770915_28097969ce.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2391/4509941694_06bd435e64.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4509223673_183c9e0f2d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4509222663_4e0e5c06a7.jpg
It was a long way until the next pool and we felt a bit silly in our wetsuits but the mud made progress slow. We just couldn't walk quickly because we needed to watch each step. Eventually the pools start up again. Now they were deeper and the bottoms were very muddy and slippery too. In some places we would sink in past our ankles in mud while wading. This was unnerving and we also found it would start to suck our Keens off our feet! You had to carefully try to pull your foot out and sometimes reach down and pull up the shoe with your hand. Also we started to get rocks in our shoes and had to stop and fix them often. I know what you are all thinking: Canyoneering shoes would have been better.
The compensation for this toiling in the mud was the incredible other-worldly beauty of the slot canyon. Twisting patterns in the Navajo sandstone and mile after mile of mind blowing convoluted tunnels of rock.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4509891944_c75e732072.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2357/4509892338_db305c9851.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2250/4509254023_30145f82c9.jpg
Sometimes it opens up a bit into a long wide "room" which looks like it comes to a dead end. But at the end you find a small crack to enter and continue into the bowels of the earth.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2255/4509891112_c501c8b334.jpg
And so it continued for hours. It's hard to judge your progress but I had studied the map enough to know that the gulch changes general direction and has a few unique spots where it heads due south or north. So I used a compass to determine our general progress. But there is a very long part with no major changes in direction and I feared our progress was quite slow.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4509253591_478ac332bd.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/4509862750_336d306bde.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/4509411522_8212782525.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2693/4509252243_3468ce6b72.jpg
We finally reached the Middle Route Exit. My fears were confirmed. It had taken us 7 hours to travel those 8 miles and there was no less than 3 hours until dark. It would surely take us all of that and more to reach the confluence and (hopefully) water. Plus I knew that 3 or 4 more hours would push Robin to the edge. Fortunately I had a Plan B. I was carrying extra water and we could comfortably camp here and continue on to the confluence tomorrow. It was just as well the last hour had taken its toll on Robin and she was starting to doubt herself and wonder if she could handle much more of the mud.
We climbed up onto the shelf on the opposite side of the exit route. There was still some sunlight here and the sounds of nearby Canyon Wrens echoed off the walls. After changing into warm dry clothes and eating a bit our attitudes improved greatly. It was in one of those quiet moments of starting feel good again that my eyes focused on the opposite wall and my brain said "you are looking at petroglyphs". Cool! Even though Bo had reminded me to look for them I sure would have missed them if we had continued on and not made camp.
We were too tired and not really hungry enough to cook a meal. Instead I made soup and we ate snacks. I must have mentioned 3 times how much I was looking forward to a "refreshing moist towlette" that it became a running joke. Sleeping on a hard sloping rock wasn't great but we were glad to be warm, dry, hydrated and nourished. I think it was about this time that Robin said,
"You know, some husbands take their wives to luxury hotels with spa treatments". I replied, "I know! Poor things. How unlucky they are to miss all this"! :lol8:
It's become a yearly tradition to do a spring break trip somewhere in the Colorado Plateau. Once you have a school age kid your vacation times become limited to Summer, Christmas and Spring Break. This year it was different because Aaron decided he wanted to go on a school-sponsored educational trip to D.C. So Robin and I were on our own for the first time in many years.
We arranged our flights to coincide with Aaron's. Unfortunately, his trip was only from Friday night until Thursday night which limited our time. To make it a tad worse bad weather in San Francisco backed up all the flights and we got to Las Vegas at 1:00 AM. Saturday we drove on to St. George to pick up some supplies like rolls, cheese and isobutane. Of course, we hit the Desert Rat to get the fuel!
I was worried about high water levels in the Paria and maybe Buckskin too and wanted to bring something to float our packs. I tried to find a place to pick up some inner tubes locally but couldn't find anything in the last days before I left. I found a truck tire store in St. George but they were closed on Saturday. Bo came to the rescue and picked them up for us (actually his coworker did). What service!!!
It was great chatting with Bo at the store and we couldn't help drop some change there when we saw some sweet jackets at 60% off. I also found a vest to use for running that I had my eye on at REI. I almost bought it for full price there the week before and instead now snagged it at -60%. Nice!
Saying our goodbyes we headed on towards Page. I already had my permit and didn't stop at the BLM office near the White House trailhead. But as I passed the other BLM office closer to Page I thought better and decided to inquire about conditions. The young lady at the office didn't seem to really know anything about backcountry conditions. But then said, "Oh, did you say *Buckskin*? **Buckskin???". Uh, yes I did. She got this incredulous look on her face as if to say "are you mad?" and pointed to a color photocopy on the desk in front of me. It showed a smirky looking gent in a BLM cap standing next to the entrance to the Buckskin narrows with a torrent of water flowing below him and on into the slot. His expression was clearly designed to say "See it's impassable"! Handwritten on top of the page was 04/10. This was 04/03/10 so it had to be quite recently taken.
I decided not to show that photo to Robin :naughty:
On to Page. We decided on a whim to check out the Wal Mart and found some lighter swimming pool float rings to take instead of the truck tubes. But fear not Bo, we brought the truck tubes home and hope to use them on the Merced in Yosemite this summer!
The next morning we met Betty at Lee's Ferry. Just like Kev we got the time mixed up! I think it's partly Betty who makes the time confusing by not always just saying X-o'clock Arizona time. Anyway were were a little early so as not to be actually that late. Betty is a character. Part tour guide, part outfitter. She stopped to give us a eye test to see if we could spot a "cow" in the desert varnish on a rock. We failed :crazycobasa:
Then she was explaining about recent folks' experience in Buckskin/Paria. She told us the water would be mostly waist deep but then must have said 3 times "Except the CESSPOOL will be chest deep" (emphasis hers). She also added that of course, "the scorpions and rattlesnakes are out now". Making it sound like it would be like night crawlers on the sidewalk after a summer rain with the snakes and arachnids littering the trail on all sides. This was not helping Robin to feel at ease :facepalm:
Soon enough she was driving away and we were shouldering our packs down the Wire Pass trail as some Pinyon Jays squawked in the pines nearby. We made great time down to the Buckskin and on to the start of the slot. No torrent of water. Whew. Talking to Betty we learned that it had been flowing a 2 days earlier when there was a big melt of recent snow from Buckskin Mountain. In about 30 minutes more walking we came to the first pool. We switched into wetsuits and Keens with running socks under Neoprene socks. This first pool wasn't more than knee deep and soon ended. But on the other side it was quite muddy. Sometimes there was a trail of footsteps which had stamped out a less muddy path but other times the mud was too wet and we had to step carefully through it lest we slip and boy was it slippery. It dawned on me that this mud was probably the result of the recent flow I saw in that photo at the BLM office.
Here's some shots from this earlier part of Buckskin Gulch:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4509307959_5712f3123b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2747/4509408334_aecd44b8fc.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2152/4508770915_28097969ce.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2391/4509941694_06bd435e64.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4509223673_183c9e0f2d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4509222663_4e0e5c06a7.jpg
It was a long way until the next pool and we felt a bit silly in our wetsuits but the mud made progress slow. We just couldn't walk quickly because we needed to watch each step. Eventually the pools start up again. Now they were deeper and the bottoms were very muddy and slippery too. In some places we would sink in past our ankles in mud while wading. This was unnerving and we also found it would start to suck our Keens off our feet! You had to carefully try to pull your foot out and sometimes reach down and pull up the shoe with your hand. Also we started to get rocks in our shoes and had to stop and fix them often. I know what you are all thinking: Canyoneering shoes would have been better.
The compensation for this toiling in the mud was the incredible other-worldly beauty of the slot canyon. Twisting patterns in the Navajo sandstone and mile after mile of mind blowing convoluted tunnels of rock.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4509891944_c75e732072.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2357/4509892338_db305c9851.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2250/4509254023_30145f82c9.jpg
Sometimes it opens up a bit into a long wide "room" which looks like it comes to a dead end. But at the end you find a small crack to enter and continue into the bowels of the earth.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2255/4509891112_c501c8b334.jpg
And so it continued for hours. It's hard to judge your progress but I had studied the map enough to know that the gulch changes general direction and has a few unique spots where it heads due south or north. So I used a compass to determine our general progress. But there is a very long part with no major changes in direction and I feared our progress was quite slow.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4509253591_478ac332bd.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/4509862750_336d306bde.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/4509411522_8212782525.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2693/4509252243_3468ce6b72.jpg
We finally reached the Middle Route Exit. My fears were confirmed. It had taken us 7 hours to travel those 8 miles and there was no less than 3 hours until dark. It would surely take us all of that and more to reach the confluence and (hopefully) water. Plus I knew that 3 or 4 more hours would push Robin to the edge. Fortunately I had a Plan B. I was carrying extra water and we could comfortably camp here and continue on to the confluence tomorrow. It was just as well the last hour had taken its toll on Robin and she was starting to doubt herself and wonder if she could handle much more of the mud.
We climbed up onto the shelf on the opposite side of the exit route. There was still some sunlight here and the sounds of nearby Canyon Wrens echoed off the walls. After changing into warm dry clothes and eating a bit our attitudes improved greatly. It was in one of those quiet moments of starting feel good again that my eyes focused on the opposite wall and my brain said "you are looking at petroglyphs". Cool! Even though Bo had reminded me to look for them I sure would have missed them if we had continued on and not made camp.
We were too tired and not really hungry enough to cook a meal. Instead I made soup and we ate snacks. I must have mentioned 3 times how much I was looking forward to a "refreshing moist towlette" that it became a running joke. Sleeping on a hard sloping rock wasn't great but we were glad to be warm, dry, hydrated and nourished. I think it was about this time that Robin said,
"You know, some husbands take their wives to luxury hotels with spa treatments". I replied, "I know! Poor things. How unlucky they are to miss all this"! :lol8: