Bowknot Bend

[Udink]

This trip had a little of everything: ATVing, river rafting, hiking/scrambling/climbing, rappelling, geocaching, fencing, fighting--well, you get the picture. I've had my eye on a geocache that was placed atop Bowknot Bend more than a year ago, and nobody had tried to find it in that time. I did an exploratory trip to the area in December 2010, but didn't make it far in my truck. I spent a fair amount of time over the months looking at satellite imagery and topo maps, and had a general plan put together. My friend Chris and I finally worked things out so we could try for it on Labor Day weekend.

See how to embed Google Maps in your posts

Viewing on a mobile device? Click this link to open the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Fudink.org%2Fgeo%2FBowknotBend.kmz&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=40.27343,86.572266&vpsrc=0&t=h&z=12
http://udink.org/geo/BowknotBend.kmz


We spent Friday at my place making plans and getting things ready, then set out Saturday morning to get this done. I parked the truck at Bartlett Flat and we unloaded the ATVs and packed on our rafting and rappelling gear. It was a pretty quick jaunt from there down into Spring Canyon along the awesome shelf road and switchbacks. We reached the Green River and started checking out the chutes and gullies leading to the top of Bowknot Bend. None of them looked promising. The route that I thought looked good in Google Earth looked impossible in person. We continued up the road along the river and found the spot from which we'd planned on launching the boats. We thought the mosquitoes were bad there, but would later learn just how bad they could get. We shoved off in our rafts and had about a third of a mile of floating downstream before we needed to land on the opposite bank. Upon putting ashore, we stashed the rafts and life jackets and started hiking downstream. Instead of continuing to the route we'd planned, we started up the first big gully that we encountered, since they all looked difficult or impossible.


ATV loaded with raft and rappelling gear


Spring Canyon shelf road


Spring Canyon


Stopped to check out Bowknot Bend along the Green River


Inflating the rafts


Ahh hell yeah


Landing spot on the opposite bank


Hiking along the Green River


The first gully we scrambled up


Bushwhacky and bouldery


Navigating the cliff bands



I was lucky to have Chris along. He's a stronger hiker than me, and he did most of the routefinding work while I played catch-up. He would scout ahead for the next break in the cliffs. I would often come to a spot where I couldn't figure out how he got up, and after a while he would appear on the cliff above me and tell me the route he took to get up. We spent about three hours doing this. Most of the route up involved steep hiking and scrambling, and only in a few spots did it truly require climbing. One spot was too difficult for me to climb, so Chris dropped a rope and I handlined up it. We finally broke through to the top of Bowknot Bend, but it was much later in the day than we'd planned on, and we were both nearly out of water.


Bouldery ledges that we scrambled up


Green River below


More bouldery ledges


More of that not-so-Green River


Last bit of scrambling ahead


Panorama of the Green River below our route


Packing rope away after I handlined up a cliffy section


The Man


One last shelf to traverse before topping out



We shaded up below an overhanging cliff once we reached the plateau. From there, it was a quick 0.8-mile walk to the northeast side of Bowknot Bend where the geocache was hidden. I felt like the worst was behind us, even though there was an unknown rappel before us. I brought my brand-new Imlay Canyon Fire 120' rope, and Chris had a shorter climbing rope with him, plus between us we had other gear that we could use to piece together a longer rappel if necessary (all the while hoping that it would not be necessary). We reached the coordinates to the geocache, which put us at the top of a cliff. We walked the cliff's edge, looking for any possible hiding spots for the geocache. There was a big vertical crack in the cliff that was mostly hidden from our high vantage point, and that seemed the likely place to rappel. Chris, being the more experienced canyoneer, donned his harness and popped the cherry on my new rope. As he descended he looked for the geocache, and after reaching the bottom of the tall ledge inside the crack, he found it! There were a lot of "woo-hoos" and "f----yeahs" from above and below the cliff. While he ascended, I geared up and took my turn rappelling down so I could leave my mark in the geocache logbook.


Rest break after breaching the top of Bowknot Bend


Easy walking across the plateau


View into Spring Canyon once we reached the northeast side of Bowknot Bend


Chris dropping down to look for the geocache


Uhh, yeah. Solid anchor right there. Please, nobody show this to


"F-yeah" moment!


My view from the cache location



Out of water but feeling good, we hoofed it back across the plateau and mostly followed our route back down to the Green River. We took a shortcut that wasn't apparent from below and ended up descending directly above our rafts, where we found a group of guys from San Diego who were camped there while on their first river trip. They had plenty of water and generously shared some with Chris and me. We chatted with the Californicators for a bit, then jumped in our rafts and set off downstream. I had a spot picked out for landing about two-thirds of a mile downstream where the tamarisk looked the thinnest, but we were anxious to land anywhere that would save us some hiking back upstream toward the waiting ATVs. We landed on a sandy beach only a third of a mile downstream where the tamarisk looked thin. However, the mosquitoes were absolutely horrid there! Chris got out of his raft and climbed the river bank to check out the brush between us and the road, but as I got out of my raft, dehydration caught up to me and my legs cramped up horribly. Chris found that the tamarisk was impenetrable, and I could no longer even walk, let alone get back into the raft. The mozzies got to Chris and he said, "Sorry man, I gotta go," and I stayed behind for a brief while trying to pace up and down the beach and loosen up my muscles. I was finally able to get into the raft and start paddling downstream again, and we both set ashore at our planned landing spot. Chris sprinted for the road while dragging his raft behind him, but again my legs cramped up and I was forced to walk it off before I could climb the river bank. I heard Chris shouting obscenities at the bugs far off in the distance while running up the road. I finally regained the use of my legs and climbed the river bank, then ditched my raft and feebly jogged up the road while trying to stay ahead of the voracious mosquitoes. I made it a quarter of a mile when Chris returned with his ATV, and I hopped on and hitched a ride to my waiting machine, ending the maddening attack by the bugs.


This cloud provided some much needed shade for two wayward hikers


Hiking back across Bowknot Bend


River runners far below


The Green River through Labyrinth Canyon


Nice view of the river on our descent


Finally, back on the river


Chris downstream below me


Chris



Once we were both on our ATVs, we returned to the rafts and hastily threw them on the machines and got the hell out of there. We didn't stop to properly deflate and stow the boats until we were half a mile up Spring Canyon and away from the river. The ride back to the truck was in nearly full-dark, though on the horizon behind us was a deep red glow that seemed to last longer than normal twilight. We drank some ice-cold Powerade and ate some salty snacks at the truck, then in complete darkness loaded the ATVs and packed our gear away while reveling in our accomplishment.


Sun setting on Bowknot Bend


Labyrinth Canyon sunset


Sunset behind us as we rode toward the truck



Full photo gallery here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/BowknotBend

Blog entry:
http://udink.org/2011/09/06/bowknot-bend/

[Sombeech]

Quit playin' with yer dingy!

[JONBOYLEMON]

Now thats a heck of a geo cache.

[accadacca]

This report is full of win.

[ibenick]

Damn dude. Very, very nice.

[New Mexico]

Wow, anything for a geocache! Sounds like fun..

[bowjunkie]

nice trip !!!!

[bbennett]

[MrAdam]

Awesome trip!

[gnwatts]

Quite an adventure. Nice shots.
Greg