Cottonwood Wash Carpool

[qedcook]

We're doing Cottonwood Wash in Capitol Reef this Saturday. We need a bit of help with a carpool. Anyone going to be down there? I also here it is possible to hike up Pleasant Creek instead of shuttling. How long is that loop?

[Iceaxe]

Cottonwood wash - pleasent creek loop is NOT practical.

[Slot Machine]

Yeah, that is way, way too far. We did the Pleasant/Burro loop a few weeks ago and it is not a good loop anyway. It looks great on paper, but it's no fun in practice. Hiking from the bottom of Burro Wash to the bottom of Pleasant Creek SUCKS! AND it only got up to 85 degrees the day we did it.

Taking a shuttle will be my only method of conquering Burro/Cottonwood/Fivemile in the future.

Bob

[qedcook]

How easy would it be to ascend either cottonwood or fivemile wash?

[Slot Machine]

How easy would it be to ascend either cottonwood or fivemile wash?

Neither are possble to ascend (as far as I know), they both contain rappels.

A big loop hike in Capitol Reef right now would be horrible... really punishing. I'll continue to try and talk you out of it.

Here is my scale of punishing to give you an idea (from least to most):

1. Drinking a nice glassfull of water from the swimming section of Keyhole Canyon.

2. Listening to an entire speech by Mitt Romney.

3. Running backwards, naked through a cornfield.

4. Hiking the Burro/Pleasant creek loop in very cool weather.

5. Pulling out one of your front teeth with pliers.

6. Attempting a 10 mile a loop hike in Capitol Reef when it is 100 degrees out. You might die and get to skip the last few miles, which would be doing yourself a favor.



Bob

[qedcook]

How does the Upper Black Box look? Running water?

[ghawk]

How does the Upper Black Box look? Running water?

Upper Black Box should be good. There was a recent TR on it that looked nice. You could search it for more info but I think it said 20% wading, 20% swimming, 60% hiking.

[Iceaxe]

You can do Cottonwood and get all the goodies from the bottom. To do that hike up Cottonwood until stopped by what is the last rappel comeing down canyon. At that point you have to retrace your route about 1/4 mile to a point where you can easily escape out of the south side.

At the escape you need to climb up about three layers of the sandstone wedding cake to a point where you can hike the ledge system to a spot that puts you above the rappels and technical section in the upper canyon. At that point you can head downstream and enjoy the show.

Cottonwood Wash Route Information

[Dan-wild]

Neither are possble to ascend (as far as I know), they both contain rappels.

A big loop hike in Capitol Reef right now would be horrible... really punishing. I'll continue to try and talk you out of it.

Here is my scale of punishing to give you an idea (from least to most):

1. Drinking a nice glassfull of water from the swimming section of Keyhole Canyon.

2. Listening to an entire speech by Mitt Romney.

3. Running backwards, naked through a cornfield.

4. Hiking the Burro/Pleasant creek loop in very cool weather.

5. Pulling out one of your front teeth with pliers.

6. Attempting a 10 mile a loop hike in Capitol Reef when it is 100 degrees out. You might die and get to skip the last few miles, which would be doing yourself a favor.



Bob

AHAHA! Nice. Ya know after a lot of tequila...and I mean A LOT of tequila the backwards cornfield run might be considered a great achievement....

[qedcook]

Resurrecting an old thread. Is it possible/practical to ascend Cottonwood or Fivemile if you leave fix ropes? Is it better to take the approach suggested by Iceaxe above?

Or, is anyone planning on doing either of these canyons this Saturday that would want to share the carpool?

[qedcook]

This thread will never die, but I'm going this Saturday. Anyone want to carpool? Or does anyone have thoughts about leaving ropes and ascending the canyon? I just remember the approach from the bottom-up in Burro Wash was unpleasant...

[Scott P]

I think Ram does a loop up Cottonwood and down Fivemile, but I don't know the details.