Collins to the San Juan?

PaleoRob · Post by **PaleoRob** » Dec 07 2010 5:04 pm

Anyone possibly interested in a Collins-Grand Gulch trip down towards the San Juan? Not dog friendly. Would be 5 days, 4 night, with 4 days of ~7 mile hiking and one day (day 3) dayhiking about 10 miles from camp to the river and back. Permits wouldn't be open until January (and I haven't run this by my wife yet...

). Just seeing if anyone would be interested in this for mid March.

IHike · Post by **IHike** » Dec 10 2010 9:46 am

I am with azbackpackr...the guys can be just as bad. I do have a few questions regarding the maybe or maybe not trip...what is the water situation? how many days, miles between water. Also what's the temperature like in March? I have wanted to backpack this area since I've heard about it, almost anyplace in Southern Utah for that matter.

azbackpackr · Post by **azbackpackr** » Dec 10 2010 10:13 am

PLC92084 wrote:Liz:

Just curious... does your spouse, instead of saying "Have a great time", ask "Is your insurance policy paid up?" just before you leave on a trip...

Insurance policy? What is that? I do have car insurance, though! No health insurance or life insurance though. His dad used to buy life insurance--he loved to throw money away all all kinds of white-bread Establishment crap. Not something we ever discussed buying, not even for 30 seconds, in 30 years of prison-er-marriage.

PLC92084 · Post by **PLC92084** » Dec 10 2010 10:38 am

azbackpackr wrote:...all kinds of white-bread Establishment crap

OMG! A thousand words wouldn't be enough to paint the mental picture I had with that phrase !!

Part of it involves a beat-up psychedelic school bus (coincidence? think not...) peace symbols and something involving Walter Mondale and/or Barry Goldwater...

azbackpackr · Post by **azbackpackr** » Dec 10 2010 10:57 am

Politics? Not for this back-to-the-lander! You had your SDS types, your protestors, and then you had your Mother Earth types. I was always of the latter persuasion. There was some crossover between the two factions, back in the day. But I never cared about politics, other than environmentalism. I intensely dislike public confrontation, activism, etc., but that is part of my personal make-up. I did vote for McGovern, though, the first time I voted, in 1972. The 26th amendment had been passed in '71, making voting age 18, and I was 19 years old the first time I voted. Boy, was that McGovern campaign ever a lost cause...

Never owned a VW but my brother bought a VW bus after he came back from Vietnam in '69, and we toured all the western states in it. He didn't paint it, though. My first car was a '51 Plymouth, six cylinder, flathead. Great car, made to run forever and be easy to fix. Wish I still had it.

I moved to Hawaii in '78, bought some land, build a cabin myself, using only hand tools. Met my husband when I picked him up hitchhiking, but he turned out to be my nearest neighbor. Grew a lot of fruits and veggies... Birthed a baby in the cabin, etc.

Somewhere along the way I also spent a year studying with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who is still my main man, when it comes to life teachings.

It is hard to be very interested in the concerns of Mainstream America when you have led a life like mine. In fact, the Mainstream is downright boring.

PLC92084 · Post by **PLC92084** » Dec 10 2010 11:05 am

@azbackpackr

I'm going to have to get a bigger paint brush... Can't wait to hike with you! Pretty sure the conversations will be colorful, animated and (probably) heated at points...

azbackpackr · Post by **azbackpackr** » Dec 10 2010 11:16 am

That sounds fun, and you will probably get the chance to hike with me in the late winter or spring. I hope to go out to San Diego a couple of times to visit family.

Now, how about that Grand Gulch hike? Wish the dates worked for me!

hikeaz · Post by **hikeaz** » Dec 10 2010 11:57 am

IHike wrote: I do have a few questions regarding the maybe or maybe not trip...what is the water situation? how many days, miles between water. Also what's the temperature like in March? I have wanted to backpack this area since I've heard about it, almost anyplace in Southern Utah for that matter.

Here is s pretty detailed trip report >> http://www.twohikers.org/CanyonCountry/ ... 3_day0.htm water looks prevalent.
Days & mileage(s) are in the original post.
March is a tough call on Cedar Mesa ..... it could be 65 high & 40 low or windy and sleeting 45 high 25 low, it's a crap-shoot.

big_load · Post by **big_load** » Dec 10 2010 1:39 pm

hikeaz wrote:March is a tough call on Cedar Mesa ..

Chilly, with a good chance of ruins.

PaleoRob · Post by **PaleoRob** » Dec 10 2010 3:21 pm

big_load wrote:
hikeaz wrote:March is a tough call on Cedar Mesa ..
Chilly, with a good chance of ruins.

That sums it up. At least with Collins you stand the best chance of not being snowed out of the trailhead.

azbackpackr · Post by **azbackpackr** » Dec 10 2010 6:12 pm

Ha. And there might actually be some water to drink, too!

PaleoRob · Post by **PaleoRob** » Dec 10 2010 7:51 pm

Maybe too much. I remember last year we got to KGRS and they showed us a picture from the bottom of Collins. Wall-to-wall flowing brown water. Thankfully we got down into Collins and there was only a little bit here and there...

big_load · Post by **big_load** » Dec 10 2010 9:24 pm

PageRob wrote:Thankfully we got down into Collins and there was only a little bit here and there...

And we learned that Wendy would rather walk through knee-deep quicksand than take the long way around.

(We also learned that everybody will walk through knee-deep quicksand once Wendy has done it and lived)

oliverr99 · Post by **oliverr99** » Dec 10 2010 9:27 pm

PageRob wrote:Maybe too much. I remember last year we got to KGRS and they showed us a picture from the bottom of Collins. Wall-to-wall flowing brown water. Thankfully we got down into Collins and there was only a little bit here and there...

That was a fun trip! And that water was freezing cold going through the "narrows". I wish your spring break was at the same time as mine, but then again, it will be cold! I hate snow!! Have fun though!!

IHike · Post by **IHike** » Dec 11 2010 9:49 am

with a forecast such as that...I am truly looking forward to this trip.

PaleoRob · Post by **PaleoRob** » Dec 26 2010 8:27 am

Well further discussions with my wife have put the nix on this for now. She wants to go visit her uncle in San Diego who has been away for several years over Spring Break. I'd still like to do a Cedar Mesa trip, but we're probably talking 3 days at most.

azbackpackr · Post by **azbackpackr** » Dec 26 2010 8:31 am

I am interested, but my spring break is different than yours, anyway. A 3 day trip might be doable for me from Flag. I will wait to see what you come up with. I have done Bullet to Govt., so would be interested in Govt to Collins or Kane to Bullet. Or other, such as Road Canyon--have day hiked down that a ways but never got to the 5 kivas or the 7 kivas or whatever it was I was supposed to get to. I know there are other canyons running off the mesa, too.

Also, check your pms now and then!

big_load · Post by **big_load** » Dec 26 2010 11:52 am

Three days is fine for me; I'll do some more hiking on my own to fill out a week.

Collins to the San Juan?

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