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| Canyoneering | 6.50 Miles |
135 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 6.50 Miles | 1 Hour | | 6.50 mph |
| 135 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Well I played "Who Wants To Try To Make It To Tonto Creek" again this weekend this time with Joe's Gisela reacharound programmed into the GPS.
I had 7 other takers for the journey to The Narrows with the fungenda including a trailhead camp for early morning freshness.
We woke before the sun in the morning and finally got everyone roused and ready to go. We basically retraced our steps from last time and the cow trails along the ridges and the small ups and downs until we got to the descent into Houston Creek. Joe's magnificent route kept us off all the private property. The hike down was a little hairy with a game trail here and a water runoff path there to help us stay out of the catclaws too bad. We still got pretty scratched up but everyone trooped through it. The sound of water below was a great motivator.
We reached creek one and followed it by boulder hopping towards Tonto. There were plenty of frogs and a turtle in the pools along the way. When we reached another fence, we stopped and followed Joe's climb back out on the other side for a short jaunt across the flat pasture area as the sun began kicking it up a notch. A short time after (about 1.5hrs into our adventure) we were blowing up our tubes and getting ready to shove off upstream.
The first pool is quite a paddle with no hint to how deep it actually is. At best guess 40+ until whatever you dropped hit the bottom. After that, there's a nice little narrow section with plenty of jump off spots from the slick granite walls above. And of course at the head of this is a great rapids section worth shooting over and over. This is the area we actually called it quits at last time because of time constraints. This time we hung out here for quite a while before pushing on.
About 2/5 of the rest of the trip involves boulder hopping while the rest you're in the creek. Sometimes full tubing it is best, while other shallower sections work better if you use your tube as a floating hiking stick and/or gear raft.
The fish just kept getting bigger and bigger as we went. While most of the big ones were carp, we saw plenty of trout big enough for meals alone. Steve and I got ahead of the group and ended up climbing up another jump spot that upon first glance from below looked comparable in height to the last area. When we reached the top we realized how wrong we were. We sat up here for a while waiting for the cameras to catch up as we watched the large fish circle below. At some point I heard Steve (who as far as I knew from some of our last adventures, still had a fear of even the smallest of heights) say, "I can't wait anymore," and then promptly tricked his mind and just jumped. After a long time of just gravity, air, and Steve, he hit and then resurfaced. Unfortunately his belief that he could keep his glasses in his hands was wrong as the carwreck-like impact forced them from his hands and Tonto claimed some more valuables (if you're playing along at home, that makes the count: 1 watch, 1 wedding ring, and 1 pair of prescription glasses). I managed to hold off until the rest of the group got there and as Jonathan bean his climb, I tagged out and jumped. I wasn't able to do my girlie screams on this one. The gravity just forced my air out in a long rough grunt as my mind tried to figure out why I hadn't reached the water yet. I actually landed okay, apparently forgoing my usual half flying squirrel move I seem to grace the air with on all the other times. I made it to the shore just in time to catch Jon's jump with the camera and see the long airtime from below.
We decided to eat our lunch here in the water under the shade of the cliff and then pressed on to see what was further on up. Pools, led to more pools, and on until we reached a nice little beach area and the sound of a large fall. We were getting towards a turn around consensus but we had to see the noise maker for ourselves first. Around the bend we found the large split fall pouring though another narrow section. The force of it was enough you drive you under, but if you stood just right, it became a meaty German massage lady's kneading arms. After some waterfall lovins, we tried to climb up on the right side. Jon and I pulled ourselves up and then ended up jumping back off the wall after looking around a bit. We made the falls our turn around spot and began heading back.
The going was pretty quick on the way back. Tonto tried to take my GPS but Steve found it under one of the smaller rapids that had squeezed it off of my belt.
When we finally made it back to the first jump area we hung out some more, shooting the rapids and jumping until we were sure we had squeezed all the fun we could out before leaving. We swam back to where we dropped in and prepared for the hike out away from the blessed water and into the sun and stickers.
The flat spot was ridiculously warm and the shade of Houston Creek was greatly welcomed. We hopped back to the cairn that marked our downtrail and then rested a little next to our last pool before the loose climb that awaited. It was now that most of us realized that Steve had been hiking pretty blind without his glasses; the uphill would be precariously slow for him. We finally all made it up the almost straight up hill until the sunlight greeted us again. The rest of the way played out the same way the inhike did. Some ups, some downs, and cow trails to keep most of the briars off until arriving at the vehicle a couple hours later.
All in all, subtracting the GPS signal bounce in the canyon, the round trip on our feet and in the tubes was 6.5 miles. More than worth it to not see another soul or a piece of trash and spend the day in deep clear refreshing waters usually not seen in Arizona.
Some vids:
My high jump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqeaHdf8 ... re=related
A screamer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4sN-LAC ... re=related
The rapids weren't as fast as last time: https://www.youtube.com/user/bigredjeepc ... fSmH3QsP3E |
| _____________________
May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;
May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;
Armchair Crisis Design |
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