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| Hiking | 1.31 Miles |
596 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.31 Miles | 2 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.46 mph |
| 596 ft AEG | 1 Hour 38 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Up early for our second shot at Malicious Gap we made good time covering the same ground as yesterday. Once at the falls, I tried to talk Tracey into scaling the wall all the way up so we could continue on togerher. No such luck, so I left her at the bottom of the falls with a 2-way radio so I could keep her abreast of trouble I would be getting into, as usual.
Having found a better path around the falls on the return trip last night I wasted little time climbing up above the falls. This time there were more bees and butterflies at the stagnant pool than last night but I figured I'd leave the photos until the return. Onward and upward following hte same path as last night until hitting the very dense brush. When I came upon the rock cairn it did appear the "trail" went up higher to avoid the dense brush, but the moment I saw a cave up the wall across the canyon I knew I was headed there. Within feet of Eric's cairn I was almost completely swallowed up by the brush. Just the act of getting down to the floor of the creek took plenty of effort while gaining thorn stripes up both arms. The moment I found the only semi-open spot I took my long sleeve shirt out of my pack and put it on. No matter how hot I got, it was better than being sliced to ribbons. More than once I dropped into such dense brush that I just lay on my back while using clippers to cut enough brush around me to be able to move once more, only to have the same thing happen again. Surprisingly once I got to the bottom, I found the brush on the other side wasn't quite as bad so the climb up the other side wasn't near as bad as the drop down from the other side. Still it was thick enough that I ended up climbing too high so when I came across a narrow ledge thinking the cave was right around the corner I hit a dead end above the cave. So it was back across the ledge, down and across and I was finally at the cave. Hoping to find it had been used as part of an ancient dwelling I was crestfallen when all that was in it was a bunch of scat from various animals. It turned out to be caused by a natural seep in the canyon wall that eroded over eons of time. Ok, being near the edge of the 2-way radio range back to Tracey it was time to head back.
I hadn't taken but a few steps out to take a photo across the canyon when I felt a stab in the left calf. Somehow by walking FORWARD, I was stuck in the back of the calf by a large agave.  It seemed like it hit a nerve because it went numb almost immediately, yet any movement of the calf muscle sent pain shooting to my hip. Of course, still having a steep slope to climb back down that made it pretty hairy. If there was smooth ground I would have just slid down on my butt but that was not an option. Then once I was back in the creek bed I was met once more by the thick brush. I figured since it was such a chore to get down through the brush from the other side earlier I'd stay in the creekbed and take my chances. Again there were areas where I was completely enclosed and out came the clippers to break through again. It was through this section where I came across a plant that appeared to be benign but turned out to have small but sharp thorns along the stems. I ended up getting cut on it numerous times before I realized the part I looked at was actually another plant with no thorns yet intermixed with the thorny one. I still have the wounds in my forearms from that, although pure aloe lotion has speeded the healing already.
Finally I broke into the clear again and filmed a video of my walk all the way back to the falls. Coming back to the stagnant water there were bees and butterflies galore so I spend time taking a video of that as well. Then it was time to climb back down around the falls. Thankfully it was an area where I could slide down so it wasn't too bad on the calf. Once at the bottom I met back up with Tracey and we headed back to the car, bolder hopping all the way. Thankfully we had packed everything before the hike so we could just grab a quick bite and hit the road back home.
Full set of photos will be here:
http://www.changephoenix.com/11/2011-06-21MaliciousGap.html
Video of cave is available here:
http://www.changephoenix.com/11/V2011-06-22MaliciousGap.html |
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