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| Canyoneering | 19.80 Miles |
5,000 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 19.80 Miles | 11 Hrs 31 Mns | | 2.27 mph |
| 5,000 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 47 Mns Break | 16 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | If you don't Like Water or Waterfalls, please stay away from this area.
Ever since I saw this area last year, I knew I needed to come back. All that was needed was the correct weather. The Snow and Rain six days previous, got me itchy to go. I PM'd Dave, and he took the day off work to join me.
At just under 20 miles and a bit of AEG, I was concerned that there would be too much snow remaining to comfortably do this as a day hike. To my surprise, there was not a lick of snow to walk through, just a couple of wet muddy areas. We ran into some backpackers who were coming out after 5 days, and said that the spot we were standing in had 2 feet of snow just days previous.
Armed with my HAZ created planned route and and options just in case, Dave and I started around 6:45am. The weather was perfect, coolish for the steep climb up Barnhardt and temperate the rest of the day.
Since I drew up the off trail portions of this hike on HAZ using the TOPO maps and then the Satellite view, you never really know what you are going to get until you get there. The entire trip actually worked out according to plan. The trip down the unnamed wash off the Divide trail was a piece of cake, as well as the trip up Deadman creek, and even our exit point, which looked sketchy from Deadman, saved us 1 - 2 hours of hiking.
This hike is going in my Top 10, towards the top. Especially if done when the water is flowing.
For the entire 11 1/2 hours of hiking, I don't think we ever went more that 10 minutes without hearing water. All the falls were flowing and washes flowing.
The mission for the day today was to try and get to the base of the Deadman and Sandy Saddle Falls. I really am not good at estimating the actual height, but I've heard they are between 150' and 250' Tall. See my pictures, using Dave as a reference to make your own guess. Anyway, we got to a spot in Deadman creek, where there was an 80'+ fall to the right, and a steep slope Prickly Pear mine field to the left to get to the Base of the falls. I decided I'd had enough and laid back on a rock to enjoy the falls. The Mountain Goat went up the hill to explore. Bottom line after an hour of exploring, and I'll let him go into specifics in his Triplog, It's doable.
We exited the Canyon up a slit to the east that didn't look like fun. It actually worked out very easy and saved us tons of time getting to the top of the falls.
A Video of the Off Trail stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=bUZTt-Xt5jY
Dave, thanks for joining me on this one.....Mom? |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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