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| Canyoneering | 12.98 Miles |
2,820 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 12.98 Miles | 15 Hrs 47 Mns | | 0.82 mph |
| 2,820 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Epic Canyoneering Trip in the Catalinas
Five hardy people met up at Le Buzz at 5 AM to begin the trip. To start we dropped cars off at Prison Camp and then proceeded up to the Palisades trailhead. We hit the trail at 6 AM.
After departing from the trailhead, there is a fine example of the destruction caused by fire. It seems like this was an area that had severe fire because the regrowth I've noted in other areas isn't as apparent. One of our party thought it was odd that the trail is called Palisades when it leaves the side of Palisades canyon so quickly and it does return for a few miles.
I was impressed by the amount of vegetation that suddenly explodes just before Mud Springs. The spring box is nearly obscured by greenery all around. Luckily, I was watching for it and spotted it!
Just after Mud Spring, it seems as though the trail is forgotten. There is a lot of erosion present and the brush is starting to take over. At times you might lose the trail if you are not good at route finding. I actually enjoyed this section of the trail the most. The views were nice - we even were able to spot one of the waterfalls that we had previously rappelled in Pine Canyon. Finally, the trail made its way back to a ridgeline above Palisades Canyon.
We took a break and I rearranged my footware. I discovered as I was walking that I was missing a very important part of my boots! I forgot to swap the Superfeet and my carbon fiber plate over to my 5-10s! No wonder my feet were really swimming with just my wool socks. I put on my neoprene socks and then layered the wool socks over the top of them to take up more of the space. Already I was starting to feel some of the effects of not having my normal solution in place.
Soon the trail starts to switch back down closer to the bottom of Palisades Canyon. Then we took off to enter the bottom of the canyon and the fun began.
We suited up in our wetsuits (most of us) and proceed through the water to our first rappel. As we wandered down canyon, I saw that there were a lot of the Cardinal flowers present in the canyon bottom, a flower that you don't see too often!
The first rappel was our introduction to rappelling down a running waterfall. The other canyons we've done to date haven't really had much running water or we were able to avoid it. Palisades was flowing nicely due to the recent summer rains. The water also spawned the growth of algae on the wall which made descending even that more difficult. We had read in advance warning about the walls being extremely slippery so we were all very cautious.
We brought radios since we can't always ensure that we can hear from the bottom to the top of a rappel. Therefore, we were able to give each other tips after completing rappels.
I went last over the lip of the first rappel. I went down on my side since I knew I wouldn't have any thing to stick to with my 5-10s. The water pelted me in my face and it took a few seconds to realize that I wasn't going to drown if I just kept moving. I also found that when I did get on my feet, they just slid down the face of the rock. I kept on constant alert for crashing into the wall at any second. Often I just went on my side.
The second rappel I was chosen to go first. It looked like a waterslide that turned and then after that we couldn't really see what happened. After the waterslide I ended up in a dry tinaja that sported sand and it's own tree. I guess the water course had changed! In front of the tinaja the water spurted out like a facet with extreme force! It was absolutely amazing to be able to view this and not have to be subject to it's type of torture. Although moving on meant crossing it's path. At the bottom of this fall was an amazing pool. It was nearly a perfect circle. The water inside was amazingly cold. I was glad to be in my wetsuit, but it was not enough to keep me warm. I fought the cold while I checked the webbing at the pitons on the far side.
Steve came with the big rope and we rigged rappel. He took off quickly down that rappel so that we could get out of the cold. I stayed in the water in case Josh or Joel had problems as I knew that they both we're the best of swimmers. Josh didn't have a wetsuit so I knew getting him out of the water would be the first priority. He also didn't have a dry bag inside his backpack which is actually a good way to maintain buoyancy.
I kept noticing that the rope for the next rappel never went slack and didn't move. I kept checking it. Steve didn't have a radio and if he did, it would have been wrapped up in his pack during the rappel so I couldn't communicate with him. I started to feel stressed and the cold didn't help. Everyone completed the previous rappel and Josh managed to get up on the side out of the water. We had the intermediate rope so we added a quicklink to the webbing to attach the rope. During this process we finally started to hear yelling 'HELP' from below. We yelled back but Steve couldn't hear us. Doug took off down the rope and I heard him say something like 'Crap' as he descended. I continued to get colder and colder so finally I worked my way over to where Josh was sitting. After what seemed like hours, we finally saw the rope moving and then the command, "Off Rope" came on the radio. We all started to descend. I got over the edge and I saw Doug bent over Steve, who was propped up against one of the walls out of the water. I couldn't see what was actually happening so I just focused on getting down. When I got off the rope and swam over I saw that Steve had a gash on the head and several other abrasions. Steve looked horrible! I heard something about a knot in the rope and that he had locked himself off and tried to work on the rope with a foot loop and then something about when he went to release the lock off and foot loop something bad happened and he ended up inverted with his foot caught in the loop and no way to get himself upright. I'm sure i don't have the details all correct. When loading his rappel device again after being untangled there was a bit of a drop and his head hit the wall. We hung out until he was looking almost normal. (Note on this rappel: the quicklink wasn't screwed all the way shut but we didn't notice until later. We tried to screw it together but couldn't. Luckily the old rusty link is still there and provides some redundancy. A pliers would be handy for the next people who go.)
The next few rappels were more of the same slick wet conditions. By now we had figured out how to do things. We moved a bit slower due to the accident but all considering we did fairly well. It's amazing that someone could go through something like that and still have the energy to do four more rappels.
At times I would look back and see several of the falls we just descended all lined up. It is just a wonder of nature to see! I feel special in that I have the skills and endurance to undertake such a epic trip.
The second to last rappel had the best conditions for descending. We were able to place our feet on near dry rock and actually feel in total control! Before going down this one, I nearly lost my pool float. I was distraught! We had tried to toss it over the cliff but the wind had caught it and jammed it in a spot below ere there wasn't enough water to push it forward. I was sick thinking that I had littered. When the last guy came down, he brought my prized pool float with him!
The last rappel was a bit of a puzzle. We had read how people had jammed rocks in a crack to ensure their rope didn't get stuck. We debated on how to do it and decided that a single rope would be less likely to get stuck so down I went. As I went down, I saw the exact spot for concern. Since we recently had a sheath cut on a long rappel I was not happy to see that. However, just about 10 feet down I found another anchor. The guys rigged the short rope on the first part and then I had Joel come down to help me with the second rope. From that station, you immediately go into an overhang. It's a bit hard to start in an upright position and then immediately get ready for a swing. Success, no pinched fingers! On down I went and discovered a cool cactus in the crack growing upside down! Next I found our rope entangled in an agave and had to fight to get it out. Then, I was done! I was relieved! This was the hardest trip yet! (Note on this rappel, again a screw link was open - only one of us noticed - we need to do a better job of checking!)
Next to get back to a trail! We still had a mile of canyon to navigate through. At some point we decided to skip a few pools by going high on the left side at the junction with another drainage that is between Box Canyon and Palisades. Steve thought a bushwhack would be easier on him than the rock scrambling. Finally we researched the East Fork trail as the sun was setting. The colors were really nice!
The hike out to Prison camp was long and we were weary. We sent Joel and Josh to finish the car shuttle, while we finished up our break. Then we hit the trail stopping only a few times for water/snacks. I was amazed at Steve's stamina! We managed to get to the cars just before 10 PM. What a long, amazing, stress, epic adventure! I'm ready for some trail hiking like the normal people do!! |
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