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| Sycamore Creek Flood Hike, AZ | |
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| | Sycamore Creek Flood Hike, AZ | | | |
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Sycamore Creek Flood Hike, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.83 Miles |
873 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.83 Miles | 4 Hrs 39 Mns | | 3.11 mph |
| 873 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 8 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | I had to work on Saturday and didn't get to enjoy the weather until Sunday. After checking the gauges online in the morning, I decided that Sycamore creek at over 1000cfs would be more fun than Cave creek at 85cfs.
I PM'd Joe to ask if I could borrow his wet suit, but he didn't respond, so I decided to go ahead and fight the floodwaters like a man. 
All the washes were flowing, Mesquite, Camp, Pine, and of course Sycamore. I stashed a bike upstream, and headed back to Ballentine. I dropped down into Camp Creek and splashed through it, under the Beeline and down to Sycamore. The flow was impressive, and more than I could safely cross. Even now, with the flow less than half the peak that occurred Saturday evening.
There was one wide, open area where I managed to get across, carefully using my poles and the flow not much over my knees.
During the rest of my hike, I probably tried 5 or 6 different crossings and had to retreat due to the current and depth being more than I could handle safely.
I found a nice small waterfall, but spent 20 minutes finding a place to get across the creek, and probably made a stupid decision or two getting there. I stayed on that side of the creek for the remainder of the hike, until I "cliffed out" at a spot that I couldn't continue upstream, and after numerous attempts couldn't cross. I climbed about 200 feet above the creek and took a bypass around the narrows, maybe half a mile.
From there it was easy sailing back to my bike, which I had locked to a tree that even a 5 year old could have figured out how to remove. But I had at least put it safely out of view of the yahoos who had come out to play in the creek.
I rode back a couple of miles on the beeline, hitting 40mph on the downhill, a speed that the bike was clearly not made to reach. I decided to ride the brake downhill back to the truck.
After hours of fun playing in floodwaters, I decided to give the Taco some fun too, by taking the Mesquite Wash road #11 back to the Four Peaks Road. Not sure how or why, but Mesquite wash was dry, despite flowing at the Beeline. So no fun crossings upstream as I had hoped. But we did get to see some Plan B folks unloading an arsenal into a hillside. Because that's how we roll here in Arizona! 
floodwater fun video: http://youtu.be/BCFSbil8FxM |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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