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| no partners | | I've got this "thing" about the Little Colorado River, the type of thing that can keep me up until all hours of the night reading and researching. It seems that I'm always searching out the routes and canyons that lead to the LCR. This is one of those routes. I know I love the blue water but there is something else that keeps drawing me back to this area.
I love it when those individuals that DO know about unpopular, rarely travelled or unpublished routes help those of us that DON'T but would like to know more. Thank you to those that have shared, those that have gone before me to report back, those that build cairns and those that join in on my obsession journeys. (Hank and Ambika this time)
This one, the "Horse Trail", was apparently a route that horses were taken down to get to the river. The top of the trail was in fact clearly marked with a fresh "Horse type cairn" --first photo. It is a steep route at the beginning with lots of loose crumbly stuff but no real rock climbing. Horses or mules could have done most of the route but there are a few places that things must have shifted, some rock slides and boulder jumbles that are now making it rather challenging in spots. This route drops into the LCR about 5 miles up from Blue Springs. If I was on a quest for the sometimes beautiful blue waters of the LCRG I would not use this route.
There was a bone chilling strong wind at the top of this route requiring lots of layers of clothing. The wind was lost once we dropped a bit into the canyon and we were baking on the mostly sunny route. I don't think this would be a good summer route unless you carefully timed it with the canyon shade.
I had heard of a "bridge" to be crossed and kept my eyes open for that little gem. (photo #11) It's actually near the end of the trek, just after the neat natural window that views the Little Colorado. (that picture didn't turn out---guess I was trembling a bit while contemplating the bridge we could see ahead.) The bridge was made of two old Pinion Juniper branches that were strategically placed over some AIR. The branches had large flat stones laying over them to step on. We didn't really want to step on this bridge but it was pretty impossible to swing from one cliff to the next without using it....so we did. I could feel it wobble when one branch was touched from behind so I stepped lightly and quickly. 
The time from the top of the route to the water took us about 2.5 hours. I'm sure others could go quicker (I've heard 1.5 hours down) but we didn't have the need to rush and I like to stop and snap a few pictures from time to time. I don't know the exact milage but we guessed about 2.5 miles one way.
On to study up on the next couple of routes down to the LCR. |
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