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| Canyoneering | 4.80 Miles |
1,093 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 4.80 Miles | 10 Hrs | | 0.87 mph |
| 1,093 ft AEG | 4 Hrs 30 Mns Break | 25 LBS Pack | | |
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| | Basic Canyoneering - Scrambling; easy climbing/downclimbing; frequent hand use; rope recommended; easy exit | | A - Dry or little water; shallow or avoidable water; no wet/dry suit | | IV - Long, full day, bivy possible |
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| no partners | | The 4x4 drive in is now easy. Having read the reviews of the approach drive, I was all ready to throw the Taco into 4L and creep along to the trailhead, but the mining company looks to have *very recently* graded out a very reasonable road. (Didn't think to run the GPS - Duh) It mostly follows the original road from what I can tell, and I *did* still use 4H to climb the steep hills, but it was not an epic approach at all. Not much more than 30 min from US60 to the head of Hackberry Canyon.
See also my GPS log of the trip.
Elapsed - Description
0:00 - My girlfriend and I camped out Saturday night at the TH and hit the trail about 9 a.m.
Sunday morning. The descent down Hackberry was as dramatic as I'd hoped it would be. Hoodoo spires, pouroffs, majesty. The 40-foot dryfall was really no problem, though the thought of falling into the cesspool at the bottom was scary. Warm and green and slimy.
1:00 - The confluence with Devil's Canyon. Previously unfamiliar with poison ivy, we were careful to avoid the very obvious "leaves of three". It truly thrives here. Travel was harder in Devil's than Hackberry, and we couldn't enjoy the scenery as much, with all the route finding and bushwacking required.
1:30 - Confluence with Oak Creek. We stopped for a snack. Deb emptied debris from her Keens for the umpteenth time. We had a hard time deciding on footwear. I settled on some old tennis shoes that worked reasonably well in Salome, and Deb went with Keen's and socks. That was not really an awesome choice. At all. So *that's* where I left my toolbox! 
2:15 - Coming to big stinky pools in the canyon. Avoiding them by staying creek right.
3:15 - One of several creek crossings.
4:20 - First of the Five Pools. We came prepared with a fair complement of technical gear, and hucking a pool of unknown depth (to either of us) was not going to happen, so we decided to rap down the 15' pouroff. The pair of stainless steel eye bolts looked plenty good to me, so we didn't get to work on any kind of natural anchor. We just ran a length of webbing through the bolts, doubled it, tied an overhand for redundancy, ran a pair of rapides through the webbing and rapped down on ATS devices. This was an exercise in technique and execution, as all technical work should be. I am not affiliated with Imlay Canyon Gear or Canyoneering USA, but I gotta say the 9.2 mm Canyonero polyester rope has worked well for me the few times I've used it so far. Water absorption was very limited, and the static line keeps you from yo-yoing.
Once down to the pool we snacked, swam and took pictures of the fish that appear to be non-native Green Sunfish. I slid down to the mini stink-pool above the next pouroff and had a peek down to the next pool. Impressive drop!
It was breezy, the waterfall was flowing lightly, the water was refreshingly cold, and it was lovely. But...we were starting to run out of time, so we decided against going any further down creek.
6:00 - In warm weather it's great to soak your clothes before hitting the trail, so I took a last plunge in the big pool before gearing up. Deb belayed me up the short climb, which is easy, except when you're dripping wet and wearing tennis shoes with mediocre rubber. I belayed her from the top, and she made the climb look easy. We were off!
6:50 - We went high creek right, and I spotted a wall of stacked stones with an old wire and post gate up on the hillside - had to check it out. Not much to see here, other than the oddity of the wall and primitive gate built a long time ago, now choked with jojoba. No idea what that was all about.
7:15 - Not long after getting back down to the creek bed I noted the cooling temps, the slanting light, the great conditions for reptiles, but decided against getting Deb wound up about snakes in the tall, seeding yellow grass. Two minutes later her shrill expletive let me know I had just walked past probably the biggest gopher snake I had ever seen. It was easily five and probably closer to six feet in length, and very healthy looking. Pics and some bad video were taken. This colubrid was quite calm, and I resisted spoiling the mood by grabbing it, as I normally would. No other snakes were spotted.
7:40 - Creek left halfway between the first pool and Oak Creek looked better to me than creek right, and I took us on a misadventure high above the creek bottom. There was a very fine trail up there for about 50 yards, and then nothing. We snacked. I videoed a saguaro skeleton standing on the hillside, ribs clacking in the wind. We eventually did some hardcore bushwhacking to get back down to the creek, collecting scrapes and grass seeds as we went.
8:30 - Back to the creek bottom just before the confluence with Oak Creek. Oh, so _this_ is what hiking trails is like! It was pretty easy travel from here on out, with only very minor bushwhacking. We quickly passed Oak Creek and began the ascent of the very scenic Hackberry Canyon back to the truck.
9:45 - Chips, salsa, bevvies and smiles! |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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