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| Hiking | 7.89 Miles |
3,187 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.89 Miles | | | |
| 3,187 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | My buddy Joe and I left Flagstaff at 4:30a.m. on Saturday, hoping to leave our overnight packs at the base of the Salt Trail, then day hike the 13 miles RT to the confluence and back. We figured we could be back to our campsite on the banks of the LCR around 7pm, but earlier if we pushed it. We are accustomed to doing a lot of miles and elevation gains/losses in a day and we were prepared for the bad weather that was forecasted.
It started raining around 5 a.m. on the drive out, and we could see the LCR flowing brown under the Cameron Bridge. The rain intensified at the trailhead, but we made good time on the way down. We could see the LCR was bright blue/turquoise  But by my assessment, it wouldn't remain that way for much longer.
We had about a mile left to go on the trail when the rain kicked up another notch. My downloaded Route Scout track took us down an 7-8 foot drop, preceded by several large boulder down-climbs. Although both the cairns and the GPS track lead this way, it looked really sketchy. We spent some time looking around for an alternative route, but found none. Our packs were loaded down with 8 liters of water for the overnight trip, and consequently much heavier than I felt comfortable trying to down-climb this drop. Joe went in front of me and slipped a little on the last foot hold, but managed to catch himself. The rocks were uncomfortably slippery. I took off my pack and was about to lower it past the first boulder to a shelf about 4 feet below, when I slipped forward, dropping my pack and almost falling over the ledge. (Mental flashback to where I almost died this time last year on the connector "trail" between Tapeats Creek and Deer Creek   ).
At that moment, it started hailing. That did it for me 
I told Joe I was not comfortable trying to go any further if there would be more precipices like this one. We left our packs there, took some water, and hiked the last mile to the LCR. I was disappointed, but it was probably for the best. The bright blue LCR is always an excellent consolation prize. The water was warm as the freezing rain kept our upper bodies cold. And that chalky white calcium carbonate-silica sand was therapeutic on my feet 
We hung out and walked up to Big Canyon. There were numerous ephemeral streams rushing down the canyon walls into the LCR. So cool. We crossed the river, just for fun. It was raging. Still super blue though! I'm guessing it turned brown later Saturday night.
The clouds turned ominously black. We got the heck outta there as the thunder shook our bodies. More hail. And then some lightning that made me question if I really wanted to camp out on the rim that night. I'm glad we did turn around though. The Navajo roads were washed out and getting a little difficult to navigate in my Forester (Which is too bad since the roads were just fine coming in). Made it back to Flag by 6:30ish and camped at Marshall Lake, where I woke up to 4" of powder 
Confluence, I'm coming for you  |
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| - there's nothing like finding Water in the Desert - |
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