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| no partners | | The original plan was to bikepack from GCNP to the Blue Spring TH, through-hike all the way back to Lipan Point, and then retrieve the bike via a half-marathon run, buuuuuuut the Little Colorado was decidedly *NOT* open for hiking. All those awesome photos of Grand Falls running like Willy Wonka's chocolate river reveal just how much water and grit have been running down the LCR for the past weeks and months. It was flooding wall to vertical wall. Sadly, a packraft and the requisite skill to pilot one are not in my possession (yet!) so the trip was much abbreviated into an out-and-back to Blue Spring, as follows.
Sunday, Mar 12 - The drive from Phoenix to Cameron was uneventful, and using I40 East to the Country Club exit really helped to bypass any congestion in/around downtown Flagstaff. Permits are required for trekking and camping on the Navajo Nation (for non-Navajo). The previous week I spoke with Vickie at the visitor center, and we arranged to have the permit waiting for me at the Conoco station across highway, because the visitor center is closed on the weekends. I picked up the permit and jumped onto highway 64, canyon bound! It was a quick shot up to Desert Tower, where there was still some snow plowed into a bank in parking lot. That snow pile made for a handy place to lean the bike once I had it muscled out of the truck. It was nice not to have to lay it down, because a fat bike loaded with camping gear and three gallons of water is neither svelte nor dainty. Add sunscreen, turn on a device or two, don helmet and gloves, and then hit the road for multi-sport adventure!
From Desert Tower you can legally ride the service road past the employee housing and sewage treatment area and drop down the steep dirt track to the Lower Basin and the foot of Cedar Mountain. It's nearly a 1000' descent, and it really heats up the brakes when you're holding back nearly 300 lb of bike and gear and rider and water! It is prohibited to drive or even ride the trail to Cape Solitude, but you can go around Cedar Mountain and then drop down to Navajo Route 6140 due east of the mountain. Then you just continue on 6140 as I think other trip reports here describe to reach the Blue Spring TH.
That afternoon found me at the trailhead way too early, so I scouted the route a bit, took a nap in the shade of the bike, had an early dinner, said goodnight to the coyotes, owls and ravens and then turned in early. The moon was nearly full, so it was up high and bright, but it didn't keep me from getting a lot of great sleep. Hooray biorhythm correction!
Monday, Mar 13 - An early start got me... Oh, right - this is all first person "me" and singular "I" stuff, because this was a solo trip. Wouldn't recommend it, actually, because the "hiking" is pretty extreme, strenuous and exposed, as other trip reports warn. Anyway, the day started fairly early, but the route demands a lot of focus and deliberate movement. Unless someone decides that the GPX tracks I uploaded are too inaccurate or removes them for other reasons, you can get an idea of where the route starts at the big juniper tree and ends near Blue Spring itself. Everything in between is steep, occasionally exposed and generally a bit unnerving. Two main rock layers are especially challenging and involve Class 4 (at least!) moves with some very real exposure. I did not remove my day pack (about 10 lb), but a full 50L pack would have been very awkward and some lowering would have been prudent. Others have reported using belay/protection in a few places, but I just committed and made the moves unprotected.
It was upwards to a couple hours of careful travel each way, to complete the ONB. The upward scrambling required a bit more energy, but seemed less harrowing, as always seems to be the case. The route is fairly well marked by cairns, but there were a few places I got off track. As any experienced trekker will relate, when in doubt STOP and look around. Look across ravines for the exit. Retrace your steps when needed. Sometimes you need to go higher in order to see the cairns/route, but this route is so steep that it can be below. A time or two I got that exhilarating "lost" feeling and realized just how long it would take to scout a route to the top without aid of cairns left by folks who had come before. On this route more than any other, the cairns weren't an intrusion on the experience - they were a welcome part of it!
The return ride was a fairly matter-of-fact and thoroughly enjoyable retracing of my big fat tire tracks. There were some horses and cattle in the area, and they all looked healthy and happy. Quite a life they have out there with not much more than the occasional fly or cyclist to distract them from their grazing, cloudbusting and whatever else they do with their time. 
To summarize; the route is excellent - if you're up to it. For reference, it was harder than the Pt. Huitzil Rt, with the exception of the big slab on Huitzil. Using a fat bike to pack and camp was lots of fun, but you better be ready to do some real work if you want to go that route. To take a full pack down Blue Spring Tr would be hard, and a few spots would require lowering big packs, IMO. Having said that, the original itinerary is still very much on my to-do list, as is the full-monty trek from Cameron to the Confluence. The LCR gorge offers many amazing, remote, rugged, challenging and often solitary experiences. Perfect! |
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| | | Yeah, Blue Spring was gushing *somewhere* down there in all that chocolate syrup flooding in from all over the high country. | | _____________________
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