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| Canyoneering | 19.01 Miles |
3,046 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 19.01 Miles | 11 Hrs 26 Mns | | 2.08 mph |
| 3,046 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 18 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We set out from Peralta Trailhead just before sunrise with plans to explore Trap Canyon, entering from the east side off of Hoolie Bacon Trail. We weren't sure if we'd have time to hike through the full length of the canyon and make it a loop...if not, we planned to make it an out-and-back...either way, it was going to be around 18-20 miles round trip, and we'd have to make a decision based on time and the conditions in Trap.
It was a comfortable morning, and we made good time on Dutchman but started to run into catclaw on Whiskey Spring Trail as we approached the spring. It had been almost two years since I last hiked in that area, and there's been a lot of regrowth after the wildfires, but, unfortunately, a lot of that regrowth is the sharp, thorny stuff. The spring was dry, and we trimmed a lot of branches out of our way as we hiked, but the brush slowed us down, and we still picked up a lot of scratches.
We followed Red Tanks Trail through Upper La Barge, and there was quite a bit of water in the canyon--more than we'd seen all day. Since we had a lot of miles to cover, we didn't make the climb up to Herman's Cave but continued to Hoolie Bacon #111 and headed for the east entrance to Trap Canyon. Calling #111 a trail is generous in a lot of areas...for the first quarter mile or more past the intersection with #107, it's not much more than occasional cairns, with almost no discernable route--it's clearly an area that doesn't get a lot of use.
As we entered Trap Canyon, it was clear that hiking the length of the canyon and completing the full loop was going to be optimistic for the amount of daylight we had left. But we explored some of the small overhangs/caves along the canyon wall and saw the grinding holes. It was hard to tell for sure if they are manmade or formed naturally through erosion--there were larger recessions in the floor in that area that looked natural, but some of the holes on top of the boulders were almost perfectly spherical and looked manmade...either way, an interesting area.
[ youtube video ]
We continued a little further into the canyon and started to see the massive boulders that form the traps. We didn't make it to the infamous "big" trap before reaching our turnaround time. We would have had to start scrambling down to continue further...getting down would have been no issue; getting back up might have been iffy given the slick rock and lack of handholds in some areas. It didn't seem wise to risk committing ourselves to a through hike when we were short on time and didn't know what other obstacles or pools of water were still ahead of us, so we stopped there and ate lunch on the boulders before turning around.
[ youtube video ]
We battled the catclaw again along Hoolie Bacon and decided to make a quick stop at Herman's Cave on the way out as a consolation for not getting to explore further into Trap Canyon. The climb up to the cave was less brushy than I remembered from my first visit there four or five years ago, but it seemed like there was more loose dirt this time. There was a strong skunk smell near the entrance to the cave, but at least it temporarily masked the fainter guano smell on the inside  .
On the hike out, we just followed the creek bed toward Whiskey Spring to avoid more of the brush on the trail, and we took one more short break at the Dutchman intersection to eat again before finishing off the hike. We had a nice sunset and a sliver of the moon overhead over the last few miles, and we were back at Peralta just after the sun completely set. We could see flashlights from people coming down from Peralta as we packed up. We didn't see anyone else on the trails all day, and it was fun exploring the little bit of Trap Canyon that we saw. I'd love to return to Trap and do the full through hike with someone who's done it before and knows the obstacles--there's a lot of great stuff to see in there. |
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