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| no partners | | Studied the TOPO map and promptly left my information. I turned on one of the two possible roads and immediately the Yota started digging in the soft wash. 4wd and steady application of the go pedal stopped that. The road left the bottom and then went to a ridgeline which in places was barely wide enough for the road and the Toy. But the views were just amazing as I rode the roller coaster up.
Parked by a gate, had gone thru one already and not sure where the boundary was. Like all good backcountry property boundaries there was no signage. I enjoyed the dwindling light and slept in the back of the vehicle.
Up and out. This was an all off trail route and probably the longest I have done in a while. It was perfect. The ridgelines dropped me into a pasture area full of globe mallow and others and then to a small ravine. The ravine started to canyon up and alternated between small drops and flat walking. The canyon sides were stuffed with catclaw so a little boulder hopping not so bad. A spring came on with a change in the geology. Lots of animal tracks at some of the small pools. Suddenly the rock walls changed to more vertical and black in color. Ugh, my experience with this is nasty dryfalls. Not so here, the small stream went over but I could have easily downclimbed it. The animals were using a silty slide so I went there. I paused at a turn in the narrowing rock walls and heard it--- the low rumbling. A few more turns and in a mud flow thru a small slit in the rock was the river. It was tossing and spinning against the rock walls. I found a break and went up and took some pictures looking up and down the Salt. It was really flowing strong thru the low dark walls, small rapids and eddies. Pretty neat. I ate a snack and then started back. One of the last pools for the spring I sat in and wetted down my hat and sun shirt. It was warm but nothing terrible. Going back I finally cut sign for my route and ascended the correct ridge. I started having terrain memory, there is a rock I recognized, there is a cluster of plants by rocky ridge. I would rather have this than a GPS. Mounted the last ridge and was right at the Toyota. Great drive home and have other ideas for this area. |
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