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| | | Modred Abyss - Flint Canyon, AZ | | | |
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Modred Abyss - Flint Canyon, AZ
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| Backpack | 32.15 Miles |
8,238 AEG |
| | Backpack | 32.15 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 8,238 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | An ambitious trip into upper Shinumo that Pernell and I put together. I've never been in the area and I don't think Pernell has been below the Esplanade before here. In one place we found potsherds and after poking around a bit more, a big roasting pit.
On Friday morning we started off by parking the car near Sublime Point and walking about 9 miles on the road. We stashed our packs closer to Lancelot Point so this was pretty painless. We detoured to Kanabownits Cabin which I don't think I'll ever need to visit again. We dodged most locusts after leaving the road for Lancelot Point. I think the forest was more open close to the point.
Lancelot is a fantastic viewpoint! After lunch we followed a buffalo track switching down the Kaibab slopes. There are several tracks leaving the rim here and I'm grateful we didn't have to "belay" down through the oaks. These tracks converge near the small Kaibab saddle below the point and continue down to the left. Pernell and I both had the impression our Coconino break was on the right and wasted half an hour getting cliffed out in a couple ravines before we backtracked. Towards the Coconino the track washes out but now we could guess our heading. The break had a fun simple scramble and we followed a steep plunge-steppy track through manzanita to the Elaine Castle saddle.
The Esplanade is the only tricky band to get through but Pernell found a spot where we could pass packs rather than line them down. It's on the west side of the fault ravine, not too far from the bed, and we used a ledge with a bit of an overhang to reach it. Further down we needed an assist from a redbud tree to get through one final cliffband. The rest of the way down this fault ravine was simple: just stepping down boulders and fighting through a thicket. Near the bottom we reached broad Muav ledges and had some trickling water. We found a camp right where the fault ravine enters Modred Abyss.
Saturday was supposed to be our easy day down to Flint Creek. It was not easy. We fought through about three miles of dense brush going down Modred before finally climbing out onto the Tonto just above the Merlin Junction. Rather than try the high slopes, we walked right along the edge of the creek where vegetation was washed away this spring and stubbornly kept our shoes dry. Less than one mile per laborious hour here. The going got better as we were further down. There was one bypass above pretty falls in the shale and we had lunch in some nice Tapeats narrows.
Faint game trails finally appeared on Tonto. It was warm and dry here but we were glad to be walking at a decent clip. I had identified a slump in the Tapeats to descend into Flint a few hundred yards after the large drainage that comes in from Guinevere and King Arthur. We joked about trying to get down the bed of that drainage, which obviously drops off. Then as we were rounding the far side of the drainage, Pernell says "what if we look by that giant cairn right there?". I thought he was joking about seeing a cairn - there are no cairns out here! - but lo and behold, it marked a ledgy break in the Tapeats. I guess I should look over my shoulder for cairns more often. We camped on slickrock just upstream of this break and even had flowing water. At the end of our "easy day" of hiking we had just enough time to hike down to the big swimming hole in Shinumo.
We left camp on Sunday weighed down by 6-7L each. I decided I couldn't take another day of fighting through brush and rather than dealing with unknown obstacles up the bed of Flint and we should just take the "scary" Redwall break Steck describes in detail. Turns out, it wasn't unreasonable at all. We ascended some steep slopes through the Muav and picked up a bit of a trail contouring over to the bay where the Redwall cliff is thin. I spotted a handline at the "very scary 30ft climb" and decided it looked easier than picking across the washed out slopes to the "less scary 20ft climb". The scramble is secure but there's one 3ft-tall chunk of Redwall you have to climb over/ around that looks like it could eventually break off. Then the climb will be much harder. Above this bay we climbed a steep slope which is out of sight of the creekbed but provides easy access to the steep ridge that led to the Redwall rim above. Steck makes this ridge sound horribly narrow and scary but the rock is solid and scrambling is secure.
The contour atop the Redwall started out very fast. Pernell found a cool giant yellow spider (a banded garden spider?). As we neared the Flint-Tuna saddle the brush closed in and we again found ourselves fighting through trees, surfing down shale, and scrambling over boulders. The last cliffband below the saddle isn't high but is fairly continuous. Safe to say, we were gassed when we reached the saddle.
After an hour break, we decided to bail out to Point Sublime. We had been planning to descend into Tuna and exit via the parachutists' route the next day, and we still had plenty of time to reach Tuna, but neither of us wanted to add another 2500ft down and up to our trip. There is a bit of a use trail contouring along the Supai and a good trail ascending the Coconino west of Sublime. We scrambled through several short cliffbands in the Kaibab. It was steep, then it was over. We retrieved the car and enjoyed sunset from Point Sublime. A loop from Sublime to Grama can wait for another time. |
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