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| Canyoneering | 5.00 Miles |
1,000 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 5.00 Miles | 4 Hrs 45 Mns | | 1.05 mph |
| 1,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After doing Tango 2 weeks ago my legs have not yet fully healed up so I figured what the heck, lets go get Sierra done and add a few more battle wounds.
Not being able to find a partner I headed on out solo yet again after a night of work, I knew this day would be a good one being up for 24+ hours and the feeling of a good adventure had me going.
I got to the parking area after 10am and started the trek at 10:30. Fish Creek is considerable lower than it was two weeks ago which made the travel a little bit easier. Right at the turnoff to start heading up I had this weird feeling I was being watched. I looked up and couldn't believe my eyes, there were about 12 kudamundi scrambling up the rocks. I get my camera in hand but they were all pretty much out of sight, except for one who looked to be the biggest one just looking dead at me as if to say what the heck are you doing. But I thanked him for that because I got a pretty good picture of him. After all his buddies were gone he took off as if he was the guardian of the tribe. Pretty awesome, my second sighting of these guys in AZ and this time I didn't have some Arkansas loud mouth yell out about seeing them scaring the off as I had one all ready for my best picture ever. 
With that putting a good rush into my body I headed on up the wash and to the 2900' contour to traverse on over to Sierra. This time I made quick work of the area and was able to drop into the canyon fairly easy. After some nice boulder hopping I came to the first rappel and heard a noise above. Wow, six bighorn sheep running across a tiny ledge making my skills look worthless. They were too fast for me to get a shot of all of them, so the slow one bringing up the rear would have to do for today. Man today is going great. After the first rappel I continue down canyon and look up again. Out flies a spotted owl right over me, and since I do not have the bribing powers of Pam to get them to pose for me, I wasn't able to get a photo of this guy. But could I see anything else today as far as wildlife would go? Yes there's a squirrel or two in the canyon.
This canyon was great, with the overcast day, and the few swims to cool off in I was quickly thinking this was one of the best outings in the Superstitions I have ever had. And to make it better, this canyon also is not as brushy as her sister Tango. The rappels kept coming and so did the wildlife. Halfway down a few giant openings in the sides of the canyons had bats flying around in them. I collected some guano to make bowls out of. Ace Ventura motivated me for this move. With the canyon opening up, I was able to finish the rappels and make it into Fish Creek safely. What a gem of a canyon.
On the way out I made it back to the spot where the kudamundi were before but this time nothing. I walked backwards for a few steps just to make sure they were not there. Oh well I thought, at least I got to see them on the way in. I come to the middle of Fish Creek where the water has dried up and come around a few bushes and see one of the best things I have ever seen. About 30 kudamundi are smack dab in the middle of the creek and start to scatter once they see me. I stop to get a grasp of what I am seeing. They are everywhere and going to each sides of the creek. Some are going up trees, some are running through the water, the others are so small they are just running. After a minute standoff of silence and a few lucky pictures they started to make some noise, it was a rally call and amazingly they all ran in the same direction, to the same side of the creek and disappeared into the brush. Holy Cow. "I've seen a lot of amazing things in my life, but that was AWESOME!"
Adrenaline rushes through my body, I make it back to the Jeep and expect a long slow drive out because of the time of day and traffic. I make it all the way back to the west valley with only one small traffic slow down. Today surely was a great day, one of those that doesn't happen often in all aspects. I guess I need to get out on Fridays more often and stay up as long as I can more. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Upper Sierra Canyon is a little thorny with some light down climbing and pools before reaching the first 15ft rappel. We geared up and made this super awkward first rappel from a thick dirty bush into a waist-high pool... 
Some moderate down climbing as the canyon drops into some beautiful narrows and we reached the 2nd rappel of about 25ft but oddly enough the anchor was missing so I build another one in a better location. 
The third rappel was a 30ft drop with another chilly pool to wade. By now, the geology in this canyon is off-the-hook amazing! 
We hit the formerly awkward 4th rappel that now has a much more user friendly anchor but still drops into a super chilly full-on swimmer. 
Afterwards, the creek opened up a bit but stayed fairly wet as we did more down climbing and passed a few more slickrock sections until reaching the final drop that was fairly easy. After some more light climbing & bushwhacking, we eventually hit Fish Creek where we dropped our gear & wetsuits before making the slow hike upstream thru & alongside the nicely flowing creek, slogging thru quicksand, pushing thru tree branches, with of course loads of rock hopping. 
