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| Backpack | 23.70 Miles |
7,860 AEG |
| | Backpack | 23.70 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 7,860 ft AEG | | | | |
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| Partners |
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| partners | | 3 years, 3 attempts, 3 hiking partners...so yes, it's going to be a descriptive read this time around and yes I know, that's a LOT of photos for 2 days, but it's 3 years worth!! 
So for starters...THANK YOU PLC & VolcanoCLMBR could NOT have done this without you guys and I mean that. I had a blast even through the prickly, pokey, stabbing, dehydrated misery 
Early start, left road 401 without a glance back.
I won't say it's "easy going" but it's really just a matter of following game paths, avoiding cholla/prickly pear/saguaro etc and not losing your breath when you head uphill (over and over and over and over!)
Down then up then down then up, you get the idea.
What felt like 3 weeks later we found ourselves just above Blue Tank Canyon, I found a cholla big enough to lend me some shade and sat down...in a pile of ants, leapt up and ended up with cholla in my neck. Onward!!
We spotted the holes in the rocks in BTC and the saguaro that stands watch over the "waterfall", the whole area was dry as a bone. We traversed the "hill" to the south of the Blue Tank's bed heading generally south west until we could see the other side then we cut sharper south and crawled gingerly to the edge of the abyss known as Hell's Hip Pocket...from there we scampered east up and over up and over up and over and finally we spotted "the way down"
We had separated here and there to push our way through to the clearest path, once I gave a shout we regrouped, headed down into a boulder wash then bushwhacked up to the top of a rocky ridge. There the guys took a break and I blazed ahead to be sure this was the way down, I clearly remembered doing this with GOYAAH on my last trip out here, I returned to the guys and together we made it down in HHP and a few hundred yards up canyon we decided to clear a sandy spot and make camp right there on the "beach".
Frankie brought the beers, PLC made a tiny fire to stay warm by and I attempted to blend into our surroundings with my mass amounts of green gear.
After hours of swapping stories and fighting our eyelids we went our own ways and snoozed a good 9 hours. I only had one ringtail bunny disturb my slumber, it seems it was licking my half empty beer can...
Up with the sun we filtered water another few hundred yards up canyon then headed up.
The jump to reach the chock stone (should call em the Devil's Jewels!)was a bit too big of a jump for my tinyself so the guys passed my pack along and I made a pretty sweet climbing traverse over the water on the right side.
The Devil's Jewels were pretty sweet, not difficult to climb up but going under with a full pack isn't easy. We handed them up one by one, I went last to snap a few photos and made sure everyone was up and adjusted before scrambling up.
From there you pretty much just stay up and along the "creek bed" I know that sounds weird but there is a wash type thing that spills into the bowl behind the Jewels and if you follow it up its mostly easy going. Not far ahead on your right is a gentle slope that leads to a hill, we apparently went wrong and just hiked up and over the hill.
At the top you should see the Salt River, then you head over and down a slope into a drainage, at the end of the drainage you get an overlook of Skeleton Cave, but to reach it you have to go up and over and up and over to the west then follow a scrambly little "ridge" down to the west and along it as it curves back east and toward the cave.
Hug the wall to approach the cave, its a steep yucky slope and voila! 
The climb out is much...more exciting than everything you'll have experienced thus far. Especially the way we went. We had no desire whatsoever to return the way we came so we headed east around a bend along the stream bed (the one we climbed into after the Devil's Jewels)we scrambled along that for under and hour, somewhere in that time we happened upon a mini-slot canyon with a deep pool of crisp water, we filtered a bunch of water from there and continued on.
We climbed out and hiked up the nearest hill in minutes, from there we could easily make out the ridgeline we were to follow out to Cane Spring TH.
That 4-5 miles was a super highway compared to what we went through on day 1! We made great time and spotted a tiny bark scorpion, a rattler, a gorgeous red cardinal and a HUGE hissing Gila Monster all within 45 minutes.
We took one last break at Cane Spring camp or whatever it is, I changed socks, I'm soooooo glad I brought 3 pairs! It was great to cycle through them throughout the hike 
We hit road 401 again and still had yet another gajillion miles to go to get to the vehicle parked a mere 200 yards from the giant berm...we split up and hiked our own paces, I went into beast mode and pushed up every hill like I was born to do just that. The views as the sunset were spectacular, the pink and orange splashed up against the Supes Ridgeline and Weaver's Needle, I wish I could have captured those colors to share with you all.
We made it to the car just after sunset.
We're probably the only backpackers ever to hike the length of road 401 from Cane Spring to Cottonwood Creek Camp 
Not gonna lie, as I sit here at home curled up on the couch with a glass of wine in hand a cat on my lap I pulled up my ten thousand photos and start looking through them and I wondered to myself...who willing does this?
Even better what kind of crazy mind tries again a second time gets to within a MILE of their destination then has to give up and STILL RETURNS A THIRD TIME... 
I always said third time was a charm so there you have it ladies and gents. On the super bright side, I feel amazing today! 100% refreshed! Not sore, not stiff, pretty exhausted mentally but other than that I'm ready for another adventure!
I guess it's time to find something new and exciting to go for!
Note to future adventurers:
It's dayhike-able if you're crazy and hike the first 3 hours in the dark, if you reach the cave area in the dark you're risking your life. Just backpack it, take 3 days to do it all in the light of day and if you really want to enjoy every step of it. It's a GORGEOUS area, BEAUTIFUL scenery for miles around, enjoy it, don't push through it just to do it in a day, its not worth those few moments where one wrong step and you'll be calling for help where none will come...make smart decisions. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
After a whole year of telling my friends my crazy desire to go back and descend it, I finally got my buddy Ryan interested in going back armed with his bolt kit and my 400ft rope. 
We knew it'd be a long day, so we started early down the SPR road after parking at the gate. It didn't take long to reach the lake and we blew up our packrafts (pool toys) and started the 20 minute float to the base of this side canyon. The wind was pretty intense that morning and thankfully was blowing at our backs or this trip would have been a huge FAIL. 
So there's a dry fall above the alcove that is Skeleton Cave, but we deemed it unnecessary and bad taste to scramble up above and rappel into skeleton cave... On a happier note, the first rappel wasn't mandatory but it was a cool one of about 60ft. Once in the rhyolite narrows, we had some down climbing before hitting a huge chockstone requiring another 30ft to bypass and get below. A couple more down climbs and we were atop the BIG rappel that looked to be 250-300ft. The rock was smooth, only some light bushes & cactus to be found, and a few mediums rocks. If our lives depended on it, we could have made a deadman anchor from those rocks in a pothole but who wants to do a 300ft rappel from a few rocks. 
So my buddy broke out the bolt kit and put a couple well placed bolt in the wall. Such a beautiful place to hang out and watch boats going by below down in Salt River Canyon. If only those Indians could see this place now! 
Is that punny green thing down there a Saguaro??? 
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
. But, with neither of us willing to give up that easy, we set about finding a solution, albeit temporary, to get us back on the road (although I'd hesitate to call it a road... maybe a rough and rocky goat track). Having experienced teething problems on my Samurai before, I had plenty of tools as well as a number of blocks of wood. So with a brand new hacksaw blade cutting a 2x2 to the size required took but a few moments. Joe came up with the great idea to use a screwdriver to "drill" the needed hole in the wood block. 
Thanks to a nice sharp-edged Snap-On screwdriver we alternated twisting it until the hole was through. Next was trying to locate a bolt to complete the task. I opened the hood and scanned around for something I could scavenge... nothing. Then around to the back and Joe asks, what about this? pointing to a bolt acting as one of the hold downs for the high-lift jack. So thanks again to Joe we had a hole in the block and a bolt to use. Although the bolt was a tad bit too long, with some judicious placement of washers I made it work. We started the repair in the dark but the sun was up by time we got moving. With the delay I wanted to drive a bit faster to make up some time, but not knowing for sure how the temporary mount would hold up along with a rockier road that just a week ago that wasn't in the cards.
The general route was good thanks to piecing together a few of Joe's previous trips so all we needed to do was scan ahead to avoid the worst obstacles. With Skeleton Cave in sight it seemed our task for the day would soon be completed... until Joe said we had to go up higher, then way down below us and then up to the cave. What!?! all this just to get to a cave only 300' away??
At the time I assumed it had to do with a previous injury, but now a day later I believe it had more to do with a lack of nourishment. What with the drama of the broken mount and all, not only had I forgotten to eat my breakfast at the trail head, I left two sandwiches in the cooler. 
So I had nothing but my Gatorade, one Clif bar which always make me want to drink a lot more and a few small granola bars for the whole trip. But by taking it slow and keeping a relatively steady pace we made it back safe and sound.
so by time we got home I was totally spent. Although Joe wasn't doing the driving, he was just as beat up as I was and he looked as spent as I was by time we got back.
It was great meeting and hiking with you.
So the next level of canyoneering is packrafting and I don't have much experience with that so I was looking for a trip to hone these skills and Blue Tank looked like the perfect destination. Maybe next time... 
Exiting the boat was a little tricky since I didn't have a nice sandy beach... 
Hauled all the gear up to the ledge which was a good place for gear & a fire but a horrible place for sleeping so I started looking around. Hmm, loads of deer/sheep droppings; this ledge must lead up to the slope up above and I'm not too far away from Skeleton Cave..... 
Wouldn't you know, there was more poop up here coming from those crazy climbs that I avoided. I definitely learned a new respect for the sheep and what they can do. 
It'd been a year since I'd seen photos of it & I wasn't sure this was really it, so I continued up & SE a bit to the upper alcove to see if that was it but it just a brushy alcove with a small bat cave on the side. The canyoneer in me quickly kicked in and I started examining the technical canyon that this infamous alcove is a part of. 
