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The odds were
against us from the get go. Since we
knew the group would be whittled down
already from last year�s contestants, we
upped the ante and pushed the trip
envelope a little harder. Towards the
end we still had 7 men on the attendee
list, but that got whittled down to a
hardened three in the end but that
didn�t hinder our
2008
plans so we kept the green light on.
People tend to put a lot of trust in me
in trip planning. But every so often
it�s nice to include yourself in the
list of unknowing sheep, to plan to a
point and then let the cards fall as
they may into the winds of the
adventure.
Last year
we dropped into the wilds of West Clear
Creek at the steep
Whitebox Trailhead.
We established a base camp 700ft down at
the bottom, then made the trek
downstream through The Narrows and hiked
about 1mile down to the beautiful
Hanging Gardens, then back to camp,
packing it all back up the next day.
Still enticed with the beauty and
solitude WCC had to offer, this year we
decided to try a different leg of it and
complete a section above.
Our drop in point this year was the
Calloway Trail
where we planned to again camp the first
night at the bottom, then travel with
all our gear down to our camp from last
year, exiting there on the third day.
Mapped out as the crow flies, the creek
had a little over 5mi of hiking to
offer, except that crows don�t have to
walk on slippery rocks, cross back and
forth, bushwack, or swim.
Our first hurtle was actually the drive
up. The X started overheating almost
right away in the valley heat at 3pm
even before we approached the hills out.
Instead of turning around we just turned
up the heat and rode it out until
reaching Payson.
Our second hurtle was the fact that with
only 3 of us, bringing an extra vehicle
to serve as a shuttle at the end of our
hike like originally planned was a $70+
extra expense. Chris had the idea to
bring a couple mountain bikes to help
with the now necessary 6.5mi trip back
to the Xterra at the beginning trailhead
so we loaded his two on the roof rack
and strapped them down tight.
The road between our canyon hike�s in
and out is bone jarringly rough even
with the X�s tires aired down. It took
50minutes extra just to drop the bikes
of a mile from where we would come out
of the canyon, then 50 minutes out to
our drop in. By the time we parked at
the Trailhead ready for our descent, it
was getting dark. We donned our gear
topped our crowns with headlamps and
began down the steep trail to the creek.
It was almost pure dark once we got down
the 700ft drop to the babbling water so
we wasted no time picking a spot to
camp. With the canyon being so narrow in
spots, you never know when a suitable
spot will open up with flat unrocky
ground to accommodate sleeping gear so
we chose the first one we saw. We had
great access to the creek, enough room
for 3 to sleep side by side (once a few
rocks were convinced to roll out) and an
already complete fire ring. We gathered
some wood, lit up our small tract and
cooked up some doggers before laying
down under what became a dizzying blur
of stars above.
Daylight comes a little late in the
canyon so after waking, fed, breaking
camp, and gearing up, it was 9 before we
began our canyon hike. As last year,
this part of WCC has no existing trail.
It�s a choose your own adventure type
scenario where you might as well not try
to stay dry for long because you�ll be
in the water soon enough. Sometimes the
canyon affords you a shore to walk
along, while sometimes the brush grows
too thick to bushwhack through and
forces you to rock hop along the dry
rock tops jutting out of the water. When
that option wears out you can try your
footing in the water, although each step
will almost certainly be a slick one. At
this point you learn how to find
purchase between the rocks, in the
cracks, and in the sparse but precious
traction giving gravel. That too becomes
whittled down to nothing short of a
slippery wade where the tubes that we
brought served great as makeshift old
man walkers that kept our weight off the
hungry slimy rocks and holes beneath our
feet. The last resort is when the canyon
takes it all away leaving with no other
option but an all out swim. We hopped in
our tubes for these and threw our 30lb
packs in our laps to help keep our
belongings dry.
Even with double bagging, anything in
your pack is susceptible to becoming
waterlogged. I used a drysack inside my
pack to keep my unwettables and sleeping
bag safe and added grommet holes to the
bottom of my pack to allow any water
that happened to get inside a way out to
in turn keep it from adding to my pack
weight. Let your pack sit in the water
and it�ll eventually add some weight
anyway by soaking into the fabric. I was
able to heft my sack into my lap as I
dropped to sit in my tube and had the
routine down pretty well as the trip
went on.
Anytime you have to switch up your
approach, or cross banks our route find,
you�re adding time to your journey and
more distance into your pace. Chris
found out he�s faster out of the creek
while Jonathan made his best time using
his walker tube in it. We helped each
other as best we could during our time
together doing the male bonding and
shouting loud words of �encouragement�
along the way. We had hoped to make it
to our camp from the year before so we
could hike up the hill fresh in the
morning after some leisure time, but all
the bushwhacking and slippery creek
progress slowed us down. In fact,
towards the end of Saturday, we had made
such horrible time that the GPS seemed
like it never changed its 2+ mile ETA on
our final destination on the creek. From
the time we met the only two other
hikers we had seen, who had camped down
from the power line trail and tried to
reach our final destination and then
given up even though our total distance
almost tripled theirs, until nearing our
camp, we had had a tough time breaking
through all the choked up brush.
We finally decided after 9 hours of
canyoneering the creek, we should settle
on the next camping spot we could find
and finish the hike on Sunday. Luckily
one came into sight around the corner.
It�s a great thing we stopped there
because we didn�t see another one for a
mile after that. We used the rest of the
daylight to gather more wood and boil
some water for our dehydrated dinner
packs. We didn�t stay up too long after
the stars popped out, planning on waking
with the official sunrise at 5:45
instead of when the light reached us
down at the bottom of the gorge. The
next day we got our breakfast on, then
broke camp for another exciting hike
into the unknown.
The going got a little easier. We
finally saw the large land point that we
needed to get around at the end finally
show up on our map display. Larger rocks
on the creek became the norm and we made
better time just hopping them and
staying dry. Every once in a while we
would find a game trail to hike along on
the side. Jonathan and I kept getting
tricked by our eyes as they tried to
recognize rock formations seen near camp
on our last trips. Also as we were
breaking through some tall grass, our
illusion that our steps were safer on
land was shattered by the sound of a
large rattlesnake a couple feet away. We
missed our otter and ringtail friends
this year but we saw their tracks and
plenty of old crawfish meals strewn
about.
Somewhere around day three�s three hour
mark, we came around the corner to the
rock slabs above the creek we had slept
on last year. Excitement ensued and we
went ahead and took a well deserved
break and ate lunch and swam in the
pools below. At about 2:00pm we began
the hike up the 700ft creek wall and
made it to the top in about 45minutes.
After we stripped off our packs and
lightened everything up to just water
and a few snacks, Jonathan and I set out
for the one mile hike to the bikes. When
we got up the hill to where we had �hid�
them, we found out that one of the tires
had gotten cactus stung and was
unusable. Refusing to give up, we took
the one for me to ride on the short
smooth stretches as Jonathan did his
jogging thing. Because the road was so
rocky, I mostly hiked along side him and
the bike until we got to out last forest
road turn which was a little smoother
and downhill. Jonathan ran it while I
tried to keep up while dodging the rocks
here and there. There was a great breeze
through the trees and towards the end,
we got sprinkled on which felt
refreshing too. We ended up making some
pretty good time, covering the almost
7mi in 2hrs (remember our vehicle took
50min). We tossed the bike into the X
and headed back to get Chris.
After we were all loaded up as we had
been on the way up, we headed out as the
dark clouds began to get serious about
their plans. A bright rainbow appeared
backdropped by a dark wall of
approaching rain. It hit hard while we
were still on the dirt roads, turning
them into double rivers. The lightning
directly overhead was pure awesome and
the thunder covered up Chris�s pleas for
me to slow down and stay out of the mud.
Before we reached pavement, I aired the
tires up in the downpour and then we
headed down the winding 260 into Camp
Verde for some food and caffeine. |
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