June '97 Newsletter
June '97 Newsletter |
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The past six months may be the longest period of time that we've spent at home without a major trip somewhere. We took several short trips on our own and had quite a bit of company this winter but it was unusually quiet for us from October to late-April. That peaceful, reflective time now seems like a distant memory as we clean up from our second back-to-back adventure while packing for another which starts almost immediately. The rest of the summer promises to be a whirlwind of short periods at home followed by a week or longer group activity somewhere in the Southwest. Most of what we will be doing this summer is water oriented but we have another 7 day backpack planned for August. We enjoyed getting together with old friends on the first two trips of 1997 and are looking forward to visiting with some of you soon.
We were fortunate to have another surprise visit with our getting-cuter-by-the-minute granddaughter Allison in early March. Then Susan's niece and nephew, Gina and Rob, popped in for a week in early April. All they wanted was sunshine and a brief respite from Duluth's terrible weather. We had planned to take them rafting on the Upper Salt and to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to catch some views. Unfortunately, the day they arrived it was colder in Phoenix than it was in Duluth and it remained that way for most of their visit. After 3 days of hiking around Phoenix and waiting for the weather to improve, we hopped in the truck and headed for Nogales. It rained most of the way there and snowed in the afternoon. It's hard to get enthusiastic about sitting on an open air terrace quaffing cervezas with snowflakes swirling around. We took some short hikes in the Phoenix Mountain Preserves and in the Superstitions near Saguaro Lake. On their last day, after a trail ride north of Squaw Peak, it finally warmed up enough to bask in the sun. They caught a few hours of rays before their plane left for Duluth where the weather had turned to record below normal temperatures. Since this has happened to them several times on past vacations, we're wondering if they're jinxed.
While dayhiking in Wood Canyon near Superior this spring, we had the good fortune to spot not one but three Gila Monsters. In Susan's 24 years in the state, she had only seen one in the wild before this hike. Bob couldn't remember the last time he had seen one. With the amount of time he's spent outdoors in Arizona in the past 35 years this either means Gila Monsters aren't seen often or old-timers disease may be setting in. It has been very dry in Phoenix this spring so our local wildflowers were nothing to get excited about. After leading a Finger Rock Canyon hike for Susan's city group in April, we spent a night camping at Saguaro National Monument and scouted some hikes for her '98 spring hike series. The Tucson area seemed to have a better wildflower display, probably as a result of greater rainfall.
The spring run-off on the Upper Salt River didn't meet anyone's expectations this year. While not quite as bad as last year, the rafting season was still disastrously short. We had hoped for warm weather and continuous flows of a couple thousand cfs for several weeks in March and April. In late March, we went up for a weekend and paddle rafted the seven mile stretch from the Salt River Bridge to Cibique Canyon four times in two days. The second day both of Bob's boys met us at lunch time. We rafted with them in the afternoon and stayed a few hours afterwards to shoot the breeze. We drove back to town enjoying unrivaled views of Mars, Hale-Bopp, and the lunar eclipse. Susan was lucky enough to draw a permit to raft the Salt in mid-April but she had to turn it in when the flows dropped well below 1000 cfs.
Grand Canyon Raft (4/24-5/10):
After 119 phone calls, we finally scored a cancellation permit. AT&T got even richer as we scrambled to put together a group trip with extremely short notice. Many of the boatmen we contacted had already committed to other trips and rounding up a crew with the right equipment for a long, high-water trip was difficult. As usual, we both planned to row but we still needed several more rafts to pull off a large group trip. Fortunately, a very experienced old rafting buddy of ours was available on short notice and agreed to bring his cataraft. The guys in Salt Lake City came up with one boat and two boatmen to alternately row first and second halves of the trip. A less experienced Phoenix local with an 18' raft was recruited to fill out the group. Since just about all of the gear came from the Phoenix area, we did our shuttles and transportation from there rather than Flagstaff as we have in the past.
We arrived at Lees Ferry with snowflakes swirling around our ears. The cool weather was a welcome change from rigging in the extreme heat we often experience on summer trips. However, we were a little concerned that we'd be miserably cold the first few days on the river, especial if the upstream winds howled. The weather rapidly improved that night and the next day. We ended up with nearly perfect temperatures, especially in the lower Canyon, which is frequently beastly hot. The Little Colorado was running blue when we stopped and we were blessed with clear, green water to raft on for the entire trip. Other than a few random sprinkles, our weather was clear once we left the Ferry and the wind was only a problem for a short time in the Inner Gorge. From a boatman's viewpoint it was definitely a low hassle trip.
Both Charlotte and Bob had birthdays during the trip, so we had to bake a couple of cakes and sing to them. Because many of our group had been on the trip a couple of years ago, for a change of pace we camped and hiked at a number of old favorite places that we haven't frequented in recent years. The hike at North was as pretty as ever. Crossing the cold pools was somewhat daunting and led Joe to coin the phrase "looks like you've reached your thermometer" when the squeals started. A third of us made it into upper Silver Grotto but swimming cold pools with dead bats floating in them stopped a lot of people. Jon ran the wall several times that day so we could capture it on video. Four of us got energetic one morning and ascended Sheba Temple near 75 Mile Rapid. We all made the 2500 foot climb to the top with a minimum of route finding along the way. David proved himself to be quite a fisherman and daily supplied us with rainbow trout for evening hors-de-oeuvres.
Below Phantom Ranch, we stopped at Shinumo Creek to visit the falls but it was in flood and we couldn't get close enough to see it. We camped below the rapid and hiked over the top into the upper drainage the next morning. After visiting some Indian sites and wandering around the valley we turned back as the creek was too high to cross to the other side and visit North Bass Camp. Three of our group hiked to Royal Arch while the rest of us played at Elves Chasm. Since we had lots of time at Elves, a few of us hiked above the first fall to visit the upper pools and falls.
The river flow was a constant 21,000 cfs. This higher water level made most of the rapids easier and the lack of cycle meant we could sleep through the night without checking boats and gear. The rock garden at Crystal was nasty, Bob spent several minutes finding a passage through it. Lava Falls was at the ugliest level we've seen in awhile. Otherwise the rapids were all pretty easy. There didn't seem to be many groups on the river for the first week of our trip. We saw one oared commercial and a couple of motor rigs during that week. After exchanging five of our group at Phantom Ranch, traffic picked up as more motored trips caught up with us but we didn't see another private group until Havasu Creek.
| Participants: | Lacey Anderson, Carolyn Balliet, Robert Ben-nun, Deb Campbell, Charlotte Ekback, Susan Groth, Tom Jensen, Jack Kelly, Joe Longbotham, Bob Marley, Mary O'Connell, David Paul, Nicole Schmutz, Paul Schmutz, Michelle Seberson, Deborah Smith, Dennis Smith, John-Henry Smith, Bud Thayer, Gleed Toombes, Jon Webb. |
Grand Canyon Backpack (5/18-5/24):
We arrived at June Tank with enough time in hand to check out the road to the June Springs Trailhead. We'd no sooner gotten back to June Tank than the rest of the group started dribbling in to join us. Brian, who had signed up late as the result of a cancellation, overslept his departure, almost missed his taxi, and rushed out without his directions for the meeting place. Luckily, he and Susan had discussed the roads a few days beforehand and between what he remembered and what the locals told him, he was able to find us fairly quickly out in the middle of nowhere.
While waiting for people to show up, we took a walk around the metal storage tower and spotted what we thought was a dead rattlesnake wrapped in a coil of barbed wire. We took some pictures of it and threw a little pebble at it to make sure it was dead. It moved its head and Susan was beginning to feel real sorry about it being trapped in there with death imminent. Twenty minutes later, the snake was gone. Amy located it again underneath the coil in the morning so the rest of the group could have a look at it.
By nightfall all of the group had checked in and we were ready to start around 8 the next morning. Ernie's family camped with us the first night. After seeing him off, they had plans to visit the North Rim and Toroweap in their big van, retrieving him a week later. It was tough going on the roads and we were lucky that the Hildners were along. After one flat tire on our Toyota and an escaped hub cap on their van, a transmission leak disabled the rental mini-van entirely. We parked it, piled the gear and people into the remaining two vehicles and headed for the nearest trailhead. The time crunch from disabled vehicles and lack of water forced us to make a small change in plans and we started off the Tuckup Trail headed for the Dome. Our first day was a cooker and at least two of our easterners suffered problems from the heat. We went into camp mode fairly early but unfortunately all of the water was heavily alkaline. We camped underneath a big overhang and vowed to find sweet water in the morning. While laying under a big ledge Brian noticed a huge petroglyph of a bighorn. The style and size were reminiscent of some we've seen in Canyonlands.
In the morning, we left early without breakfast, in search of sweet water. After hiking for an hour or so, we were rewarded with some pools of good water and set up to make coffee and breakfast. Our trip down canyon to the river was challenging. In several places we had to pass packs. There was a lot of water in Stairway but very little along the Esplanade or at the springs. The section of river walking between Stairway and Fern Glen was the brushiest we encountered and a contest for most scratched up legs was immediately instituted. We think it resulted in a three-way tie between Ernie, Anne, and Brian but Ernie had cheated one day by wearing long pants. I guess that means he won (lost)? We had a birthday party for Brian at one of our great beach camps and were treated to a full moon and beautiful light on the narrow cliffs above the river that evening. Scaling the wall in lower Tuckup provided as much challenge as some of us were looking for. While it went smoothly, most of us were glad to get it behind us. We planned to camp near the confluence of Cottonwood Canyon and Tuckup the last evening but limited space for a group of eleven drove us further up. We didn't encounter any livestock in upper Tuckup but it was evident from fresh meadow muffins that there are still a few cows loose in this region of the Park.
| Participants: | Eileen Burden, Jim Cummer, Anne Seebold-Dilks, Ron Dilks, Susan Groth, Ernie Hildner, Bob Marley, Carl Muller, Amy Patterson, Gary Patterson, Brian Plunkett. |
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Best of luck in your 1997 adventures, whatever they are, and wherever they may be. We hope you can join one of our trips so we can spend some time traveling with you this year.
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Susan & Bob |
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Updated on Friday, June 4, 1999 @ 1:30 MST © 1995-2000 by Robert R. Marley |
Email address: themarleys@kwagunt.net |