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| Historic bridge over the LCR in Cameron |
Tuesday May 22nd, Jarrod got off work and we headed to
Flag. After chowing down on some
amazing burgers and micro-brew at Diablo Burger we headed to our sweet $24
hotel and crashed out. We had
originally planned to get a super early start the next morning but this
enthusiasm was thwarted by forgetting about the time change and then being
pulled over by a cop in Flag for forgetting to put my headlights on. Yes it was still dark and no I didn’t
get a ticket.
We
got to Cameron and parked at the trading post around 0700. I knew I needed to provide my vehicle
information to the security office since we would be leaving the car there for
the better part of a week. It took
us a little bit of time to find our way down to the actual river bed from the
trading post, having to enter from a little side drainage and scramble
down. As the morning sun peaked
above the old suspension bridge spanning the dry river we bushwhacked through
our first set of tammies and took a moment of pause in realization of finally
starting a trip that we had been talking about incessantly for roughly 6
months.
The
first 8 miles from Cameron were neither very scenic nor particularly
enjoyable. It was dry, hot, and
dusty. We saw occasional 4 wheeler
tracks and came upon multiple horses and cattle that seemed to look at us with
a reserved curiosity.
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| Typical scenery the first 8 miles |
Around
the 8 mile mark we came around a left hand bend and instantly realize that one
side of the Canyon had turned to sheer red sandstone and in the distance we
could see the other side also change to a steep vertical sandstone wall. We both knew that this was the official
entrance to what would become a massive canyon. Having done our research we knew that access to the LCR
canyon was guarded by something that Kelsey termed as “Quicksand Alley, or a
quicksand deathtrap.”
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| Jarrod at the entrance to "Quicksand Alley" |
This section of the hike had been the point of
much conversation between Jarrod and I and between the various people who had
hiked it and I. I had
been told that it was the narrowest the canyon got on the whole trip and as a
result of its narrow and steep walls providing deep shade for most hours of the
day, there would likely be nasty quicksand. In fact Mike Mahany had warned me on his write-up
here
that though he had hiked it when the river was dry he had found this section
tricky and required a high-water slick-rock traverse. I had also been forwarded an article by a group of guys who
did the hike in December back in the 60’s with pictures of them stuck up to
their waste in this stretch.
Jarrod and I both were a little nervous knowing that we were finally
here, a place we had been talking about for months, and so took our packs off
for a nice 20-minute break before beginning it.
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| In the main portion of "Quicksand Alley," note the old suspension bridge spanning the Canyon |
As we shoved off and headed on,
the canyon began to narrow drastically.
It was fantastic to see the physical rock and later old suspension
bridge that we had viewed through pictures over the winter. We made our way down canyon and noticed
thick muddy looking sand at the base of the canyon walls still in shade but the
center shoot, now in full sun, stayed dry and firm for the duration. Eventually, we came around another
corner, encountered our first of what would become massively huge and long rock
gardens and the canyon transformed from a small minor drainage to a massive
sheer red-rocked chasm. We walked
with our heads gawking towards the top of the cliffs in front of us. This was what we had come for, and it
was just the first day! We found a
nice shaded spot to stop for an extended lunch, took our packs off and basked
in where we were.
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| The canyon below Quicksand Alley, growing in width and height |
After
a few hours had passed by we decided to head back out, within a mile or two we
reached the LCR Overlook on Canyon left and then finally the gauging
station. In the preparation phase
of this trip I was hoping to get by on a gallon of potable water per day. As it turned out I had about half a
liter left of my first days’ allotment at this time and still had a good 10
miles of walking to go. Our
thinking on this was twofold; first, the water situation in the upper canyon
was questionable at best. There
were no reliable springs and we had been watching the LCR
gauge since March and
it had been dry for weeks now. Second there was an old abandoned
large, open pit, super-fund uranium mine just upstream from the bridge at
Cameron, and our thinking was that any puddle water in the canyons was not very clean
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| The gauging station, about 12 miles in |
We didn’t really have a choice
however. The gauging station was
preceded by a long, difficult boulder garden slog, which we got to enjoy in the
high sun and heat of the late afternoon.
We walked a little further down canyon and came upon a set of massive
murky green pools. We were both so
thirsty at this point and were down to the end of our day’s water supply. We looked at each other with a kind of
shrugged shoulders expression and decided to give it a shot.
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| The first big pools down-canyon from the gauging station |
Having had so-so luck with my
gravity filter set-up on the trips I had down in the SW the last few years I
opted to bring Aquamira chemical treatment. It ended up being a good choice, and also fitting as it left
the water a glowing yellow color, perfect for the radioactive cocktail that
ended up being quite-refreshing.
After chugging about 2 liters, we felt a bit of a weight lifted and the
general mood of the long day began to improve….for a very short time.
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| More water pools and an increasingly deep canyon |
We were originally shooting for a
landmark known as “Hell-hole Bend” at mile 22.5 from Cameron. However, when coming up with the
schedule we had assumed that the canyon would be flat packed sand providing for
easy walking. What we had not
expected were the long and increasing larger (in size and length) boulder
fields, which did a great job of slowing our pace down to a crawl. Another wonderful factor that aided in
our snail pace was the incredible windstorm that kicked up reducing visibility,
breaking cameras, and generally making things more awesome.
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| Jarrod looking extra happy at the start of one of the smaller boulder fields |
As a result, the mood turned a bit
sour again, heads went down, joyous chatter ceased, and the mind began to
rebel. Eventually, around mile 15
we decided to hunker down between some large boulders as sand blew into our
faces and all around us. It was
around 6pm at this time and we looked at each other and came to terms with the
fact that we were not going to reach Hell-hole Bend and decided to just try and walk until
it got dark. We shot for
an “hour of walking, fifteen minutes of rest” schematic and shoved off once again.
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| The super fun afternoon sandstorm |
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| Sand blowing down canyon towards us......this shot was the last Jarrod got on his camera before the lens became so jammed with sand it would no longer open. |
We got go mile 17(ish) around 830
as the wind luckily started to die down.
At the start of yet another long boulder field we found a nice flat
grassy patch that we threw down on.
Dinner consisted of a melted snickers bar, 800mg Motrin and a liter of
water by headlight. It had been a
long day. And, because of missing
our planned mileage would make for an even more epic second day.
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| Camp night 1 |
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