We parked at Millard Campground and walked up the truck trail. Millard Creek had a good flow, and some party campers had forgotten to dispose of their many beer bottles, which filled a picnic tabletop.
After a few minutes traveling west on the road we located a spot where we could easily clamber onto the ridge separating Millard from El Prieto. Here we reversed direction and took a decent use trail going east.
Soon we grew anxious to drop into the creek and left the ridge to begin the bushwhacky, scramble-y portion of the day.
We passed a debris dam. I forgot to properly document it for a future thread devoted to debris dams, but I did take one photo from the top of it.
Above the dam we continued following a water pipe. It led to a concrete box used to filter the water with screens.
Inside was a pretty chill newt just hanging out at the local watering hole.
We agreed that this particular individual probably had the highest IQ of all the newts in the whole canyon, since his pool is no doubt the freshest and cleanest all year round.
More pipe tracking.
Then we came upon an intake box resting in a shallow pool.
This was the last sign of the water pipe. Further on the canyon narrowed and produced many cascades and much deadfall. The little stream coursed over a sliver of bedrock while the steep canyon walls alternated between solid granite and loose dirt.
We got pushed onto the banks a couple times to bypass the worst of the streambed, but the "banks" weren't much better. Finally, after crashing through deadfall, getting covered in ants and poison oak, and after witnessing this disgusting sight...
...I quickly realized that I wasn't going to mentally and physically make it through this canyon. And just to make sure I didn't reconsider, Mother Nature sent a wasp from hell to sting me twice, once in the ear and once in the boney ridge of my eyebrow. Gee, thanks a lot, Gaia!
Meanwhile, Dima looked like he just popped out of the most relaxing shower. He agreed though that maybe it was time to scout something else. We started up a super steep slope en route to the east ridge of the canyon. At least we now had some nice views of the watershed.
It was a grind getting up the slope. I made sure to use every possible tree branch and plant as a safety rope. Dima seemed like an invincible goat who down in the stream could have sustained dozens of wasp stings without crying like a baby for several minutes. He found a nice contouring animal trail that shaved off some gain to reach the ridge top.
Descending on the ridge made life a lot easier. I only slipped and fell on my ass twice. Also, we happened upon a pretty obvious old trail, which we explored a bit.
On the trail sat this metal artefact.
The ridge took us back to the safety of the truck trail. We called it a day. I tried to end on a positive note by admiring some stupid flower I've seen a million times, yet I still don't know what it's called.
