What a day - um - night
(Part IV)
Being the (almost) Senior Citizen of the group, I knew I was in for a crazy day with Zach and Taco, the description of where we were headed only added to my excitement - the kid in me sometimes forgets that he's dragging around an older person's body.
As mentioned by everyone the hike to the Bridge and the Narrows was relatively easy, from there it was in and out of the water as needed to access the trail on both sides of the river - having only been to the Narrows once before I was excited by the prospect of seeing what else was back in those canyons - having seen the canyon walls two winters before from the top of Rattlesnake and Iron is not the same thing as being in the bottom slugging through it all. Ze decided to climb up one of the ridges to scout future routes - I think it was the lower East slope of Ross but he has the GPS and can confirm that, he eventually rejoined us about a half mile before Fish Creek Camp.
Cougarmagic and I were out front of everyone for a bit and she was doing the usual tracking of animals, I was trying to identify a few but she's so adept at it I was fascinated by her ability to pick things out so quickly that I just enjoyed the lesson - thanks Johanna.
After a short break at the camp it was decided that Zach, Taco and I would keep moving up Fish Fork in hopes of finding the gear without too much trouble. We came across two forks in the river, the first one we made the right choice, the second we ventured up to the right only to backtrack as mentioned then proceeded up the correct one. Within another hour we came to a steep walled section with a waterfall dead in front of us, it stood about 15 feet above the surface of the water - I tried to swim to the right edge to see if I could use the chute on it's southeast face to climb up but no way. We got out of the water for 10 minutes to decide what to do? We fueled up and started to head back down stream, 5 minutes later Zach (still steaming from the fact we had come this far, knowing that we were extremely close to the gear) ask us if he and Taco could make an attempt at going up and over the ridge to get a visual - We all agreed and I looked at both of them and knew that I was the weak link, so I said have at it, I want you guys to get your gear, I'll wait here. Twenty minutes of climbing up the slope I could still see them, but I'm getting fairly cold from being in the water for the past 4 hours, so I started to up climb the slope to where I can see them topping out on the ridge. Once they reached the top I can see by all the pointing and arm movements that they see something familiar, I climbed further up the slope to get out of the shade cast by the northeastern slope of Iron Mountain and inside the sunlight (approximately 300 feet), I waited there until the agreed upon time for them to return and knew that if and when they came back with their gear that they were going to want to fly downstream, being the slower one it was prudent that I get going, so off I took back towards Fish Creek Camp.
Another 2.5 hours later of slugging back down stream I finally came to the fork for Fish Creek and the East Fork of the San Gabriel at Fish Fork Camp only to find that Johanna and Ze had gone back to Heaton Flats but had left a note (with some of the extra gear that Taco and Zach had left behind) four campers had come along and were setting up camp for the night. They had the note in hand and the gear and promptly handed me everything, then they became instant friends when they offered me a "Hot Cup of Coffee" and pumped fresh water through a filter for me - Thanks Scott, Mike, Kevin and ? I was really feeling the effects of being water soaked for 6.5 hours so the break and coffee gave me a new found happiness. The conversation with these campers also allowed me to focus on something other than, should I wait her or pack up everything and keep moving down stream (for anyone who's ever waited in the wilderness by themselves time ticks be very slowly and the mind starts to imagine all kinds of weird scenario's). Right about the time I was ready to throw in the towel and head back to Heaton Flats I hear some joyfull shouts from the the river and there stood Zach and Taco happy a pigs in shit, all their gear strapped on their packs. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I was for them, there's nothing more frustrating to get that close to recovering something that means so much to you, only to be stopped at the 11th hour - nice work Taco and Zach for not giving up so close to the goal line.
After getting more coffee from the campers and learning that the one gentleman is an avid fan of all the "Mining Hikes/Climbs" that Ze has done in the area, that camper was truly dissappointed for having missed Ze by a mere one hour or so - Ze you have a fan out there. This group likes to do canyon and caves, so they were explaining to me all the in-and-outs of that kind of fun - thanks to all of them for the coffee, conversation and knowledge I very grateful for all of it.
It was time for us to push back down canyon to the trialhead. We were all beat up but knowing we had to make fast tracks before one of our loved ones sent another "Crew" in to get us we sucked it up and just did the best we could not to complain. Darkness fell upon us before we reached the Narrows, there were at least 5 or 6 groups on "Miners" with their night lights on (and Campfires going) so every-so-often we'd come around and bend to find them "Mining at night" strange stuff for me, I didn't realize folks did that. Some of them were a little indignant about us passing by in the dark and shined their lights right in our faces - that was a little irritating.
By the time we passed the gate at Heaton Flats we were all done - stick a fork in us, you never saw three guys more happy to take off wet shoes, packs and just be able to sit down
.
For me this may have been the most physically demanding day in my adult life - walking through a stream/river/creek call it what you like is extremely demanding physical work. Going upstream you fight the current, slippery rocks, overhanging vegatation just to name a few of the dangers. Coming downstream you have the constant tendency to slip with your feet going out from under you and falling backwards into the rocks you just want over, at one point my boot got locked between three rocks as I stepped down over a 18 inch waterfall and it took 5 minutes of reaching down to into the water to push aside the one rock that had me trapped. Going in we had gear, coming out we had more gear so the load at the end was greater than the load to start with, the poison oak was everywhere and all I have to do is see it to get it on me, all of this added up to an "Epic Wilderness Adventure" which I would not have missed. When friends call in need the answer from me is not "if I can make it", but "when are you going, I'll be there". I'm old school, it's just something you do
Johanna and Ze, it was nice to finally meet you (especially since I've meet Ze before only he went by me at "Light speed" in the dark on Skyline and it wasn't really an introduction) I really appreciate your leaving a note at Fish Fork Camp and another one on Zach's car and letting the Ranger know that we might need some assistance (use the phone or what not).
Zach and Taco, thanks for putting up with the slow guy, I learned more about deep canyoneering, stream/creek/river travel in one day then all my previous days combined - I think it will be some time before I go up the East Fork and/or Fish Canyon
Lastly, I played with some software (at noon when I came out of my coma
) that I own that shows miles of distance covered and plotted the entire trip on that software. It shows 8.6 miles one way of travel that we did and that's on a straight line, which doesn't take into account the zig zagging across the river, the scrambles up each bank, the extra mile that Zach and Taco did over that ridge and back down to the actual gear, so I'm"Guesstimating" that they covered about 19+ miles, I'm certain that I covered about 18 total miles and a good eight of those miles were "wet miles".
By the way did I mention I hate "Poison Oak"
