Jun 25, 2010

Apache Lake/ Alder Creek Wash/Brown's Cave

I took a mental health day yesterday, but in Phoenix this time of year you need to get up at an insane hour to get some outdoor play time in.

I got up at 3:30 am and was on the road at 3:45, as I had my kayak stuff all loaded up the night before. My plan was to drive up to Apache Lake (two hours away from my house in Phoenix) and do little paddling and hiking exploration.



I was on the water at 6:00 am, and the temps weren't all that cool. Perhaps the temperature was 80 degrees, but it was fairly gusty. Luckily the wind was gonna be blowing me in the direction I wanted to go, and my hopes were that as the temperatures climbed and settled that the winds would die down for my return trip. And they did.

After reading about this trip report about Brown's Cave, I decided to see if I could duplicate this adventure. Instead of heading staying on the south shore of the lake, I darted across the lake to the north shore, anticipating that I'd might catch a glimpse of some Big Horn Sheep, and I was rewarded almost immediately. Directly across the lake form Crabtree Wash, where I put in, and down about a half mile, I spotted a single sheep way, way up on the bluffs. The cliffs I was paddling under were very tall and steep, so the sheep got out view very quickly. I continued west on down the north shore, and about 2 miles down the lake I spotted another big group of sheep between Ash Creek Bay and Alder Creek. They're were several up pretty high, but then I notice one a couple hundred feet above me. The horns weren't very big on these sheep, and there were a number kids running with this flock, so I suppose the bigger ones were all ewes. I believe the rams and ewes run in separate crews until mating season. Although the I didn't get a very good view of the horns on the first one, it was very big animal, and very well might have been a ram. I am easily amused, so I thought this was pretty kewl. I think I know what to spot these animals now. In the future I will look for isolated cliffs, that will offer the flock some habitat protection, and then I will scan the the hillside for a big white hiney moving about.

At 8:00 I arrived at Alder Creek Bay, it shouldn't have really taken that long, but I took my time and shot a bunch of video.




From there I tucked my kayak way, and started walking up the dry creek bed. I was kinda creaped out because a rattlesnake could very well be hiding behind each and every rock, but I didn't see one on my entire hike. Phew!

According to the Brown's Cave trip report I alluded to earlier, I need to head up the wash and about .5 miles I would run into a waterfall. Although the wash started off dry, about .1 mile up from the lake there was actually water coming down, and the amount water coming down the creek built up in volume as I climbed up the wash. I was actually surprised to see water, considering it has been a very, very long time since we've had significant rain. The wide and dry river rock turned into really, really kewl box canyon that had narrow rock walls. Very scenic and confining.

I made it up to the waterfall,and I was rather impressed. You can actually go behind the waterfall. Neato!




I ended up finding a rope to the west (left hand side) of the water fall that I used to climb up to the top. I continued up the creek and followed the rock cairns, which were kinda helpful as the was splits into two about .1 mile past the water fall. Stick to the left. The instructions I had said the cave was about .3 mile past the waterfall, and I found the barbed wire fence on the east side (right hand side) of the creek bed. And as mentioned, it really isn't a cave, but more of an overhang.

The hike up took me couple hours, as I took my time to carefully climb up the boulders and shoot some video. Coming down took me about 45 minutes. I ended up gaining 400 to 500 vf of elevation above the lake. The lake sits at about 1,900 vf and some of the surrounding peaks are as high as 4,000 vf. And the nearby Four Peaks, climb as high as 7,600 feet.

I got back to my boat, and ate some lunch before paddling the 5 miles back to my car. It was pretty hot, but not entirely miserable. When I actually pulled back into parking lot, it was 1:00 and was well over 100 degrees.

Very fun adventure.

If you have the Google Earth on your computer, here is an interactive map of my tour route: Apache Lake/Alder Creek Wash

Here's a vid of the day:




And here is a higher quality (Quicktime) version (note: it will take a few minutes to download):



If you have the Google Earth on your computer, here is an interactive map of my tour route:

Jun 19, 2010

Telemark Chute - Kachina Peaks (near Flagstaff, AZ)

Maad likes to celebrate his birthday this time of year. I don't know why??? But he does, so he organized a little trip into the Kachina Peaks (near Flagstaff) via Lockett Meadow. We started off our approach on our mountain bikes around 8:30. We had our skis and boots attached to our packs. Well Maad had it easy, as he stashed his skis in the Inner Basin beforehand.

I believe it was 10:00 by the time we got to point on the Inner Basin Trail where we had to abandon our two-wheelers and start hoofing it up the hill. And it was 11:00 by the time picked our way up to Weatherford trail, at the base of Telemark Chute.

We then boot packed up about 500 vf to top of the strip of snow, and then strapped on the skis for the slide down the way we came. There weren't to many options for coming down, as the strip of snow was no wider than 40'. It was actually a fun little slip down. Once we got back on to Weatherford Trail, we walk up the trail about 100 yards and found the another gully with a strip of snow to ride back down on. After I filmed Maad and Jmoney heading down I slipped on my fourth turn and went into an uncontrolled slide and couldn't arrest. Well not until sliding about 20 feet and bowling over Maad who was positioned right in my path. He worked as a pretty good break.

We then pick out islands of snow back down the hill, and then it came to pulling off our skis. The walk back to the bikes was took about 15 minutes, and then another 30 minutes of biking back down road, we were back at the car.

Yeah, it was pretty boney, but we still skied in June in the beautiful state of Arizona.






Here's a vid of the day:





And here is a higher quality (Quicktime) version (note: it will take a few minutes to download):




If you have the Google Earth on your computer, here is an interactive map of our tour route.

Jun 5, 2010

Canyon Lake Scoot

I fired up the Vespa for an early morning roll out to Canyon Lake/Tortilla Flats this morning with a crew of doods from the Scooter Club of Metro Phoenix & Prescott Area Scooter Club.

I met up with Glen, Jeremy, Steve, Necro23 at 6:00 at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, AZ and we proceed to roll north to the Superstition Highway (US 60). From There we rolled through Apache Junction to the tie into Apache Trail (US 88) for the schweet, schweet curviness out to Canyon Lake. Par for the course, we had followed a boat slowly being hauled to the lake on our trip out to the lake, but our return home was smooth going.

The intention was to get a little breakfast at the Lakeside Restaurant and Cantina, but we showed about about 20 minutes before they opened (8:00 on Saturdays), so we jumped on our machines and cruised up the road to dink around Tortilla Flats to kill some time. We took some pics and shot some vid, then proceed back to the restaurant for some sustenance.

Par for the course, we had followed a boat slowly being hauled to the lake on our trip out to the lake, but our return home was smooth going.

Super fun little excursion.

If you have the Google Earth on your computer, here is an interactive map of our tour route. Google Earth Canyon Lake Scoot Tour

Here is a dorky little vid of the ride:



And here is a higher quality (Quicktime) version (note: it will take a few minutes to download):



Sorry Jeremy, I didn't realized I dropped Steve's name in a second time instead of yours in the credits.



And here is a link to some blog entries of my last kayak trip on Canyon Lake.