Grand Canyon, Clear Creek

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seneca

climber

jamais, jamais pays

Topic Author's Original Post - May 17, 2010 - 11:39pm PT

This is dedicated to my friends Zander & Wendy, the inspiration for this trip and I hope many to come.

Trip Report
Grand Canyon; Clear Creek: May 1-6, 2010

Supertopo Justification: a 40 foot section of 9 mil. rope (found previously while descending Norman Clyde as Zander was throwing up. . .) was used to down-climb into a waterfall and therefore, technical (OK—it was 10 ft. or 3 moves—)

Warnings:
This post is not recommended for those not easily amused or those that don’t suffer fools gladly.

Nudity, foul language and references to foul language are contained in the following report.

Aaahhhh, back in the land of the Carnivorous Limestone, the Man-Eating Travertine and the Sniper Agave. We couldn’t have planned a better trip. Wait. . . we did plan this trip.

Starting on the South Rim and plummeting down the Kaibab, it turns out knees are not easily replaceable, although much smoother and easier than the Tanner Trail, still, I did need Vitamin I to get me through Night 1. 40 degrees on top, to 60 degrees a mile and a half and 76 degrees on the bottom. Beautiful. Is this perfect or what?

On the way down, an intrepid hiker had her boots completely delaminate. Fortunately, Uggs were her back-up plan and sufficed for the remaining 2 miles. It turns out this happens a lot in the Grand Canyon. Rangers collect extra boots down at Phantom Ranch and give them out to folks when they have such an episode.

We met Marcus and his vibram footie wearing partner, Lucy (who managed to wear a 40 lb. pack and hop on down to the bottom of the canyon). We shared our wine and bourbon with them at the Bright Angel Campground. Then another vibram footie wearing hipster shows up claiming to be a ranger. We were dubious, as what self respecting backcountry ranger could be caught so far out of uniform? At least his footies were black. After multiple drinks, our beloved Bob, decided that it was the perfect opportunity to rail about the trailwork being done on the South Kaibab with gas powered jackhammers and mini-graders—“I’m a climber and I can’t take a power tool on a climb in a *&#^ % National Park. What’s the deal? Mules rate a level of habitat destroying. . . “ –you get the picture.
Apparently the new superintendent is not far from a similar mindset. Not all the wranglers have been approved to renew their permits in the canyon. Particularly off the North Rim.

Day 2 was every type of weather we expect in the GC: snow, hail, rain, wind, sun. . . repeat.

This year’s snow really paid off big as the wildflowers were amazingly spectacular on the plateau.
Fuchsia cactus flowers carpeted slopes, orange mallows, lavender Arizona desert poppies, red flag desert flower, white desert cow thistle, blue desert columbine (note: overuse of the word “desert” and just making up the names of plants may nauseate actual botanists or people who actually do their homework before they tramp through the desert) delighted and conjured images of the path to Emerald City.

We arrived in Clear Creek camp before anyone else and had our choice of sites. There are many Cottonwoods once you drop into the drainage. Vivid, new leaf, green contrasting against the red rock was a nice touch by the landscape designers for this particular creek. The creek was going great guns and relatively clear (who knew?).

We met three Vietnam Vets who had known each other for 43 years and were enjoying the wild weather. They had names like Jimmy, Merle and other country western singers, and it was easy to remember them as they dressed in jeans. They were of an adamantly anti-war persuasion and I hoped they were so outspoken when they were out in their worlds as they can and should say whatever they want since they had truly walked the walk. They had taken a picture of a rattlesnake they had come across and happily told the tale which led to a much longer conversation of “rattlesnakes of my youth”. Apparently young boys cannot resist playing with, taunting, accosting or picking up with sticks any rattlesnake they meet. This day was no different in that regard. “Oh, he was just a little guy, didn’t even have a rattle yet, just a little black nub”. I spent the remainder of the trip poking my hiking poles in any space I could not see where my feet were going to step as I did not share the same feelings for rattlers. I’m sure, with time, their “cuteness factor” will become more obvious to me.

Day 3 was spent hiking (and rock hopping—did I mention I graduated to Advil PM by day 3?) up to Cheyeva Falls (about 3 miles). Passing the ruins on the left as we arrived at the fork breaking to the right, we met Chris Forsyth (no “e”)—on the board of the Grand Canyon Hikers and Backpackers Assoc.—who was a gushing font of enthusiasm and beta on hiking off trail in the canyon. Apparently Cheyeva has run only 4 of the past 10 years and typically only for 10 days to a few weeks. When we arrived on May 3, it had already been running 3 weeks and looked to be going strong, blasting straight out of the rock and down the canyon walls.
Oh, yeah, I went in the drink on the very last stream crossing of the day (and I was so full of myself up until that moment). Turns out, you gotta look carefully at how much the stream is undercutting during these big melts. In the Sierras, this could’ve been disastrous—I suppose it could’ve been here as well, but boots dry in the desert.

Mmmm. . . day 4 was hike down Clear Creek to “Sideways Falls” (about 4 or so miles). It started warm and easy. Deceptive. As we moved downstream the more and more frequent the stream crossings. I was “pole vaulting” quite literally by hour 2 of the hike. By hour 3, we abandoned trying to stay dry and walked directly in the creek. At our turn around time, I said I’ve got 2 more bends down this canyon in me. Four minutes later we arrived at the spectacular falls. Just in the nick of time, before a bad attitude set in and regret for having bruised my shins and knees up for no good reason.

The technical part:
• Traverse on the west side of the cliff to a knob.
• Loop rope around knob to belay chicken sh#t wife down cliff in now very slippery boots.
• Downclimb 10 feet yourself in 2.7 seconds
• Remove clothing, splash and play
Cut an hour and a half off the trip going back upstream because you no longer care about staying dry. Have enough time for a miso soup course before dinner!

Day 5—noticed a strong warming trend since day 2, so started hiking up out of the Clear Creek at 6:15am to beat the heat. Hiking in full sun by 6:45am. Oh the best laid plans. Gee it’s getting hot. . .is that a condor? Is that the remarkable red breasted male . . . ? Look at that little white breasted finchy guy! Birds wake up early and get a lot of their chatting out of the way before 6 am. By the 95 degree mark, I was talking to all the birds I saw and believed I had seen.

Back to Bright Angel and had made the fantastic plan to eat dinner at Phantom Ranch. They pack salad in on mules! Family style dining is the custom, so I behaved in a manner consistent with my family style. Being one of five kids, lunging with elbows akimbo to make sure you get the food that you truly believe your little brother doesn’t really need, wasn’t really what they had in mind. Didn’t make a great impression on Brits Paul and Joy, our unfortunate tablemates, but they gave us their email address so that we could continue to explain that all Americans don’t behave this way.

Day 6 –back out of the canyon via Bright Angel Trail by ascending the Devil’s Dishdrain, Devil’s Toilet, Devil’s Corkscrew. I remembered my first hike on this trail about a year ago, when I discovered the home of Speilberg’s Jurassic Park’s sound effect garden. At sundown you might hear the most terrifying sounds echoing off the canyon walls. As each moment passes, the fear of meeting up with a giant velociraptor of carnivorous inclination looms. The discovery that the source of this rumbling earthquake of unearthly croak, is a little light green frog no larger than your two thumbs is quite a relief, although just a little embarrassing (well-only if there are witnesses).

Lots of water and mule poop. Only about 82 degrees!

Sound track for trip (and the strange free associations that created it—how is it that these songs start running through your head that you haven’t heard in a bazillion years?) :

I Fought the Law (“breaking rocks in the hot sun”)
Many Rivers to Cross (“I can’t seem to find my way over”)
Fire and Rain (“my back towards the sun”)
Dancing in the Dark (“walking in the park and reminiscing”)

What a trip! A elixir of potent sense renewal (not the common or good kind—the sensory type—I’m alive again!).
Lurker's girlfriend

enjoimx

Big Wall climber

SLO Cal

May 18, 2010 - 12:03am PT

Cool man looks beautiful.

Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

May 18, 2010 - 12:32am PT

All right Dawn,
Awesome trip report!
Wish we had been there with you guys. Clear Creek is huge right now.
See ya soon,
Z

TripL7

Trad climber

san diego

May 18, 2010 - 12:41am PT

Wow, thanks!

From 40 degrees to 76, perfect time of year to do the Canyon!

Enjoyed the trip, beautiful indeed.

kiwi

Trad climber

Olympia, WA

May 18, 2010 - 01:41am PT

Clear creek falls is fantastic in the 115 degree heat during the summer. I highly recommend doing a GC raft trip if you get the chance. in my 17 years I've been lucky enough to do it twice. looks like a fun trip for hiking in there. I tell ya it's much better with a raft full of cold beer and grilled steaks, we even had cheesecake on day 12 (of 18)!

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

May 18, 2010 - 05:21am PT

hey there say, seneca.... oh my... i really enjoyed this... wonderfully done report and wonderful pics...
thanks for teaching me about clear creek...
:)

*wow, ever since i was a kid and us kids would hike with the folks, i just LOVED seeing lizards on rocks.... haha, i used to pretend i was climbing up the hills and rocks with the lizard...
man oh man, but it was chappy that took to REALLY climbing them, once he was grown and out of the house... :)
oh well... i am just the artist of the family... ;))

(also what a wonderful salute to zander)...

hey there zander, nice to see you on line, in name, here...

:)