TR: Cherry Creek Canyon
Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:48 pm
This is a long post but I think it important enough for me to share.
My groups intent was to drive in from Long Barn via 3N01 and 2N05 and hike down to Cherry Creek. It was me, my son (11), and two friends. Let me preface by saying I did rent a PLB for this trip.
We camped at Pinecrest Lake the night before thinking that would provide us an early start hiking in. We all got up late and did not depart until nearly 10AM! The forest road drive proved to take much longer than anticipated making for an even later start. Due to forest road conditions, we decided to choose our alternate route. This meant a longer hike in and adding difficultly finding the spot for our "ideal" route in. We were using GPS to try and help us navigate to some spots we pinned.
After quite a while hiking in, my friend said we were only about a third of the way there. This shocked me and I think perplexed him as well. At this point I should tell you that we saw a lot of bear scat along our way. It was late afternoon at this point. We all had less than half our water left. We kept on for a bit but seemed to not be able to navigate around heavy shrubbery. We ended up being able to get a birds eye view of our destination but the elevation grade to get us there was insane AND at this point we were faced with a massive wall of overgrowth. It seemed clear at that point that GPS failed us and we were not on our hopeful route. I said to my friend, "we screwed up" and gently threw out the notion of turning back. Both friends said they could not make it back to the forest road that was midway back let alone get to the car (oh great!). It was really not that far back. I knew I could get myself and Connor back. With the amount of daylight left and our current bushwhacking pace, the threat of having to camp on that hill was REAL! My friend said "let's see if we can get down to our destination, get water, and regroup. Mind you, they also said they would need two days to hike back out. This all sounded insane to me but I went along with it....sort of. We only went another 20 yards or so and found ourselves deeper into overgrowth. I said "we have to go back". My other buddy took a further look for a way to get through the overgrowth to no avail. Mind you we had very little water at this point, I was bleeding, my friend was bleeding and had a stick go through his shoe into his foot. I turned to him and said, "look at him (my son), there is no way his little legs can bush wack through this stuff". And if they did, there was a VERY real possibility that we would hit an impassable cliff with even less water and little daylight. There was then a suggestion we find a spot on the "hill" to camp, give all our water to my son, and hydrate on the bag of wine my friend had (yikes!). I said again, we have to go back. At this point, there was not a ton of daylight left on this steep hill.
We rested then started back. At the rest, I thought it was the best time to surprise my son with his favorite Ice Cream bar that I had stashed in some dry ice. My friends both still said they would not be able to make it back to the car and thought we needed to find a camp spot. We found a flat area and thought it could work for a camp. As I looked further there was bear scat in several places. Mind you, where we were, building a fire was out of the question due to hazard. Packs went back on ASAP and we soldiered on. We made it to the 1st forest road. My friends then realized if they set their mind to it their bodies were more capable than their minds thought. We soldiered on to the car with about 30 minutes of daylight left and quickly decided to drive out.
After driving out we searched until about 9PM for a campground with vacancy. At this point, I said "there is only so much I can ask of this kid, I'm gonna call it and get a hotel". Myself, I had only had about 400 calories that day so I was starving as well.
Ultimately, water drove much of the decision making. This, I know, you never want to be the case. Had we had more water, more time, and more group stamina, we could have looked for another route. Would I try it again? Absolutely. But only with a severely earlier start, more water, and better GPS preparation.
My groups intent was to drive in from Long Barn via 3N01 and 2N05 and hike down to Cherry Creek. It was me, my son (11), and two friends. Let me preface by saying I did rent a PLB for this trip.
We camped at Pinecrest Lake the night before thinking that would provide us an early start hiking in. We all got up late and did not depart until nearly 10AM! The forest road drive proved to take much longer than anticipated making for an even later start. Due to forest road conditions, we decided to choose our alternate route. This meant a longer hike in and adding difficultly finding the spot for our "ideal" route in. We were using GPS to try and help us navigate to some spots we pinned.
After quite a while hiking in, my friend said we were only about a third of the way there. This shocked me and I think perplexed him as well. At this point I should tell you that we saw a lot of bear scat along our way. It was late afternoon at this point. We all had less than half our water left. We kept on for a bit but seemed to not be able to navigate around heavy shrubbery. We ended up being able to get a birds eye view of our destination but the elevation grade to get us there was insane AND at this point we were faced with a massive wall of overgrowth. It seemed clear at that point that GPS failed us and we were not on our hopeful route. I said to my friend, "we screwed up" and gently threw out the notion of turning back. Both friends said they could not make it back to the forest road that was midway back let alone get to the car (oh great!). It was really not that far back. I knew I could get myself and Connor back. With the amount of daylight left and our current bushwhacking pace, the threat of having to camp on that hill was REAL! My friend said "let's see if we can get down to our destination, get water, and regroup. Mind you, they also said they would need two days to hike back out. This all sounded insane to me but I went along with it....sort of. We only went another 20 yards or so and found ourselves deeper into overgrowth. I said "we have to go back". My other buddy took a further look for a way to get through the overgrowth to no avail. Mind you we had very little water at this point, I was bleeding, my friend was bleeding and had a stick go through his shoe into his foot. I turned to him and said, "look at him (my son), there is no way his little legs can bush wack through this stuff". And if they did, there was a VERY real possibility that we would hit an impassable cliff with even less water and little daylight. There was then a suggestion we find a spot on the "hill" to camp, give all our water to my son, and hydrate on the bag of wine my friend had (yikes!). I said again, we have to go back. At this point, there was not a ton of daylight left on this steep hill.
We rested then started back. At the rest, I thought it was the best time to surprise my son with his favorite Ice Cream bar that I had stashed in some dry ice. My friends both still said they would not be able to make it back to the car and thought we needed to find a camp spot. We found a flat area and thought it could work for a camp. As I looked further there was bear scat in several places. Mind you, where we were, building a fire was out of the question due to hazard. Packs went back on ASAP and we soldiered on. We made it to the 1st forest road. My friends then realized if they set their mind to it their bodies were more capable than their minds thought. We soldiered on to the car with about 30 minutes of daylight left and quickly decided to drive out.
After driving out we searched until about 9PM for a campground with vacancy. At this point, I said "there is only so much I can ask of this kid, I'm gonna call it and get a hotel". Myself, I had only had about 400 calories that day so I was starving as well.
Ultimately, water drove much of the decision making. This, I know, you never want to be the case. Had we had more water, more time, and more group stamina, we could have looked for another route. Would I try it again? Absolutely. But only with a severely earlier start, more water, and better GPS preparation.