I had somewhat recovered from Indian Creek, the weather forecast looked good, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, so I drove to Las Vegas to Join Sam and Dan and Adelaide at the Red Rock Rendezvous (RRR). On the way I stopped to walk across the new bridge to take some pictures. Of course they had to search my truck to make sure I wasn't going to bomb the parking area to walk across the bridge... Who plans these things anyway? They also only had a walkway on the dam side of the bridge, which if I could choose only one side would be the side I'd choose, but I would have liked to look over the other side too. anyway, I got my pics and headed through Vegas and out to Spring Mountain Park.
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The first order of business was to construct the slackline setup. We weren't allowed to anchor off of any trees or structures, so we built 2X6 A-frames and anchor blocks. We even painted and tagged them. Then we had to scoot around a bunch of 400-pound water barrels to run the anchors under (2 on each side). In uncharacteristic fashion we were finished well before midnight, although we did miss most of the slideshows that evening. That night it was very windy and some of the vendor and camper tents were ripped up (my truck was shaking a lot too).
I woke up early with the hopes of getting the sunrise light on the Red Rock escarpment, but it was cloudy and cold, so I didn't get up. The slackline setup went smoothly and we set up for the first class. We were teaching basic slacklining - kneeling, sitting, standing, arm balances and so on. The classes varied from 9 to 20 or so people. It was a lot easier with the smaller classes, but with 3 lines and 3 instructors things were pretty smooth. By the 5th class we were having a hard time remembering what we had covered in that particular class though. The weather was not particularly nice with mostly cloudy and gusty conditions that felt colder than it actually was. There was even a bit of rain to keep things interesting. One nice thing at the RRR that wasn't really a surprise was that I managed to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in quite a while.
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That night I made up for not really eating anything all day by stuffing myself mightily with burritos. The wind was gusty enough to blow a neighbor's plate full of salsa and burrito drippings up into my face - unfortunately we didn't get video. That night there was an Access Fund auction and some more slideshows. I also hiked out into the desert to get some moonlight shots (yes, it cleared up at night, but not during the day). The others went into town to pick up some stilts and get some internet time.
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Sunday was a little more casual, with a pancake breakfast to start things off (I declined to enter the pancake eating contest). We had 3 more classes scheduled, but nobody showed up for the last one. This gave us a break, although there were still people playing and learning on the lines that had questions. That evening there was a barbecue dinner. I managed to fill up bag with cornbread and a tupperware with leftover brisket that kept us sustained for the next few days. Adelaide got a ride back to SD. That night we headed to Ben's hotel room to take advantage of the hot tub before Dan had to get dropped off at the airport.
Monday we were all pretty wiped out and the windy weather demotivated us from trying to set up a highline. Eventually we ended up getting out for some slacklining in the park. It was cold though, so we headed back for some more hot tub sitting and then a late night trip to the strip for random acts of acrobatics and a little slacklining. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pics of these as I was often involved or holding lights. I'll post a link to the video when it gets posted somewhere (if it ever gets made). I think the escalator handstands were the best, except I couldn't do them very well. We didn't even get thrown out of anywhere.
Video Ben Fullerton made of our evening on the strip  |
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Tuesday we planned on stringing up a highline near the Stone Wall area (2cd pullout). We easily found the 100' line anchors but couldn't find the 35' line anchors (and we didn't have a 100' highline). After much scrambling around we gave up and did some rock climbing. Boy were my crimping fingers low on endurance. That night we spent a lot of time wandering around the RR Casino trying to find free WIFI (with no luck). Eventually we ended up closing out the Barnes and Noble.
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Wednesday we headed to a park to set up a longer slackline (85 or so feet) as well as a 40 footer to play on. We spent a fair amount of time messing with the rope tightening system. I didn't have any luck walking on the longer line at first and got thrown off jarringly a few times. After Sam tightened it a bit more I was able to walk back and forth on it, but it was still scary. The shorter line was more casual. We also worked on juggling a bit. As we got more tired, we were amused by a number of local kids trying to stand or sit on the lines. In general I was pretty sore from all this slacklining working muscles I hadn't used much in a long time. We cooked up a tasty soup in the park before packing up. We didn't have much of a plan for the next day, but the cool weather and wind wasn't making multi-pitch climbing very attractive. Then I remembered my earlier schemes to packraft the Black Canyon. We did a bunch more internet and book research at REI and Barnes and Noble. Then headed out to camp along Route 93. This trip would have the benefits of lower elevation (warmer), hot springs (lots warmer), plus it would hopefully give our sore feet and muscles a break (and get the paddling ones worked?). In any case I was psyched to be able to do it with a car shuttle instead of having to set up a bike shuttle which would have involved a lot of elevation change plus highway biking.
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Thursday morning we got up earlyish to pull out our gear for the day (you never know when you might have to go for a boat trip, or rock climb, or whatever). Then we shuttled the PLC (Peace Love Car) down to Willow Beach and drive back up to Goldstrike Canyon. There we donned our packs and headed down Goldstrike Canyon. We speculated quite a bit on the car front axles and differential down in the canyon. It looked quite new, and we couldn't really figure out how just it got down there. The older car carcass half buried by a flood wasn't so confusing. Evidently some of the higher springs have decreased a lot in the past few years (related to the Lake Mead water level?) and a late 2010 flood filled up some of the pools with rocks and gravel. Down lower in the canyon we passed some springs and hot pools before we got to the Colorado River.
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After inflating our rafts we paddled upstream like salmon along the eddies near the shore. The water below the dam was clear and green and inviting looking but very cold. The hot spring grottos along the shore were pretty cool to paddle into, especially the ones dripping hot water from the roof. Then we pulled over to investigate the sauna cave. This was a tunnel into the side of the canyon that went in 15 or 20 feet and then turned 45 degrees and continued on maybe 30 or 40 feet more. It was hot and steamy in there and my glasses and camera fogged up instantly. We had the light from Sam's waterproof P&S camera, but at the end we just sat down on a board and turned it off. It was nearly completely dark even with somewhat adjusted eyes. You could barely see a darkening when you held your hand over your face. We walked out without lights holding onto the ceiling with one hand. Outside it was bright, cold, and dry. We continued on upstream a bit almost to the "restricted area" sign. Sam was mounting his SLR to the front of his packraft so we messed with that a bit as we floated down. We also took some underwater pics and video with the p&s. The next stop was a side canyon with a little warm water waterfall and pools. The water was very green in the entrance to the canyon. Then back to the other side of the river for another short side canyon. Then we stopped and hiked a fair bit up Boy Scout Canyon. We should have brought the cameras, but for some reason didn't. This canyon had a very nice hot pool that we soaked in for a while. Then back to the river to head downstream some more. The wind was blowing upstream quite strongly. In a few places the waves were traveling about the same pace as the water, so they got large enough to be annoying (splashing us among other things). It was frustrating to have to paddle to move downstream. Between the relatively high water and the wind, we didn't notice Ringbolt Rapid at all.
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We planned on spending most of the time on the first bit of the canyon because that is where most of the interesting stuff is (supposedly). As the time wore on we also hypothesised that the wind would decrease in the evening or even reverse directions. This was what we told ourselves anyway. We should have just brought more food and maybe a bit of bivy gear. Next we stopped at the Arizona Hot Springs. when we pulled in there were 8 canoes and 6 kayaks there as well as some people who had hiked down from the parking area. I have hiked down to these springs before and they are quite nice. We soaked 'til around 5 when we decided that we wanted to get most of the way down the river before it got fully dark (we figured we had 10 more miles, but looking at the map it was probably 9). As we put back into the river it seemed like the wind had died down, but it was not so. Soon we were paddling hard to make headway. Actually we were making pretty good time except we could have been making much better time much more pleasantly without the wind. It would have also been warmer. We did get a few breaks from the wind, but mostly it kept frustrating us. It was getting pretty dark as we passed the gauging station, but the lights of Vegas kept the right horizon visible and by the time it was fully dark we could see the lights of Willow Beach a mile or so downriver. We made it a little after 8 pm in the dark in keeping in Yogaslacker tradition.
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Next up we semi-dried our gear and packed up to shuttle back to my truck in Goldstrike canyon. There I went to sleep and Sam headed on towards North Dakota. It was a "rest day" for Sam, but maybe not for me.The next morning I lazily packed up and headed back to Flagstaff.
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