Sam and I were in Vegas and somewhat stymied from some objectives by weather, motivation, and just being sort of exhausted (at least for me). After a day of playing on slacklines in a park, we decided to try a packraft trip down the Colorado River through the Black Canyon. I had always wanted to do this paddle but wasn't excited about paying an outfitter or doing a bike shuttle. This trip had the added benefit of lower elevation (warmer), hot springs (even warmer), and packrafting, which would hopefully give some of our other muscles a break.
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| Inflating the rafts at the mouth of Goldstrike Canyon |
Late that night we camped along route 93 in AZ and the next morning (3-24-11) we packed up our gear and left the PLC (the Peace Love Car) at Willow Beach and shuttled up to the Goldstrike Canyon trailhead in Nevada. There we hiked down the canyon, inflated our rafts, paddled upstream a bit past some hot spring grottos to the steam sauna (a manmade tunnel into one side that had a hotspring and was full of hot steam). We paddled almost up to the restricted area sign before turning around and heading downstream exploring side waterfalls, canyons, hot springs, and so on. The water was very clear and cold in the Colorado and a lovely greenish color. We soaked in Boy Scout Springs and then at Arizona Hot Springs. From our web research we concluded that most of the interesting stuff was in the first 3 miles, so we spent most of our time there. Also we were hoping that the vicious upstream winds would die down in the evening. We remained in the Arizona Hot Springs 'til around 5 pm and then headed downriver (it was hard to leave the hot springs).
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| Looking upstream from near the sauna cave to the Rte 93 bridge |
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| Sam enters the Sauna Cave |
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| Sam setting up his packraft-cam |
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| Sam in a little side canyon |
The wind didn't really die down, although sometimes it wasn't as bad as others. The current was quite strong, so as long as you were at least keeping your paddle in the water you made some downstream progress (mostly), but in a few spots we had to paddle hard just to make any downstream motion. Every once in a while it seemed like the wind was really stopping, but then it would pick up again. Sam counted 1400 paddle strokes for one mile at one point. We had around 10 miles to go to the take out, and at first we could see the mile markers, but then it got pretty dark. About the time it got truly dark, the lights of Vegas provided a bit of glow on one side, and shortly after it was truly dark we were able to see the lights of Willow Beach in the distance. In true Yogaslacker form we were cold and it was dark by the time we got back to the PLC (a little after 8 pm).
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| Willow Beach when we got there - note duck in lower left |
We semi-dried our gear and packed up and headed back to my truck where I crashed for the night and Sam continued on heading N and E towards North Dakota. It was a highly successful mission even if Sam did consider it a rest day. Hopefully I can get some of the pics from the waterproof camera or Sam will be able to put together a video from what he got that day. If I do it again I'll take more food and enough gear to camp out.
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| Sam advancing (or retarding?) the timing on the PLC |
As usual this is just a teaser report and more will be posted on the web page eventually. here:
RRR , Las Vegas, and Black Canyon trip report
Here it is: link to
Red Rocks Rendezvous plus trip report
Please provide more info about the location of the Goldstrike Canyon trailhead, distance and difficulty of the hike to the river, etc. I'd like to mark your route on my Black Canyon Colorado River guide map for those who are interested to follow in your rugged footsteps.
ReplyDeleteThe trailhead was just off the paved road - I think it is exit 2 off of 93 in NV - the first exit. head south of 93 and turn east (practically next to the highway). I think I went a few hundred yards to the end of the road - it was a little rough, but I have a low clearance 2wd pickup. You could just walk that part if you had to.
ReplyDeleteThe hike was a few miles (2?)- there was a little scrambling but nothing too hard. I think the latest flood might have filled some drop-offs with gravel making things easier. One steepish bit might have had a short fixed rope, I don't recall exactly.
more info can be seen in the full trip report - see link at the bottom of the blog post.