17
Nov

Going Down – Copper Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico (Part 4)

Posted on November 17th, 2009 :: Posted in Adventure, Camping, Canyon, Hike, Mexico, Outdoor, SPOT map, video

Whenever you put the words “canyon” and “hike” together you know it’s going to be steep. That’s a given. It’s also a given that you never completely appreciate a canyon by simply peering over its rim.

With that in mind we added local guide Gustavo Lozano and local pony man Pepe to our motley crew and hit the trail bound for the Urique River at the bottom of the Urique Canyon, nearly 4,300 feet below us.

Unlike other canyon hikes that we’ve done–including twice into the Grand Canyon (once from the South Rim and once from the North Rim) and, more recently, to Havasu Falls–this time we had the luxury of a mule to drag our camping gear down and back up.

Initially we had reservations about this. Over almost two decades of hiking and trekking around the world we have always carried our own packs–partly out of pride, partly out of an uneasiness about forcing an animal to do our work for us and partly out of sheer cheapness. The mule wasn’t our idea but since it was there we added our packs to its load with an apologetic little nod and took off with just day packs on our backs.

Unlike other canyon hikes we've don, like the Grand Canyon (twice), our more recently Havasu Falls, this time we opted for a Mule to drag our bags there and back. Tha's Pepe from Cabañas Diaz and Dave Hensleigh of Authentic Copper Canyon on horseback. We opted to use our legs instead.

Pepe from Cabañas Diaz and Dave Hensleigh of Authentic Copper Canyon (in the back) traveled on horses. We opted to use our legs but we did ultimately let the mule carry our camping supplies.

The first hour of the hike and two miles or so of trail took us up-and-down into the canyon past sparely populated Tarahumara/Raramuri villages surrounded by steep fields until we reached a saddle in the ridge with a huge mesa in the middle of the canyon visible to our left. This, we learned is a stop on a massive new gondola (teléferico) being built.

When it’s done next year it will be take people in 60 person gondola cars more than a mile from a station on the rim near Divisadero to the mesa top in the midst of the canyon. Besides 360 degree views of the colorful rock, lush vegetation and awesome depths in this section of canyon, there are also rumors of a restaurant on the mesa.

Even more incredibly, there appear to be plans to ultimately extend the gondola from the mesa all the way down to the river at the canyon floor taking people down and back up in smaller 10-person gondola cars. Time will tell.

For now, the only way down is on foot or horseback so we pressed on.

After 2+ miles of an up and down trail into the canyon, past Tarahumara homes and fields, we approached the Mesa that sits in the middle of the canyon (right). A new tower being built for the cable car (teléferico) into the canyon is visable.

Look closely on top of the mesa in the upper right hand corner of this photo and you can see a tower being built for the new tourist gondola (teléferico) that will ultimately span a massive section of canyon.

A view down the cayon from the saddle with the mesa on the left and Dave Hensleigh of Authentic Copper Canyon and his trusty steed on the right. (click for full size panorama)

Looking down into Urique Canyon with the mesa and gondola tower on the left and Dave Hensleigh of Authentic Copper Canyon and his trusty steed on the right. (click image for full size panorama)

Dave Hensleigh of Authentic Copper Canyon looking deep into the Urique Canyon.

Dave Hensleigh (upper left) of Authentic Copper Canyon never seems to get tired of the Copper Canyon even though he sees it almost every month with the groups he brings down from the US.

Any reservations we may have had about not carrying our own bags disappeared as soon as we left the saddle and continued descending past the mesa. That’s when trail conditions went from “steep canyon hike” to “treacherous rock-strewn vertical obstacle course.”

Honestly, this trail was one of the hardest we’ve ever done, not because it was any steeper or any longer than other canyon hikes. Actually, it was much shorter than the Grand Canyon. What wore us out was the quality of the trail. Much of the hike required total focus just to stay balanced and upright as we hiked down steep inclines that were covered with 4″ of sliding round rocks and gravel then strewn with ankle-twisting mini-boulders. At times it was like walking down a slide covered with ball bearings and volleyballs.

Did we mention the giant swarming wasps and often sheer and substantial drop-offs along the trail?

Suffice to say we were glad for our boots and poles and our point6 wool socks as we slowly picked our way down, down, down–ultimately losing almost a mile in elevation over the course of about five miles from rim to river.

Karen hiking into the canyon. The trail was on of the hardest we've ever done, not because it was any steeper than other canyon hikes, but because of the quality of the trail. Much of the hike required total focus as it was like walking down a steep incline covered with ball bearings.

Karen carefully picking and choosing her way down the steep and unstable trail to the Urique River in the bottom of the Urique Canyon.

Below the mesa, about half way down the canyon, this side valley leads us down to the botton, yet the Urique River is still not visible far below.

About a third of the way into the canyon the trail veers off into this side valley which leads to the river. Even this deep into the canyon we still can't see the Urique River.

The canyon is so steep that the Urique River doesn’t come into view until we’re nearly at the bottom.

The canyon is so steep, the Uriqur River doesn't come into view until you are nearly at the bottom, about 6 miles and 4,300 feet below the rim.

Our first view of the Urique River, 4,300 feet below where we started on the rim.

After a long, hard, hot hike, even without carrying our bags, we reached the Urique River at the bottom of the canyon.

After a long, hard, hot hike we cooled off in the clear water of the Urique River at the bottom of the Urique Canyon.

We camped on a perfect little sand bar, by the side of the river.

After a long, hard, hot hike we cooled off in the clear water of the Urique River at the bottom of the Urique Canyon.

The full moon rising over the canyon. We were about to go from almost complete darkness to a moon-lit night you could read a book by.

A full moon rose over the canyon making it almost bright enough to read.

Comfortably camped on a sand bar by the Urique River, under a bright full moon.

Our comfortable camp on a sand bar by the Urique River under a full moon that was so bright it actually made it hard to sleep.

After a great night of grilled chicken and a nice bonfire and no run-ins with scorpions we awoke knowing only half the job was done. We’d managed to walk into the canyon, now we had to manage to walk out. Despite our best intentions to get a bright and early start to avoid as much heat on the mostly-exposed trail, we still didn’t get packed up an on our way until after nine.

Walking up the trail proved easier than walking down since the risk of sliding was reduced so we were able to make fairly decent time, ultimately returning to the rim–hot and tired–in about five and a half hours. The mule, with our bags, made it in less than three.

The following day it was time to hike back out of the canyon, led by our guide Gustavo.

What goes down must go up....local guide Gustavo Lozano leads the way back up and out of the Urique Canyon.

The view from the mesa where the canyon crossing gondala is being built. There is a view down to the bottom where the Urique River is visible more than 3,000 feet below.

The view from the mesa where the gondola that's being built across this section of canyon will ultimately stop. A sliver of the Urique River is visible more than 3,000 feet below. (click image for full size panorama)

Hike into the Copper Canyon – Areponápuchi to Urique River

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16
Oct

After the Flood- Havasu Falls, Havasupai Reservation, Arizona

Posted on October 16th, 2009 :: Posted in Animals, Camping, Canyon, Hike, Outdoor, SPOT map, USA, Water

The drive to the trailhead down to Havasu Falls on the Havasupai reservation is gorgeous. Winding, deserted, rising and falling through desert into forest and back into desert again. It dead-ends in a parking lot, pack mule hitching area and helipad grandiosely named Hilltop, AZ. This is the only point within the Havasupai reservation that’s connected by road. From here its about eight miles down, down, down to the lone Havasupai town, Supai. From there we’ll have to walk another two miles to Havasu Falls itself, famed for its blue-green water (the word havasu actually means blue green water) and impressively tall cascades.

The end of the road, Hilltop, AZ is nothing more than a parking lot and helipad. This is the only point the Havasupai reservation is connected by road. From here its about 8 miles to the one Havasupai town, Supai, and 10 miles to Havasu Falls. From here the first 1.5 miles drops over 1,000 feet to the valley floor below.

From the parking lot at the end of the road in Hilltop, AZ we hit the trail and descended more than 1,000 in the first 1.5 miles of our 1o mile hike to Havasu Falls.

As usual we didn’t get as early a start as we’d hoped so it’s after 11 before we’re on the trail under a blazing Arizona sun. The first mile and a half of the trail is wicked steep and very dusty from all the pack animals that travel up and down all day long. As we round one of the very first switchbacks we encounter one of those pack animals and it appeared to have had enough. It spooked, bolted, pulled on the other horse it was tied to ultimately seemed to collapse. Scary stuff as the frustrated wrangler tried to get the animal to stand up again. No dice, so he began unloading the poor thing. Frankly, some of the hikers heading up the trail looked like they were about to collapse too.

A few miles of the hike down to the falls if through a beatiful canyon.

A few miles of the hike down to Havasu Falls took us through this beautiful winding canyon.

Much of the trail down to Havasu Falls travels over deep river rocks in the dry river bed that winds through a canyon. It’s beautiful, but not easy hiking through all those stones. It sure beats the other predominant trail condition, however: sand. In a truly evil turn of events, the sand gets particularly deep in the final two miles of the trail between the village of Supai and the campground itself so save some energy for that last push!

After 10 miles of hiking, we near the top of Havasu Falls. However, there is still nearly 1 mile to our campsite along the river.

After 10 miles of hiking we near the top of Havasu Falls. However, we weren't there yet. It was still another half mile or so to where we pitched our tent.

We’d planned to hike to Havasu Falls last September but terrible flash flooding in August of 2008 closed the area until June of 2009. Near the end of the hike down we saw the first signs of flood damage as we passed what used to be Navajo Falls but is now a scarred bank and two new weaker falls.

A quarter mile further along we finally reached the top of the campground and got our first view of Havasu Falls itself. It too was changed by the flooding and water that used to fall via two side-by-side cascades now tumbles down in one single stream.

The arduous hike down the canyon is worth it juts for a glimpse of Havasu Falls alone.

Our long hot hike down the canyon was rewarded with this first glimpse of Havasu Falls.

Havasu Falls is still a spectacular sight, however, and the Havasu people have done a good job of repairing damage the flood did to the pool below the fall by shoring up areas with sandbags to preserve the weirdly resort-like swimming hole beneath the cascade.

Havasu Falls from the pools below. The 2008 flood has done extensive damage to this area and created and extinguished several waterfalls. Havasu is still intact, but its flow has changed dranatically -- Now it only flows from the left chanel.

Havasu Falls finishes in a pool that's still lovely and inviting despite damage caused by the flash floods of 2008.

Though the campgrounds were heavily damaged in the 2008 flood, we find a comfortable spot by the river to spend 3 nights.

The campground was also heavily damaged in the 2008 flash flooding but we found a comfortable spot by the river and set up home for three nights.

Tree stumps, piles of debris and half-buried picnic tables attest to the havoc the flooding wreaked on the Havasu Falls campground as well and there’s still a lot left to clean up. Thankfully the camping area is huge and there were plenty of flat, sandy, shaded places next to the now-placid river to pitch a tent. We even inherited a hammock and a couple of blow up water mattresses from people heading out. Tip: the most private sites are down by Mooney Falls at the far end of the campground, so keep walking.

Another tip: it’s generally pretty warm at the campground even at night and we were very glad that we’d decided to leave our full sleeping bags in the truck and bring our Cocoon Silk Tropic Traveler warm weather bag instead. Not only is it a fraction of the size and weight of our regular bags, we also have a coupling sheet that makes it double-size allowing us to sleep together.

One great side effect of the flooding is that the campground now has a vastly improved toilet system. Gone are the porta-potties that used to inefficiently serve the campground when it was maxed out at 300 or more campers. In their place are clean composting toilets built up the bank away from the river to avoid damage from any future flooding. The things even have motion-sensor solar lighting at night!

There is a pure spring at the campground for drinking water but the steep, hot 10+ mile hike and 2,200 foot descent made us reluctant to get up and walk to it from our campsite. Luckily, we’d packed in our SteriPEN and that’s all we needed to make perfectly pure drinking water in 60 second straight from the river using safe, tasteless ultra-violet rays.

10+ miles and 2,200 feet down with heavy packs makes us too exahusted to walk to the springs 5 minutes away, we purify riverwater with our beloved SteriPen.

Karen put our SteriPEN to good use purifying river water in 60 seconds using nothing more than ultra-violet light.

Below the campgrounds lies 200 foot high Mooney Falls.

At the far end of the campground lies 200 foot high Mooney Falls.

Rested and revived, we spent the next day hiking down to Mooney Falls, a 200 foot cascade at the far end of the campground, via an incredible “trail” carved out of (and sometimes through) a rock face. Crude footholds and chain hand rails only made the trail moderately more manageable.

Getting to the bottom of mooney Falls requires an interesting climb down a sheer wall.

Getting to the bottom of Mooney Falls required an interesting climb down a sheer rock wall.

From Mooney Falls we continued about four miles down river (sometimes literally in the river) to Beaver Falls. The descent was gradual and the weather was perfect. Most people never hike beyond Havasu Falls but for us this walk was the highlight of our visit.

4 miles down river from the campground lies our hiking destination for the day, Beaver Falls. Te hike includes a precarious climb down a 200 foot rock wall, several river crossings

From the bottom of Mooney Falls it was another four miles or so gently down the canyon to Beaver Falls including several refreshing river crossings.

The river pools and cascades as minerals in the water form crusty enclosures.

The way down to Beaver Falls included trails through lush vegetation, many river crossings and the ever-changing river itself which rushes in places, pools up in others and was always that gorgeous blue green color.

At one point we even encountered a small band of big horn sheep feeding near the trail. Startled, they leaped across the trail not more than five feet in front of us, each of the four animals looking us in the eye as if to say “what are you doing here?” before bounding away.

On the way down to Beaver Falls we ran into a family of big horn sheep. Or did they run into us?

The top of Beaver Falls.

Yet another inviting pool in the river on our way to Beaver Falls.

On the return trip back to the campground, it was time for a pummel in Mooney Falls.

On the return trip back to the campground Eric got pummeled as he attempted to get close to the awesome force of Mooney Falls.

To say we weren’t ready to leave is an understatement but after three days of swimming, hiking and hammocking it was time to go. We gave our inherited hammock and blow up mattresses to other campers, packed our bags and headed out.

For one split second we contemplated tossing our gear onto a horse for the hike out, then laughed at oursleves and hit the trail. This time we did manage an early start (6 am) and the canyon walls kept us in the shade until about 9 am. The final two hours of the climb out, however, were in full sun including that final brutal mile and a half during which we steeply gained 1,000 feet.

After 3 days it was time for the long, hot, arduous climb back to Hilltop.

After three days at Havasu Falls it was time for the long hot climb back up, up, up.

Hike to Havasu Falls – Havasupai Reservation, Arizona

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11
Sep

Did You Miss Us?

Posted on September 11th, 2009 :: Posted in Alcoholic Beverage, Announcement, Friends, Music, news, Outdoor, USA

You’re right. We were headed south, as in south of Mexico City. But then stuff changed (surprise) and we had to head north again. For the past three months (but who’s counting?) on a forced pit stop in California, so our posts have been few and far between. However, we had our reasons.

First, we needed to fix damage done to our truck after a taxi hit us a few months ago in Mexico and that turned out to be more of a fight than we expected, but hardly worth blogging about (we like you too much to subject you to the drama that ultimately unfolded). Suffice to say, we are NOT fans of GNP insurance and the profoundly incompetent “foreign client service” our claim received. That means you, Mr. Solis.

We also spent a lot of time working on new business ideas in an attempt to generate some funds to keep our Trans-Americas Journey rolling along. Most of you know about the time and energy we put into our video application and follow up hustling to try and land a Really Goode Job–a six month gig as social media wine country lifestyle correspondents for Murphy-Goode Winery.

When that didn’t go our way we decided to harness the knowledge, confidence and ideas we gained during the MG process to create our own social media marketing consulting business for wineries in the Paso Robles area. And, so, Paso Winos was born. Reception to our services was good but slow and we simply couldn’t hang around for the additional months needed to really get clients on board–though we are eternally grateful to those wineries and wine folks who got what we were trying to do right off the bat and supported us (talking ’bout you Meg at Alta Colina, Terry and Marissa at Clautiere, Ryan at Wine for Water and the Paso Wine Centre and Brandy and crew at Donati Family Vineyard).

We still have a very exciting iron in the fire (hint) and we hope to have some great news shortly. In the meantime, we’re back on the road and our first destination is a doozie: Havasu Falls!

We’ve hiked into the Grand Canyon from both the South and North rims of Grand Canyon National Park, but we’ve never explored the canyon in the Havasu Falls area. Owned and managed by the Havasupai tribe, the area is famous for its blue/green water (the word Havasu means blue green water). The beauty of the area is legendary and in high demand, however, the tribe limits the number of camping permits it issues each day so it’s tough to get in.

We got in for three nights and we can’t wait to see the area. Devastating floods hit the area in August of 2008, nearly killing some hikers and radically changing the landscape and water flow, so we’ll let you know how it is once we manage to hike back out.

After Havasu we are returning to our beloved Telluride, Colorado and checking into the Mountain Lodge for a few days so we can take in the Blues & Brews music festival. Buddy Guy! Bonnie Raitt! Joe Cocker! Anders Osborne! Plus a chance to see our friends music photographers Dino Perucci and Allison Murphy.

From Telluride we’re planning an excellent Colorado adventure including Colorado Wine Country (who knew?), the Bar Lazy J ranch for some epic-sounding horseback riding, Valhalla cabin to hang with our very own nordic goddess (hi Marca!) and enjoy two nights (count ‘em) of Galactic live at the Fox theater in Boulder. Toss in some 4-wheel driving around Ouray/Silverton and Ute Mountain and Hovenweep in Mesa Verde Country and you’ve got a great month.

After that? Two words for you: Copper Canyon! Then we promise it’s all South from there.

It’s sure nice to be back where we belong.