F.U.Rain Day 9 — “Seriously?”
October 7, 2018.
The wind and rain continued steadily all night, though we were fortunate to not have any more lightning and thunder, given our exposed position. With earplugs I slept soundly — rocked now and then by the wind on the tent — until 7:30am, when I’d normally be out of the tent enjoying the sun peeking over the horizon.
Not today though — today the rain was coming down hard and I was thinking to myself, “We’re going to have an interesting trip out of here…” But that would come later, and for the time being, I read my book and waited — hoping for a break in the weather.
Turns out, so were Mike @Digiratus and Monte @Blackdawg — so, when the rain let up at 8:30am, we all simultaneously climbed down out of the tents — onto the most saturated surface we’d experienced so far. I’d expected this the night before, and had entered the tent on the passenger side — leaving the rain fly on the driver side down to shield the rain just a bit more.
As we looked us, it was clear that the break in the rain was going to last a little while, but that there was no hope that the weather was clearing. So, Mike got started on coffee, I ate a bowl of Cheerios, and Monte had the breakfast of champions — Hostess Donettes.
The evening before, I’d noticed a rock cairn built on the edge of the cliff, on a plateau perhaps 75 feet below our camp — so breakfast wrapped up, I set out to explore. The cairn turned out to be much larger in person — nearly 4-feet tall, and naturally the view of the lake from it’s perch was amazing.
But we could see the weather was coming, so Monte (who was also out looking around) and I headed back up to stow our tents and gear — wet again — before we’d be caught out in the rain ourselves. Packed up by 10:30am or so, pulled out shortly after — just as the rain started coming down again. Needless to say, it was muddy.
Very muddy.
Splashing through puddles, we made our way toward what we knew was the biggest obstacle we’d face that day — the deep canyon and wash that Brett had warned us about — that we’d struggled through when it was dry the day before. As we did, we climbed up and away from the lake — the last 12-hours of rain adding a new dimension to our surroundings.
As we got closer, it became more evident that the rain we’d gotten wasn’t just a small cell — it was a true storm. Washes that we’d not even noticed the previous day were running strong, water spilling in — over the ledges — from all directions.
The further we went, the wetter and muddier it got — the mud flicking itself up onto our trucks, mine especially with SCS Stealth6 wheels that stick out an inch further than my original wheels. I wasn’t loving it — but looking back now, I had nothing to complain about at this point!
It took us a couple hours to make it through the mud — past larger and larger washes. We stopped at several, trying — I’d say futilely — to capture the rushing water running over the normally-dry landscape. While this definitely wasn’t what we’d anticipated, it was something not everyone gets to experience — so special for sure!
Finally, we spotted the main wash through the canyon. Still a half mile or more away, it was clear to us at this point that we were likely to have a problem — the wash, which had been completely dry the day before, was a rushing river, all the washes we’d passed so far feeding into it.
At that point we knew that the smart call was to wait. Wait until the rain stopped; wait until the water drained off the ledges; wait until the smaller washes drained into the larger ones; wait until the water level in the main wash receded.
But it wasn’t just the wash we had to contend with — in fact, the wash wasn’t even our main concern.
To see what we were up against, continue reading F.U.Rain Day 9 — Seriously? at adventuretaco.com.
Originally published at adventuretaco.com.
