Dark Canyon

Dark Canyon 2000
You Can't Go Home Anymore

Stroll up to Cherry Canyon

Sunday, May 14 Today, our goal was to get up to the mouth of Cherry Canyon. (Click here for a 3D rendering of this and the next days route.) Admittedly, this was a bit short on the accomplishment scale, being only about two miles from Camp 4, but the point has been to stay in the canyon as long as possible, and camp close to water. We had heard from hikers that there was water flowing from Cherry Canyon, so that sounded like a plan. The short day would permit us to spend a solid afternoon exploring Cherry. Of course, with a very short day, no one was moving very quickly. The lizard syndrome was at work again, it having been another cold night. Actually, some folks were heading back to Keyhole Arch canyon, to see if they could get up into the ruins. Susie and I left camp around 10 am, but didn't get too far. I spied a ruin on the left wall, near 593,100 east, 4,177650 north. This one was not too difficult to get to, although we spent a bit of time finding the spot where we could go up another ledge level without too much exposure. The roof of this small room was remarkably well preserved, and there seemed to be a "hidden" room in the ruin. That is, the inside and outside walls did not align "properly" and there was some enclosed space. We took photos of the views from the ruin, and then headed back to our packs.

A bit more hiking brought us to large clumps of lupine, which were just blooming. I tried to photograph them, but the breeze was too strong. A good excuse to stretch out the hike. Stretching was needed, because despite having spent over 45 minutes in the area of the ruin, we were to our next campsite a bit after noon. It was just up in the mouth of Cherry, and there was some running water there. The campsite was nicely shaded, and covered with pine needles. Andy was already in camp, as were George and Dolph, so we sat in the shade, eating lunch and generally pigging out: Dolph announced that he had an entire box of cheese crackers that he had not opened yet, and with Andy being lunchless (it was in Sue's pack, somewhere within 4 miles or so of where he was), we all offered to help Dolph lighten his load. It was wonderfully comfortable, and just the day for relaxing.

OK, so we're not so good at the latter. Susie and I decided to secure our site, and take off exploring Cherry Canyon. It was pretty smooth sailing in the lower part of the canyon. As we neared the junction of the two forks of the canyon, we got gobbled at by a wild turkey. We saw some deer tracks but no deer. After staring at the forks for a bit, we opted to go left. I am not sure why. But it turned out to be a good decision. We pushed up maybe 700 - 800 meters above the forks, and then headed up on to the slickrock. We turned a corner, and came upon a view of a fallen arch. There was a spine of rock sticking straight up and offset from the main fin a bit. You could see the rubble from the top of the arch sitting in the bottom. We took a few pictures, and marveled at the canyon walls, with all the big trees on them. At the time it was cloudy, so sitting out in the open was not uncomfortable.

We got back to camp and cleaned up, having enjoyed a couple of leisurely days in a row. Nice not to have to push all the time. Susie and I had our "emergency dinner" that night. One of our dinners is always something like Mountain House Lasagna, so that if we get into camp late, or it is raining, we can have an easy dinner. Seeing how this was the last scheduled night of the trip, the fact that we were having our Mountain House tonight indicated that things had gone well. We built a trash fire, and took portraits of each other. It was decided that Ray and Dolph would run the car shuttle, which is not trivial. Barbara wanted to tag along, which seemed to be fine. Running the car shuttle means getting up before first light, and packing in the dark, quietly. Ray never minds, because he always seems to have a difficult time sleeping. And when he is headed out of the canyon, no one can ever seem to keep up with him.

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