07/28/2006 - CO, Wolf Creek Canyoneering

Friday 7/28/06:

Chad, Ben and I met up in Boulder, loaded up Chad's truck and headed out to the Wolf Creek area.  We got to the campground just before dark, and looked for Brian and Mike.  They left before us, and were supposed to reserve a campsite for all of us.  We did two loops, but no sign of them.  Hope they are all right. We decided we'd go and reserve our own campsite.  When we started to set up camp, Brian and Mike showed up.  They had eaten dinner in town, and the food was good; but the service was slow.  No worries.  We set up camp, discussed our start time, and went to sleep.

 

Saturday 7/29/06:

Woke up at 7:30am, had a quick breakfast, packed up for the canyons, and headed out.  We were going to do the lower section of Wolf Creek first, as it's a more mellow section (relative to the upper section.)  We dropped Chad's truck off at the end of the canyon, piled into Mike's Subaru and drove to the canyon start.  We took a before photo before starting; which Jen says that Ben's bright red wetsuit looks like some superhero costume.  Funny, it kind of does.  We started down around 8:45, and walked through the "Tunnel of Love."  Section of the river carved into a tunnel through the rock.  Just afterwards was rap 1.  Recent water had knocked some trees down, so we cleared the debris and downed branches away.  The anchor tree was still decent, but we replaced the webbing. 

Rap 1 was pretty small, around 20 feet, and mostly avoided the water.  I was trying out a new (new for me, got it used) drysuit.  It worked great, but boy, was it warm.  Had to sit in the water many times to cool the exterior of the suit down.  Not far down the river was rap 2, started around 9:30am.  Mike said this rap could sometimes be a jumper.  I went down first and checked it for the others.  Definitely not a jumper, only waist deep at the drop, up to chest deep towards the middle of the pool.  I signaled the others the water depth.  The rap was around 30', but more out of the watercourse than rap 1.  The usual class C rap into a pool.

We hit rap 3 around 10:30am.  It was still small, around 25 feet; but this was the first rap in the watercourse.  It was a pretty good hit from the water, and the rocks were pretty slippery.  Not too much of a boil at the bottom though, easily escaped.  Fun rap.  Ben and I were looking for a way to go up and do it again.  Tried to get some video of this one. Brian was hemming and hawing, so I have two videos of him.  One of him starting and figuring things out and one of him finishing.  Got some decent video of Mike.  We hit rap 4 around 10:45am.  There was one bolt, and it didn't look all that sound, so we ran a chockstone backup.  I would go last this time, and pull our backup if everyone else went safely off the main bolt.  This rap was a little bigger at around 35 feet, but most of the water could be avoided by popping over a lip and keeping pressure outward.  Most did this, but I opted to jump into the watercourse.  It was slippery, and moving fast.  Good stuff.

We hit rap 5 around 11:30am.  This one was rigged to miss the water altogether, but I saw a good line right through the falls too. Mike said nobody had gone that way before, so I had to go.  We rigged it up, gave it extra line so I knew the rope was in the water.  The rap was around 35 feet, and my route was a blast.  You got right in a major fall line for the water, but could drop through it quickly, and then you were suspended behind the waterfall.  Really cool.  Some big pools at the bottom.  Ben and Brian followed the route through the falls, then Chad and Mike went the normal drop.

We hit rap 6 around noon.  It was again around 35 feet and was off two solid bolts, but the webbing was trashed.  Had some good water flow to hit the webbing that bad.  Set new webbing, and did the drop.  You got a bit into the water on this one, but nothing too bad.  Nice little drop.  This was the last rap, and it was a short 15 minute hike out to the car. 

This was just a fun little canyon.  None of the drops were really bad, and most were really easy and fun little raps.  It was nice to have the raps so close in proximity; very cool little class C canyon.  In the right conditions, this canyon is definitely a good intro canyon for people just getting into class C canyoneering.  We made it back to the car before 12:30pm.  We changed out of our wetsuits/drysuits, had a quick lunch, and drove up to Mike's car.  We then drove both cars to the parking area for upper Wolf Creek.  We got back into our suits, and headed in around 1:30pm. 

The first part of upper Wolf Creek was a steep climb down some pretty loose rocks.  Needed to be careful to not drop any on any of us below.  The first rap was a little bigger at around 55 feet and was anchored pretty well, but was a rap down some loose conglomerate rock.  Made sure not to stay near the bottom of that one.  My wetsuit was starting to tear near the neck, so I had to test it by flinging myself into a deep pool.  Still kept most of the water out.

The second rap was right after the first one, and was around 45 feet.  We were on it around 2pm.  This one was a little more awkward, as you rapped in a little gully that had two channels of water going down.  The shape forced you into the channels, but the channels would catch your shoes.  I walked the slick middle section most of the way.  Right at the bottom was a small hit from the fall, but it was only a small portion of the fall. 

Ben found a small bloated dead trout that he thought would make a good picture holding it.  The stench it gave off was horrible.  You can see the funny expression on his face. 

I was able to downclimb most of the section leading up to the third rap.  The actual rap looked like it could be jumped, but I wanted it to be checked out first.  The anchor was way high up on the wall, so we rigged a tree a bit farther up and people rapped from there; around 2:45pm.  They checked, and there was a small landing zone for a jump, but lots of rocks around.  Figured it was better to be safe, and just rapped it.  This rap, while small, put you dead into the constricted watercourse.  It wasn't bad if you got out quick, but you got hit pretty well.  Chad got buried pretty good.  Brian was all GQ with his poses.  Afterwards, we came to find out that the reason the anchor was so high is that a section of the falls had broken away.  I included a picture of the falls from the previous year.  Wild.

The fourth rap (around 3pm) had a bolt that was anchored solidly into the rock, but the rock was a pillar that looked like it was detached and could peel away.  A previous party had backed it up to a small tree.  After more close inspection, the pillar still looked pretty solid as it was attached a little farther down.  We still used the backup to the tree; although the tree would probably be yanked right out if a big section of the pillar broke away.  We re-tied the knot on the tree backup though, someone had just used regular square knots on webbing.  Bad idea.  The rap was about 40 feet, and stayed mostly out of the watercourse.

We hit the fifth rap around 3:30pm.  The fifth rap was around 50 feet, and was on some loose and slippery rock. No big problems, but enough to make you stay aware.  The rap was pretty much out of the watercourse, except for one little stream you hit most of the way down.  The main waterfall was beautiful though.  I went off to the side, where I figured I was out of the fall zone.  Took off my helmet, and was just adjusting gear.  Mike knocked a rock off, and surprisingly, it took a weird hop and thankfully just missed me.  A good lesson not to take your helmet off, even if you aren't in the main fall zone.

Rap 6 came about 4pm.  It was a loose dirt approach, tied off to a small tree.  We re-tied the anchor, as someone again used two square knots on webbing.  Dangerous.  The rap was down some really loose stuff, so we stayed well out of the fall zone.  Beautiful falls, and around 45 feet. 

The final rap was really interesting.  I replaced one section of webbing which was around a big rock, but not entirely secure.  I put a chokestone backup in, which was pretty solid.  Small concern on a weird pull angle dislodging it; but very slight chance.  This one put us right into a water channel.  I was going down first, and it looked wicked right from the point.  You went right into a concentrated channel.  Could be a good hit. 

We used a contingency anchor, just in case.  I dropped in, and it really wasn't all that bad.  In fact, it was really cool.  The channel was hollow, so you dropped into this open column, behind the falls.  You got hit once at the top, and once again at the bottom, but it looked much worse from above.  I thought I was going to be getting pummeled for the entire first section of the rap.  Nice surprise.  Ben gave Chad a fireman's belay on this one, and then we all played in the water when we were down.  Ben and I swam up to, and under, the falls; getting hammered by them.  It was tough to swim up under them, there was a lot of water pushing you away.  Once under though, they kept you there.  Not a bad boil though, as the pool was deep.  We finished the last rap around 5pm.

There was a little hike down the canyon, and then a steep and loose exit.  There were some sections of thick brush on the climb up, and then you walked uphill along the road for probably around a half mile to get back to the cars.  The exit wasn't as fun.  I wouldn't mind starting at the upper section, and hiking through the lower section next time.  Mike says that's not fun and not recommended; a long slog.  Couldn't be much worse than the exit up the hill I'm guessing.  Better scenery too I'll bet.

Unfortunately, the neck of my drysuit tore even more on the upper section of Wolf Creek; will have to take it in to get it repaired.  Overall, the raps in upper Wolf Creek are a little bigger, and a little more challenging than the lower section; but it was really a fun little canyon overall.  Both sections can easily be done in a day.  Mike's plan was a good one; if people are okay with Lower, they should still be able to do upper...

We headed back to camp, used our ropes as clotheslines and hung everything out to dry a little.  We then made a warm dinner, and discussed what to do the next day.  There were plenty of options, including some new canyons to explore, hot springs, peaks to climb and more.  Mike was planning on rim walking a new canyon, while Ben and I were talking about climbing a peak.  Brian and Chad were just going to take it easy; relax and do some reading.  We visited for a bit, shared a few drinks, and then went to bed.

 

Sunday 7/30/06:

We woke up around 7am, and made breakfast.  Mike changed his mind, he was just going to head back.  Ben and I changed our plans to go explore the canyon Mike was originally going to look at.  Chad let us use his truck, and the other two (Chad and Brian) were going to head home with Mike.  We packed a subset of our gear, including a thin wetsuit for each of us, and we set off to explore.  We got to the trailhead around 9, and started up the trail.  It was about a four mile hike up to Beaver Creek trail.  When we got there we found out that it was closed due to rockslides.  We decided that we would first try to walk upcanyon as far as we could to see what the canyon was like.

Ben and I were able to hike up quite a ways from the bottom.  We made it about 1/2 way up the canyon (3/4 mile and 500 ft elevation gain) before we got stopped by a waterfall that would need to be rapped.  It was around noon now, and the waterfall was around 30ft tall; and we couldn't find a safe way up.  I climbed a little ledge system around 150 ft high to see if we could get around, but we couldn't.  The ledge system was pretty wild, very exposed and loose.  I did manage to see a ways up the canyon, and it was the same as the lower canyon.  The canyon was pretty, had dense brush, many log jams, and had lots of smaller stepped drops; which made for slow going and lots of crossings/walking through the river.  We did find several raspberry bushes though; a nice treat.  The drops in the canyon were usually 1-6 ft tall, all climbable.  The water level and flow was about 25% more than the current conditions on upper wolf. 

Thus, even though we didn't explore the full canyon, my guess is that it isn't really a great candidate for canyoneering.  Probably only a couple of drops at most.  Still might be up for descending it at a later time, but it will likely be a lot of effort for not many drops.  I wouldn't recommend bringing a wetsuit (travel light); unless the flow is huge and you would need it for the river walking.  Because of this observation, we decided not to go and do the upper section, rather, we would go for a hike and find the hot springs.  We got back to the canyon start around 1:45pm.  The weather started to get worse, and we got a little rain.  On the hike up to the springs, we found more raspberries, wild strawberries, and some cool mushrooms.

We did manage to find the hot springs too (around 3:30pm), although, we did pass them up at first and hiked farther along the trail.  They are okay as far as hot springs go, but nothing special.  There are two pools, both fairly small.  It's nice because they are near camp areas, but they are relatively hard to find; not marked at all.   Find camp spot #8, and then pick your way down the steep hillside down to the springs.  They are right next to the river; and obscured from view from the trail.  The weather had some spotty rain, but mostly held out.  We hiked at a pretty good pace back; Ben was faster than me, he has quite a large leg span and good stride.  On the way back, a bat flew right by my head.  Wild, because it was still light out.  We got back to the truck, and made the long drive home. 

Overall, a great weekend.  Always fun to play in the waterfalls!

 

Hope you enjoy the photos!