Well, we made it back from Hell's Gate. We should have known by the sign at the trail head that it wasn't the smartest idea to enter, but we did it anyway. We didn't fully know what kind of surprise we were in for. The hike is about 25 miles that we did over four days. The first day is about 7.5 miles and goes from the trail head down to the river entering through Hell's Gate.
Mitch overlooking the entrance to Hell's Gate.
The following 3 days were spent traveling the remaining 17 or so miles through the canyons. The name of the hiking game was rock hopping along the river where possible, then, when the walls of the canyon didn't allow for any hiking, the river was the only route.
As you can see in the pictures, the river was a Willy Wonka chocolate river which made it difficult to cross and hike through because you can't see the rocks under the water. It is like walking on slippery bowling balls.
Much of the river was so deep, you can't touch bottom so you have to swim with your pack. After the first day, we started to wonder if we would make it out by the fourth day, much less make it out at all. We were all pretty well prepared, but quickly realized wherever we could reduce some weight, we would be a lot better off during the hike. As a result, we started to burn items we felt we could live without....i.e. dirty clothes were better burnt than carried out, one kid decided he would rather burn his tent than carry it any more... Some of the more exciting things we encountered were leaches in the river (each time you exited the river you had to do a leach check to pull off any of the little guys that wanted to go along for the ride), a black bear, lightning storms with rain every evening, and lots of bumps and bruises from falling. Looking back on it, it was a good time because we were with a good group of people, but I'm not in any hurry to make the trek again.
The last set of falls were the most difficult. You had to jump into the falls from the side and swim like crazy to avoid getting pushed under and then you would pop out in front of the falls. You can see in the picture someone that just came out and a few other people to the side of the falls preparing to jump in.
4 comments:
Wow! That sounds like a lot of excitement! Wish Coleton had gone!
That looks like a lot of fun! I better not let Matt see this post he will want to go - soon!
UGH! Just hearing about that trip sounded killer. The pictures are amazing. I can't believe they're all alive!! I asked Eric if he would do again and he laughed. He said maybe if it was like child birth and you forgot after a year or so.
Gosh boys I am so proud of you. What a great time! Ah to be a boy scout and nearly kill your self for fun. Someday lets do a big long hike for a family reunion. Maybe our family could hike to Arizona for the reunion this year. I'm really dieing that we aren't going to make it. Something inside says it just isn't right. I love you all.
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