Page Type:
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Trip Report |
|---|---|
Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Aug 5, 2021 |
Activities:
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Hiking, Scrambling |
Season:
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Summer |
We began around 8am, from the Humber Park trailhead, and it was already shaping up to be a warm day, definitely not something you'd want to see knowing you'll be going through an exposed burn area in the following hours. The initial slog up to Saddle Junction is steep but easy, and took just under an hour to reach the Saddle. From there we branched off, heading east on the Willow Creek trail in the general direction of Caramba. About a mile from the saddle we turned off onto a small use trail, which was in surprisingly good condition, and followed that for around a mile. Up until this point it has been relatively boring, minus the views you get to take in on the way. After reaching a small creek crossing on the use trail, we realized that was the end of the trail, and from here on out we'd have to loosely follow the old Caramba trail, that has been scarcely used and unmaintained since the Mountain Fire of 2013. It sounds easier said than done, and the amount of thorn bushes and downed trees really make you work to stay on the true trail. Eventually we decided to just take the path of least resistance, which sometimes ended up making us climb more than the trail would have.
Eventually we made it to Caramba Overlook, and to our dissapointment, saw that it was dry, other than some stagnant nasty looking pools. Taking in our defeat, we stashed our packs and decided to go bag nearby Sam Fink peak, thinking it was the peak that was just to our south. Well we were wrong, and dissapointed yet again, because that isn't the peak we wanted to get to, rather the one behind it was, which still looked massive considering how tired we were. The final 50 feet or so before the summit has some easy class 2 scrambling, which is easy enough. At this point it was about 11am, so just about getting to the hottest part of the day, and boy could we feel it, the area around the peak is mostly exposed and open, so the sun feels like it's magnified. On top of the peak, you have amazing views of the Desert Divide, and all of the canyons that run off it, and you see it from a perspective no one else really gets. The views made the slog worth it. Descending the peak you start to realize that all the time you spent descending on the way down, you'll now have to ascend going back up. That mixed with the constant bushwacking and routefinding, made for an overall unpleasant time, and kept me wondering how long I have left until I finally hit the use trail. By the time we crossed the creek signaling the start of it, I had run out of water, so it was a welcoming sight to see it again. Just the same as the last 2 miles from Caramba were, the use trail is just about straight up, or at least it felt like it at the time, and even though it was only a mile or so, it felt like triple that. Once reaching the Willow Creek trail it levels out again, and mostly stays that way for the rest of the way until reaching the saddle, where it is all downhill. We reached the cars at about 2:30pm and by the end of it my legs were destroyed and I was in need of some good food and water. Overall car-to-car it took us 6.5 hours, and was 4,400ft of elevation gain over 14 miles. What a great day deep in the backcountry.
if the fire was to blame for no photos at all? Cheers! :)
Ah yes, knew I was forgetting something. Although it wasn’t the fires to blame for most of my pics being gone, rather a canyon in Zion.
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