It was spitting rain in the early afternoon as we arrived in Morenci. We consumed some jalapeno poppers at the Conoco Station - it is a required ritual before going to Eagle Creek. We headed up Hwy 191 to Lower Eagle Creek Road about 2:30 PM. Light rain showers and some distant thunder continued as we worked our way down Eagle Creek from the Pumping Station. Thunder in the distance provides an extra thrill when checking out the slot canyon at Gold Gulch. The beaver dam at Gold Gulch has silted over, so you can once again drive across the river to visit the waterfall.
The beaver have been busy, so one of the early crossings had 3-feet of water on the trail and a 2-acre lake. We made it across OK, albeit with some headlights under water. That beaver apparently didn't like visitors. Overnight (while we were downstream) he dropped a 40-foot cottonwood tree across the trail. Fortunately there was a place where we could bushwack around the end of the tree in shallow water. We made our escape without breaking out the chainsaw.
The entrance to the "secret" campsite below the Bat Cave was a 4WD challenge since the stream below the entrance slope is now 2-feet deep rather than 6-inches deep. The bats have already migrated to Mexico. The rain showers stopped around sunset, so we had a clear and warm evening sitting around the campfire. We saw quite a number of Taurid and early Leonid meteors through the canopy of the trees. More light rain came through after midnight, although the temperature was still relatively warm in the morning.
The weather was clearer and cooler on Saturday afternoon as we worked our way downstream. We didn't catch any fish (John was the only one fishing), and we didn't see any bighorn sheep. There were two uses of the tow strap to get across difficult stream crossings, but no winching (good, because John forgot his winch controller). We camped about 7 miles below the Pumping Station or about 3 miles (2 miles LOS) above the confluence with the Gila. This meant that we skipped the difficult parts of the trail. Clear cold skies turned into snow flurries by 9:30 PM as we sat around a blazing mesquite campfire. It was about 38 degF in the morning. Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day as we worked our way back upstream. We trimmed trees away from some parts of the trail, but overall the young mesquites are winning. We were back to the Pumping Station about 4PM on Sunday.
Wildlife sightings were less than expected because of the cool weather, but we still saw: 2 ducks, 1 bear, 1 blue heron, 2 golden eagles, 1 packrat, 1 fish jumping from the water, 1 vulture, 1 tarantula, and a 1/4-inch worm.
The only vehicle damage was to the parking brake on the FJ40, and some minor sheetmetal at the back of the Dormobile.
Yes, a GOPRO camera in a waterproof housing is useful in weather like this.
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Weather is clearing off by mid-afternoon.
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One of the steeper gravel banks to climb....
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A washout to test your approach and departure angles......
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Every stop must be carefully planned to have a good sand bar - so Isaac can break out the heavy equipment.
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This is the end of the previous timelapse sequence that had 10sec intervals.
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John is setting up the GOPRO for a timelapse sequence with 2sec intervals.
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Preparing the seasoned mequite campfire for Saturday evening.
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This is where everybody but John saw the bear.
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The Bat Cave and its recent now steel gate.
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The beaver has dropped a 40-foot tree across the trail to keep out the recreational vehicles.
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The beaver has also dammed things up so the water is 3-feet deep at this crossing.
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Note the waterline on the side of the truck.
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Last modified: Sat Nov 24 14:57:55 2012