In October I had a conference to attend down in Tucson, so I decided to drive.\u00a0 My plan was to find a place to run somewhere in the middle of the drive and I chose an obscure canyon that gets easy access to the Colorado River.\u00a0 It is Soap Creek Canyon, south of the 89a and the Vermillion Cliffs.\u00a0 The night before I couldn’t sleep so I just hit the road around 3:30 AM – arriving at the trail-head around 11ish.\u00a0 When I pulled off the highway and saw just how remote this was, I had second thoughts – but forged ahead in any case.\u00a0 You open a gate in the fence, close it behind you, drive over some desert to a makeshift parking lot \/ trailhead.\u00a0 And, then you head down the canyon.\u00a0 It begins as a shallow wash, slowly deepening.\u00a0 Eventually you enter the south fork of the canyon proper and soon have a lot of canyoneering decisions to make.\u00a0 There are no places that require all-out rock climbing, but lots of small drops and cliff faces to navigate.\u00a0 There were cairns to follow, but I had lots of concerns about heading down the wrong drop.\u00a0 At one point, there was even a rope descent.\u00a0 I passed 2 guys heading in the opposite direction – they had camped down at the river.\u00a0 That was comforting because I was becoming increasingly aware of how remote the place was.\u00a0 So far the terrain was dangerous enough to possibly cause a break if I fell, but not too bad.\u00a0 The ever-present paranoia of rattlesnakes had me more worried.\u00a0 By the time I made it to the Colorado River, it had taken longer than I had planned, I was getting worried about sunburn and anxious to get\u00a0 back to my car in one piece.\u00a0 I quickly dipped my feet in the river, geared back up, and made my ascent back up the canyon.<\/p>\n
About 1 mile back up disaster struck – I rolled my left ankle hard, hearing a pop even.\u00a0 A few minutes later, I rolled it a second time.\u00a0 I had 4 miles to climb, and lots of rock faces to scamper\/scale up.\u00a0 This was bad.\u00a0 About another mile up, BOTH of my calf muscles cramped violently.\u00a0 It was debilitating.\u00a0 This was trouble.\u00a0 I slowly made my way up.\u00a0 I eventually caught up with the 2 hikers, and they were glad to see me.\u00a0 Expressing that they were concerned at how little gear I was packing -worried that I would run out of water.\u00a0 I showed them the 2 liters my pack held and they were relieved.<\/p>\n
Thoughout the ascent any time I did more than a walk, my calves cramped and brought me to teh ground.\u00a0 So – I walked out the last 3 miles or so.\u00a0 Scarier was when they cramped mid-rock climb up the various 10-15 ft. tall cliff drops.\u00a0 By the time I got to my car I was exhausted and relieved.<\/p>\n
10.7 miles @ 13:5 min\/mile and 2,442 ft elevation<\/a><\/p>\n \n\n