Went through Pine Creek and Keyhole yesterday with Dean Kurtz and a bunch of “Friends”.
Both are full of water, and the water is unusually stinky, AND unusually warm. I could see doing Keyhole without a wetsuit, but not Pine Creek. partly, because contact with that much yucky water directly on the skin, has a high yuck factor.
Given the chance to brew, the water could become really, really foul.
All anchors were in good shape and well-rigged. We removed extraneous anchor material on the first and last anchors in Pine Creek.
Tom
bruce silliman
One thing to take from our recent monsoon rains are the fact that they are localized and not of a continuous nature. Two cases in point.
1) Paria River below Powell Point and Bryce Canyon NP. My friend was hiking last Thursday down the Paria with some thunderstorms in the area but not a major system of them. The Paria flashed with trees, boulders, trash and lots of mud being washed by him as he stood in a side canyon that he fortunately decided to investigate. Had to wait 2 1/2 hours for river to subside so he could attempt to move up river. Conclusion: the river has a very large capture area and despite the absence of major rain the accumulation from all the different streams, gullies and dry washes caused a major flash to occur.
2) Unnamed wash just to the east of Kodachrome Basin State Park and on the road to Grosvenor Arch. You know the one. You drop over a steep road down to the wash and there is a way to go straight through the wash or turn to the right and cross it where it is very shallow i.e. 2-3 inches most of the year. Sunday afternoon our wildland fire crew was returning from the Cottonwood Road area where they were scouting out possible lightening strikes when they came to this usually placid wash. 5-7 hours later they were able to cross the stream. Conclusion: the area upstream must have a huge cachement system. I have no idea but that amount of water to the east of Powell point but south of Highway 12 and east of Kodachrome Basin that had to fall to create a total blockage must have been tremendous but localized.
My point here is that these localized thunderstorms with their heavy rain for a short period of time (5-15 minutes) can produce the storms that might turn your trip into an epic adventure.
Be careful and don’t think that just because the rain is not falling on your head that a flash cannot occur. Be safe
bruce from bryce p.s. and if caught in a storm that you have to wait out, practice those biner and figure 8 blocks. Whoops did I say that?
>From: “adkramoo” adkramoo@aol.com
Reply-To: Yahoo Canyons Group
To: Yahoo Canyons Group
Subject: [from Canyons Group] Re: Zion: Pine Creek and Keyhole Conditions >Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:36:01 -0000
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Tom Jones” wrote:
Both are full of water, and the water is unusually stinky, AND
unusually warm. I could see doing Keyhole without a wetsuit, but >not > Pine Creek. partly, because contact with that much yucky water
directly on the skin, has a high yuck factor.
> Given the chance to brew, the water could become really, really foul.
Ahhhh, those first floods after long dry periods. All those pots to >fill. All that material that has fallen or blown into the drainage >proper, that must go somewhere. The bottoms of old stagnant potholes >stirred up. Sounds like like the first hit of the monsoon only has >started the process of flushing systems out. A start. Sometimes its >darkest before the dawn. 😉 Let it rain! >R >
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adkramoo
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Tom Jones” wrote: > Both are full of water, and the water is unusually stinky, AND > unusually warm. I could see doing Keyhole without a wetsuit, but not > Pine Creek. partly, because contact with that much yucky water > directly on the skin, has a high yuck factor.
Given the chance to brew, the water could become really, really foul.
Ahhhh, those first floods after long dry periods. All those pots to fill. All that material that has fallen or blown into the drainage proper, that must go somewhere. The bottoms of old stagnant potholes stirred up. Sounds like like the first hit of the monsoon only has started the process of flushing systems out. A start. Sometimes its darkest before the dawn. 😉 Let it rain! R