Shaun & Ben's
8-Day
| July 31, Day One:
Shaun runs the Heber Creeper Half Marathon, then leaves for Phoenix at midnight, sleeping
one hour on the way. After meeting with many HAC AZ members for ice cream (and even
Heather from HAC UT currently working in the Arizona desert), Ben and Shaun drive to the
border and camp in a park in Douglas, AZ, waiting for the border to open in the morning. August 1, Day Two: They purchase
insurance and cross the border, then drive toward Creel, camping along the highway about
100 miles away. |
| August 2, Day Three:
Arrive in Creel (mountain town near continental divide in Chihuahua), swim in lake south
of town. Water perfect temperature and sheer glass. |
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| Day Four: Chase major lightning storm through monsoon rain to Copper Canyon. Camp on canyon rim. |
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DayFive:We rappel into Copper Canyon (Mexico's Grand Canyon) and climb a little. Here, Ben pops a hold to find an enormous black scorpion. |
 Here are the same falls after a rainstorm two years earlier when Shaun first visited them. |
We rappel Cusarare Falls. Below, we jump into a pool, sinking as deep as we can, and we don't touch bottom.
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Ben and I played frisbee with two kids at the trailhead and left the disk with them when we left. |
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Day Six: Read the much more exciting detailed version of this rappel.
Arrive in Basaseachic (900 foot waterfall),
rappel.
Falls reported to be 311 meters, while the
total length of (5) ropes before rappelling: 270 meters.
Lucky for us, they stretched plenty for us to make it to the bottom. Stuck rope at base forces Shaun to rappel behind falls and into enormous unexplored (by us, anyway) pool at base. Doggie paddles frantically with pack through gale-force winds, rain, and white caps (his favorite part of the entire trip) and climbs a crack to safety. |
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Wind changes when Ben is stuck at last knot (can't unattach from above rope). 60 foot-wide falls shifts 80 feet to left, hammering Ben and bringing him closer to hypothermia than ever in his life. Shaun pulls him free of most of the water and sends an ascender to help him escape. Both swim the river below the falls and reach the far bank with about 15 feet before current sweeps them over the next small falls. Further realize stupidity on the hike back to the top as they remember they brought no food. Pull ropes and hike back to car in the dark. |
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Day Seven: Lay out
gear to dry in the morning. Toast to being alive. Stop at stream to filter water and relax. Pan (frisbee) for gold, no luck. Drive hundreds of miles up and down through tight mountain roads (read related story here). Nearly get ticket for turning the wrong
way onto a one way street (unmarked). Would have been fine if the only car to pass us
hadn't been the commissioner of police of Hermosillo. Two motorcycle cops called to the
scene very friendly and we escape with a warning (good thing--we were both nearly out of
pesos). Cross border at midnight. |
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Day Eight: Drop Ben off in Phoenix a few hours later and Shaun drives home with one more hour of sleep. One Month Later: As Shaun and Kennen pull into the parking lot at the trailhead to King's Peak (highest point in Utah), one ball joint (holds front axle to transmission) goes bad. They climb the peak anyway and return three days later. With nothing they can do about it, they start driving, and the wheel falls off less than a mile later. Good thing this didn't happen in Mexico! Several Years Later: Shaun returns for his third trip to the Creel area with Chantal, rappeling Cusarare and hiking the base of Basaseachic in snow. Read all about it. |
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