Summer '09, Fourth Installment: James Canyon Adventure and Pecos Baldy Wilderness

7. James Canyon Adventure: sometime in August when no rain was forecasted

This little excursion, done solo (which in hind sight, probably wasn't the world's safest feat), is located just minutes from Flagstaff. It's also one of the coolest routes I've ever followed and makes for a fine introduction to technical canyoneering. With my rope, harness, ATC and locking carabiner, and dry bag packed into my day pack, I headed south on foot from the Kelly Canyon exit of 1-17 until I dropped into James Canyon. Less known than it's bouldering mecca of a sister Kelly, James is a bastard of a far different caliber. As the photos below show, water is abundant in James. With a series of slot canyons dominated by some deep pools, 2 rappels (one mandatory, but if you want to live a little, do both!!!), and a 75 foot long by 5 foot wide "hallway" of bone-chilling water, James Canyon is one of those adventures which in the midst of it makes you think, "what the hell am I doing here?", but which goes down in the long term as truly epic. That said, I recommend tackling this beast on a day when air temps are in the 90s so that you can warm up quickly after exiting the many pools.

P.S. Here's an additional summary from Todd's Hiking guide: http://www.toddshikingguide.com/Hikes/Arizona/Coconino/Coconino2.htm . (please note that I did the hike down James and then down Pump House to Highway 89A, not James to Pump House to Kelly back to car as Todd did.)

Some early signs of water

This first pool could have been bypassed butI chose

to scramble down the slot and swim it....why not?

First (optional) rappel into two deep but not so cold pools.

Looking back up at the slot canyon section of James. I got stuck above this when I didn't want to jump into shallow but murky water from a 6 foot lip (couldn't see what I was jumping into and hence didn't want to break an ankle). I eventually wedged myself into the narrow slot facing upstream, and despite scraping my belly, got down. I then said to hell with it and jumped into this last pool. It was plenty deep for once and the going got easier thereafter.

View from the second rappel with (look closely), dead skunk in pool.

Another view from the top of the 2nd rappel

After the 40 ft rappel, looking back up from where I had descended. If you look closely you can see my rope and pack on the right side of the shot.

The "Hallway"....sorry the shot was out of focus but it's the best I could get. This sucker probably sees about 45 minutes of sun a day....even in mid-August I estimate the water was in the low 40s. It was also over my head which meant I was jaw deep swimming through it. Ever hear stories about how people experiencing hypothermia just give up and either strip off their clothes, jump in water, or otherwise doom themselves? I felt a tinge of that urge just to stop about halfway through but let the tough guy side of my brain break that idiocy in two. 20 seconds later I was on the other side stripped down to my underwear basking in the sun and doing jumping jacks to warm up ASAP. You only live once, right?

8. Pecos Baldy Wilderness Trip/Bagging Truchas Peak: August 14-17, 2009

The PB Wilderness Area is located in to the northeast of Santa Fe, NM and contains some of the highest peaks in Southwest. We went there specifically to bag Truchas Peak, which at 13,102 ft is the 2nd highest point in NM. We made base camp at Pecos Baldy Lake by the following route:

At Jack's Creek Campground, begin hiking on trail #25. The trailhead elevation is 8400 ft. The trail begins an ascent due north, then climbs 4 switchbacks up to a forested ridge. The trail continues north and at about mile one and 1/2, the trail splits. Take the left hand split towards Pecos Baldy Lake which will now be trail # 257. At mile 6 you will arrive at the beautiful Pecos Baldy Lake.

Rather than rattle on about the many fine attributes of southern Rockies that make up PB, I've cut and pasted a summary of the area (see below) from www.summitpost.org . Following this is but a sampling of the photos I took during our 3 nights in the Wilderness.

Overview:

Truchas (Spanish for "trout") Peak, also known as South Truchas Peak, is the highest peak in the remote Truchas Peaks group, which is located in the Pecos Wilderness Area in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, about 20 miles north of Santa Fe. In this group are found South Truchas Peak, Middle Truchas Peak,West Truchas Peak (or West Middle Truchas) and North Truchas Peak. Despite being one of the few peaks in New Mexico of over 13,000', Truchas Peak is seldom visited. The Truchas Peaks are not even covered in the books "50 Hikes in New Mexico" or "100 Hikes in New Mexico" The Truchas group is truly a beautiful group of mountains. Unlike many of the broad, dome-shaped mountains of northern New Mexico, the Truchas mountains are craggy, steep mountains that are more reminiscent of their neighbors to the north in Colorado. The easiest route to the summit is only a class 3 route, but many more difficult routes could be developed in this mountain group. NOTE: there is a great deal of confusion regarding the nomenclature of Middle and West Truchas. These two peaks are really separate high points on a connecting ridge. On many maps, the true Middle Truchas Peak is not named, but West Truchas is erroneously called Middle Truchas. Imagine a "Y" with the upper right line being longer than the upper left. This "Y" represents the ridge system connecting all of Truchas Peaks At the top of the right line is North Truchas, quite a bit farther north than Middle or West Truchas. At the point where the three lines of the "Y" intersect is Middle Truchas. At the top of the left line of the "Y" is West Truchas, and South Truchas is obviously located at the bottom of the "Y." Truchas Peak is really the second highest peak in New Mexico, behind Wheeler Peak. Official lists place Truchas at the fourth highest, but the two peaks between Wheeler and Truchas are really mere subpeaks of Wheeler and not really mountains in their own right.

Pecos Baldy Lake

Views from the summit of Truchas