CANCELLED: Llama trip to Fish Creek April 9-14

Unfortunately, we did not have enough participants for this trip to go. Bill P. 02/10/13
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Dear Mountaineers,

This llama trip is scheduled over Los Alamos Schools spring break to make it possible to include students and teachers connected with the Los Alamos Schools. I expect options for day activities to include all levels of difficulty, from low-level technical scrambling down to easy, and am sure that we can meet the desires of all who take part.

Fish Creek is an archeology-rich canyon, below Cedar Mesa, with several tributaries. It has an exciting collection of slickrock scrambles and explores, and is marked by layered slickrock and hoodoo terrain. The highly ambitious could spend a day doing the 18-mile Fish Creek/Owl Creek loop (some details here); if so, I advise a very early start and headlamps for the return. For the less intrepid, there are hikes up Fish, up Owl, up McCloyd canyon, and scrambling up the canyon walls to the mesa tops.  For example, just 2 miles up Owl Canyon one finds an impressive geologic formation known as Nevills Arch. In the words of author David Day, "The reddish colored Cedar Mesa Sandstone has been carved into an eye-catching display of pinnacles and spires..." Our camp will be about a mile below the Fish Creek/Owl Creek confluence, and 6 miles from the trailhead.

The itinerary is arranged to require just two days of vacation for someone on an "B" schedule at the lab, or someone who can trade. It will run as follows:

Tuesday, April 9: Leave Los Alamos at about 4 PM, drive through to Bluff, brown-bagging dinner in the cars on the way. Stay at Recapture Lodge (make your own reservation). The drive takes about 5 1/2 hours if we drive expeditiously.

Wednesday, April 10: Leave Bluff in the morning, driving about an hour to the trailhead where we will load llamas and hike 6 miles into camp.

Thursday-Saturday, April 11-13: Day hikes from base camp, good company in the evenings.

Sunday, April 14: Hike out and drive back to Los Alamos, arriving in the evening.

Expenses will include lodging at Bluff, which will be paid individually; driving expenses, arranged by car; and the llama packer, which I will arrange.

All participants should be paid-up members of the Los Alamos Mountaineers with waivers on file. If you are not yet a member, it is easy to do so - see the Mountaineers web page here.
If you would like to go, please contact me and send me a deposit of $100. There are 2 or 3 slots left as of Jan. 25.

Sincerely, Bill