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#261: CUB SCOUT DIAMOND CREEK HIKE
MARCH 21, 22, 1987
(no photos)
March 21, Saturday, 1987
This year I decided to make it an overnight for the cub scouts pack 134, webalos. Harlan Johnson is the leader of the den but I set up the trip with the Hualapai Tribe. They only charged us all $1.00 for the trip, or there about because there were a total of 27 people, two girls, three moms, 5 dads, and the rest were boys. Ryan and Marijka went with me; Susan had to work on Saturday.
We left Flagstaff at 8:10am and headed west on I-40 with 8 vehicles. It was a clear windy morning and 30 degrees. As we drove west the high clouds increased and so did the wind. I had gotten the permit by mail. It was cloudy by the time we reached the Colorado River at Diamond Creek at 11:00am. The trees were leafed out and plenty of grass and flowers and wild onions. A river trip had just finished packing up and left so we had the whole place to ourselves. We set up camp on the dune near the river. Everyone had brought their own breakfast for tomorrow and lunches for the two days. I brought the evening meal which was mainly hot dogs and hamburgers and trimmings and beans.
Marijka and Ryan were the first to start fishing. The river was flowing about 9,000cfs and very muddy. After a couple of hours, no one was catching any fish so we drove back up to where the water is fist reached in the road and hiked on up the canyon about a mile or so. The sun came out for most of the time and it got hot and lots of flies that bite. The boys had a good time on the hike and built dams in the creek. Lots of burro sign. By the time we got back to camp it was cloudy and very windy with gusts up to 50 mph. I began the fire and started cooking about 5:30pm. The wind was the only problem with some sand in the hamburgers. The group had a good time anyway and it was obvious that it was going to rain tonight. Everyone had tents and all were weighted down with rocks; some with trenches around them, some with holes. At 9:00pm the rain started with the winds gusting to about 40 mph. Ryan and Marijka were in their tent and I was in mine. It rained off and on most of the night with some heavy rain at times. No fish, hiked about 2 miles today. High about 74 degrees.
March 22, Sunday, 1987
Woke up to a cloudy windy day with some light rain. All of the upper cliffs were hidden in snow storms. The snow was down to about the 3,000ft level. The river never came up during the night; instead it dropped another foot or two to about 6,000cfs. Still very muddy. Marijka went fishing. Some one caught one carp last night. Several people left about 7:00am. Ryan, Marijka and I stayed dry and warm all night. Almost all others were soaked and cold. Low was about 43 degrees. 3859
We waited around until about 9:00am and there was no let up in the rain. The rain increased and the snow level dropped even lower. It began to look hopeless for sunshine today so those of us that were left began to pack up and leave. It was very wet. We ran into snow about 5 miles from Peach Springs. There was 3 inches of snow on the ground at Peach Springs and still snowing. We had slushy highway all the way back to Flagstaff. Only 5 inches of snow in Flagstaff. A short trip and the boys had a good time despite the weather. Total miles hiked this trip, only 2.
