Redington Pass: An Introduction

[jbeegoode]

My article that I wrote for the last issue of "N" "Nude and Natural" magazine about Redington Pass is posted at: https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2016/08/29/redington-pass-the-introduction/

Ian generously allowed me to repost his Scotland Geocache trip and it is there, too.
Jbee

[nudewalker]

I enjoyed this article not only for the descriptions and pictures but also the insights. When you mentioned keeping areas nude friendly by using them my thoughts went to my old college haunt; Bare Ass Beach. Now I wonder, has it gone the way of other places and forgotten, maybe taken over by textiles or washed away in a flood and lost to time. Almost fifty years later maybe a road trip is in order?

Also the comment that areas are taken over by gay men looking for hookups. Sometime I think those rumors are started only to dissuade nude usage. Anyway, fine work once again!

[jbeegoode]

Last night, I googled Redington Pass. I noticed that there was a site listed that was for gay man hook ups that they called cruising. It referred to a certain section of the canyon and referred to the inertial sandy beach (pictured in the beginning of my article) was a place with all kinds and children.
The last several times that I have been there, if the information was correct, show that there are NO gay men at Redington!
Oh well.
Jbee

[jbeegoode]

I mentioned how I once saw a brown wall of water taller than myself from bank to bank coming down the previously rather calm channel that is Redington Pass. Here are the movies. Several rescues have been made both here and Sabino Canyon. People lucky to be only stranded. A family birthday took 10 lives in a similar circumstance up in northern Arizona, recently.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/24/hikers-stranded-tanque-verde-falls-pima-county/503779001/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAwz8juTtes
This shows the brevity of time to escape, the water can be 10 and 20 ft. deep, rushing through a funnel. It gets worse than this. The beach where people were playing paddle board:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HThPQMm5jZ0
This is a higher than usual flow, it is often just a trickle. Not wall to wall as you could imagine by the look of the bare granite. A wall of water from canyon wall across to the canyon wall, in seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpQ9xNMdxUE

Whew!
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

When I was leading Boy Scouts in New Mexico we always taught "Never play in Arroyos."   Don't hike in arroyos. Don't drive in arroyos.  And never camp in an arroyo.  Its OK to cross them if you don't doddle in the middle.   One local scout troop was stranded on the far side of an arroyo for 24 hours.

Every time it rains there always seems to be some tourists who didn't get the message. 

[jbeegoode]

We have a law, that if you pass a marked barricade, you pay for your own expensive rescue. It is called "the stupid law" I think.

When it isn't raining, arroyos are the best route through a thick prickley desert. Canyon arroyos, are dangerous. Two years ago, we decided to do the Blue River hotsprings on another day when the rain wasn't an issue. Yea, I could see myself no backup naked stranded and being rescued on the TV naked with those silly splotch marks on my genitals, but not my face.

Those people all got out of there with only the clothes on their backs, soaked...they'd try to hand me a blanket..."but, wait a minute!" Well, everything will be changed again down there. Maybe we can get down there this weekend and see what's left and what's new.
Jbee

[eyesup]

I’ve been noticing that this year. Is that a spike in floods or people getting trapped or both? You see these every year but this year seems to be getting a fast start. Maybe a lot of newbies to the hiking scene in Arizona?

I was talking to a hiker & climbing instructor back in the late ‘80’s. There had been a increase of rescues in Red Rock Rec. Area because of people not experienced in climbing, hiking or just being out in the desert. There was serious discussion at one time of charging a fee for a rescue due to stupidity and or bad choices. Don’t know if they ever did it.

I saw a group of late teen early ‘20’s kids hiking up a cliff in Pine Creek Canyon once. One of the girls had on a bikini and flip flops. Climbing! A couple of her friends, wearing baggy shorts, were carrying the important stuff. The six packs. Ahh, the invincible youth.

A friend of ours here that used to fly Mercy Flights and has been into Death Valley and Red Rock at night. He also flew search and rescue in New Mexico and here. There is genuine danger of a helicopter crash in some of those places. If it’s too risky, they wait until support shows up and you are on your own till then.

Don’t know whether this was rookie mistakes or stupidity but in AZ with the flash floods and monsoons you have to know your landscape. Especially in the monsoon season.

Do your homework!

Duane

[eyesup]

One local scout troop was stranded on the far side of an arroyo for 24 hours.

After our son transitioned from Cubs to Scouts we bumped into one of the parents from that group. She told us that the Troop her son had joined had gone camping out to Lake Mead. They had made camp in the bed of a wash that emptied into the lake.

Yep, it rained. And they had to bail out of the camp in the night. Lucky no one was hurt, but gear was lost. Instead of learning from that she yanked her boy out of the Troop and Scouts permanently, missing a good opportunity to teach about observing your surroundings and other responsibilities.

Our troop had planned a 2nd trip to Havasupai but in 2008 there was a flash flood that took out a portion of the main camping area above Mooney Falls. We had to postpone the trip till the next year.

That canyon gets flooded every few years and they warn you about the risk when you sign the permits.

Duane