Calico Night Run

Since no one has asked about the run, I thought a brief trip report was in order.

Those who went were:
Hatch and family
John and Nova
Ric
Stuart, friend Drew and daughter Sam
Lizandro and his brand new Rubi.

Friday evening was reserved for margarita's Saturday morning, Ric, Hatch and Family, me decided to drive up drive up Odessa and see what the trail was like. There was a flash flood in July and we wanted to see how the trail had changed. It had changed a lot. All the soft dirt was gone and all the rocks exposed. Made for an interesting drive up the canyon and definitely harder than previous. At the washed out road we decided to go up the face and all of us made it with a little winching. I found a great winch point about 60feet from the ledge. From there we finished Odessa and came out Mule canyon. Saturday afternoon Stuart and Lizandro arrived. We started up around 6:30. By the time we got the the ledge it was dark. After a few tries by me in the dark and almost rolling, plus a dead battery, we decided to head back. Got back to camp around 12 and again had a few margarita's before hitting the sack.
Sunday we decided to do Duran - What a change at the Gatekeeper. What we used to see is completely changed. The historical hole was filled in, but that was the easy part. All the rocks below were washed out and getting to the old hole was almost impossible. Since we had a short time, we decided to come back and do it another day and headed up the bypass. The Gatekeeper is seriously more difficult than before. The trail above has been washed out and I would rate it a 4+ rather than the 3+ it had become. A lot of great waterfalls. No one had to be winched, but definitely a challenge, especially closer to the top. No broken parts -except Ric's ARB solenoid and a broken valve stem for me. Which required busting the bead to fix.

Weather was great.

You missed a great trip