Succor Creek - Leslie Gulch

Friday April 27-Monday April 30 *COMPLETED*

Succor Creek State Natural Area

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We will be camped approximately 1 mile north of the Succor Creek Campground, across from the cave.

Right next to the road and along Succor Creek.

Gear list:

At a minimum each vehicle should be equipped with :

• Adequate all terrain tires and carry a fullsize spare.
• Tools and jack to change the tire.
• Front and rear recovery points.
• 8" ground clearance.

What You Must Bring:

• 1.5 gallons of water per person per day (for drinking, washing, and food preparation.) Keep a bottle of water with you at all times.
• Enough food/beverages for your entire party
• First aid kit
• Warm clothing for evenings-this is a desert at 2000-3000 feet elevation
• Bedding and shelter of some type.
• A good camp tent is recommended along with warm sleeping bags. Evening temperatures can be below freezing.
• Garbage bags
• Any required prescriptions, or whatever else you need to maintain your health and comfort in a remote area with no services
• Flashlights and spare batteries (headlamps are useful)-to be sure you can see and be seen at night.
• Sunscreen/sunblock lotion and sunglasses
• Fire extinguisher
• Common sense, an open mind, and a positive attitude

We Suggest You Bring:

• Wood for campfire , more is better as there will be no sources near here.
• A cooking stove if you expect to heat food or liquid
• Lotion/lip balm to treat cracked skin
• Smokers: portable ashtrays (e.g. an empty candy tin, or film canister)
• A radio (FRS channel 1.1 - 2m channel 4WD 2 - 146.460 )
• Area map and compass / GPS
• Extra set of car keys

Helpful Things to Bring:

• Tire repair kit and air compressor
• Sewing kit
• Rope and/or string
• Handy wipes
• Duct tape
• Global Positioning System receiver.
• Binoculars
• Porta Privy / Wag Bags / Porta potty / roll TP

Things NOT to Bring:

• Excess packaging from foods (just bring the inner bag.)
• Nuts in their shells

Trip Report:

Plans always change. As usual half of those that plan to attend actually do so.

The day started with a light rains shower. The previous week had been unsettled and rather wet, but partly cloudy was the forecast. As the day progressed the sun pushed out the clouds and warmed the air.

The light rain was just enough to settle the dust and make for a very nice road on the way into the canyon. Half of the road traveled appeared to have been graded this spring. We even saw a grader working the barrow pits and shoulders along the way.

Every drainage was running a little water. Some holes in the road still held water. I expected the area to look much greener and perhaps some wild flowers blooming? The cheat grass from the first growth this spring had already turned. Perhaps we were too early for the wild flowers. Still the area holds great beauty.

Arriving to the rock that holds the cave. A nice area across the road and above the creek will be our home for the next few days.

Succor Creek looked a bit more like a "coffee river" with lots of creamer. It ran strong, full and fast.

We made camp and stacked the wood for a nice fire in the pit later. Bikes all unloaded and ready for adventure.

With camp set time for a quick exploration of the cave across the way. It goes in less than 100' The tallest point under 8' and the lowest just about 4'. Half way in it makes a 90 degree turn to the end chamber. There was some straw and burnt straw on the floor. Someone had built a fire in there. Perhaps to smoke out the occupants? We saw two small "nests" made from the straw. They looked almost as if small chickens had made them. On the ceiling , to the right in the main chamber a spider with a leg span the size of a quarter and having a shiny brown body similar to a Black Widow , crawled into a crack above us.

Rested up and still daylight to burn we saddled up for a short motorcycle ride. Camp all set and relaxed after a little time exploring around camp we set off on the motorcycles. This was Laurie and Tach's first real "outdoors" trail ride. This area was chosen for the easy roads and select terrain. Some ups, downs, turns and great experience for novice riders.

We took time to stop for pictures and see the sights. This was a first for me on the new to us 2002 KLR650 too.

Back to camp and some more relaxing...believe it or not we even got some over the air television! Not the channel we really wanted for Friday night, but cool all the same.

The evening was a little breezy, so out came the kite!

The next morning we prepared for a little longer ride. This time we headed down the road and above Succor Creek Campground.

That steep section had been what Tach had worried about for days. He was very nervous, but faced his fear. Once up on top we stopped and talked about it a little. I could tell he was fighting off tears and still a bit nervous about the return trip.

This was our half way point and we headed back down. Tach and I have intercoms via bluetooth so we are able to talk about things on the rides. This has been a great training tool. On the way down he was so happy that it was easier and that things did not seem nearly as scary. He was really enjoying the ride back down.

Once again we are back to our home away from home. We were expecting K&S Offroad to join us and if they were on schedule, it was time for us to stay close for their arrival.

The first visitor to our campsite...

A "Wooly worm". Mostly black with a long coat. Does that mean we are in for a cold spring? Might have to research the legends about Wooly Worms and weather again?

Lots of time around camp waiting for Kira and Steve. Skipping rocks, and carving sticks.

Tach mentioned a couple of times he heard voices. We blew it off and maybe even teased him a bit about it. I had totally forgotten that we had left a radio for K&S and had ours on in the trailer. It turns out that K&S had had some trouble loading so they were running very late. We had nearly given up on their arrival when we all heard a call for BLT...

They had arrived! None too soon and starved. Their journey had started very early in the day and over 400 miles from here. They ate a sandwich picked up on the way and made camp for the night.

Morning light and the crew is all here. We all slept great.

Dawn of the next day.

This day our plan was to ride to Leslie Gulch. One of the changes in plan was that K&S were to stop and pick up my old KLR. They made a few attempts at loading it , but wisely chose to abandon that part of the plan. Inexperience and a long day were not working well. Tach rode in the Tacoma with his auntie and uncle while Laurie and I rode the motorcycles. That gave us the headsets so we could talk on the way and with a little more experience under our belts we were able to speed up the pace a bit today.

It was much farther to the Leslie Gulch road than I remembered. I am very glad that Tach decided to ride in the truck. We stopped several times on the ride for pictures. The roads from this point were graveled. Some of it pretty loose and lots of wash board. Good experience for Laurie.

Along the road to the top of the world we stopped for a group shot. A Western Fence Lizard was watching us as it sunned on the rock near by.

"Top of the World"...

This was about the half way point for this trip and not a good time to realize that the battery on the camera is diminished and the spares back at camp. DOH!

onward to the Leslie Gulch entrance.

The area really is beautiful. A layer of ash covered the softer rocks. This frosted them and the rock underneath has eroded away leaving all these holes and hollows. It looks like some sort of Hobbit village.

By now my camera shuts down almost instantly due to the dead battery. I only manage to eek out a few more pictures of our ride...

We ate lunch at the campground down by Lake Owyhee Reservoir boat ramp. Lots of fishermen about and rumors were that good size Crappie were plentiful.

My battery now drained and unable to power up for even one shot, I have no more records of the ride back to camp.

Steve and Laurie traded places. This gave Steve a chance to ride the TW200 on the way back. It took him a few miles to get the feel of things and then it got real comfortable for him. It was nice to chat on the way back and share experiences on the ride.

The evening was close. We returned to camp with a dog very glad to see us. Some time spent playing ball with the dog and a rock skipping competition before it was time to start preparing dinner.

From this point on I did not take pictures like I should have. I have no excuse as the camera hung around my neck just under my jacket. Things just became "busy and unpredictable".

We ate a fine dinner of Brazilian BBQ and pork fried noodles or hot dogs with "mac-n-cheese". Just finishing dinner and dusk setting in, every one else heard a call for help. I heard a shout, but though it was just the gentleman we had seem walk the road from the day before. As he approached we saw it was someone else.

I made a quick dash inside the trailer to to retrieve a couple things before coming out to see what was going on.

Steve met him as he approached and it turns out his truck was stuck in the creek a few miles from our camp. He asked if we had a strap and could pull him out?

I did have the winch and my recovery gear. Steve and I agreed to help him out. His name was Jason. As I prepped things Steve got more of the story...

His buddy was still back there and is a diabetic. They had been out there for a very long time trying to get the truck out to no avail. He had initially walked several miles the other direction before realizing that there may be no one until he reached the highway about 30 or so miles away. Turning back toward Succor Creek campground we were the first he had encountered.

I had loaded up the motorcycles before dinner so the truck was heavy. It was now about 11:00 pm and dark. We loaded up and went to find this guys stuck truck. Steve offered to ride in the back seat.

Once in the truck we could tell for sure that part of this guys problem was related to some poor decisions made after consuming a great deal of alcohol. He wreaked of it. We drove for many miles, each road did not look quite right to him. Finally toward the top he saw one that had to be right. We turned down hill toward the creek bed. Things started to get rough looking so I stopped and we walked to to see just where they were. HID flashlight in hand we wlaked down to hear whoops and hollering. They were waving a spot light to get our attention. It became apparent that they were still about a quarter mile away and the road we were on was not the best approach.

nearly back to the truck now we are greeted by his friend. Remember the banjo player on the porch in Deliverance? Put a scraggly red beard on him and no shirt...that is what greeted us from the darkness of Succor Creek...

It turns out there were three of them stranded down there. A late model red Dodge Dakota 2wd was stuck trying to pull out the Nissan that was stuck trying to climb out of the creek bad. I never did go back through all the salt cedar to see just how badly stuck the Nissan was. Our main focus was the Red Dodge and its driver. He was the diabetic. Probably 300 lbs and not ready for a walk out to be sure. Steve checked him and he was fine. He had his insulin and food, so there was no medical help needed. His poor truck was another thing though. Some how they had managed to bury three of its four wheels in the sandy upper creek bed. A strap was not going to pull it out. Good thing we did have a winch.

Steve and I chose our staging area and walked our rout out to a good road in. From there we instructed Jason to walk up the road to the main road and wait for us.

It took us a while to hike back to the Avalanche, turn it around an make our way back up to the main road again. as we are driving over to the "right" road in, here comes the kid walking up the main road. GREAT, now we play the "lets find the right road game", again. Finally we do find the right way in. Low range and carefully we crawl our way back in to the vehicles.

Winch line out to its longest reach and straps anchored to the Dakota. We start the pull and it is quickly apparent that this driver is not versed in recovery. Revving his truck and spinning tires as we are pulling. Quickly he is instructed to just put it in drive and let it idle. We pulled it for probably 75' or so before it was on land solid enough to drive out.

At that time Jason asked if we could pull his truck out too? I told him they would be much better off to come back in daylight to attempt a second recovery and that I was just happy to get them all out safely for the night. We had them wait there until we got the Avalanche turned around. We wanted to be in the lead should they get stuck again.

We all made it out to the main road again without incident. Shouted thanks and your welcome as we parted ways. We returned to our camp about 12:30 am.

This was a good conclusion. The two inebriated guys from the Nissan were on their way home with a sober driver. No one stuck out there for the night.

It is hard to describe all the reasons and the situation that made this whole incident seem a little "sketchy" at first. The guy only gave us his first name and called his friend a buddy. I asked , "So where are you from?" and the response was "Nampa-Caldwell area." We really were not sure just how many of them were really out there, and why. I was confident that Steve and I could handle this guy, but was not real sure what was out in the darkness. It is funny how when you really are not sure what will happen next just how slow time seems to move and how , at least for me the tunnel vision sets in.

Steve's move the the rear seat on the way out there was a great choice. we did not need a stranger sitting behind us in the truck. I did not think about being lured away from camp to leave the women and children there. I had retrieved my CW and left them with none back at camp. That will not happen again. They did not know that it was no longer in the trailer. I need to improve and will not make those mistakes again. glad it was all above board and we had no lessons to learn the hard way.

I think that guy was pretty lucky that night. He told us another bunch of guys in an Explorer stopped. For some reason they took off and did not come back to help. In the end he came to a camp where a paramedic and guy with good recovery gear were staying. Glad we could help.

The next morning we were packed up and ready to head home. A light rain had started and conditions looked to be deteriorating. We really were not too interested in having the boys from deliverance return and ask for help with the other truck either. It was time to head home.

A GREAT trip! Fantastic weather and a little adventure...it just doesn't get much better than that.

Lessons learned:

Two bikes in the back and one on the front of the trailer make for a saggy back Avalanche. Installed Air Bags upon our return.

Needed a fly swatter for the wasp in the trailer. Bought one and threw it in.

C.Y.A. Bump stick needs to be in the trailer, or at the very least Laurie needs hers.

Inside Porta Potty is not as good a thing as it might have seemed. The outdoor set-up works.

Solar rocks! Just why are we carrying a generator?

Center tie-down for the bikes is a must and installed.

Custom gate did hang too low. Shorter cables fixed that.

Television in the trailer is kinda cool. New antenna mounted on the roof.