Trail along Muddy Creek

kansas

kansas

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Joined
Feb 1, 2015
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The Trails Illustrated map shows a trail heading south from Tomsich Butte to Chimney Canyon. I can't find any reports on it. Anyone been there?
 
Nick said:
Check out Steve Allen's Canyoneering 2. Is it Chimney you're after? If so, Hidden Splendor is a better start.
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Can we get to Hidden Splendor in a passenger van? I have a lot of experience on bad roads and it has made me cautious.

We're not necessarily trying to get to Chimney, we want to do a two night backpack, carrying all our water. I was thinking of the area marked as "the pasture" on the map. We'll camp two nights in the same spot and have a day for looking around.
 
Sorry- I didn't see your post. But last May We hiked from Upper Chimney to Tomisch via the Pasture Track. Its a beautiful walk on an old 2 track. The key is finding it in middle chimney. Its on the north, where the long (Old Runway) is. Here's a shot of the area. We hiked from Tomisch Butte down the Chute, then up chimney (over the dryfall) and to Upper Chimney. then back via the Pasture Track. Thanks to Nick for the trip idea. I'm also hitting up Maidenwater next week......P1280435.JPG
 
Bumpr1080 said:
Sorry- I didn't see your post. But last May We hiked from Upper Chimney to Tomisch via the Pasture Track. Its a beautiful walk on an old 2 track. The key is finding it in middle chimney. Its on the north, where the long (Old Runway) is. Here's a shot of the area. We hiked from Tomisch Butte down the Chute, then up chimney (over the dryfall) and to Upper Chimney. then back via the Pasture Track. Thanks to Nick for the trip idea. I'm also hitting up Maidenwater next week......View attachment 30323
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Thanks for your reply. Is there a lot of cow sign along the Pasture? We're looking for a short two night hike. I was thinking of going from Tomisch to the Pasture and back, packing all our water.
 
kansas said:
Thanks for your reply. Is there a lot of cow sign along the Pasture? We're looking for a short two night hike. I was thinking of going from Tomisch to the Pasture and back, packing all our water.
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Ahh- I suppose it's what's your looking for in your hike (open spaces vs. canyons) but I probably wouldn't suggest the pasture track. It's very barren, exposed and hot with no shade or cover from wind, lightning etc. I recall that there's a very nice description of backpacking in muddy creek, north (upstream) from tomisch butte in Allen's Dan Rafael Swell book. Maybe look into that? Be sure you have a HC vehicle or a decent AWD to get down to tomisch. The roads a little rough and sandy at the bottom.
 
Bumpr1080 said:
Ahh- I suppose it's what's your looking for in your hike (open spaces vs. canyons) but I probably wouldn't suggest the pasture track. It's very barren, exposed and hot with no shade or cover from wind, lightning etc. I recall that there's a very nice description of backpacking in muddy creek, north (upstream) from tomisch butte in Allen's Dan Rafael Swell book. Maybe look into that? Be sure you have a HC vehicle or a decent AWD to get down to tomisch. The roads a little rough and sandy at the bottom.
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We are looking for some big views. Thanks for info about the Pasture, I guess we can cross it off the list.
 
Beautiful photo. We're going to do two or three short hikes in the Swell in early October.

I think we're going to see if we can climb the reef around the Black Dragon panel and maybe Wild Horse Creek and check out some of the canyons through the reef.
 
I'll 2nd that the pasture track isn't that interesting but Chimney is great. Also Cistern and Ramp, though I found Ramp's crux to be scary. Also the crack route up to the plateau where Knotted Rope and Quandary start. In short you can spend a lot of time exploring right around Hidden Splendor.
 
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