Umtanum Creek Memorial Day Weekend Overnight

May 24th and 25th 2008

We gathered at Tyee school parking lot on Saturday morning to get our stuff together for our drive to Umtanum creek.
Gathered were Chuck Guy, Conor A., Ricky A., Herman K., Harrison K., Jay C., Ryan C. and Alex L.

Umtanum Creek is a small creek that is in the Yakima River Canyon, about 12 miles south of Ellensburg. None of our group had been to Umtanum before, but we had read a lot on the web and had tips from John Roper on the location and things to do.

Ted C. and his boys, Jonathan and Winston decided to form their own patrol with some of their friends and do a two-night outing in the same area. We decided that we should meet up for one night. Ted called while we were at Tyee and we again agreed that we would meet up for the night. We would stay in contact by using FM two way radios to talk every hour on the hour.

It was a two-hour drive to Umtanum from Tyee and with a pit stop in Ellensburg we still arrived in Umtanum at around 10:30 am. Within a few minutes we were across the suspension footbridge and on our way up the Umtanum Creek trail. The boys we way ahead, too fast to get a starting trailhead picture on the footbridge because of the excitement to get going!

The weather was beautiful with a few puffy clouds in the blue sky. The beginning of the hike is in desert county full of the smell of sage brush, a smell I always enjoyed. The creek was full and filled the air with the sound of rushing water. It was not long before the canyon changed from desert to green… full of grass, bushes and trees, however looking up the canyon walls the sharp contrast of the change to desert was only a few hundred yards away. The area was full of wildlife if we kept our eyes open we might see something here or there.

At noon we stopped for a lunch break at a place that we thought would be a great campground, But we knew we had to move on as we had decided to rendezvous with Ted’s patrol at a place where three creeks converged higher up in the canyon. We had traveled about 1.5 miles and it looked like it would be another mile or so before we reached the rendezvous point. We used the two-way radios to try to contact Ted but we had no answer.

As we moved on we kept running out of trail and did not understand why. We found ourselves doing a little bushwhacking and covering some difficult terrain. It was hard but fun and added to the adventure. However it slowed our progress quite a bit. At 1pm we were crossing some difficult rocky terrain when we stopped to see if we could contact Ted on the two-way radio again. After a few minutes we got contact with Ted. He said a car in his group has car troubles and they had to attend to the problem. Therefore he said we would see each other again in Bellevue. We were disappointed but thanks to the radio communication we were able to go on without wondering where Ted’s patrol was.

We were at a difficult point in the trail and we were not sure if it would get rougher and we were feeling like we had passed the best campsite where we had stopped for lunch. We decided to have s small scout party go forward without packs and see if a good campsite was anywhere nearby. Jay, Chuck, Ryan and Harrison joined as a scout party and went forward. We looked at a lot of places and talked to a few friendly hikers. We were gone for about an hour and finally we found a location we thought would be great. It was a small spot but it had a beaver dam and pond and several places to pitch a tent. We thought if we used both sides of the creek we would have enough area for our small group. So we headed back to bring the rest of the patrol forward.

On the way back we notice that the main trail crossed the creek a couple times. We finally realized why we kept loosing the main trail as we would stick the side of the creek we were on often times and end up on less well worn trails.

When we got back the Troop was in a mood to get to the campsite and get camp set up so other activities could begin. Also several other camping groups came by and we worried that we would lose our great spot. We made good time getting to the beaver pond and had camp setup at around 4pm.

The scouts had a great time setting up camp. Campfires were started. Alex made a log bridge between camp sites so we could get across the creek without getting our feet wet. The kids had a great time playing in the stream below the beaver dam.

Jay had a new stove called a JetBoil that is amazingly fast at getting water boiling. We all ate like kings with tons of food. We had no shortage of water because we brought two full 2-gallon collapsible water jugs on the hike. We knew they were heavy but we thought we did not want to go without and we were not confident about the MSR water filter and the creek water quality. So we had plenty of water.

After dinner at around 6pm the boys wanted to hike to the top of the canyon walls. So they took off and had a great journey. Chuck and Herman decided to follow along after about 15 minutes and we got our exercise climbing the steep rocky hillside too. We saw goat beds and wild flowers and amazing views. We were able to pinpoint our exact location on the map because for the high vantage point we could see some major referenced points that showed where we were. We never caught up with the boys until we made it back to the campsite.

We then just hung around the campfire until bedtime. It rained quite a bit at night. We were all doing good and stayed dry, except for Conor and Alex who reported they had a rude awakening and decided to get their rainfly on pronto!

Sunday morning was very leisure on the wakeup time. It was easy to get up though as the rain had left and it was a beautiful blue sky morning. We all had breakfast. We decided to try out the MSR water filter. We wanted to make sure we did it right so we did not get beaver fever. We all gave it a try and decided the MSR was a good way to get water if care was taken not to contaminate the clean water thought improper handling. At this point I have had no ill effects so I think the filter worked great. Several scouts and all the leaders learned how to use the water filter. In addition to the MSR filer we learned how to use the Coleman Peak camp stove during this morning.

Herman and I went for a short hike up the trail to see a campsite we noticed when we were on the canyon wall. We came to a point about 200 yard form camp where signs indicated that the trail was ended because the state was protecting wildlife through July 15th. We noticed when we were leaving the trailhead that a sign indicated that the protection boundary was 3.25 miles up the trail. So we think we packed in about 3.25 miles. Plus lots of other hiking!

We decided to delay our departure by one hour as the boys wanted to climb the canyon wall again this morning, so off they went. After they got back we finished packing up and headed out by about 11:10 am. On the way back we decided to do our service project of litter clean up. However the trail was in great condition and there was very little for us to clean up on the way back.

About 30 minutes into our return we ran into Ted’s patrol. We were very surprised to see them as we thought they had to give up. However Ted is very persistent and his patrol came anyway. They came for Jacob Durr road which is to the west of the Umtanum area. They had to hike down the steep rocky canyon walls to arrive in the canyon. Ted’s patrol stayed at the 3 creek rendezvous point. They thought we would be there and so they tried to find us to have breakfast with us. But they had no idea we had moved on up the trail to the beaver pond.

It was great to see Ted’s patrol and that they were having a great time in spite of difficulties. Ted’s patrol had their MSR water filter malfunction, so we traded out of water filter with them and then headed out.

We stopped for a break about 12:00 to 12:30 and had some snacks. A couple boys scaled the rocky canyon wall while the rest of us lounged in the tall grass. Jay broke out his Jetboil and made some soups for us which were really great!

We made it back to the trailhead at around 1:00. We spent some time picking up garbage at the trailhead. We did pretty well because 8 people can pick up lots of trash in a short period of time.

Soon we were on the road to Ellensburg where the much anticipated fast food restaurants beckoned. We had some great fast food and headed out. We arrived at Tyee at around 4pm where we all said good bye and we all seemed to feel we had a great outing.


Chuck Guy
ASM, Troop 626