Bogley

[Iceaxe]

You are setting yourselves up for some long sand slogs.....

if that's what you really want to do....

I'd descend North Fork and base about where North Fork joins the Mindbenders.... Should have pumpable water near here (always at the final rap in the Mindbenders). You can do the Mindbenders over the next two days... and exit out White Roost....

That would put you back fairly close to your car and allow you to do both forks of White Roost (skip Little White or put it near the bottom of your list) and Chambers. Pasture and Buck are also close by....

Not sure why the desire to pack all that gear down to the bottom to camp but it's your party.

others might have better solutions....

:popcorn:

[pfinjt]

Unless you specifically want to descend a canyon using technical equipment, I'd go in from the west side, cross the Dirty Devil River, and set up camp where the North Fork and the South Fork of Robber's Roost Canyons meet. Nice spot there for a camp and you could explore canyons for days.

I you are more intent on descending canyons using ropes and technical equipment, the above plan wouldn't work.

So is this primarily a backpacking trip with some canyon descents or a canyoneering trip with a backpack?

[heliodor]

pfinjt wrote: Unless you specifically want to descend a canyon using technical equipment, I'd go in from the west side, cross the Dirty Devil River, and set up camp where the North Fork and the South Fork of Robber's Roost Canyons meet. Nice spot there for a camp and you could explore canyons for days.

I you are more intent on descending canyons using ropes and technical equipment, the above plan wouldn't work.

So is this primarily a backpacking trip with some canyon descents or a canyoneering trip with a backpack?

I would call it a backpacking trip with canyon descents. Traditionally we do long, 8-12 day backpacks, with the emphasis on exploration rather than hardcore canyoneering descents. Originally this trip was going to be a figure-eight type loop, starting at the head of the N. Fork, descending to the river, over and up N. Fork No Mans, over to and descend Notmindbender, exit via White Roost, and back to the car. But we quickly realized that descending the narrows in Notmindbender with full packs would probably be a real pain if not impossible. So, we altered the plan to the present so we can do some descents without the big packs.

[heliodor]

Iceaxe wrote: You are setting yourselves up for some long sand slogs.....

if that's what you really want to do....

I'd descend North Fork and base about where North Fork joins the Mindbenders.... Should have pumpable water near here (always at the final rap in the Mindbenders). You can do the Mindbenders over the next two days... and exit out White Roost....

That would put you back fairly close to your car and allow you to do both forks of White Roost (skip Little White or put it near the bottom of your list) and Chambers. Pasture and Buck are also close by....

Good advice, thanks. We'll try and stay near the confluence with the Mindbenders if possible.

Quote: Not sure why the desire to pack all that gear down to the bottom to camp but it's your party.

others might have better solutions....

:popcorn:

Basically because our assumption is that camping in the canyon would be preferable to camping up top. This may be a poor assumption, but in our experience this has usually been the case. As for the desire to pack all that stuff down, I'm going to have a hard time logically explaining that so I won't even try. There is definitely a masochistic streak in our group that none of us can quite figure out, but long desert slogs have become almost ritualistic over the years.

[Iceaxe]

Gottcha.... I'm known as the guy who keeps things as simple and easy as possible....

Have fun....

:popcorn: