Seven Teacups May 14

The plan was for a fairly relaxed weekend with friends and that is what we got. On this my ?3.5th? time down Dry Meadow Creek, better known as the Seven Teacups, we went in the top which I had never done before. The way in was hot and dusty with some angry bulls to bypass but good conversation made up for it. We ended up suiting up probably about 0.5 miles too early, which slowed us down a bit. There were some cold pools to wade, slippery rocks to navigate, and a nice patio section we passed en route. We ran into another group of four right at the normal suit-up location and would end leapfrogging with them the entire way down the canyon. The flow was moderately-high; fun, fresh, and not scary.

The Seven Teacups (stolen from previous post)

I forgot how cool and intimidating the view was from the top of the first teacup; two smooth walls of granite slanting in to an ominous horizonline with no end in sight. After a quick snack we led the charge down the canyon. I dove through the natural bridge into the first teacup, then jumped into the second teacup, and rappelled with the others into the third. The rappel into the fourth teacup always feels like the crux of the trip to me with a few moments rappelling through the full flow into the void beneath the falls. This went smooth enough for everyone and we spent some time on the sunny patio here. I took two laps climbing the slab and did the classic jump into the fourth teacup (my first time as I did not know where to climb out previously).

We continued on through some of the nuisance-y short rappels and jumps to the top of the big falls. Here the other group ended up going first so we spent lots of time lounging on a warm granite slab. Eventually it was our turn and we rappelled into the washing machine, a boiling pool trapped behind rocks, trickier than I remembered.

In the interest of time we bypassed the rappel at the left turn falls and instead downclimbed the slabs on the left side of the canyon. We went first down the rappel into the toilet bowl, overall not too challenging to escape the recirculating pothole in these conditions. For the last rappel we used the sideways traversing option to the redirect, bypassing the narrow slot I've usually gone through.

In all it was a pretty leisurely pace down, but I think everyone else had fun. With this stretch of the Kern fresh in my mind from the previous week, I brought my packraft and had a very pleasant float out. Like last week my GoPro refused to function on this section. The river was running at 400 cfs and the rapids had noticeably less bite than the 650 cfs a few days prior, which made for a comfortable solo run. I portaged Carson Falls. I made it the 2 miles to the bridge in 31 minutes, Brush Creek in 40 minutes, and drove back to the bridge within the hour to hang out with Cyndi as the others finished their walk. We then drove into middle Brush Creek and had a pleasant campsite hangout as the moon rose nearly full.