Kitchen Creek Oct 21

I attended the 75th anniversary weekend of the SoCal Grotto held at Lake Morena, a well organized and well attended event. Unfortunately I largely struck out on getting into caves that weekend. Saturday the cave trips were beyond full with 16+ people signed up for each trip and so I reluctantly agreed to go canyoning instead. By the time we left the campground there were 9 of us including some first time canyoneers. It was a short 20 minute drive out to I-8, then a slow hike on the PCT to the top of the canyon. I caught a small snake that almost got stepped on and moved it out of the way. Arriving at the top of the canyon was modest flow, algae a plenty, and the canyon's main redeeming quality, thousands and thousands of frogs. We walked down the creek until pools started to appear and then we all suited up for the too short bedrock section. The going was slow getting the group down the two slippery rappels, both of which were easily bypassable. 

Two of us were then sent ahead to find and rig the remaining two rappels we were expecting. Lots of creek bashing with some spikey seed plants, algae globs, and occasionally poison oak to avoid. Every boulder I approached exploded with jumping frogs though which was the main entertainment. There were a couple minor downclimbs but certainly nothing needing rope. I took every rare opportunity to partially submerge in a pool to cool my wetsuit. We went quite a long distance at which point I was convinced there were no more rappels and so I stopped and snacked while the others caught up. It turned out a stone's throw downcanyon was the remnants of an old dam and sluiceway, signaling an obvious end to the canyon. We climbed out to gain a bench and hiked cattle trails back to the PCT without incident and then drove back to camp. 

It was easily one of the least interesting canyons I have been in. Even with much higher flow I think it would have struggled to capture much more of my interest. The rest of the evening went well enough with me trying out the silks that Carl had set up and some bruising squeeze box attempts followed by dinner and a slideshow. Also plenty of entertainment with 40+ wild turkeys roaming around and roosting in trees around sunset. Sunday I awoke to find out that no one signed up for Fredrik and my more ambitious trip offering to the Carrizo Badlands so I headed home with Heather and the kids, shamefully managing to go the weekend without getting underground.