[pct-l] Bear Creek Crossing 2010

[Edward Anderson]

Once he was in the water, and committed, I agree that Fuzzy Monkey did everything right. HOWEVER: 1) if this was an afternoon crossing, he should have camped and waited for the stream to drop next morning, 2) He should have taken the time to explore upstream to discover a safer crossing - one above tributaries where the volume would be reduced. 3) Also, it appears from the last part of the video, that he had his pants on. Too much unnecessary resistance to the current. Better to take the time to remove pants and brave the cold water, and cross with legs bare to reduce resistance. It's that resistance that can sweep you off your feet. 
MendoRider-Hiker - - - as a Monday morning quarterback.
 

________________________________
 From: CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>
To: pct-L backcountry.net <pct-l at backcountry.net> 
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 8:22 AM
Subject: [pct-l] Bear Creek Crossing 2010
  
Good morning,

Except for the obvious screw-up of not protecting his maps before crossing,
in my opinion, Fuzzy Monkey did (almost) everything right.  He steadied
himself with one pole upstream while probing with the other pole.  He
tended to face the far bank, thereby presenting the width of only one leg
to the current, but he did occasionally turn upstream to expose both legs
to current.  http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=265511

One can probably see in the video that if he had been crossing with a
partner immediately downstream of him, not only would the partner feel much
less current, but the partner could also have steadied Fuzzy as he took
steps.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/

On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:44 PM, Paul Bodnar <paulbodnar at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Here is a link to a video of Fuzzy Monkey crossing Bear Creek at about
> mile 868 in 2010.  Fuzzy Monkey shares an important lesson....
>
> http://thefuzzymonkey.net/?p=545
>
> Paul
>
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