Another Tieton/Royal Columns question

[michaeljosephnozel]

Spent a day at The Bend and a day at Royal Columns this past weekend. Wow, Tieton is fantastic! I think I enjoy it more each time I visit.

 

Anyway, there is a very large pre-fabricated steel structure (currently in two sections) in the parking lot of the Oak Creek Ranger Station. It appears that it will be the new foot bridge--other climbers made the same conclusion, but no one could confirm.

 

Does anyone know if this is, in fact, a new foot bridge? If so, who is responsible? Access Fund?

 

The Tyrolean certainly adds a bit of adventure to a day at the crag, in addition to being something on the order of a 5.10b-equivalent warmup (with a pack)--especially with the shaky condition of the tree ladder on the crag side. A new foot bridge would be nice, though.

[catbirdseat]

You actually used the cable when you could have used the suspension bridge? I could see using the cable to get to Royal Columns, but the Bend is a shorter walk from the suspension bridge up stream.

[michaeljosephnozel]

CBS: Are you f-in' joking? I use the suspension bridge for The Bend; the Tyrolean for Royal Columns--although the suspension bridge plus short hike might have been faster for our party of three on Sunday to RC.

 

Still wondering whether anyone knows about the structure at the Oak Creek Ranger Station. Sure looks like a possible new foot bridge. (If it is, that would mean that I would use the suspension bridge for The Bend; foot bridge for RC. And I suspect that the Tyrolean would drift into obscurity, and become part of the historic lore--perhaps even chronicled in the forthcoming Ford/Yoder guidebook . . . .).

 

 

[Uncle_Tricky]

Why not just walk across the knee-deep water?

[catbirdseat]

michaeljosephnozel said:

CBS: Are you f-in' joking? I use the suspension bridge for The Bend; the Tyrolean for Royal Columns--

That is what I was trying to say. I don't know anything about a new bridge.

 

Uncle Tricky, later in the season the water is lower and is an easy wade, but when I was there it seemed rather swift.

[Uncle_Tricky]

catbirdseat said:

Uncle Tricky, later in the season the water is lower and is an easy wade, but when I was there it seemed rather swift.

 

Try walking a couple hundred feet upstream from the cable. Yeah, sometimes the water is high, but there's a wide shallow spot that's almost always walkable. Since the flow is controlled by a dam, the river fluctuates according to irrigation needs and the fullness of the reservoir instead of rain/snow melt.

[Thinker]

I whole-heartedly agree! After watching a bunch of people waste a whole lotta climbing time f*cking around with the cable my partner and I waded across and beat them to the rock by a good half hour. My shoes were almost dry by then, too.