Conditions:Freeman Creek-20240909142927

Latest:	7 Sep 2024 (4 mos ago)

Reported by:	Desertnights (37 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	Low
Wetsuit:	Thin wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	7 hours

Team: 5 people with experience level Beginner to Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: This canyon held its water levels well. The shorter days put the exit in the shade and we were grateful for that. Also someone else used TP as trail markers/flags for the exit which was funny but not a good long term solution for marking this exit.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
7 Sep 2024	Great	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	7 hours	5 people Beginner to Advanced	Desertnights (37 reports)
Comment: This canyon held its water levels well. The shorter days put the exit in the shade and we were grateful for that. Also someone else used TP as trail markers/flags for the exit which was funny but not a good long term solution for marking this exit.
13 Jul 2024	Great	Moderate	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	7 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Desertnights (37 reports)
Comment: This was a more beautiful and engaging canyon than I expected. Our group stayed in the water for R1 & R2 which were both stellar rappels in flow. R1 is possible to rappel to the left of the rooster tails so it was managable even for our group member that was new to water. I would recommend just staying LDC for R1 & R2 and staying in the water course vs crawling around unless the flow is extreme++. You miss 2 great rappels if you build anchors out of the water course here. R3 & R4 webbing had overhand knots and those were corrected. R4 is the crux. Right now, there is an anchor RDC on the cliffside. This rappel line lets you skip the hallway & takes you into the final falls. There is inversion risk here. No one in our group jumped--it's really not deep enough. I wasn't ever above my shoulders...that's like 4 ft deep. We were blessed with an overcast day for the slog/hike out.
5 Jul 2024	Good	Moderate Low	None	Normal	9 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	Ameister (43 reports),Levr (21 reports),Jennj (11 reports),Dirk (8 reports)
Comment: Pleasant canyon for the area! Couldn't find any sort of trail for the approach in, but following the KML posed few challenges. Anchors have changed significantly since the writing of the beta. We replaced all webbing, and used the following anchors: R1 - from a sturdy tree far DCL, out of the watercourse for group reasons. R2 - downclimbed R3 - tree DCR, just in the spray. Best rappel by far. R4 - large rock DCL, outside of watercourse. Anchors and water level for rappelling in the flow appeared to be good, but wasn't tested for group reasons. LAPAR jumped the last 10ft into the pool below, which was about 6' deep and sandy. Would not advise making the 30' jump discussed. Exit followed no particular trail but the bushwhacking was minor. Air temps over 100F and warm water caused the majority of our group to be happy with no wetsuits.
13 Jun 2020	Great	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	7 people Expert to Intermediate	Cesar (21 reports),Willie92708 (973 reports)
Comment: Cesar: The approach was fairly easy but you need know the path since it is easy to loose it. The canyon was pretty straight forward without any hydraulics although there is a lot of water in it. Two notes, a dead tree was used as an anchor on the 3rd , that tree was pulled out with quick push, it just cracked and came loose. Crazy what some canyoneers trust their lives to. We used a fiddle stick to rappel that section on a healthy tree. The last rappel has a questionable deadman anchor (which almost looks like a cairn anchor). The webbing is too long and the deadman setup is questionable. Be safe and enjoy this beautiful canyon. The last rap is also a big jump... The exit is tricky, the bottom section did NOT have any makers, we found bright orange markers on the trees but there were only a few to lead us out of the canyon. Willie: We used the Manzanita bush higher up DCL to rap to the pothole for R1, instead of belaying across the slim fest at the top of the drop. The big pine tree in the pothole is totally, the Alder is good, but small. Although this is a cool location to rappel out of, some bolts higher up DCR would be useful. R2 has webbing feed through a pinch point that we dug out 3 years ago. It's solid, but not the best line for the slide. Again, bolts could fix this. The tree for R3 is dead and it broke off easily, so we tossed it aside. We ghosted off a pine much higher up, but there is small Manzanita bush more inline and closer. For R4 we use the giant tree DCR, since that where the webbing was located, but it out of the waterfall itself. For R5 we did not use the watercourse rappel, but rather went up on the shelf DCR to a rock cairn anchor with 40 feet of webbing (long extension makes the pull much easier), since 3 members wanted to do the 40 foot jump from shelf down from that anchor. The rock cairn is actually quite solid even if it looks iffy. Bounce testing did not budge any of the rocks used. The water flow was certainly class C "moderate low" in the brunt of any waterfall or chute (see pic), but not everyone went into the main flow at such constrictions, so it would be "low" flow. And that one thing about Freeman's is you do not have to subject yourself to the main flow if you do not want to do so. For the hike up we climbed onto the ridge and soon as it was only intermittent class 3 scrambling and we soon found a well used trail which lead us right back to our cars at the exit point in the beta. This use trail is vastly easier than going up the drainage per the beta's KML file.
1 Sep 2019	Great	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	8 hours	6 people Beginner to Advanced	TJoelle (4 reports)
Comment: First anchor easily accessible on belay. Pine tree in pothole looking very, very dead sans a few green sprigs at the bottom. A young alder growing nextdoor provides some backup. Slide very fun! Would be better with a bit more flow. Special attention paid to last rap as the flow funnels into a tiny crack where feet are easily stuck. Some of our group rapped off a second anchor DCR. After 5PM hike out = no sun. Bugs horrible at the top, bring spray. We followed the bright orange ties on trees into a minor bushwhack, but it wasn't horrible. Great day overall and nice flow!
21 Jul 2019	Ok	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	6 people Intermediate to Expert	Dominik (64 reports)
20 Jul 2019	Ok	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	5 hours	6 people Beginner to Expert	Johnbcaves (150 reports),Dominik (64 reports),Natasha (14 reports)
Comment: Water was chilly despite the hot day. Approach was easy, exit was tough due to heat and elevation gain. We skipped all but the last 2 raps due to high flow.
23 Jul 2017	Great	Moderate	Thin wetsuit	Normal	7 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	DMonroy (188 reports)
Comment: This is a fantastic canyon which would be one of the most popular if not for the challenging exit. (Think mini-MIA trail). It's harder than it might seem as you finish at 6400 feet elevation. The canyon was in moderate flow, so it was especially challenging, and the jump at the end was fantastic! All anchors were in poor condition or missing, and replaced.
23 Jul 2017							Willie92708 (973 reports)
Comment: Video jumping 40 feet into last pool: https://www.facebook.com/groups/583118321723884/permalink/1414538795248495/ Photo Album: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPUAuxwuet8i_T1F5c4DH_oo921HIJyNYcg0Qw9HwBDSOgmRwplUNzPYtKUpRmPEQ?key=R0F1V21RdnNVMUxFOWRmQ0xvdVRGTS1yQ1VranBR
1 Jul 2017	Ok	Extreme	Thin wetsuit	Extreme	4 hours	5 people Beginner to Expert	Xenonrocket (102 reports)
Comment: Bypassed all rappels and jumps/slides. 3rd rappel would have been doable, but lack of known anchor on 4th rappel just downstream posed too much risk of going over edge due to flow. Pics at a later date.
6 Sep 2015	Ok	Shallow wading		Normal	5 hours	12 people Beginner to Expert	CC (93 reports)
Comment: A hot 90F in the sun. A lot of the early portion of the canyon is in the sun so wait to put wetsuits on when you get to the wet rap or pools. To keep from overheating we sat in the pools & waited for the group to catch up. Might have been doable in with jacket & wetsuit. If done earlier in the season with chilly water then it would make sense to have a wetsuit. The final rappel is into a large pool that is cold & having a wetsuit on was nice which allowed us to swim laps & float. There was a dead bear in buried in brush and mud.