Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219164084/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Thursday 3/27:
The trip was coming together nicely. There were going to be six of
us heading down. Tom and Synthia in their Subaru. RJ and I
would drive out in my Commander and pick up Ben on the way. Drew
was going to meet us there; coming from Salt Lake. This was going
to be Drew's first canyon trip. One person from
Bogley (mtnmax) was
possibly going to meet up with us sometime over the weekend, and another
friend Kim was coming in for part of Saturday. I was surprised
that not many other folks had taken the opportunity to join us; I put an
invite out to my canyon group, the
Yahoo
canyon group, and to
Bogley. It's
probably because they already had plans to be there. I knew of
three other groups that were going to be in that same area over the
weekend. Since we were coming in on Thursday, I didn't figure we'd
have any issues.
We were planning on going to the North Wash area. This served
several purposes. I didn't want to run a lot of new stuff, as my
main canyon partner, Jonas, was in Sweden. I figured this would be
a good opportunity to re-do the Poison Springs canyons. We did all
three last year, and it would be interesting to see the changes in the
canyon; as well as to see the improvement in climbing skills. I
was looking forward to trying to downclimb the longer corkscrew rappel
in Slideanide. It would also give us a chance to do some recon for
the upcoming less aggressive trip in April. I wanted to make
another run down Monkey Business. It had been several years since
I had done it, and remembered it being a good canyon. Don't
remember how appropriate it would be for beginners though.
RJ and I met up in Golden, packed his stuff in my truck; and then headed
out to pick up Ben. Unfortunately, Ben was delayed, so RJ and I
were waiting around for about an hour for Ben - out in the middle of
nowhere. Bummer. Would have much rather used that time
driving out there. Oh well, that's life. We loaded Ben's
stuff in the truck and headed out. The delay gave Tom and Synthia
a chance to catch up to us as they were leaving a little later. We
ran into them in Grand Junction when we stopped to fuel up and eat at
Subway. We made the customary stop in Green River, filled up the
water jug, and were guessing what the gas prices would be in Hanksville.
RJ won that bet, as well as several others; he was hot that weekend.
He should have bought a lotto ticket.
We arrived at Sandthrax, only to find out that the place was packed.
Drew had a small spot out in the open. Dan just pulled in as well.
Both he and I drove around to scout a couple of the other spots we knew
about to camp. All of them were filled. Geez. We went
back to the Sandthrax area, found a small open corner, and set up camp.
We discussed the morning plans; which were to be moving at 7am.
Going backwards from there, we decided to drive out at 6:30am to make a
Hogs run (bathroom run) in the morning. Drew said someone named
Colin was looking to meet me. I figured we would run into him
later during the weekend, and headed to bed since it was late and we had
an early morning planned.
Friday 3/28:
We woke up around 5:30am, and tried to be as quiet as we could while
doing final packing and eating breakfast. We drove out just after
6:30am and made the Hogs run. We then drove towards the Poison
Springs canyons. I had the directions in my head, and I sort of
remembered driving out there before. We started down the dirt
road, and nothing looked familiar. About three miles in, we came
to a fork that I knew was wrong. Whoops. Turns out we took
the wrong road. I guess it pays to look at the directions.
We did end up finding a pretty cool camp spot that will be useful later.
(We would have changed camp for this trip, since Sandthrax was so busy;
but we were meeting up with other folks. Would be good to meet the
other groups at Sandthrax too.)
We hit the parking area for the Poison Springs canyons around 8am.
There was even a group camped there. Wow, Canyoneering is sure
getting popular. We did last minute prep stuff and then hiked to
the head of Arscenic, left our 60m rope there with a note (we'd come
back and get it later.) We were all in the canyon by 9am.
Arscenic was a fun little romp. There were some scenic spots, and
a lot of fun downclimbs. It was over pretty quickly though.
We were climbing back up just after 9:30am; and were back at the rope to
retrieve it around 10am. We took a short break and had a snack.
Unfortunately, we had missed the arch on the return hike though.
Didn't go deep enough in; we stuck too close to the rim. The
weather was perfect; in the 60's; which made it a little warm on the
climbs up out of the canyon, but quite comfortable otherwise.
We then hiked over to the head of Slideanide. We cut across early,
and took a shortcut up a side drainage. Got to the head of
Slideanide and were rappelling in before 10:45am. On the rappel,
there was a pretty large rock that was unstable. We pulled the
rope out of the way and dropped the rock. It was pretty huge.
Better to have it drop safely than on an unsuspecting group and/or
possibly cut someone's rope. Slideanide was a fun canyon.
Lots of great downclimbs, and a fun elevator. The big draw is the
grand finale corkscrew. The whole group did great, and we all
downclimbed it. We then grabbed a bite of lunch to eat on the
slickrock just after the rappel; around 11:45am.
We then made the upclimb that I had done last year, and checked out a
new and even shorter duration variation. It went, and now we had a
pretty direct route up. Some lower fifth class moves, but the
group was strong and it wasn't an issue. We hiked over to
Constrychnine and was dropping in just before 1pm. We were
definitely making good time; especially for a group of six.
Constrychnine is my favorite of the three Poison Spring canyons.
It has some big and fun drops, a bunch of downclimbing challenges, a fun
elevator, some great sculpting, a precarious piton rappel/downclimb, and
a wonderful dark chamber. We also did a downclimb of an area that
I had only rappelled before. Good stuff. More cool sculpting
just before the confluence. We talked as a group, as we had a
couple options. It was just around 3pm at the confluence. We
could do the wash hike down and around and take the Arscenic hike back
up and out; which would allow us to see the arch we missed earlier.
This added almost two miles of wash walking though. Or we could do
the direct ascent again, and head back; this would likely leave enough
time to do another canyon.
During the day, I came to find out that it sounded like Colin might have
wanted to join us today. Maybe Colin was mtnmax from
Bogley? I
didn't know, but if he was, and he wanted to join us today; I'd feel
pretty bad. Since we left for the Hogs at 6:30am, he wouldn't have
had the opportunity to meet us in the morning. Kim was supposed to
come in sometime today as well; and this would be her first canyon trip.
I was voting to take the direct ascent, so we could see if Colin and Kim
were around and maybe take them up Lucky Charms. This would also
allow us to scout the big drop on Lucky Charms for the next trip, and
get into a less aggressive canyon with hopefully both Colin and Kim.
Others were up for another canyon, so we went up the direct route, and
were back at the cars around 3:45pm. We drove back to Sandthrax,
and found out that Colin was indeed mtnmax. Whoops. I
apologized that he didn't get the chance to run the canyons with us
today. Turns out he joined up with Dan though; and they had a good
time in Woody. Kim hadn't arrived yet. We discussed doing
Lucky Charms, and a few people were in. We loaded up the car, and
headed out. We got to the parking area around 5pm, and headed in.
Lucky Charms is a great little canyon. Some really neat sculpting,
great colors, good depth for lighting, and some really fun upclimbs.
When we were doing the upclimb, Ben caught a glimpse of another group.
I blew out my shoe on the upclimb. The whole toe front came apart.
We made the upclimb, and then headed too far North on the traverse to
the next canyon. I remembered it being right around the corner;
which we had walked way too far to be just around the corner. We
quickly corrected, and worked our way around the head of the canyon.
We saw the other group, and they had set up the rappel I was planning on
setting up next time. Cool. As I suspected, a 200' rope
reached. Good to know. Hope a 180' one reaches too, as that
is what I was planning on bringing next time. From the looks of
it, it should just reach.
It was Rick's group that was set up and rappelling there. We
chatted with them for a bit, and listened to Rick's stories. Rick
said he recently downclimbed the third section of the route back down.
I knew a couple of my group (present company included) were listening
and always up for a challenge. We then went over and did the
downclimbs. We downclimbed and partner assisted all of the drops.
Tom had to up the ante, and did the third downclimb without using his
hands. On the last downclimb, one of my handholds blew out, and I
did a relatively controlled slide down. This would have been fine,
but my shoe was blown out, so it opened up on the way down and I scraped
a hole in my sock and scraped up my toe. No other incidents, and
we were back at the cars at 6:30pm. Still had some daylight left;
so we headed back to camp.
Kim had shown up, and we all made dinner together and shared food and
stories from the day. We met a couple of the other groups;
including a large group across from us which was celebrating two
birthdays. I had talked to Stoy from that group, who was one of
the birthday folks, prior to coming out. Nice folks. We
headed to bed relatively early as we had another early day planned.
RJ, Ben, and Drew were grumbling about the early start. The plan
is that we would do Monkey Business early, and then Kim would hike up
and meet us at the head of Right Leprechaun. We'd do Right Lep,
and then possibly more if time allowed.
Since I'm such a light sleeper, I didn't really sleep all that well.
Didn't get to sleep until after 4am...
Saturday 3/29:
I was woken up by Colin at 7am. Geez, we were supposed to have
been driving at 7am. Woke everyone else up, and we started getting
ready. We made up good time, and were driving by 7:30am towards
the Hogs, and we dropped into Monkey Business at 8:30am. There
were seven of us for Monkey Business; Tom, Synthia, Ben, RJ, Drew, Colin
and I. We were planning on meeting Kim at 10am; which would now be
a little tight with the later start.
Monkey Business was even better than I remembered it. There is
some wonderfully scenic spots there. Some really great downclimbs,
and one crawl under a huge chokestone. It has a few spots that are
easy to stay high; a good training area. People can go low and
squeeze some too. The canyon was bone dry; including a few
potholes that normally hold water. The pothole section is a fun
little romp, and we finished up the last rappel around 11am.
Whoops; we were supposed to meet Kim an hour ago. Still needed to
do hike out and the upclimb. Hope Kim took my advice and brought a
book along. We did the hike down, and then the climb up. I
showed the group No Kidding; another canyon that looked like a lot of
fun. We made it to the head of Right Leprechaun around 12:15pm.
Kim was there, and had brought a book. She was lounging in the sun
and relaxing. Glad to know she wasn't worried about us.
Another group of two came around as we were preparing to enter the
canyon. Since this was Kim's first canyon; we let them play
through. Several of us downclimbed many of the spots, and we were
able to toss the rope for the group in front of us to avoid rope scars
on a couple pulls. Kim did great, and was able to downclimb many
of the spots in Right Leprechaun. That's such a great canyon with
some really fun downclimbs. We did more optional challenging
downclimbs; and Tom was able to make the run around and jump across the
pothole move. Wild. Several people were contemplating
downclimbing the final rappel. It was out of my league, so I just
used a handline down; which is what most people did as well (some
rapped.) We made it to the Subway section around 2:30pm. We
still had plenty of time, so we discussed adding at least the Left Fork,
and possibly the Middle if there was time. Some of the folks were
content with the canyons done that day.
When the canyon opened up, we sat for a minute, had a bite to eat and
drink and discussed the canyons and options. Four of us decided to
go back for more. Ben, Tom, Synthia and I hiked up, and hit the
head of Left Leprechaun at 3:30pm. We took the second fork into
Left Leprechaun. I hadn't dropped in there before; so it was neat
to add something new, even if it was just a small section. Not too
different from the other head fork, but it did have some fun downclimbs.
Left Fork to the confluence with Middle goes pretty quickly, and we were
there just before 4pm. We still had plenty of time, and the others
were game for the Middle Fork.
We climbed up the confluence between the Left and Middle Forks, and made
it around to the head of the Middle Fork around 4:15pm. Like the
left fork, there are two forks at the head of the Middle Fork. We
again did one I hadn't done before. Very fun stuff; with one
challenging downclimb. Middle Fork is a great canyon. Some
good sculpting, and some great physical challenges. There are some
really tight spots where you need to either squeeze through, or traverse
a little higher.
There was some blood on the walls, which we were assuming was left over
from the rescue from a week ago. A group had gone into Middle
Fork, and one person had run out of steam. They were pulled out by
a rescue team using the helicopter as the anchor. As canyoneering
gets more popular, this may happen more often. Hopefully people
learn their limits, and research the canyons adequately; otherwise it
will likely add regulations in the future.
The team made quick work of the canyon, which I thought was easier than
the last time. We were back to the confluence of Left and Middle
Leprechaun at 5:30pm. We took a quick break, and then continued
down. I love the dark, slanted section and chokestones of Belfast
Boulevard. We hit Leprechaun Junction at 5:45pm, and were back at
camp shortly after 6pm. Still plenty of light left, so we again
shared food and visited with the other groups.
Sunday 3/30:
We decided we would leave for the Hogs at 7am today; so we woke up a
little later than normal. Drove out to the hogs, and then made our
way towards Adobe Swale. We passed a bus on the way out; and saw a
group camping that were likely waiting for the upcoming bus. At
the turnoff, Tom and I drove out and left my Commander at the exit.
We then met the others at the starting area.
It was colder, windier and there were some decent clouds today. A
few people decided to bring a little warmer of clothing. Still
didn't look like a lot of rain would come down, and since it had been so
dry; it would take a decent amount of water to be dangerous. I
figured we'd be able to find a safe place if it did start to rain.
We started out towards the canyon around 9am.
Adobe is a pretty canyon, and has a couple of fun downclimbs; including
the first rappel. It looks more difficult than it really is.
The double rappel through potholes is a blast. Definitely need to
make sure we don't make a mistake here, as we only have enough ropes for
that rappel. If they get stuck, we will need to retrieve them.
We were careful, and the pull went fine. The next rappel is pretty
small; but it has the (in?)famous biner locked into the hueco.
Very creative. I definitely wouldn't want to load that one too
much though. It's equalized with a pretty bomber rock anchor
though; so no worries. The rest of the canyon has some other short
and fun downclimbs, a slanted hall, and then it opens up. We
explored a couple areas to see if there might be another route up, but
they were all pretty sketchy.
We made the recommended climb back up and around. The consensus
was that it was a lot of approach and exit for a pretty short canyon
section. When we were on the slickrock, the winds really were
kicking. Probably 20-25mph consistent with gusts to 35 or 40mph.
There were some pretty good clouds too. Made for a good contrast
for the photos, but we also still had our tents set up. I was
hoping the rain would hold off until we got back and took down camp.
It stinks trying to take down camp in the rain; especially raining on
sand. We got back to my truck around 12:45pm; and most piled into
or on my vehicle. Tom jogged back to the other cars.
It started to drizzle a little on the way back to the other cars.
I dropped everyone off, and made sure they knew the way out. I was
going to go a bit faster, as I knew it would take me longer to pack up.
On the way back to camp, it really was pouring. I was hoping it
was localized, and that we might have a small window to take down camp.
Not likely, but you can always hope... When we got to camp, it was
only sprinkling, and the heavy rains hadn't hit there yet.
Awesome. We hightailed it, and took down camp. Got it down
relatively quick and dry. Said our goodbye's, and hit the road.
The trip back was nasty. That storm extended into the Colorado
mountains. We dropped Ben off, and then hit major snow over the
mountain passes. It was one of the worst, if not the worst storm I
had driven through in Colorado. Visibility was only around 10 to
30 feet at times; and everything was icing over. My headlights,
brights and fog lights were completely iced over. There were only
two small holes where my headlights were shining through. Until we
stopped and cleaned them off, the brights and fog lights were completely
covered over. We made it through the passes about a half hour
before they closed the pass. There had been a 70 car pileup.
I could definitely see that happening in those conditions; by the time
you saw it, you likely couldn't stop in time. I was glad we made
it through safely.
Dropped RJ back off at his truck, and headed home to get a little sleep.
A wonderful weekend with a bunch of great canyons with good company.
Can't wait for the next one!
Hope you enjoy the photos!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219164084/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish