Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219727624/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Thursday 5/22:
Jason and I got a little later start than I was hoping for.
It was entirely my fault, as I had some work I needed to wrap up before
heading out. I was also working on getting Jen a ride out.
She wasn't able to come out with the rest of us today; and was planning
on coming out tomorrow. Unfortunately, the person coming out on
Friday bailed, so I lined up a ride with another group of canyoneers I
knew that were going to be down in the North Wash. Fritjof also
had some car trouble, so at the last minute we were swapping plans for
rides.
On the way out, we ran into a huge storm over the passes.
Near Vail, it was snowing and hailing so hard that we momentarily lost
control on the road, but regained it pretty quickly. That was the
first time I had lost control in the new Jeep; that will wake you up
quick. We had originally planned on taking Jason's Honda to save
gas (and because we had gotten conflicting information on the Cedar Mesa
roads), but in the end decided on taking the Jeep. This was the
first of many times where we were glad we decided to take the Jeep.
With all of the rain and snow, the rivers were really moving.
There was a bridge near Grand Junction that was almost flooded.
There was no gap between the water and the bridge. The water
wasn't coming over yet, but it was close. Wild.
We arrived at the Cedar Mesa area just as it was getting
dark, and started up the road for Gravel and Cheesebox; looking for a
good camp spot for the group. The crossing of the White Canyon in
the beginning was a little rough; again we were glad we took the Jeep.
It would have been nice to have had a little light; as it took a bit of
time to scout out campsites in the dark. We noted any possible
spots, and made it around 4 miles in. We decided to just take a
spot fairly close to the entrance. A little too close to the
highway for my tastes, but it was a pretty good spot, and it would be
easy for the others to find us.
Jonas, Misty and Fritjof came in next, and they got in pretty
late. It turns out that the bridge did flood, and a section of
I-70 was closed. Between that detour and the traffic heading to
Moab, it took them around 10 hours to get here. Ouch. Derek
and Marty showed up insanely early in the morning as they couldn't even
leave the Denver area until 9pm.
The weather forecast wasn't looking too good; calling for 60%
chance of rain for Friday with a high around 60, 50% chance of rain for
Saturday again in the 60's, but then clearing to 20% chance on Sunday
moving to lower 70's and Monday looked good with 10% chance of rain and
75 for the temp. It had rained on and off in Utah on the way over.
Luckily it was dry when we were setting up the tents. It rained
off and on during the night, and it was pretty chilly out. Between
the highway noise, the rain, the other folks getting in, and having
brought my really crappy tent; I didn't sleep very well.
Friday 5/23:
We all woke up around 6:30am, and started prepping for the
canyon. We were originally planning on Gravel today.
Although, it has a pretty large drainage, so we were having a
conversation on whether to start the hike and evaluate the conditions on
the way. It really hadn't rained all that hard, and not for too
long at a time; so it was likely okay. It's a pretty wide canyon,
with lots of safe spots. However, as we were talking, it started
to rain fairly hard. That made up our mind; we'd stick with
shorter stuff today, and possibly not even that depending on the
weather. We decided to first head over to Fry. Since it's
normally a wet canyon, it would likely be pretty full and fun. It
also only has two short slot sections, so there are lots of safe spots
and a few exits in case it really did start coming down hard.
We drove over and were suiting up on the road for Fry canyon
around 8:30am. We decided to just wear the wetsuits for the entire
canyon, as the misty rain was on and off, and it was pretty chilly out.
Better to have some extra insulation. There were seven of us
heading in; Marty, Derek, Jason, Fritjof, Jonas, Misty and myself.
Before we dropped in and along the way, we were looking at the clues of
the canyon related to water content. We had no evidence of any
significant recent flow (footsteps still existed), there was no current
flow, etc. So we started dropping into Fry canyon around 8:45am.
The first slot section is pretty, with some neat layering and
sculpting. There was only one pool which was waist deep if you
skirted the edges, and chest deep if you went straight through.
The first slot section is over pretty quick and we were through within
15 minutes. The next section is fairly open. The rain
continued on and off, but nothing hard. We reached the second slot
section about 9:30am, and set the rappel. The rain had stopped, so
we dropped in.
The second slot section is pretty cool too. This one
has a fun downclimb which ended in a pool with a swim. There were
a few other downclimbs and wades in a nice slot; and then we were back
out in a more open section before 10:15am. From there, there was a
nice ruin on a ledge, and then the walk down the mostly open wash to the
confluence. There are some cool subway like sections, and some
neat sculpted and wavy sandstone floors. We headed up the White
Canyon a little, which didn't have flow either, and started the climb
out before 10:45am. It started to rain again during the climb out,
and we were back on the canyon rim around 11am. On the hike back,
it started to rain a little harder. Harder than it had rained
before, but still not very hard. Although, it was hard enough that
it started to gather and create some neat small waterfalls into the
canyon. From the rim, we were able to see a little flow had
started just before the second narrows. Nothing dangerous, but
good info for decision making. That rain didn't last long, and as
we would see the next several days; the weather continued to fluctuate
between sun and rain.
We were back to the cars around 11:45am, and changed back
into dry clothes. We talked it over, and decided to head to North
Wash to see what the weather there would be like, and possibly do some
of the shorter canyons there. We stopped at camp, and picked up
some more dry clothes, as well as our potluck food, tables, and chairs.
The plan was that we would meet up with some other friends I knew that
would be camping at North Wash, and we could just stick around there for
dinner. We could visit into the evening, and then Jen would be
coming in with one of their group later that night.
We took our time driving over to North Wash, stopping at the
Hite Overlook, and making a Hog Springs run. When we got to North
Wash, one of our friends' vehicle was there, but they weren't around.
Roger and Jane Arhart were there though, so we visited with them for a
little. We decided to go off and do one, and possibly both,
Blarneys, and invited the Arharts along. They were waiting for
friends, so they declined. Misty decided to stay at camp with the
Arharts. We told them we would visit with them later, and headed
off to Blarney. The weather was again clear and sunny, but we
could see rain clouds over near the Henry Mountains. The clouds
hadn't built up very high, so it was likely just more of the same rain
we'd seen so far. We decided we would hike up, and re-evaluate as
we went along.
We started hiking up towards Left Blarney around 2pm.
The clouds were getting closer, and when we hit the entry rappel, it was
again cloudy and raining. There was a short burst of heavier rain,
but then slowed again to the same misty rain. We again evaluated
all of the stuff we saw and knew, and decided we would go in.
Blarney's are a much tighter canyon than Gravel and Fry, but they can be
done pretty quickly and the drainage isn't as large. We waited for
the rain to stop again; and made sure there was no evidence of any flow,
which there wasn't. We dropped in and did the rappel around 3pm.
Left Blarney is a fun little canyon. Lots of
opportunities for stemming, and it has some fun downclimbs. Due to
the recent rains, there were some muddy sections, and some puddles; all
of which were easily avoidable. We did a bunch of stemming when
necessary, and some just to play around. It again cleared up, and
was sunny. We hit the confluence just after 4pm. We
discussed the possibility of upclimbing Right Blarney. We had done
this not too long ago, but based on how much water we saw in Left
Blarney; we might not be able to avoid the water in Right. Those
upclimbs could be interesting with wet and/or muddy feet. We
decided we would just hike around and do Right Blarney from the top.
From just below the confluence, I saw a ramp that might be a
shortcut to the top. I climbed up it and scouted up ahead.
It looked good for a ways, and then it went around a corner. I
thought we would be able to make it work, so the others climbed up.
We hiked around on a ledge system, and found a break which led to the
rim. I climbed the break (approx 5.6), and set a handline for the
others. Turns out that we didn't need to climb up to the rim after
all. The ledge system we were on would have been perfect and would
have avoided the entry rap to Right Blarney. Oh well, we know for
next time. It's a great little shortcut.
We hiked around the rim, and we found an alternate entry rap. Some
handlined and jumped, Marty and Derek learned what a Dulfersitz feels
like on an overhanging rappel. We were entering Right Blarney by
5:15pm, and it was again sunny with blue skies. A few of us
decided to play around a little and tried to not touch the ground at
all. This is pretty challenging, with some pretty full stems.
At one point, I was on fingertips and tippy toes on a fully extended
stem; lots of effort. I made it all the way within 200 feet of the
confluence, and then fell. Tried again, but my shoes were then
muddy, so I couldn't get traction on that spot; which was another fully
extended stem. Bummer. Will have to try again another time.
I got back up just afterwards, and finished the rest of the canyon off
the ground. Lots of fun, but lots of effort too. We were
back at the confluence before 6pm, and back at camp just after 6:15pm.
It was nice being back so early. We were able to visit
more with the Arhart's and their group. My friends showed up
shortly after, and our group prepared a potluck dinner. We had
quite the spread and a good variety of foods. Misty also brought a
cake, and we surprised Jonas for his birthday. Good times.
The Arhart's group shared some food as well, which was a really good
pork dish. Afterwards, we visited around the fire. We talked
about our plans for the next day; we would be getting up early, and
attempting Gravel Canyon. We would go early, so some might attempt
the longer alternate canyon exit as well. Carol decided to join us
tomorrow for Gravel as well.
It went past 9pm, and Jen still hadn't arrived. Marty
and Derek took off so they could get some sleep, since they got in so
late the night before. Soon after, the others followed suit.
I hung around talking to Mark and friends, as well as the Arharts and
friends. Jen arrived after 10pm. Since it was going to be an
early day, we packed up quickly, said our goodbyes and drove back over
to Cedar Mesa. Got Jen unpacked and settled, and headed to bed.
Unfortunately, the wind kicked up some and it rained again off and on
during the night which kept waking me up. Eventually I'll get some
sleep...
Saturday 5/24:
We woke up at 6am, and started to prep for the canyon.
We had some last minute changes, Jonas and Misty were going to head out
and do some hiking. There would be seven of us today; Jen, Marty,
Derek, Fritjof, Jason, Carol and I. We shifted around the gear,
and loaded into Carol's new pickup and my Jeep and were off around
7:30am. We drove out towards the Gravel entry point. The
rain had stopped, but it was still overcast. As we got closer to
the trailhead, there was snow on the ground. There was also
evidence that it had rained more up there. The road was pretty
rough in several spots; definitely requiring a high clearance vehicle.
Yet again, we were happy that we brought the Jeep. We got to the
trailhead and started hiking just after 8:30am. It was pretty cold
out; I'd guess in the mid to upper 40's. Might be an interesting
day with those temps and water. We discussed the weather, and
decided to head in farther and re-evaluate as we went.
On the hike into Gravel, it started to rain again while we
were in the side canyon. Since it was pretty chilly out, we
stopped under an overhang and put on our rain gear so we could keep our
clothes as dry as possible. Around 10am, we hit an optional slot
section. Most of the group went to scout a way around it, but
Marty, Derek and I wanted to go through and check it out. We
climbed down into it. Marty lost his footing on a wet log and tore
his finger open pretty good. We used my rudimentary first aid kit
and patched him up. We finished the small drop and met up with the
others. We continued down the normal entry side canyon. It
was alternating sun and light rain. There was a brief stint of a
heavier rain, but then went right back to the light rain and then back
to sun. Along the way, we stopped and had several discussions
about the weather, what the canyon was like, signs, etc. At each
point, we decided to go on. We got to the confluence with main
Gravel and neither the side canyon nor main Gravel had any flow.
There also wasn't any signs of any significant recent flow; and even an
opposite sign with a rapide sitting on a rock just an inch above a
v-notch section. We kept noting the weather, signs and continued
on until the canyon started to slot up.
At the slot section, we had yet another conversation about
the weather making sure everyone felt comfortable going forward.
We treated this as the point of no return. Even though there was
no rap here, we figured once we made it a certain distance in; we would
keep going down. If conditions worsened, we would find shelter in
the canyon as there are plenty of spots that are pretty open in Gravel.
We again evaluated all that we saw and felt. Most of the signs
were decent; low water volume clouds, no significant rains, no
significant signs of flow, etc. However, we all knew that the
system was primed and ready. With all the recent rains, the ground
was certainly saturated; there was even a small amount of flow at the
narrows. It would just take a significant rain to start it
flooding. However, I felt we wouldn't be getting that significant
of a rain (based on observations.) Even if we did get a
significant rain, we would very likely have a little warning and would
be able to get to a safe location based on the openness of the canyon.
Everyone felt okay, so we suited up and continued in around 11:15am.
Gravel is a good canyon. It has a few tighter sections,
but most of it is more open with a lot of scrambling around rocks.
The open sections as well as the tight sections are very pretty.
We still were cautious, and made note of high areas, just in case; but
the weather improved. Soon, it was sunny again. We hit the
first rappel just after 12:15pm; and had yet another conversation.
Everyone felt okay so we continued downcanyon. The first rappel
was actually off to the side, so with a small push, you didn't even have
to get wet. Looked like you could jump it as well, but others
didn't want to because of the air temperature. The canyon had just
a tiny amount of flow in the narrows, but that meant that the canyon was
about as full as it was going to get. Very fun! There were
some pretty and sculpted sections with some wades. Many could be
stemmed over if you wanted to. The water quality was good, so most
went through.
We reached the second rappel around 1pm. We went off a
small horn, and rapped down into water. This was a swim through a
corridor; very pretty. I was just in a 2/3 Farmer John, so it was
a little chilly, but not too bad. (I'm pretty warm blooded though,
so YMMV.) There were more tighter corridors with some wading and
some stemming; alternating with open areas with fun rock scrambling.
Some had tunnels under large boulders that you could crawl under.
There was another fun corridor swim, with an optional stem over, near
the ruins. We were there just before 1:30pm. We looked at
the ruins for a bit and continued down; knowing we were nearing the
normal exit. There was another fun and pretty corridor swim, and
then the canyon opened up again for more fun scrambling. There was
also a neat subway-like alcove. We arrived at the normal canyon
exit just after 2pm. We took off our wetsuits and basked in the
strong and warm desert sun. As usual, that didn't last long, and
the sun went behind the clouds.
We discussed our options. We could exit; we could check
out the ruins and exit; or we could continue downcanyon and add more
Gravel as well as a cool exit canyon. People chose all of the
above. Jason and Carol would go check out the ruins. Jen
would wait for Carol and Jason, and then all three of them would exit
using the normal Gravel exit. Fritjof, Derek, Marty and I decided
to continue downcanyon. We all had a snack first, and then split
up.
Our group headed father down gravel canyon around 2:30pm.
Lower Gravel has some pretty sections. It's similar to upper
Gravel in that it has alternating tight areas and open areas.
However, all of the lower Gravel tight sections can easily be bypassed.
We used some of the bypasses, as long as we could see the canyon we were
missing. If we couldn't see in, we went down through and
experienced the canyon. I wanted to make sure I was seeing all of
the canyon. There were definitely some very pretty sculpted
sections. Like the sections above, the water was very full, with a
little flow. There was also more fun rock scrambling in the open
sections, a small arch in one of the sculpted sections, and another neat
subway-like alcove. We reached the start of the exit canyon just
before 3:30pm. It had stopped raining, and was again clear; so we
decided to take off our wetsuits for the climb up the exit canyon.
We took off our wetsuits, and had a quick bite to eat.
We started going up the exit canyon just after 3:45pm. We stopped
to check out a window that went down to a shelf on the first big dryfall;
and also checked out the small waterfall pouring off nearby.
Heading up the canyon brought us to several other fun upclimbs, a holey
sandstone floor, another cool subway-like alcove, and more fun
scrambling on, over and under rocks. It once again started to
rain, just as the exit canyon was slotting up. Perfect timing
(sarcasm.) As usual, it wasn't raining hard, so we continued up.
The exit canyon is really pretty, with some great sculpting
and layering. There was a little flow, and some fun upclimbs.
We went to check the second dryfall, and it didn't look to be that bad
of an upclimb. Better safe than sorry though, as it was a long
fall if you messed up; and the walls were wet. We did the normal
5.6 exit climb; and finished that around 5pm. The sun was out
again, so we had another snack and dried out a little. We then
continued upcanyon, climbing up some of the fun problems in the
watercourse; and choosing to bypass some that looked like it had deeper
water. We were on the top layer and started hiking the plateau
back around 5:45pm and was back at the car just after 6:45pm.
Here, we changed into dry clothes, and drove back to camp.
On the crossing of White Canyon, there was now a decent
amount of flow. Wild! It was probably around 10cfs; that
would be a fun time to do the Black Hole. Not for everyone though;
beginners likely wouldn't enjoy it. Anyway, we weren't planning on
the Hole for another 48 hours, so I was pretty sure the flow would be
gone by then; but that meant it was going to be tippy top full.
Awesome! We got back to camp around 7:45pm, and shared dinners and
tales of the day. Ken and Dave from California had arrived; having
done Lucky Charms and a Shillelagh during the day. We talked about
the plans for tomorrow; Cheesebox. Hopefully the weather would be
better tomorrow, as Cheesebox is a much tighter canyon than Gravel.
We decided we'd get up at 6:30am, giving us just a little more time for
sleep since Cheesebox shouldn't be as long of a day. Most people
headed to bed shortly after dark since we were all running on low sleep.
Sunday 5/25:
We woke up at 6:30am, and had breakfast. Jen and Misty
would go off hiking today, and the California duo would go off to do
North Wash canyons. Thus, there would still be seven of us today;
Jonas, Fritjof, Jason, Marty, Derek, Carol and I. We packed up and
were on our way shortly after 7:30am. White Canyon was still
flowing, but it was now less than 5cfs. A good sign that it would
be done flowing by tomorrow. The road is the same as Gravel, so it
was pretty rough in spots; again requiring a high clearance vehicle.
We dropped everyone off at the starting trailhead, and then drove down
to the finish trailhead. We left Carol's truck there, and drove
back up to the starting trailhead. We did last minute prep, and
was on our way in around 9:15am. We intersected the side canyon
pretty quickly, and found a way down into the side canyon. When we
got to the confluence with West Cheesebox, there was a lot of water.
There was a small amount of flow, so the canyon would be really full.
The weather was looking good though; much better than the past couple of
days, so we suited up.
We entered West Cheesebox around 10:15am, and there
definitely was a lot of water. Cheesebox was even better than I
remembered it. There were wonderful narrow and sculpted sections,
with fun downclimbs. One of them had a cool arch you could climb
through. Some of the passages had swims, which were a little cold
since I only wore a 2/3 Farmer John. Marty was in a Farmer John as
well, so we stemmed over some of the water sections so we didn't get too
cold. We hit the first drop/rappel around 11am. I handlined
down and checked the depth. It was deep enough, so some chose to
jump. Marty climbed around; which was doable, but big penalty
points for messing up. Like Gravel, the canyon fluctuated a little
between open and narrow; however it was mostly narrow where Gravel was
mostly open. Definitely wouldn't be a good canyon to be in during
a heavy rain.
We came to the second rappel just before 11:30am. This
one could be downclimbed as well, like many of the rest; but you better
not mess up. To be safe, we all just rappelled. Don't need
an injury out here. More stemming, scrambling and swimming.
One swim had a bit of debris in it. It was new stuff though, so it
didn't smell yet (like the water in Cheesebox sometimes gets.)
Marty, Derek and I chose to climb over it anyway. We came across a
small room that reminded me of the iron room in Heaps; around 1:15pm.
This was pretty close to the end of the narrows, and the canyon opened
up a bit shortly after the room.
Next came some more scrambling, and a cool alcove. We
got to the first section of kiddie narrows around 1:45pm. Most
went through, while Marty, Derek and I stemmed over them. Fun,
with some challenging moves. It was a decent set of narrows, with
either fun wades and swims; or fun climbing. The canyon then opens
up for a bit again, and then we hit the next section of kiddie narrows
around 2pm. Those were shorter, and had more layering. Just
after these is the exit, so we stopped and took off our wetsuits.
We rinsed them and our shoes off to get rid of some of the debris and
dirt; and then let them dry out a little while we chatted, ate and
drank. My only regret of the canyon was wearing the 2/3 Farmer
John. Cheesebox was in awesome condition and it would have been
fun to do more jumps and swims; but I wanted to make sure I didn't get
too cold. Next time.
Carol and I started up around 2:30pm, so we could go back and
get the Jeep from the starting trailhead. It looked like we might
have lost the trail, as there were some pretty fun upclimbs; but it was
a short jaunt and we were up. We ran into a few steep sections,
but nothing too challenging. We were back at the truck just after
3pm, and went to retrieve the Jeep. On the way back, we picked
everyone up and headed back to camp. We were back at camp around
4pm, and the gals were back as well. Carol headed over to North
Wash to visit with the Arharts again. She was still planning on
meeting us tomorrow for Black Hole, and would meet us at the start in
the morning.
We had some dinner, and then decided to make a run into Hite
to see if there was still a gas station there. The sign off the
highway said there was gas, but since the water levels in Powell were
lower, it wasn't really an active marina anymore. That, and it was
a Sunday. Of course, tomorrow would be worse since it was Memorial
Day; and we would definitely need gas prior to heading back. I
doubted that we would even make it to Hanksville with what we had left.
Jason, Jen, Derek and I went to Hite and sure enough; there was gas.
I filled up enough to make the trek back to camp, for the Black Hole
tomorrow, and then to get us to Hanksville. While we were filling
up, the California guys stopped in for gas too. Funny timing.
They had a good time in the canyons, and we would catch up with them
back at camp.
We also met three bikers that were biking from Kansas to San
Francisco. Neat! We recommended they camp at Sandthrax, and
told them of our group of friends and of the Arhart's group.
Figured they might have extra food since it was the last night before
going home and if so, I know either group would be happy to feed the
bikers (we would have, but our camp was the wrong direction.) We
said our goodbyes, and then I took my group to the Hite Overlook.
Nice views. On the way back, we checked out the three bridges;
Colorado, Dirty Devil, and White Canyon. There was no moving water
in White Canyon, and only a few puddles. That was a good sign that
the Hole would be fine tomorrow since we were downcanyon of the Hole.
We went back to camp, shared some snacks; finished drying and
packing our gear for the Black Hole on Monday. When it got dark,
we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows. It was a nice and
relaxing evening visiting with friends.
Monday 5/26:
We woke up at 6:30am and had a quick breakfast. Checked
on the White Canyon and as I expected, it had stopped flowing.
Everyone had packed up the night before, so we were able to leave camp
around 7am. We met Carol at the start, and dropped everyone off.
Just the drivers went down and left most of the vehicles at the exit;
and then we drove Jonas' car with all the drivers back to the start.
We did our last minute prep, and then started hiking in. We got to
the second warning sign on the boulder around 7:45am and stopped for a
group photo. There were 11 of us today; Derek, Marty, Dave, Ken,
Misty, Jonas, Fritjof, Jen, Jason, Carol and myself.
As we made our way into the side canyon, and then down into
the main White Canyon; I could tell there was going to be a lot more
water. There were many more puddles than when we last did it on
New Years Day. We stopped and suited up a bit of a distance prior
to the suit up spot of the previous trip on New Years. As it
narrowed up, we began to wade.
The Black Hole is an awesome canyon. Beautiful towering
walls with great sculpting. There are some really fun downclimbs
and lots of swimming. On the second narrow section, Fritjof was up
in the lead. He went forward a little and the passage seemed like
it would go. I dropped in as well, and after a little, told others
to drop in as it was a really cool narrow section with lots of overhead
rocks. Soon, there was a little debris, and then Fritjof called
out to go back. I told the others to stay put and to try to get up
out of the water to stay warm if possible; and went to take a look.
Turns out there was a section of full on log soup. Cool!
This must have been new, as there was no previous reports of it.
This section pinched off, so it must have gathered all of the debris
that washed down from the storms in the previous days. I pushed a
path over and was able to make it out to a jammed rock. I called
to the others to continue, and helped Fritjof out. It was a great
experience for the others as they could see an example of how a canyon
could unexpectedly change to make it more difficult.
We all made it through that section with just a little more
effort than usual, and continued down the canyon; around 9:30am.
Below the soup, the canyon was in prime condition. There was very
little debris; just wonderful wading, swimming, downclimbing, jumping
and scrambling. I love the dark and long swims in the Black Hole.
Very cool section. We were past the Hole, and into the slightly
larger corridor around 10:15am. Here, there is more wading and
walking, but it still had a few swims. The canyon tightens up a
few more times for some great swims. You could stem over some of
them, but we were all wearing good wetsuits today (I was now in a 4/3
full, and was nice and warm) so we went through all the water and did
the jumps when possible. We took a short break around 11:15 to
drink and have a quick bite (at one of the same break spots from New
Years.)
We continued downcanyon through one more tight section with
some wading and swimming, and then the canyon opened up again and we
soon got to the alternate exit canyon; around noon. Here, we got
out of our wetsuits, and rinsed everything off and set it out to dry.
There was a bit of sun at times (sometimes it went behind the clouds) so
the stuff started to dry. We took a break and chatted a little.
We would have one group go check out the alternate exit canyon, and the
rest would go out the standard hike out way. Five of us headed up
the exit canyon around 12:45pm; Marty, Derek, Ken, Carol and myself.
The exit canyon is a fun little romp. It has some good
scenery, and some fun upclimbs. At the upclimbs, we usually split
up, and tested out two or three possible climbs; and then discussed
which one was easiest. Many possibilities, and many fun little
climbing sections. The hardest thing we hit was likely in the 5.7
range; one of the group felt more comfortable with a belay. There
are really only two even moderately tricky spots, but you can get them
both to 5.5 or 5.6 range if you look around for decent holds. Not
a bad exit at all; definitely a bit more fun than the hike version
(according to me anyway.)
We were back at the cars around 1:15pm. We said goodbye
to Carol, and Marty and Derek. Both were all packed up and headed
out. The rest of us went back to camp and packed up. (We
didn't want to pack up before so we would have room in the vehicles for
the shuttle.) We said goodbye to Ken and Dave from California,
they were sticking around for more canyons as well as some climbing and
biking. We finished packing up, and then made the drive back home.
We again stopped in Glenwood for some good Mexican food. Yum!
All in all, a great weekend with great company! The canyons were
pretty much in the best conditions possible; lots of water and very fun.
Thanks to all who made it a great time!
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219727624/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish