Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=275205561/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Thursday 10/23:
This trip was going to be the grand finale of the canyon year. Life was piling stuff up, and I didn't think I was going to be able to get another trip in. Truthfully, I probably shouldn't have gone on this trip. I thought a couple times about passing on it; but then came to my senses. This was the trip I was most excited about. Very few folks had ever seen these canyons; and they were supposed to be very beautiful and really challenging. There was a perfect weather window for the next week; while still chilly, there was 0-10% chance of rain and clear skies predicted for the entire week. We were hopefully going to meet up with Tom, Ram and Spidey; and I was looking forward to doing some canyons with them. To top it all off, this was near my birthday, so it was my present to me. The amount of people going on the trip fluctuated quite a bit prior to the trip. In the end, it turned out to be only Jonas, Marty and I that were coming from the Boulder area; and we likely would be meeting up with Ram, Tom, and Spidey in the canyons.
The roads were supposed to be in pretty good shape, so we opted to use Marty's Subaru to save on gas. (It gets double the mileage as my Jeep.) Jonas and I drove down to Marty's, loaded up the car and headed out. The roads were great until we got closer to Halls Creek. The dirt roads were mostly graded, with a few surprises here and there. They weren't marked very well though. I thought one of the roads was our turnoff for a shortcut, but wasn't sure. The turnoff only had a numbered sign, and it looked a little rough. It was already late, so we passed on that one. Found the second turnoff and drove towards the Halls Creek Overlook. This road got a little rougher. Still was doing okay though. We then found the turnoff for the airstrip. This is where the road really doesn't see much use. The road got rough, sandy and rutted. Marty's Subaru wasn't liking it, and we were rubbing here and there. (He has an Impreza, so it's not as high of clearance as some other Subarus.) We finally decided that we were close enough, and just pulled off on the side of the road and threw out camp. It was a little chilly out, but beautifully clear. The sky was amazing, so all of us just slept under the stars.
Friday 10/24:
We woke up around 7:30am, around the first light. Made a quick breakfast, packed up the little gear we had for a camp; and then did our final preparation for the backpack in. Crap. I forgot my hiking shoes. All I had was my clogs and my canyoneering shoes. I decided I'd hike a bit of the way in with the clogs, and then stash them; switching to my canyoneering shoes. We started hiking in around 8:45am; man the packs we had were quite large and heavy. I hadn't carried a load this big in a long time; nor had the others. We hit the trailhead proper at 9am, and did the steep descent down into Halls Creek. There were some exposed spots; which normally wouldn't be an issue. However, with a large pack, and in clogs; definitely had to watch my footing. We made it down into Halls Creek at 10am and started hiking towards the canyons. It's around a 7 mile hike in, with a big descent at the beginning and a crossing over the Halls Creek divide on the way. I dropped the clogs around 3 miles in, when I felt some hotspots developing. Figured switching to my canyon shoes (which aren't great to hike in) would at least give me different hotspots. We hit the crest of the divide at 1pm.
There are a bunch of animal tracks and some trails that fade in and out. This definitely isn't a well traveled area. We did pretty good though. Only one real nasty bushwhack on the way in. We were past Dog and Baboon and found a great little place to refill our water. It was 4:30pm, so we decided to have dinner here, and that way we could drink as much as possible and then top off our water for Smiling Cricket tomorrow. (We were supposed to meet Ram, Tom and Spidey on the rim of Cricket; just past the large initial upclimb; so we wouldn't have access to water.)
We ate dinner, refilled the water, and stashed some of our food here; since we would be passing nearby when we headed back to do Dog and Baboon. We started the initial climb toward Smiling Cricket at 5pm. As the light started to fade, I thought I heard voices. I did; but they sounded like they came from down below. Stopped and looked around; sure enough, there were people down in the Halls Creek river area. We shouted back and forth a bit. It was definitely Ram; but couldn't make out a lot of what they were saying. We debated on leaving some stuff here, but maybe they knew something we didn't. Maybe we were on the wrong ridge? Didn't look like it from where we were or from the map; but I guess you never know. We decided to just head down to them.
When we got down to them, we found out several things. They had already gone up and scouted the route to the drop in; cool. They found a good way in, that could be downclimbed to a partner assist; really good. They had stashed their gear up there too. Bummer, now I wish we would at least have stashed our water, as we were half of the way up the first big gain. Oh well. After chatting a little more, we also found out that they were planning on getting up at 6am and making a quick ascent. They would be their own separate group, and would try to move fast through the canyon. They would travel light, and weren't taking any bivvy gear.
I was a little disappointed to find out we weren't going through the canyon together; but my group had come prepared. There was a chance we would not have even run into them, so we might have had to do the canyon on our own anyway. We had all the gear, and now we just had to decide if we were going to do Cricket first (it's the hardest, by far, of the three canyons we wanted to do.) We also didn't have much beta on it. If we waited, we could get the info from them. We talked it over, and decided that since we were already all the way down here, that we would just continue with our original plan and do Cricket first. We would wake up at 5am, so we could get a jump start on the ascent; and likely Ram, Tom and Spidey would catch us on the way up (since we would be carrying packs.) Then, if it worked out, we could see the route to the canyon drop in point since they knew where it was (and it was supposed to be a little tricky to get to.) If that didn't work out, we would just find our way there on our own; and figure things out as we went along. We were sure to have an adventure, no matter how it worked out.
We packed our bags in preparation for the next day. Didn't get to visit too much as we were busy preparing, and the other group seemed preoccupied; likely with the thoughts of Cricket. It wasn't to be taken lightly; the last known group went through in June and it took them two full days to get through. They had an unplanned bivvy, and then ran into many deep keeper potholes, including one monster; which sounded quite impressive. I didn't know the skill level of those guys, but have heard that they were good. It was only two of them, in June when the days were longest. It was now the end of October, and the days are shorter; and there are three of us. We were going to try to do the canyon in one day, but we decided to still take minimal bivvy gear; just in case we get stuck. I figured it was around a 50-50 chance that we'd make it through in a day. We were a strong team, but the odds of making it in a day were against us from the knowledge I had.
Went to bed, but didn't sleep very well. Both from excitement of the upcoming canyon; as well as being a little nervous.
Saturday 10/25:
We woke up at 5am as planned, and had a quick breakfast. We were hiking up before 5:30am; and it was still dark out. We got about half way up when I saw the other groups' headlamps moving around at camp; I had recognized the place where we were thinking of stashing our water. We made it to the crest, and were picking our way through the maze of fins leading towards the canyon. The other group did catch up to us, and we hooked up with them for the final approach to the rim. We were definitely heading the right way, and likely would have found it; but it was certainly nice to head up there with folks that were certain of the way. Got to chat a little bit with them on the way too; which was nice.
We got to the drop in point a little after 7am. We all changed into our wetsuits, as we had a good sandstone ledge up here. The amount of water was an unknown. It was a little chilly too; so wearing the neoprene wouldn't be too bad even if we didn't hit water right away. We said thanks and our goodbyes as the other group dropped in first, and headed downcanyon. I let Marty and Jonas rappel off me, and then I did the downclimb then controlled slide into the canyon with Jonas and Marty spotting me from below.
The canyon was beautiful. It started out with some fluted sections, and some potholes. We came across a deer backbone with one leg still attached. Hope that isn't an omen. There was a little bit of water, which was a welcome thing for me, as I was burning up in my 4/3 full wetsuit. Before long, one thing was evident. This canyon was badly in need of some new bolts. The bolts were usually only one single bolt at a drop, very old (think 20-30 years old), 1/4", and short. Some had flex, some turned; not inspiring a bunch of confidence. We backed up with meat for everyone but the last person.
As the canyon progressed, the potholes started to get deeper. At 8:45am, we came to a rap into a water filled pothole with a slanted upclimb on the other side. It was a little challenging to get out of because of the mud on the walls, but still wasn't too difficult. Around 9am, we came to a drop into water that didn't seem to have an anchor. Jonas and I became the anchor, and Marty rapped off us into the water. It was a swim, and you swam under a cool bridge. Neat. I rapped next of Jonas, and double checked the depths. I pointed Jonas to the deepest spot, and Jonas did a jump.
Not long after that, there was a two stage rappel off a really bad bolt. I was able to easily pull the bolt out of it's hole. I backed it up for Jonas and Marty (to make sure it had a chance of holding) and then I went down on it very smoothly and carefully. More downclimbs and potholes followed; and there was a decent amount of water. Definitely want a wetsuit in this canyon. At 10:15, we came to the spot that the team in June had bivvied. This was a good sign. We hit it in less than 3 hours, and this is where they spent the night after the first day. That gave a boost to my optimism; I was thinking we might be able to get through this today. There was a little bit of sun higher up, so we climbed up to sit in the sun and have some food and water.
I didn't want to stay there too long though; we still had the hardest challenges ahead of us. We started moving again around 10:45am. At 11am, we came to a rappel off a deadman into a swimming keeper pothole. It was challenging to get out of. This was followed by a rap over some seeps at 11:30am, then a traverse over a big drop to a block on the left LDC. At 12:15pm, we hit a dark elevator that had a pothole down in the darkness, but you could easily stem over it. Shortly after was a crawl through a constriction and then we hit a deep keeper pothole at 1pm. Made it through that one with a couple tossed potshots and a partner assist. More downclimbs and potholes followed.
Then at 2pm, we hit the big one. The pothole wasn't as big as it was rumored to be; but it was certainly big enough. We estimated it to be around 25 feet across, going 20 feet down to the water; and we measured the water at 8 feet deep. On the other side was around 15-20 feet of flat to gently sloping upcanyon rock. Wow. That means that we would have to make a toss of around 40' or more with a potshot. That's one heck of a toss; and we couldn't tell how good of a lip it was even if we made the toss. The other option is that there are two bolts high on the wall. The first one is up and to the left, around 35 feet high. You can get to it through a series of hook holes. After you get there (and who knows if that first bolt is good), it's around a 10-15 foot traverse left to a second bolt which is situated near the center of the pothole. From there, it still looks like a challenge to get to the other side of the pothole. Maybe there was a third bolt, but we couldn't see one from where we were at.
The thought of climbing 35 feet up on hooks, on a sandstone wall, to get to bolts that are likely not very good (based on what we saw previously in the canyon) was definitely not appealing to me. We filled our potshots, and made several tosses. We were able to land one past the flat ledge, and was hoping for a good lip on the other side. Unfortunately, that potshot came up over the lip really easily. I'd guess with only 5 or 10 pounds of pressure. That's not good. We would be putting a significant amount of force getting up and over that pothole lip.
This was a tough choice. If we spent the time landing several potshots; it's likely they wouldn't hold when the person (likely me) would try to crest over the lip of the pothole. The good news is that it would likely just result in a 20 foot fall down into deep water. The downside is that regardless if I made it up the other lip, I would then be wet (I was mostly dry right now); and it was going to get dark, and cold, around 5pm. Being wet for the night would not be a good thing. Of course, the other option is climbing up a sandstone wall on hooks, to get to possibly dubious bolts; and that wouldn't get us across the pothole anyway. Hmmm. I was wishing there was a third option. Unfortunately, the only third option we thought of was waiting for help. But the quickest likely call for help wouldn't be until Thursday; and then it would take a while for someone to get to us. That would likely be about a week; so we needed to go with option one or two.
We had given the potshot toss a try; and it didn't look like it was going to work. I knew the group in June did the climb up to the bolts; so hopefully those were good (and hopefully I'd reach them without the holes blowing out on me.) At this point, we were thinking that Spidey must have climbed up to reach the bolts for the other group (there was no water marks on the far side of the pothole.) To be cautious, I took the packs and stacked them up below me. That way, if a hole did blow out, hopefully I could slide down the wall (not tumble or pinball) and land on the packs; rather than in a rock V-notch which would likely twist, sprain or break an ankle, knee, leg; or worse. I was really not liking this option.
For good reason too; the third hook hole did blow out, and I took a 15 foot ground fall. Luckily, I did end up landing on the packs, and got away with only a bump to the elbow. That's really lucky considering taking a 15 foot fall, with hooks and gear flailing around you. This did nothing to instill any confidence though. Looking back, this is when we should have tried more tosses (arguably even sooner.) However, it still seemed like our best option to try the climb again.
I climbed back up to the second hook, and re-drilled the third hole. We set up a system where I would set the hook using a cheater stick, and Jonas and Marty would weight that hook. If it held; I'd transfer my weight onto that one and climb up to the next one. (The downside to this method is that Jonas and Marty could fracture the hole with their weight, and then when I put all my weight on it, I could go for a ride. However, I thought the risk of that was lower than me weighting an untested hold; so we went with it.) Unfortunately, the hole right before the bolt blew out when Jonas and Marty weighted it. Not good. I was 30 feet off the ground, on a not great hook, with no next hole. A fall here would likely mean serious injury or death. (Even a serious injury would likely mean death, in this remote canyon.) Not a comforting thought; needed to get back to focused. I decided to make an exposed move and get to the bolt; which looked decent from where I was at. The move worked, and I clipped into the bolt. Thankfully, the bolt did feel solid.
It was still a single bolt though; I'll feel much better when I'm clipped through the second bolt as well. The second bolt was still quite a distance away though. I was able to traverse using small handholds and small bulges for friction footholds. Then those ended. I had no choice but to completely trust the first bolt and lean my weight onto it to friction off and reach the second bolt. Made the move and clipped the bolt. Even though we still weren't across, I was definitely quite relieved. For one thing; I was now above the pothole, so while my fall was still around 40 or 50 feet; at least it would be into water rather than on rock now. We were also half way over the pothole; and not wet; as well as I was now clipped into two bolts. This was a very good thing.
I looked around for another bolt, but didn't see anything. I lowered myself down a little at a time, looking for a place that I might be able to snag something with my hook and cheater stick and use it to pull myself over to the far lip. (Thought about swinging, but there were some sharp rock edges, so didn't like that idea.) Wasn't able to find anything to hook and it was now around 5pm; and getting dark. I did some rope management work, and then went back over to Jonas and Marty. Like it or not, we were in this canyon for the night. It definitely wouldn't be a good idea trying to finish this after dark; and furthermore, I was tired.
We had a bite to eat, and drank. We talked about how we could get water from the pothole below without getting wet. At this point, I knew we were very likely able to get across, and do it safely. Didn't know exactly how much more time it would take, but I had a few thoughts on how to do it. I didn't get a very good nights sleep; for many reasons. 1) We were sleeping on rocks. 2) It was pretty cold out and all I had was a down jacket and a bivvy sack - and sleeping on my wetsuit as a thermarest. 3) Jonas was snoring from time to time and I'm a light sleeper to begin with. 4) My mind was working on refining the ideas to make sure I had the most efficient/probable one to start with tomorrow. and 5) I was also initially concerned about weather; as a storm right now would be really un-fun. (We could go climb onto the ropes, but waiting a storm out on those ropes would be seriously un-fun.) Thankfully, I could see a sliver of the night sky above me, and there were no clouds anywhere; every time I looked up.
Sunday 10/26:
We woke up around 7:30am when it started to get light. We packed up our gear, had a quick snack and drink, and changed back into our wetsuits. We were back at it around 8am. Plan A, the easiest, was to try to hook something (I had more energy now, so maybe I could reach farther.) I worked my way back over to the middle of the pothole, but again couldn't snag anything. So plan B was to prussik up higher, and then use ropes to ferry three potshots filled with about 25 pounds of rock each. Jonas and Marty would lower them into the water, then I would pull each one up at a time and pendulum it to the other side flat area. Hopefully that would give me enough friction to make it to the other lip. Landed all three; lowered myself to under the pothole lip (so there would be extra friction) and used it to pull myself over to the lip. Found a sloped handhold, and used the pull of the bolt rope to friction off a wall feature and made it up. Success! It was now 9:45am.
We then used the lines from the potshots to ferry our packs across, then Jonas came across on the bolt rope using a lead and trail line to keep him off the walls sharp edges. I then prussiked back up the ropes, and cleaned up all of our gear, with the rope only going through bolt 2, at the middle of the pothole. Jonas pulled me back over to the far lip. We then used the shuttle ropes to get the main bolt rope to Marty. We then used a line to get Marty over to us and a second line off a log on the other side as a counter anchor so he wouldn't pendulum too fast. The log pulled free, but he was already most of the way to the middle, so it wasn't a big deal. We pulled him to the other side, and pulled our rope. We were now all on the safe side of the pothole, and it was 12:30pm.
There were several more deep keeper potholes, including a swimmer. These could all be partner assisted and/or tossed. At 2pm we hit a rappel into a deep keeper. It was completely dry though, so it was pretty easy to partner assist out of. Shortly afterwards, we came to a really nasty looking keeper. We did a climb up and around it to a hollow wart looking flake. Didn't like the sound of the flake, but figured it would hold as long as we were smooth. We were all past that at 2:45pm. Next was small downclimb to a ramp, where we had a quick break. Shortly afterwards, we were there; the riparian! It looked like we were at the final rap. It was a beautiful rappel into a lush area. We were all on the ground at 3:45pm.
Since this canyon doesn't see much traffic, it was a bit of a bushwhack to work our way out. We got to a flat sandstone area, changed out of our wetsuits, and let our gear dry a bit as we took a break. We talked about the canyon. It had taken us 32.25 hours in-canyon (add 2 hours to include the approach.) Of that, 22.5 hours was spent at the monster pothole; 7.5 of it, actually working time. So the rest of the canyon took us just under 10 hours. Wow. Except for the whole falling and possible death part; that was awesome! Smiling Cricket was certainly one of the best canyons I had done; very beautiful and pretty challenging. Quite the adventure!
We repacked our stuff, and got back to camp at 5pm. Even though it was starting to get dark, we decided to pack up camp and move over to the base of the entrance to Happy Dog and Laughing Baboon. We stopped by the watering hole to pick up our food stash, and had a great dinner and refilled some water. Got to the base of Happy Dog and Laughing Baboon and did a quick scout for fresh water (heard some flowing from the canyon; but didn't seem easy to get to.) We'd figure it out in the morning, and just scooped and treated from Halls Creek (it was a bit cloudy so we didn't want to clog our filter); and then went to sleep.
Monday 10/27:
We woke up with the first light, had breakfast and packed for the canyon. We didn't know much about Happy Dog; pretty much we had a general idea where the entrance was (and that there was an arch there), how long of a rope we would need, that wetsuits were recommended, and that we likely wouldn't need our hooking gear. From our previous adventure, we decided to still take a decent amount of gear; including our hooking gear.
We started the ascent at 8:45am. It was a pretty good hike up; I took it slow and rest-stepped a lot of it. We saw the overlook of the big middle rappel, and a few small arches, on the approach. Scouted out a few possible entry points that had arches, but they didn't look right, so we kept going. At 10am, we were overlooking Millers Creek and there was a good sized arch with a steep ramp down into the head of the canyon. We walked the ramp down, and went and checked out the drop into Millers Creek. The Happy Dog canyon was a suspended canyon with the head of it dropping off into Millers Creek; really cool.
We started down Happy Dog, and found a good slickrock spot to change. Since we heard we would need wetsuits, we figured that we would suit up early, while it was convenient. That wasn't such a good idea. The first section had a bunch of partner assist downclimbs and the only water could easily be avoided. (I ended up sitting in some to cool down a little.) We were all down the first rappel by 11:30am. Next were some tight sections, mixed with some sculpting and potholes. All could be partner assisted. There was some water, but not enough to warrant the wetsuits. There was some tight stemming; a lot of it. The big packs we had were certainly taking a good amount of energy through the stemming spots.
It did eventually open up a bit to have some potholes and water. We played around in the water for a bit, as we were all overheating from the strenuous stemming. At 1:30pm, we came to the big rappel in the middle of the canyon. It's a pretty cool rappel, After the middle rappel there are more downclimbs, and more tight sections; with some upclimbs and more chimney work and stemming. At 2pm, we hit a stem over a silo. Then followed more sculpting, downclimbs, potholes, and a lot more tight sections with upclimbs and chimney/stemming. The big packs were definitely tough to work with, and it took a toll on Jonas. Marty and I teamed up and shuttled Jonas' pack forward.
At 2:30pm we came to a neat flooded corridor with seeps and ferns growing on both sides. Really pretty. More stemming, shuttling, and a swim or two followed. Then at 3:15pm, we got to a rap that went down into an area that had a lot of poison ivy. Just after that we were on the final rappel at 3:30, and we were all down in the riparian section at 3:45pm. The final rappel was really beautiful, and this little riparian alcove was incredible. The water was super clear, with a lot of crayfish in it. There was also a lot of poison ivy around on the shores. We carefully made our way down the corridor, and was back at camp at 4:15pm.
Unfortunately, there wasn't really a great place to get at the clear water coming from Happy Dog, so we continued to scoop and boil or treat the water from Halls Creek. We set our gear out to dry and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, had dinner, and prepared for Baboon the next day. Jonas was really feeling tired, so he didn't know if he would join us for Baboon tomorrow. We said we would see how he felt tomorrow and he could decide then.
Overall, we definitely could have left a LOT of stuff behind; as we never even used potshots, much less our hooking gear. We carried way too much; including too much emergency gear. Had to play it safe though; since we didn't know much about the canyon. Next time, temperature permitting, I likely wouldn't even take a wetsuit in...
Tuesday 10/28:
We woke up with the light again, and had breakfast. Jonas still was feeling tired, so it would just be Marty and I for Laughing Baboon today. We started the ascent at 8:30am, and was rim walking and looking for the entrance around 9am. We knew there was bolts to get in, but that they were tough to find. We spent an hour walking back and forth looking for the bolts. Finally, we were burning too much time, so I saw a weakness where we could downclimb to make our way down some. It was a pretty spicy downclimb, but got us to a bush we could sling for our first anchor. We started the first rappel around 10:15am. The bush got us to a sloping ledge. I looked around for any existing anchors, but didn't see any, so I slung a big rock and this second rappel got us around 100 yards before the canyon slotted up. We were on the ground at 11:15am. We had a quick snack, and then started in.
The beginning of Baboon reminded me of the Maidenwaters. Straight and flat for a ways, then a drop from wedged rocks; which can be downclimbed by the skilled. Lather, rinse, repeat. Around noon, we came to a small open area with a lot of poison ivy. Wild, There wasn't really any signs of water here; the section above us had been dry too. Shortly after the room, came a sculpted section. This was really pretty, and there started to be some water. Most of it could be avoided. This was good, as Marty and I chose to go lighter today; and didn't bring our wetsuits. (We knew this canyon was supposed to be the shortest of the three, and was told that it had the least water of the three. Since neither of us thought we would have needed the wetsuit in Happy Dog, we decided to go without it in Baboon.)
We did have a swim, and it was definitely cold water; but we warmed up again quickly after getting out. We came to a rap into a pothole at 12:30pm. After that was some more downclimbs, and two more chilly swims. Again, we were out of the water pretty quickly though, so no worries. Then pretty abruptly, the canyon ended; not even with the usual final big rappel. Wild. It was 12:45pm and Jonas was waiting for us at the exit. He had rim walked a little, and then hiked in to wait for us. This was a pretty short canyon; I'm sure he could have gone through with us; but we didn't know that previously. Next time.
We hiked back to camp, had a quick lunch, and then packed up. We would still try to hike through the Halls Creek Narrows today and camp at the cowboy camp / alcove we found on the way in (where I stashed my clogs.) We started hiking at 2:15pm, and came across a commercial trip campsite around 3pm. We chatted with some of them and found out that they had a group hiking through the Narrows today. We didn't know exactly how deep it was going to get, so it was good timing; we could ask some of them. (We didn't really want to swim with our big packs, as we didn't have everything in drybags.)
We made it to the start of the Narrows at 4pm. We were going to have to hike fast, as the narrows was around 3 miles, and then the cowboy camp was a bit farther than that. It was definitely the right choice though. The Halls Creek Narrows were spectacular. Some beautiful high walls, with some tighter sections where you could touch both walls; but not any real climbing needed. The water got up to about mid-thigh; which worked out great. (I heard it gets higher, but it's still worth the trip either down or back up through the Narrows.) We reached the cowboy camp just as it got dark; and we spread our gear out to dry. It felt great to put my clogs back on since I had been in my canyoneers for the past four days. As usual, the sky was wonderful, and we had a great view of it. We had a good dinner, refilled our water bottles enough for the final hike out the next day, and went to sleep.
Wednesday 10/29:
We woke up at 7:30am again, when it was starting to get light. We lazily had breakfast, enjoyed the views, and then packed up. Started hiking around 8:30am, made it back to the base of the final big climb out at 10am, and were back on the rim at 11am. From here, we hiked back to the car, changed, had a bite to eat, and were on our way. Made it back to the loop road without any issues, and stopped at the Halls Creek Overlook around 11:45am to see the sights. We ended up making a loop trip out of it, and drove through Capitol Reef on the way home. Beautiful scenery; both at the overlooks and through the Reef.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. It was definitely the most nervous I had been in a long time. Although, I couldn't have asked for better partners; we worked well as a team, and had a great adventure. I'm already looking forward to heading back to these canyons again next year. Now that I know what to expect, I'll have a little different gear. Only 150 feet of rope with a matching pull is needed for all three canyons (providing you find the right entry spots.) We later found out that Ram's team did the big pothole using potshots, so I definitely like that idea better and am looking forward to giving it another try. I'll bring a bolt kit, to replace some of the old bolts that are set right in the watercourse (so they get a lot of abuse.) Most of all though, I'm just looking forward to another trip through those beautiful canyons.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=275205561/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish