The Slow Beat

Yea... I've been ridiculously lazy about this. But haven't forgotten it! I just ran Classic and Baldy, which I will hopefully post after I finish this final Zion piece I should have made weeks ago.

Tuesday
So! Now we're at Tuesday of the time I spent in Zion. Woke up at motel, realizing that was my first time ever sleeping in the same bed as another guy because we only had 2 beds. Thank god Zack & I are real chill and both straight, whew. He decided to sleep in for like 2 hours, Josh stayed in for like an hour or so. I went downstairs and swam in the pool and hot tub for a while, was great :)

So then we start heading back to Zion, get there, and figure out what we're doing. Josh unfortunately and for whatever reason decided plain old hiking was incredibly more thrilling than canyoneering, and said he was going to do one of the trails, when Zack and I wanted to do some canyons. To add to the lameness... I couldn't find my 240' rope and realized I lost it and left it in the parking lot of the visitor center about 11pm the previous night. Yea I was kinda bummed and pissed. And as if it couldn't get any worse, Josh was there to save the day and NOT let me borrow his 200' rope for the day, even though he wasn't going to use it at all that day. So. No canyons for Zack and I, even though we were invited for a "canyoneering trip in Zion." Pretty sure I was annoyed about everything in this paragraph for a good week. Oh yea and the fact we left earlier than planned too but that's not as huge. So we go our separate ways this day, me thinkin "okay whatever, we'll do a canyon tomorrow then."

On Zack and I's way to Angel's Landing... I have the most ridiculous stroke of good luck and karma ever. At one of the shuttle stops... a man and his girlfriend get on with their large packs. And what do I see on the back of the man's camo pack... a pretty large coiled piece of tan rope with green and black tracers. So without hesitation walk up to him and ask him about it. He knew it was "rappelling rope," didn't know how long it was, so I knew it wasn't his. I explain what happened to mine, its length, and where I lost it, and surely enough he says "yea that's where we found it." So we hop off the shuttle and as such the great guy he is gives it back to me not askin for anything in return. And to make this story even more incredible... they had gotten on the wrong shuttle! They wanted to head OUT when Zack and I were heading IN. All the rest of that day I kept thinking "man I must have been really good to someone lately." That truly saved what was left of the Zion trip for the two of us.

Zack had been there once or twice before, when he was younger. I gotta say... that is a hard hike, a very quick gain of like 3000 feet I think. Zack wasn't feeling up for venturing out to the landing that day though and just stayed at Scout's Lookout. Hey, I got him over his fear of heights when in a harness... not when there's a 10-foot-wide slab of rock to climb with a 3000 foot drop on either side :P

So I ventured up there my lonely self. It took longer than expected, about an hour round trip from the lookout to the landing. 40 minutes there, 20 minutes back, and about 10 minutes spent sitting there also. Somethin like that. Anyway... I was goin crazy over how awesome that was. To me it was one of those views where like... I could have sat there for hours and upon leaving I still wouldn't have felt like I was able to "take it all in"... it was spectacular.

I got back to Zack, and we had something to eat and started heading back down. Oh yea... the porta-johns up there. Wow. Talk about cooking and stinking. I didn't go in but I didn't have to. The englishman who came out yelling "Bloody hell! That's the most foul thing I've ever smelled!" was quite enough.

So Zack and I started heading back down, and we still had a few hours in the day to burn, and didn't feel like sitting bored at the campsite just yet. So on the way back we got off the bus and went out to do the Emerald Pools trail. And boy oh boy did Zack and I want to rappel off the trickling falls that lead to and filled the first pool. That would have been amazing. Probably illegal as well, but amazing. The third pool (the highest) however... I'm going to use the word "spectacular" again. A very large "mystical-green colored" pool, bare rock walls shooting a thousand feet up on 3 sides of it. It was somethin, was very glad we decided to take that hike also, even though Angel's Landing had killed my quads. So that night we got back, and Josh was nice enough to let Zack and I use his heater to cook some ravioli! Mmmm. Sleepytime for us.

Wednesday
Now we arrive at the yet-unknown-to-me last day of trip. Even though I was by this time indifferent about it, it was unfortunate that this morning turned out the same as the last. What was to be a canyoneering trip was torn into a trip where one of our group decides normal hiking will result in more to see. "More to see" haha... I just think "are you kidding me?" I think what really got me today was that Josh didn't even bother or want to hike part of the day with us, since we would be spending at least 2 or 3 hours on the same trail. Zack and I were going to get breakfast before going, and offered Josh to hike with us until we split, but I guess he had "already ate" and was in a rush. That was just like a big "screw you guys" to us. But I'm not one for arguing, so, Zack and I went our separate way again and hit up what would become my favorite Zion canyon and one of my favorites by far - Behunin.

To try and add emphasis without cursing... this was one KILLER hike. I honestly don't remember but I might guess it took Zack and I 5 hours of hiking to get to the first rappel. It started off with the huge gain in elevation of the hike up to Scout's Lookout, and then continued along the West Rim Trail before veering off towards Behunin. It was VERY strenuous with all that gear on us, and for a while there really wasn't much water to be had. I remember Zack and I took a short break and lied down under some trees. Shortly after, a group of 4 or 5 girls, must've been in their early 20s, start coming towards us, not seeing us. All we hear is someone say something about "hair on boobs" and we try to pretend like we didn't as they passed. I don't think we could hold it in any longer though... they passed us, saw us, knew we heard them and we all just start bursting in laughter. Oh man that was great. A big "whoops" for them haha.

A few minutes later we stand back up and start going. Here we are dying tired of going uphill, see the final saddle to reach and get to it. All downhill from here. We thought we were already at it, looking for the first rap, but we still had like an hour to go. Luckily... once we reached the saddle it started sprinkling lightly, so that cooled us down. It was beautiful from here on out. I'd never seen such green forest-like areas in Zion before this. It was really awesome. Eventually, while we're still hiking, it starts pouring all-out on us, just straight up relentless rain. We hustle over to a large tree to get some cover from it. We wanted to have some dry clothes for when we got out of the canyon, so we stripped out of hiking clothes, put our splash layers on, and put our normal clothes in my drybag. We spent the rest of the day in the splash layers.

Eventually we arrive at the first rappel and caught up to a group of 3 spelunkers who we spent about 30 min hiking with, before they overtook us haha. We let them go first and once again they were progressing quicker. After the first rappel or two of Behunin, we came to I think my largest yet series of large successive rappels. We lost hundreds of feet in elevation. There was a lengthy rappel to a tree at the edge which was a few hundred feet up from the floor below, and from that tree it was another 2 or 3 rappels to the bottom. It was amazing.

I'd been teaching Zack all this stuff about canyoneering, had taken him out to some fun canyons, and I was pretty confident in his skills. However I think he was still doubting himself with some things. Anyway, if there was any self-doubt, he definitely proved to himself he knows what he's doing... because if he didn't I may not be here typing this up. On the first very lengthy rappel to said tree... I wanted to go down first for a few reasons. First, I had to make sure the rope reached all the way to it. Second... Zack, though not afraid of heights as he used to be, had told me straight out that once he got to that tree I shouldn't expect much from him, since it was at such a precarious edge. Obviously I wanted him at full function as long as possible, so I kept him up top and I did the "more scary" work. I rappelled down towards the tree, but the rope was about 15 feet short. I needed more, because I wasn't walking 15 feet on the sloped rock path to the tree when I was already on the point of no return should I slip.

I found a good, safe, flat section I was near to stand/kneel on a while as I called up to Zack to untie the rope and feed me some more. As I said, he wasn't sure about himself, but I was very confident. Honestly not 100% at the time, but after these rappels I knew I could trust him with things related to anchors and the clove hitch. Eventually he calls back down saying it's locked again. I pull down the slack he's given me, choke it up, and test it with my hand of course by pulling it just to make sure he hadn't switched the pull side of course. So I put my weight on it, stay alive, and continue down to the tree, to which the end just barely reaches like 1 foot short, which was good enough for me, didn't want to spend any more time on this rappel. I tie a long runner around it to clip into after I take the two careful steps towards it. Next Zack comes down behind me, I clip our harnesses together while he gets off the rope and comes to the tree, then let him hook onto it. Then he just takes a seat above it, away from the edge I'm so comfortably standing against.

I give him a break on this one since I know and he was telling me he was a little freaked by where we were sitting. So I pull down the rope, coil it up, tie the anchor, and let him go down first. Once his weight was on the rope he was totally comfortable again and was having a blast, saying how awesome this drop was. A few rappels later... we reach the bottom and break out our MREs for lunch. Man did we dine. Some of those things can be goooooooooood when you're hungry.

By this time, we'd spent half an hour eating and enjoying our first real break since we started the hike probably 6 or 7 hours ago (I think).

We continued down the canyon, rappel after rappel, just simply adoring all the features and little intimate places you only get to see as a canyoneer. Hiking, sure, you get to see a lot, big open vistas. But canyoneering... you get that, plus all these beautiful little nooks and crannies that are so much more untouched.

We arrive at a rappel off a log down what sometimes would be a waterfall... but when we were there was a dry chute into a large toxic-green puddle. We had absolutely no intention of going into that and started hiking up to find a way around it, which we did. Sooner or later the sun sets, we get our headlamps on, and still have 3 or 4 rappels to go, but at least they were very near to each other. The first included a very deep hole that you had to work around. I'm not sure how deep, but it made a good echo, and I couldn't see the bottom. Obviously I was trying to stay dry by this time, however I definitely slip on a log and splash in up to my chest near the bottom of the rappel.

Next we continue on to the last 2 rappels, which I offer to pioneer the first one since we couldn't see how far down it went or what we even landed on. I work my way around this large boulder to where a mighty contraption of 5 slings of webbing existed all equalized together. I help Zack climb down to where I am and tie into the webbing before setting up and rappelling down. Soon we arrive at the bottom of this one, which includes a 10-foot vertical shimney or so down, then about 15 feet walking to the next and final rappel, the bolts out off the edge. Again I tie this one, and ask Zack to go first so that he can tell me how much rope to pull up once he's down, as I just give him all the rope for his rappel just in case, since again we couldn't see the bottom. The time now as about 10:30pm, and we saw the headlamps of the three cave-divers far out on the ground between us and the shuttle stop, they saw us as well. It was comforting, since we hadn't seen them in a while.

So Zack eventually gets all the way down, and we start yelling so that both ends of the rope reach. I go off the edge, rappel off some large boulders sticking out of the massive rock wall, and soon enter what seemed like the largest free-hanging rappel I'd ever undertaken. I don't know how long it was, it may have just been the light situation. All I know, is that for a long time I could not see the bottom, only Zack's headlamp looking up. I was just falling through blackness.

Finally I meet up with Zack at the bottom, and he begins to tell me how he teared up slightly because at one point, he thought the rope was coming to an end and he still couldn't see the floor bottom. Of course it reached all the way, may have just been how his headlamp lit the rope or something. However, as usual, once at the bottom he was nothing but in love with the rappel, as was I. We coil up the rope but leave all our stuff on, just in case, and start heading out. We honestly didn't even know which way we were going. We were, however, very good at spotting footprints, and I knew where the river was and the direction of the shuttle stop, so we were set. So for another good while we spend time stream-hopping and finding our way through the forest, until we finally arrive at a point where a small sign and pole fence almost "materialize" in front of us. I walk up to it, look behind us, and realize we're at the second emerald pool from yesterday! I must have missed somewhere that the trail exits there, but at least we knew exactly where we were at now. This time we debated rappelling off into the first pool as we so wanted to yesterday, but decided not to, partly because we didn't want to be wet anymore and also because it isn't the same if you can't see what you're doing.

15 minutes later we arrive at the restaurant/shuttle stop, quite tired. It's like past midnight now, everything is closed obviously, we knew we weren't going to make the last shuttle into the park. So we just sat on a bench and relaxed for a while. Funny as it is... we take off our splash layers to get back into our dry clothes... and the time between, while we're changing... yup, the sprinklers came on. Luckily, the bench right next to us was free from its wrath so we moved there haha. So there we are, sitting, relaxing, finally dry, chowing down on some more food we had packed, letting our feet have a breather from the past 13 hours spent hiking and canyoneering before embarking on the long walk back to the campsite. It probably shouldn't have taken so long, but we enjoyed ourselves and took some good scenic breaks, plus we also had to progress slowly and be careful for a while since it was raining pretty hard. Next time it won't take so long, knowing where to go.

Finally we start on the last trek of the day, even though now it's Thursday morning. It's just after 12:30am and we start walking back down the road. No cars. No people. No anything. Just a double yellow line and and an amount of stars that makes me wish I didn't have to leave. On the walk back we took like three 5-minute breaks where we just lied down on the road, looked up at the stars, listened to the river... and most importantly let our feet stop bleeding (not really that last part). Yea... we also had to make sure we kept each other awake haha.

It was one of the best times I'd ever had. As tired as I was, I wouldn't have traded this experience that was coming to an end for anything. Behunin was such a beautiful canyon, we met and talked to some really awesome cavers, Zack really got "tested" and pulled through, and we were just having a kick-ass time overall. Haha... there was one point where Zack saw 2 big white eyes off the road on the right side and started getting a little scared, we passed it and kept watching us for another hundred feet or so, whatever it was. We kept an eye out for car headlights, hoping to get a ride. Eventually the whole side of the canyon to the west got lit up by headlights somewhere in the distance, but never came to our direction. It was disappointing.

We reached the first shuttle stop away from the campsite, a museum of sorts, and were only about another 1.3 miles from the campgrounds I think it was. Then, when we're finally in the home stretch... a car pulls up behind us and we get off the road to the side and hope they pull over. They did, and once the lights passed us we discovered it was a patrol, which we were more comfortable with of course.

The lady officer gets out and starts talking to us, and I guess she knew who we were because Josh had apparently reported us as missing. She willingly offered to give us a ride to our campsite, and first asked if we had any weapons. I had my knife, of course, but was tucked away in my pack now with the rest of my gear, so she just had us set our packs in the trunk. That was my first time in the back of a police car haha... never realized how cramped they are! Zack and I had to sit sideways just to accomodate our legs. So we start driving away and she calls in to dispatch, reporting that she found us.

"411 copy, missing party of 2 out of Behunin canyon, 20 year old and 16 year old. I've got them."

We get back to our campsite, Josh is up reading something, asked what happened, we explained it was just a long canyon but that we had a ridiculously awesome time. It's too bad he didn't tag along, his luck wasn't so great that day and was stuck in a flash flood for 3 hours I think he said. Regardless, whatever the reason, Zack and I were seriously thinking "wtf mate?" when he asked if we'd be ready to leave in the morning. He had already said we'd be leaving Friday morning or Thursday night now instead of Saturday... but now Thursday morning? Was pretty pissed since I managed to get a permit for Mystery on Thursday.

Anyway, we slept, we woke, we drove out to St. George to meet Zack's grandpa so he could get some of his stuff. The last bit of annoyance for the trip: Josh asked us about getting breakfast. Zack's grandpa offered to cook us breakfast. Full homemade breakfast! For free! Josh says "no" and that he wants to get going, as if the world will end. Yet we still manage to stop at a McDonald's and spend more money on something we could have gotten for free, and of course wasn't as good or filling. Ugh... it was a long ride home. Josh spoke, but only the few times in response to when I spoke to him.

This is the kind of trip that can really change your perspective on someone. And I'm probably a dick for including it all in this. My dad picked up Zack and I in Glendora or near there, and brought us home, so that all the grand storytelling could commence...

Behunin Canyon, I love you.
Mystery, I'll get you next time, promise!
Zack, thanks for being there and making it such a badass time.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE PICTURES FROM THIS CANYONEERING TRIP!

Defibrillator / Zion Report

Wow have I procrastinated and been lazy about this lately. It's summer and I've kinda been preoccupied doing other things. Bonfires, videogames, hanging out... haven't really tried getting out there lately. Unfortunately... in 3 days it will have been 5 whole weeks since my last in-canyon rappel. Ugh.

So stuff I SHOULD have posted about that long ago... Zion report. Hopefully I still remember it well enough :) Here goes...

So our trip was from June 14th to he 18th - 4 nights spent there. My grandfather drove Zack and myself out near the border, right in Baker, where we met Josh and went from there. This was Sunday, and for lack of proper planning and things coming up for Josh, we left around noon and didn't manage to get a canyon done that first day, as we got to Zion around 7pm I think it was. We took some time to stop along the way, get some food & supplies. We found one site in the campground but luckily the people right next to it, just a man and his wife, offered to let us pitch our tent next to theirs on their site, so we had our first night of camping free!

This first night I think I got 20min of sleep. For some reason I honestly could not fall asleep at all. Whether it was everyone else snoring or some subtle yet uncontrollable excitement for the next day... I simply couldn't. I even went out for an hour long walk at like 4am just because I was getting bored haha.

Monday morning, waking up, we go to and hit up the backcountry desk to grab us some permits. We manage to get both Keyhole and Pine Creek for that day, as well as a camping permit for that night and Behunin one for the next day - pretty ambitious!

Keyhole was very cold as usual though not so much as I remembered. It was actually really fun watching Zack and Josh, and their reactions to it. After the nice long freezing 60 foot swim at the end, we stripped our gear and wet clothes off and let them dry on the road for a short time - while we enjoyed some Monster and Red Vines barefoot across the road on a rocky hill.

Immediately after, we just hop back in Josh's care and head a short way down the road to the Pine Creek trailhead. I love Pine Creek. I think I like Spry more... especially now that the last rap in Pine Creek is ultra-lamo compared to how it used to be - there used to be a nice little pond with a dirt-island in the middle you land on... now the whole ceiling gave way and it's just a huge jumble of boulders. However the approach is still nice, which consists entirely of "get out of your car" haha. We parked there in the parking lot, got out, started heading downhill under the bridge, and were at the first rap in 2 minutes I think.

I was surprised at how little of Pine Creek I remembered. I mean once I got to each rappel I normally remembered it, I just hadn't thought so much of it was umm... "in a cavernous environment." Thought a lot more of it was out in the sun, like Spry. The Great Cathedral rap, the third one, was not as awesome as I remembered either. Maybe I just thought *everything* was awesome last time because it was still the start of my canyoneering experiences, I hadn't done a 400 foot waterfall and other awesome ones already last time. That third rap was also real mucky at the bottom, like most pools in Zion canyons. Something I do remember about this... I had gone first, Zack behind me. After helping pull him up and out of the swim, I saw some smoke coming off his shoulder, some steam, and then mine. He couldn't see it and I thought I was going crazy, but then Josh saw it too. At first I thought it might have been the heaters from our MREs getting activated in our packs haha but I guess it was just heat coming off our bodies... that was some cold water!

Eventually we get back outside into the sun, take our splash stuff off and give our clothes some time to dry just a little. We get up on a real large boulder and eat some afternoon lunch too. Continuing on, I believe there were only 2 rappels left - the last of which I'd been excited about doing the whole day - 120 feet of free hanging - the one I said is no longer that awesome anymore. Both Zack and Josh were a little scared of this rappel for some reason, and asked me to go first and to set it up... since where you stand before going is a little precarious I guess, and neither of them had ever done such a long freehang. I was more than happy to go first! Strange thing was... Zack was super excited saying how much he loved that rappel while he was coming down, but Josh was honest-to-god frightened, still not sure why, I've seen him do bigger.

Anyway... the hike out was a nice one, kinda long one too. Josh, as usual, went on ahead out of sight and blazed his own way, so Josh and I just took our time and enjoyed it. We sat down for a minute for a quick snack, and I had to give Zack his afternoon meds anyway. Somehow and somewhere along the way, Zack lost the helmet he was using which kinda sucked. Eventually we caught up to Josh - who had been waiting for us back on the road for who knows how long. We needed to hitchhike someone back up through the tunnel to get our car but he didn't wanna go alone for fear of... stuff. Yea. So Zack and I get there and he ends up hitchiking alone anyway...

After two canyons in one day, we head out to Blondie's, which I fondly remember, and have some filling dinner. By the time we get done, Josh starts talking about how it's too late to go to the campsite on the west rim trail we had planned on doing, and that we'd be hiking through the night some - which I was cool with, Zack was cool with it too but I don't think he knew what he was talking about and he would've gotten tired haha. So we decide to just not hike-camp that night, and find out that the campgrounds are full. It still wasn't very late, and I was offering to run around the campsite and ask small groups if we could pitch our tent next to theirs and even pay half the camp registration fee... Zack was up for doing that too. Josh was pretty set on just finding a motel though... so we ended up paying a lot more than we might have had to... though I did enjoy the hot tub for an hour the next morning!

I'll make another post soon on the rest of the trip, to break it up a bit :)



CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE PICTURES FROM THIS CANYONEERING TRIP!

Stuff

That's the title I use when I can't think of what to name a post. So a few recent things and plans...

Haven't managed to get out and do any canyon since Suicide. I WAS gonna do Eaton finally with Dave and 2 other guys but, lame old me somehow slept through 4 alarms (not snoozed, slept), and woke up like 15min before the meeting time haha. Sucks for me. Will have to do it sometime soon.

Last Wednesday though I did manage to get out to Stoney Point with Zack and have some fun. Taught him a few things, did a bunch of raps, finally got myself a longer runner (for mariner hitch purposes), with lots of practice ascending, switching to descending, etc. Was a fun day, especially at one rap we played bumper cars coming down on. Nothing like crashing into each other on a freehang on a rope heading towards the ground - that was tons of fun. We were both equalized on 3 good bolts and there was a smooth rounded edge, so... :D But yea... not up for debating safety issues of that.

Unfortunately I did not have the camera with me at the time. The last rappel for me of the day involved going off the very edge of stoney point, was probably just under 90 feet, partially free hanging. Was kinda hoping no onlooking drivers were calling the police saying I was going to "jump" since I was standing on the edge for a while, debating and reinforcing the bolts I rappelled off of. I will have to go back sometime this summer and take a picture. If it wasn't safe I would not have done it, but for kicks I'll describe it:

Two large screws in the rock. A chain link of I think around 7 links, with the ends placed on the screws and fastened down with nuts. The sketchy part was I could move the screws in the holes they were in. Not up and down but around. Even so, they were really stuck in there and at the angle of rappel the chance of them moving "up" was fairly nonexistant. I put myself on rappel and went the other way (on the ground) just to shock and test it - at an angle much more likely to get the screws to move upwards. It held fine but I used my smaller rope to back it up to a tree a little farther back anyway... for mental comfort. One of those moments where the technical side knows its safe but the creative side is uncomfortable anyway. Will have to take a picture when I go back.

So that was Stoney Point. In other news... I'm not entirely Superman anymore. No more diving into bushes of poison oak and eating it for breakfast as the past 9 months have been. My lower left leg.... failed me. That is all.

As for future stuff... ZION! Plans just got made, woohoo. Josh, Zack and myself. The three of us are going to head up and spend Monday through Friday there, going to be a blast. So hopefully I'll get at least 3 canyons I haven't done yet under my belt after this is through. Really hoping we get to do Mystery and Englestead. Also hoping we get through something quick and maybe hike up Angel's Landing the same day, as I haven't done that yet. Zack has though apparently, since he lived in Utah for a while. As for doing a canyon I've already done... man it would be a hard choice between Pine Creek and Spry. The first has just some awesome rappels, especially the last... but the latter has such a beautiful exit hike with so much downclimbing and river hopping!

So, definitely stoked about this, can't wait. Other than upcoming Zion, starting to drive north a little and do some canyons there over a few days, as opposed to having to drive up multiple days and multiple trips. Would like to hit up the Seven Teacups again, do Tar Creek, and maybe another one or two in one trip, probably get John and Kyle to get out there with me since they live up there.

Ordered myself a nice backpack from REI as well, so hoping I can get a few overnight camping/backpacking trips in this summer, as I can't remember the last time I did. Hopefully it gets here on the "expected date" of Saturday too, so I can have it before Zion. If not, mine will do fine. Don't fail me REI!!!

Suicide Canyon - Bad luck with nav, rope, and bugs... but awesome anyway!

This past Wednesday I finally added Suicide Canyon to my list of accomplishments, a much anticipated trip. "Awesome" definitely sums it up, but for those who want to read more than two sentences...

So the group was Zack, Dave, and myself. Zack and I met Dave at the parking lot area off Big Tujunga road at I think 10am exactly (would have been there early like 9:20 but Zack took 45min to get out of bed haha). After choosing our ropes, packing our gear, and getting our canyon clothes on, we head out and start following a really nice stream for a while heading east, crossing it about 4 times. It really was some clear water, and we passed some interesting places just hiking on the ground there, including some growth of corn as well as a little "chill zone" of sorts - complete with cushioned chair, clothesline, workbench, signs, etc out in the middle of nowhere.

We actually went farther than most travel, and decided to head up a gully we found and see if that can get us up the mountain, looking for a little more of an adventure I suppose. So instead of taking the trail that leads up the route (which we eventually crossed and continued on) we took a rather difficult but fun climb up the mountain. At first we had 4 short rock climbs - which actually could have been nice rappels if water had been flowing down them - which was followed by a few long loose earth uphill climbs. I led on the first one, and set up a rope to help Zack get up, as it was pretty long and challenging. From there on Dave went first while Zack and I stayed behind til he was up, as we kept dislodging rocks and whatnot by going up, one that landed square on my ankle... still a little sore today. I normally followed close behind Zack in case he needed any spotting, and since he wasn't incredibly comfortable with some of these. Even though he said "I can't do this" on one of them, of course he ended up doing it. Saying he can't and then disproving himself - story of his canyoneering life. He did however get one sharp cut which tore right through his Dickies and then skin, the one cut we actually bothered cleaning and fixing up.

Soon we reached the top of the ridge and introduced ourselves to some telephone poles, intersecting with the actual trail which we then followed up. There were a few more steep uphill sections, but on solid dirt fortunately. All I can say is whoever set up all those ropes to hold on to and pull yourself up on for those short climbs is Grade A in my book. After these of course the trail continued uphill but it definitely leveled out and was actually a very comfortable hike from there on, following pink blazers through the heavily wooded area... which led us to overshoot the canyon. Unfortunately, there was no obvious marker for a turn-off to the west towards the canyon so we continued uphill to the south following the blazers.

Uphill to the south of the canyon, we emerged in this suddenly open area that was nothing but large white rocks and boulders. Long story short, we crossed this, went back into the woods, found 3 dead ends, and went back. We agreed to just start heading back down since we knew the canyon was below us and that we had overshot it. Two minutes later as we are about to exit that rocky area marks my third rattlesnake encounter! Unfortunately, GPS coordinates from the site we use were eerily inaccurate and were really not of much help at all. Also... bugs! After those mentioned loose uphill climbs, once we got into the nice wooded areas... god were there so many. Zack would not stop complaining about getting bitten by horseflies and such. I couldn't feel it, but I definitely flicked some off and saw a minuscule spot of blood were they were. Probably have about 4 mosquito bites leftover right now too. Why oh why do I refuse to hike/canyoneer in pants...

On the way down we take a chance following a faint trail we hadn't seen on the way up (as stated, no obvious markers and it was actually detached from the main trail), which eventually leads us to the first rap. After the short loose downhill surf into the canyon - the first rap of which is to the right - I head off towards a little shady glade to the left to check for water since Zack said there wasn't any at the rappel. Voila! The canyon gods smiled upon us. A nice clear pool to filter. We sat there for a few minutes, got drunk, filled up some bottles, and headed for the whole reason we were even there.

---

The first rappel - named Lovers Leap - is a good 190-200 foot rappel. Perhaps it was from the previous few hours of climbing and bushwhacking, but my hands got tired on it and kinda hurt a little. I locked my prusik once just to get the load off my hands for a little bit, don't know what was up. So I was the first down, almost landed on a dead headless squirrel (I think) which sat right at the bottom. We covered it up with some rocks. Zack was down next, his legs shaky as he got near the bottom. This was his longest rappel yet, but he's come a long way from being afraid of heights and taking an hour just to man up and go down Bailey's first 35 foot slope. Made me proud, my little padawan is growing up *cry*. After being down for a minute he was already saying he wanted to do it again though! So then down comes Dave after tossing the pull rope. I should take a moment to mention that this rappel reminded me of the last rap I did in Zion, at Spry... I couldn't touch my pirana or biner for a good 5 minutes or more because it was so hot.

So! We're all down. Start pulling the pull line down. 20 feet later... BAM stuck. Can I get it down? Nope. Can Dave get it down? Nope. Can the 3 of us with our harnesses attached to the rope and putting our combined body weight against it get it down? Nope. Oh yea... and that's why you don't use accessory cord as a pull line :)

Me almost done ascending, maybe a little dramatic, but truly out of breath haha...

So I volunteer to ascend up and get fix whatever the problem is. Of course the one day I get smart and work UPPER body in the gym instead of lower the day before canyoneering is the day I have to ascend almost 200 feet. I actually find it easier to ascend free hangs, as you get to put more/all your weight on your legs. On slants, a lot more arm strength is involved. Thank god I recently got some full-size handled Petzl ascenders... screw tiblocs and ropemans. I get up there, fix the issue, and rappel down again. So commences the pulling and coiling of 450 feet of rope.

The next rap was like a minute or less away, half of which was through a short V-shaped wedge and the other half was just a straight down descent. It was short, about 40 feet. I went down last after Zack and had actually just tied a prusik onto the rope and descended down the "V" while he was on rappel to cut a little time.

Somewhere farther down the canyon we come to a memorable rappel which I thought was just gorgeous. Had some deep green growth in patches and the water was flowing just enough to make the surface of the rock shimmer, not even trickle.

Zack finishing up pretty much the nicest rappel in the canyon...

The last rappel was actually quite nice as well, though we hit this one after sunset and did it with our headlamps. Fun! Unknowing if the rope we used (120 footer) would reach the bottom, I went down first. It was about a 15 foot drop, then a short walk, then about 80 feet. Counting the amount of rope used up at the anchor and tied to the pull line, it was about 10 feet short had I gone down the fall the "normal" way. Luckily we were able to cut over canyon left and land on raised dirt slope with about 2 feet of slack left in the rope. So I get down, Zack gets down, and then Dave... and WHAT DO YOU KNOW! Bad luck strikes again. After trying all the normal methods of getting a stuck rope down, Dave heads up and gets the rope this time. I actually don't know what the issue was with this one. Just a crazy day. The first canyon I've ever done that required ascensions to free a rope... and we had to do it twice. Even though I did the big 190 foot one, I was kinda jealous that Dave got to do the nighttime ascend haha!

So it was a long day, but we saw some pretty cool things, pretty much blazed our own fun trail, and just took our time enjoying the canyon (love nighttime exits!)...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE PICTURES FROM THIS CANYONEERING TRIP!

Stone Plus... bug bites, cuts, hard hike...

Before I write this not-so-lively piece on the canyon Stone Plus One...

Ultimate Frisbee! Go play it. Do it. Now. K.

So... the canyon Stone Plus One. Heading up from Sunland, I think it's actually the very first canyon there is. It's the first ditch/canyon one hill east of the actual Stone Canyon (thus Plus One). It's one that has been on "the list" for a while since it's fairly easily accessible, being very near the road.

So this was last Friday we did it, the day before the SCUBA deal of the previous post. Yes, why didn't I post this first, why oh why. That was more interesting at the time. Anyway! So it was Josh, Zack and I again. Josh finally decided he wanted some 5.10 shoes, and he conveniently lives 3 miles from their store in Redlands - only they don't open until 1pm! So, Zack and I got down to the parking lot like 2.5 hours early and just waited around. Well, not "just waited" I suppose. We walked down to the nearby stream and had some fun, cooled down with the water (it was hot that day, quite hot). We also had a mini anchor-building class going on for him. I like teaching (so long as I know what I'm talking about lol) :)

So eventually, after waiting longer than expected, we get back in the truck and start driving out, and meet Josh as he's coming into the parking area. Ridiculously, the parking area has a sign that says it closes at 6pm, and we know we will be out later than that, so we leave and park at the first turnout up the road. To temporarily fast-foward... I was fairly annoyed when we were walking back thru the entrance like past 8pm and the gate was still open. (Pleasant part of post ends here).

So! We get our gear, our ropes, make sure we have our headlamps, etc, and start heading out. Walk down the road, back down to and through the parking area, across the stream and start heading up a very long and large stone wash - which we eventually discover is the wrong way (I had the feeling all along, I tell you!) So we go back, find the right trailhead, and start heading up the real trail. 10 minutes in and we're pretty much out of water haha, definitely should have carried more. That hike was stupid without any. Was over an hour of a hike, quite steep, and including many of those "this has to be the last turn" feelings only to disappoint. It was also very hot, as mentioned earlier. We get to and discover the lower entrance to the canyon, but opt to just head up the rest of the way and start at the upper drop-in. Oh yea... and whenever we stopped for more than 1 second we would get crazy red ants crawling up us. It sucked, bad.

After a long steep loose earth slope filled with bushwhacking to get down into the canyon and the first rappel, and the hope of running water... we get to it to find a small pool at the top of the first rap with some blood-red algae and other muck at the bottom of it. Luckily there was a small, cleaner/clear stream trickling off the rap. Being the last one down, I locked off halfway down where there were 4 nice "lines" of water streaming down off the rock on a short overhang, and started filling up my bottle (thank god for filtered bottles, we were pretty thirsty).

So we continue down a few more rappels and one tricky downclimb that Zack jumped the gun on, made me think he was gonna split his head open. I was uncomfortable with this small downclimb, just because of how exposed it was, when I've never been afraid of heights and Zack took like an hour to man up to do his first 35' rappel. Something was definitely wrong with that. The canyon was ridiculously dry for the most part but eventually the groundwater started pouring through with a small trickle of a stream flowing, eventually reaching a rappel (the last of the upper section) with enough flow that we actually got fairly wet. This rappel we already had our headlamps on, as the canyon had become dark enough to use them.

A few minutes go on of horrendous bushwhacking, going through some poison oak (which I might add once again did not affect me, yipee!), plants with thorns, logs with a BILLION red ants - seriosuly, I put my hand on it for 1 second or less for balance going down a drop, and I had at least 10 on my hand/glove. It was extremely dark without our headlamps too, so that made it more fun. Eventually we get to the point of the lower drop-in. We got a late start with the canyon (~3pm), were getting tired, knew it would take a few more hours to technically descend it, and were quite seriously fed up with all the bushwhacking and bugs. So, taking into account the fact that we'd rather do the canyon when we can actually see it, as well as weighing and managing our time and energy, we call it quits for the day.

About 10-15min followed of the worst bushwhacking of the day. Going straight uphill back to the trail, sometimes literally going "through" trees and bushes because there's no clear-cut path, scratching ourselves up nicely. After getting back on the trail it was just a fight with our painful feet to carry us on (the hike was killer on the feet), and watching out for snakes in the dark once we got back down off the trail. Crossing the stream felt incredibly good on our feet, however. There was some quick streakage going on back at the car, getting into dry clothes, which felt oh-so-nice (both the streaking and the clean dry clothes, lol). Luckily, it was pretty much pitch-black out and no cars drove by and lit me up, since I was on the road side of the truck, which would have been quite awkward and funny!

So the next day... I have probably 10 mosquito bites (not exaggerating) and a few nice cuts on my knees and just above (I love gaiters). We plan to go back and do the whole canyon. Next time, we'll pack plenty more water, and definitely get an earlier start!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL THE PICTURES FROM THIS CANYONEERING TRIP!