The text below was copied from a Google Doc on 7/14/2007.
The photos are an unfiltered dump of all Kathy's photos from the trip, in case anyone wants to wade through them. One of these days, Kathy will edit them.
Participants:
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2007-0526 Utah
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We stopped for fudge and Navajo rug shopping at the Cameron Trading Post and then stopped in Kayenta for a quick meal at the Burger King. We were barely too late to get the weather report at Natural Bridges. We had been seeing some virga rain. Sheri saw someone in the locked visitor center and managed to get a ranger to come out. He was very nice and had been in the Black Hole in February. He said we could come check the weather in the morning and that the campground was full, but we could camp along the road to Deer Flats or Bears Ears. We found many other campers but finally found a place to camp on the Deer Flat Road. We were actually only 6 minutes in on the road.
Saturday we did the park drive to visit the natural bridge overlooks and did the short hike to the last bridge, enjoying both the scenery and the wide selection of pretty flowers.
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2007-0527 Utah
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We woke up to a morning so cool that Kathy thought we should not do the Black Hole. However, when we checked the weather at the Natural Bridges Visitor Center, we found that the temperature was going to be 82-80 degrees for a few days and then would drop to 75 on Wednesday; the forecast was mostly sunny every day. Therefore, we decided to do the Black Hole Sunday, and it worked out great.
Kathy first did the Black Hole in 1987, so this was her 20-year anniversary for the canyon. It was nice of the canyon to become passable again in time for our trip. (The canyon had a dangerous logjam for the past several years.) We all had wetsuits, but the water wasn't as cold as we had seen previously--Kathy's fingers didn't feel like funny bones when she touched anything while going through the water. We took Mark's slab exit this time.
Sheri noticed a truck with an AMC sticker at the entry parking and left a note.
We camped Sunday night near Cheesebox Canyon.
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2007-0528 Utah
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Kathy had done this canyon before but had forgotten how much water there was. Maybe there was significantly more water? We brought our wetsuits, but some of us didn't bring PFDs and were fine. We did not see the Indian ruins this trip. We enjoyed the canyon.
We showered, had dinner, and camped in Hanksville at the Redrock Restaurant and Campground. Ted and Connie's canyoneering crew was having dinner at the restaurant when we arrived there, and they had gotten Sheri's note at the Black Hole parking.
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2007-0529 Utah
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Despite Rogil telling the cashier not to turn on the sprinklers, the cashier did not tell the person responsible, who was already in bed, so sprinklers rudely awakened Dave, Rogil, and Tom in their tents before 5 a.m. Much of Dave and Rogil's stuff got drenched, and Tom, who had been fighting a cold the whole trip, never got back to sleep.
The group seemed to enjoy the non-stop series of problem solving in Maidenwater, although the canyon is not as photogenic as others we have done. Rogil and Kathy had done this canyon previously. The canyon was mostly dry but did have some skanky pools. We determined that it's better not to hike through the tunnel for the exit since the near side is easier to climb if you go up the gully that ends on the right side as you're looking up to the road.
We decided not to use Rogil's fat pink rope ever again, unless it was absolutely necessary. [Is no one going to elaborate? What about mentioning Henry?]
Tom treated everyone to Choco Tacos at the Hollow Mountain Gas & Grocery. We had dinner and milkshakes at Stan's Burger Shack and camped in Hanksville again.
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2007-0530 Utah
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We got an early start since Sheri wanted to hike while it was cool and she wanted to leave to drive home at a reasonable hour. The weather was beautiful for the hike out to the top of the canyon. Sheri was really moving once we got onto the visible trail of use.
We thoroughly enjoyed this very photogenic canyon. The canyon was tighter for longer periods than we remembered. This was Dave's first Mae West canyon. We think he may not be a big fan of Mae West canyons.
Afterward we hiked up part of Lucky Charm. We hiked up to the part that Todd's Desert Hiking Guide has a photograph of labeled "Narrows." We wonder if his UTM waypoint for the top of the canyon might be incorrect. His map is in degrees so we'll have to check later.
Tom and Sheri measured milepost 26.4 for Todd's entrance canyon and 27 for Todd's exit to Lucky Charm.
We asked for the weather at the Hollow Mountain store, had dinner at Stan's, and decided what to do the next day. Tom hatched a plan to rent a boat at Lake Powell for Saturday. At 7 p.m., we decided to just camp again in Hanksville rather than finish the drive to Robber's Roost in the dark. Tom called his wife and arranged to reserve a boat for Saturday.
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2007-0531 Utah
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We decided to just go down the canyon until 1:30, leaving our ropes and slings, and then return up the canyon, ascending the ropes and slings. We weren't up for the longer version of this trip.
We were having a hard time finding the way into this canyon until Rogil found an obvious but short and loose down climb to start.
Tom was the designated probe unit/rope gun/boy for this canyon and White Roost. We were proud of our teamwork in these two canyons.
Our turnaround point was in a nice little narrow section. Rogil did one last rappel and it sounded like the narrows continued. The rest of us decided not to rappel and then immediately have to ascend. Ascending the canyon was not difficult as far as ascending goes, but it was quite a bit of work. Some of us were tired enough to change our plans for the next day from the East Fork to the West Fork.
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2007-0601 Utah
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Rogil and Kathy had done this canyon previously. Rogil was afraid of the first drop from the last time but it went much better this time. At the bottom of the prettiest rappel, we apparently threw our rope on a small rattlesnake. Kathy's first thought was that it was a Pygmy Rattler. Paul Norberg thinks it is a Hopi rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis nuntius. Rogil thought it looked like a Desert Massasauga.
This canyon had a short stretch of tight, left-leaning Mae West to descend.
Afterward, we headed for Lake Powell, stopping in Kayenta for dinner, and staying at the Wahweap Marina campground, which had $2 showers but no quarters in the bathroom.
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2007-0602 Utah
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We were supposed to be able to pick up the boat at 9 a.m., and we had to have it back by 5 p.m. We planned to ride to West Canyon, ascend as much as we could, and then head back to the marina.
We motored into West Canyon, through a very narrow spot, tied up to some tamarisk bushes, and then swam into the slotty opening of the canyon. However, we couldn't get up the first obstacle! So we got back in the boat and explored other small canyons. We had a nice, cool, easy, fun day. Tom suggested we think about doing a whole Utah trip centered around the lake sometime.
[Is anyone going to mention schmutz?]
We had a yummy Mexican dinner at Fiesta Mexicana in Page while WalMart fixed Dave's slowly leaking tire. Tom and Kathy drove back to Phoenix Saturday night, and Rogil and Dave drove back on Sunday.
Do participants have something they want to remember for future trips? Advice? Lessons learned? Anything else?
We didn't have to change plans due to flash flood risk at all this year. The weather was quite cooperative--a rare occurrence.
It was another great Utah trip!
(The canyon had a dangerous logjam for the past several years.): ranger said it was only blocked one year, but the signage never came down.
Henry was from Austria & was on week 6 of a 10 week bike tour of the SW. He started in San Francisco & was heading toward Taos, NM where his brother lives. Very nice man. He joined us for a shake at Stan's.
Next time, maybe we can do the whole Lucky Charms now that we know the real start point. We went in the exit and eventually cliffed out.
I went to West Canyon, then Face then Labyrinth. I believe it was Face that ended at a very narrow (for the boat) section, which we then swam, but the water was covered with a thick layer of pine needles, tumbleweed and who knows what in an early stage of decomposition. we all got thoroughly coated with ick. we eventually got cliffed out in this canyon too. Labyrinth narrowed down too much for the boat & was still too long of a swim for us to risk being squashed by speeding run-abouts, so we didn't go too far into it. maybe next time we can bring kayaks or inflatables to finish Labyrinth. We also went up Navajo a ways, but since we had no gas gauge, we decided to head back instead.
It is a late thought, but I wonder if we could have pushed Tom up the fall in West & had him rope the rest of us up. I doubt it as it was very slippery & long & the water too shallow to risk a fall.
Kathy, if you know how long the canyons took, it would be good beta for future trips.
If anyone remembers the length of the longest rap on any of these it would also be good future beta.
Our last 2 canyons were dry, right? We swam in S. Maidenwater or just waded?