Here's the list of who went on the trip:
- Ross Astoria
- Rich Kocher
- Mark Lucas
- Sam Plair
- Kevin Ryan
- Rogil Schroeter
- Kathy Sharp
- Jef Sloat
- Richard Theobald
|
Here's the list of who went on the trip:
|
|
Jef: A couple of general thoughts: The first thought is a suggestion that anyone who wants to do a lot of these slots to get yourself a good pair of elbow pads. In going through these narrows, you spend a lot of time leaning to one side or the other and the walls of the canyons can resemble a cheese grater at times. Most of the others in this group commented that they wished they had such gear. I found a pair at a sporting goods store that are made of neoprene. In addition to protecting the elbows and forearms they provide supplemental insulation for those cold swims sometime required.
Knees and ankles seemed to suffer injuries on this outing. Everyone was so psyched for the long and taxing objects of our trip. Know where your weaknesses are and prepare for those with the right braces and things like ace bandages and plenty of Ibuprofin.
The Escalante is an area that has been reclaimed from the cows! I think it was in the late 1940s that Utah somehow determined that cow grazing in this part of the state should come to an end and made it so. The change in the landscape is nothing short of dramatic. First off, there aren't the endless cow pies everywhere, nor is there the associated smell. But beyond that, the banks of the river are not trampled to mud and dust, they are filled with plant life right down to the edge of the water. I suspect that the number of deer flies (cow flies?) was decreased as a result of the missing herds, too. You feel like you're in a wilderness instead of hiking through some ranchers abused property. Hopefully, as time goes by, we can reclaim more of our public lands from the cows.
Kathy: Cottonwood Wash Road is impassable when wet and has some real sandy spots, but just driving it is great fun because of the incredible scenery.
Ringtail was very short, but really good. It was mostly dry, as were all the canyons this year. Would be a whole different trip on a wet year. There was lots of bouldering, a short rappel (30') & a couple of wades. We had to set up a sling to help people out of the hole below the rappel.
Kathy: Getting into the canyon at the beginning of the narrows was a bit challenging! I believe Jef was the first to take the chimney-down route and Mark was the first to take the jump-across route. I might have gotten up the courage for the chimney route if I hadn't seen Mark, Jef, and Ross lower Rogil in, and then I had to take advantage of that, too! Wimpy me.
I took advantage of teamwork to get out of the wet pothole after the rappel, too.
The bottom end of the narrows were so dark and tight above us that it felt more like caving than canyoneering. Mark said this section was full of neck-deep water the last time he was there.
Kathy: The Lower Neon Canyon adventure begins with determining how to get to the bottom of the canyon and ends with a rappel into a pool through one of the holes in the top of the "Cathedral," which is the subject of the photo in the bottom right corner of the cover of Kelsey's 4th edition of Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau. Above is a photo from one of Mark's previous trips. That's the neatest rappel I've done!
Kathy: Jef and Rich decided to try another entry point into the canyon. I really wanted to do this canyon and when I heard Mark say he'd like to go, I decided I would. However, as I was starting to chimney down in, I saw lots of thinking going on on Mark's face. He was worried it might be more difficult than he'd like. I knew Jef and Rich could fly without me, so Mark and I headed back across the slickrock, which is fun in itself.
We caught up with the others at a rest stop. When we reached the previous day's entry point for Lower Neon, Ross, Richard, and Sam decided to head back to camp and the rest of us decided to do Lower Neon again. (Ross's knee was really hurting by this time.)
Kevin and Rogil had done the first rappel and Mark and I were donning our wetsuits when Jef appeared above us. He wasn't exactly sure where he was, and we were minutes from descending into the narrows, so seeing us was a real lucky break! Jef went back and got Rich and they finished Neon Canyon with us. They had run into some pretty serious obstacles in the upper canyon. Good thing they're both part mountain goat.
Jef: Rich and I tackled a good portion of Upper Neon as a team of two. We spotted a side canyon that looked like it would provide a short access to the main canyon after an attempt further upstream proved to be a little too dicey. The fact that we were only two hikers was an advantage, because we were able to move more quickly. Time is a very real factor in these adventures. Getting stuck in a canyon overnight is not the prefered way to experience these natural wonders. We encountered several drops that Rich and I felt comfortable Monkeying down that might have stalled others trying to keep it a safe operation. In one such drop I made a "less than elegant" drop to a sloping floor and banged up one elbow. I didn't break any skin because I was wearing neoprene elbow pads, but I bruised the bone and had to favor it for the rest of the trip. However one nice thing about upper Neon is that we often had our choice as to how hard to make the trek. In several place we were able to bypass sinuous corkscrews and logjams by taking a high road past. The slots had fairly flat "sidewalks" past these obstacles in many places. As always, though, the difficulty on one trek can be a poor indicator for subsequent trips due to the water level which is just unpredicatable.
Eqypt 3 was incredible but it was so narrow & leaned all the time that it became painful, not to mention that walls were very textured, so it shredded skin & packs.
Kathy: If you think I'm slow hiking with my day pack, give be a backpack and have me hike up a sand dune! What a way to start the day. But we still had time for Egypt 3.
One place in Egypt 3 is only 8 inches wide. Add that the narrows there lean so you can't stand straight, and the walls have abrasive nodule ridges, and you'll understand how one of our hikers got stuck in the narrows for a short, alarming moment.
My pack was way too fat to drag through this canyon, but I really enjoyed it. This was the last day that Ross and Jef did with us; they went on to the AMC Indian Creek rock-climbing outing.
Kathy: We did this flood-safe hike instead of Llewellyn Gulch because the more adventurous of the group let those of us who worry more decide that the gulch would be too dangerous with the day's weather conditions. We were quite leisurely in Phipps Wash and even took a nap in the shade. We found lots of very round, sand-filled black rocks, which we dubbed "dinosaur eggs."
Insanity reined, so we drove to the Black Hole trailhead straight from Llewellyn.
Rich: I'm not much on documentation, but I'll take a crack at Kevin and Rich's day 8.
Woke up and split a package of non-frosted strawberry pop tarts with Kevin. After much deliberation, we decided to bag Llewellyn and set off for the wimpy Spooky and Peek-a-boo slots. Got confused on the entry of those and ended up going up the Coyote Gulch narrows instead, which were actually pretty nice. It was clearly in the aftermath of a considerable flow from the day before (probably 12 feet high water flow in some places)--which was a nice data point, since we had trouble deciding whether to do Llewellyn or not on that day before. We made the right choice (when in doubt, stay out). We came back through Peek-a-boo, saw another rattler, and headed for the truck. On the way back up the road we stopped at Devils Gardens and checked that out (nice sit down toilets there, Mark--only 1/4 mile from main road).
Went into Escalante then, and parked it at the Tasty-Freeze for a goodly long while. Kevin had a large caramel milkshake, and I went for the large grasshopper milkshake (mint, with oreo cookie crumbs). Killed another 15 minutes after that waiting for my stomach to stop hurting, and went for showers at the Circle D.
After that we went back to camp and waited about 3 hours for you guys to show up, which you never did, then went back into Escalante again for dinner at the Circle D once more. I had the small Navajo taco, while Kevin went for the Gents (large) Navajo taco. Mark then showed up at the Circle D, and ordered yet another Gents style Navajo taco. We headed back to camp, divvied up gear with you guys, and hit the road back to the valley, and that was the end of our memorable week in Utah, for year 2000.
Kathy: Mark, Rogil, and I did the Black Hole. Sam said his stomach was feeling queasy, and Richard doesn't ever want to see another canyon, so they hung out at the Fry Canyon Lodge.
The water level was way low in the Black Hole. Whole sections where there has always been water were totally dry and we could wade in places we normally have to swim, including parts of the big long twisty swim. We also didn't have to hike up the canyon side where we normally do; we just stayed in the bottom of the canyon. And I liked the alternate exit; it seemed much shorter. All in all the trip seemed much easier than usual to me. We took 7 hours.
Driving home after the Black Hole gave us all of Memorial Day to rest. This was a great vacation!