30.12.07

Leprechaun Canyoneering

So...after riding down from Salt Lake through a blizzard, listening to how Dr./Det. Alex Cross would like to...(we'll just leave that there), and finding out that our reservations were actually made a day EARLIER...we fared pretty well. In fact, I'm even King of the Rock. You know it.
We got to the canyons about 8.30 in the morning, plenty of time to get a good day of sperlunk-a-dunking in. After hiking around to the mouth of the slot canyon, the right fork of it, that is, we started to descend into the slot canyon. I'd only been to the narrows before near St. George, and even this slot felt, well...more slottier.
Coming down was narrow, and we expected it to be cold, seeing as it's December 28th. However, regardless of the layers we were wearing, the weather turned out to be quite dazzling--blue skies, no wind, and to be honest, the sun was relentless while we were in her view. The gloves came off quick and I debated seriously about taking more layers off.
We hit a few small water hazards, nothing too much. Besides, the water was frozen solid; indeed in some places it was frozen uphill! That was cool. We even saw dinosaur tracks!!
After rappelling down to the "end" of our right fork, we were intrigued by the middle fork. We had been through some rather tight places, but had read that this one was darker, danker, and even narrower. And it was true! Being the lead dog, I went through first, and we hit some interesting hazards. We had to stem above and below rocks which had wedged themselves in the narrow, and there was even a stretch of about 30 feet where we were literally leaning back on the rock at a 45 degree angle just to pass! That was, well, pretty sweet. We pushed forward until we hit the area where left and middle fork come together, and decided to head back. Hehe. Yeah. Head back. Back down a nearly impassable...passage. I kept on trying to imagine being the first one down there...to imagine how it would be not knowing that you could really get out. Seriously, if a flash flood came down middle fork, you would have some serious trouble! But, we all made it out safe and back to the cars.
Fun trip, and we even got some sandstone for Brady's waterfall. Looking forward to more slots and a charged camera battery when I do!
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