Showing posts with label Utah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Utah. Show all posts
Canyoneering into the San Rafael Swell
When I was in Argentina I passed up ice climbing alone with some hot Argentine guide and opted to go canyoneering with a group of six other tourists. I sometimes wonder if I made the right decision, but I remember definitely having fun wearing helmets and farmer johns, rappelling waterfalls, jumping into pools, sliding down rocks...I remember thinking it was like an adult obstacle course.
My adventure with my Colorado buds canyoneering in Utah for Joe's birthday was not all that different, except there were less trees and I should have been wearing a wet suit.
This was the beginning of our trip before our descent into the canyon.
On this trip we had to do a lot of human bridging in order to try to avoid swimming.
And sometimes others tried to sacrifice their bodies to keep us out of the water
But eventually the water was unavoidable and got even as high as our waists
Darren in one of the slots
Joe rappelling our last rappel in typical Joe style. Probably the funniest thing we did on the trip was make it seem as if there was a giant icy cold pool of water. Someone would descend and the people at the bottom would chuck rocks into a nearby pond. Then we'd make the rappeler scream as loud as they could. Everyone who hadn't descended, meanwhile couldn't actually see the rappel and believed their descent would end in torture. We all thought it was pretty funny and absolutely everyone was tricked.
Unfortunately shortly after our descent we became quite lost and ended up wandering around benighted. We all traveled in a group like mice running into a million deadends. We finally determined it'd be best for just a few of the fellas to look around until they actually found something. So many of us just chilled, telling stories, singing songs, and trying to stay warm. Thankfully the guys found the way out and an hour or so later we reached our vehicles.
We had planned to do another canyoneering trail the next day, but in the morning we awoke to rain that didn't really quit. We decided to avoid a possible flash flood while being trapped in the canyon. Thankfully we had had a full adventure the previous day. It was plenty sufficient until hopefully we come back next year.
Moab
Moab isn't as close as it used to be for Darren and I, but it is still awesome enough to merit an occasional visit. We met some friends from Fort Collins and somehow I convinced them we didn't need to do a super difficult trail (I'm still traumatized from Porcupine Rim). They were merciful and we did an extended version on Klondike Bluffs. MUCH more doable and enjoyable for me. Our first night we had stayed in a stinky field with tons of other people because there were tons of people in Moab. Fortunately we were able to find free camping further up the canyon and even had a little fire for roasting hot dogs and making s'mores. 
Sabbath afternoon nap
Just a titch squished moving our camping gear to our new campsite
A rattlesnake the boys spent forever playing with on our hike near our new campsite
On Sunday, Darren and I revisited our nemesis Castleton Peak. As you may recall, it shut us down last time we were here, but we wouldn't let that happen this time. We had sufficiently warm clothing this time, and we were ready to hit it! Like last time, it was super hot on the hike up, but extremely windy and cold at the actual climb.
We successfully climbed our way to the top!
Slick Rock Slew Me, But I Survived
Friday night Amanda and Rob joined us at our campground across from Slickrock, and the next morning we all wanted to try the trail out. Um...I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.
Slickrock is made up of petrified sand dunes--quite wonderful for sticking to one's mtn. bike and preventing the biker from falling. I was still freaked out by some of the dunes' steepness and had to walk my bike at quite a few places. But the place was still beautiful and I had a good time adventuring with Amanda, Rob, and my hubs.
To Amanda and I's chagrin and Darren and Rob's delight, Rob drove their new, old truck up famous jeeping trails such as Baby Lion's Back. They were shooting a Jeep commercial at the top of one of them, and the workers seemed a little huffy puffy when we showed up in our Toyota.
For supper we had a scrumptious burrito fiesta.
Slickrock was nothing compared to what was in store for Sunday--Porcupine Rim. It started off with a trail up that seemed more similar to biking I've done in the past. At the top was a beautiful view of Castle Valley and all of us were quite cheery.
On the way down, however, was rock garden after rock garden (not flat like in the picture below). I tried to muster up courage to go over a lot of it, but frequently just gave up and walked down. The repeated discouragement from the trail got to me, I started crying at one point, and was ready to sell my mountain bike 2/3rds of the way down. I must admit I was excited to get to the bottom even though we had discovered that we would have to thumb it back to the top because we'd forgotten the keys for Darren's car at the bottom. By the time I had finally made it to the parking lot, Rob had already started biking back to town in hopes of finding a merciful person to give him a ride. Some bikers from Montana were hanging out in their truck and had pity on us. They didn't give us a ride to the truck, but provided us with "nutter flutters" which consist of Milano cookies and marshmallow fluff. One can also add peanut butter if they're feeling extra saucy.
After some 20 or 30 minutes Rob triumphantly returned with his truck. He had biked almost all the way back to our campground before someone graciously gave him a ride up the numerous remaining miles to the trailhead. We quickly headed into town for a heap load of Thai food before parting ways. We definitely deserved it.
So, have I given up mountain biking? Definitely not. But next time I'm taking an easier route and building my way up...or knowing me I'll just suffer through difficulty again and bump and walk my way down the mountain.
Slickrock is made up of petrified sand dunes--quite wonderful for sticking to one's mtn. bike and preventing the biker from falling. I was still freaked out by some of the dunes' steepness and had to walk my bike at quite a few places. But the place was still beautiful and I had a good time adventuring with Amanda, Rob, and my hubs.
To Amanda and I's chagrin and Darren and Rob's delight, Rob drove their new, old truck up famous jeeping trails such as Baby Lion's Back. They were shooting a Jeep commercial at the top of one of them, and the workers seemed a little huffy puffy when we showed up in our Toyota.
For supper we had a scrumptious burrito fiesta.
Slickrock was nothing compared to what was in store for Sunday--Porcupine Rim. It started off with a trail up that seemed more similar to biking I've done in the past. At the top was a beautiful view of Castle Valley and all of us were quite cheery.
On the way down, however, was rock garden after rock garden (not flat like in the picture below). I tried to muster up courage to go over a lot of it, but frequently just gave up and walked down. The repeated discouragement from the trail got to me, I started crying at one point, and was ready to sell my mountain bike 2/3rds of the way down. I must admit I was excited to get to the bottom even though we had discovered that we would have to thumb it back to the top because we'd forgotten the keys for Darren's car at the bottom. By the time I had finally made it to the parking lot, Rob had already started biking back to town in hopes of finding a merciful person to give him a ride. Some bikers from Montana were hanging out in their truck and had pity on us. They didn't give us a ride to the truck, but provided us with "nutter flutters" which consist of Milano cookies and marshmallow fluff. One can also add peanut butter if they're feeling extra saucy.
After some 20 or 30 minutes Rob triumphantly returned with his truck. He had biked almost all the way back to our campground before someone graciously gave him a ride up the numerous remaining miles to the trailhead. We quickly headed into town for a heap load of Thai food before parting ways. We definitely deserved it.
So, have I given up mountain biking? Definitely not. But next time I'm taking an easier route and building my way up...or knowing me I'll just suffer through difficulty again and bump and walk my way down the mountain.
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