Merry Christmas! (12/25/2010)

A break in the storm at sunrise, gave us a 10 minute double rainbow out our back windows.

Kolob Creek Halloween Adventure (Nov '10)

No KOoks or spooks on this KOld Halloween day, when we decided to do Bo's favorite canyon in Zion--KOlob Creek--and what a KOol canyon it is! Using my new KOlob backpack made things easy, and my new KOkatat drysuit kept me very warm and dry, despite the frigid air and water temp. Bo, Dave, and Guy and I descended Kolob Creek with its dozen or so rappels--some of them almost 200' down through beautifully fluted and narrow slots with clean water showering on us as we descended, and deep, cold swims at the bottom of most raps. Sunrise to sunset, we spent pretty much the whole day down there. After finishing the raps, there is a couple of miles of stunningly beautiful river walking--the best of the Narrows. Then we climbed nearly straight up and out a couple of thousand feet to the MIA exit and road-walk back to the vehicle.







First big long rap.





















Many swimming holes at the bottom of each rap like this one.



















The second big long rap. See Guy at the top?



















During the walk down canyon, this spring pours over the wall from the rim up above.























Miles of this beautiful stuff!















Wide angle picture of Kolob Narrows.

Cataract Canyon (Oct '10)

After getting off the Grand, I drove straight from Flag to Hite, where I met Bo and Rich at the takeout for setting up our shuttle to do Cataract. Back-to-back river trips without a break! Oh well, at least I'm already wet from my first trip. This trip was more relaxing though, and had picture perfect sunny weather without a wisp of a breeze all week. We drove up the next morning to Moab and met Mike and Rocky at Potash, where we loaded up coolers and gear in canoes and in Rich's cataraft. After five days of easy paddling the Colorado River through a beautiful meandering canyon, we got to the confluence with the Green, and camped across from Spanish Bottom. We spent most of a day hiking up to the Doll House in the Maze, all the way out to a nice overlook above the confluence. The next day we said goodbye to Rocky and Mike (since they were getting a jet boat ride upriver to Moab), and the three of us continued down through the rapids of Cataract. Bo and I rode our little packrafts, with Rich rowing the cataraft. We had a blast spending two days running 28 rapids (class 3s and 4s), and portaged around the three Big Drops. Rich nearly flipped in Big Drop 3 (a class 5), and Bo and I both swam a couple of rapids in the packrafts, but all was well. Once the current died, Rich broke out his little motor and it took us about 9 hours to cruise out to Hite.



First night camp





Bowknot overlook








Doll House hike










Near the Confluence Overlook








Cataract Canyon






Big Drop 3









No current here as we motor out









Helmet cam video of the packraft going through one of the longer rapids

Phantom to Diamond Grand Canyon Row Trip (Oct '10)

Boat Beach near Phantom Ranch


At the last minute, Bev calls me from the AZRA warehouse and says they need an assistant on a lower half trip she was doing. I almost declined, because it meant I would need to drive straight from Flag to Moab at the end of the trip for my next Cataract trip with the guys, but I decided it would be worth it to do both trips back to back. I scrambled to get a reservation at a Phantom Ranch dorm, then drove to Flag, left my truck at the Radisson, caught a shuttle to the South Rim, then hiked down to Phantom in the dark, where come to find out they gave away my bunk. The Phantom people were nice, and they found a generous guy from Colorado who had a cabin all to himself, and he let me and a guy from Germany bunk with him. The next morning the AZRA group came by, picked me up, and I was in the paddle boat for Horn, Granite, and Hermit. We had a great group of guides and clients, most who really enjoyed paddling, so for the rest of the week I rotated around oar boats and rowed for the guides, giving them a break. I think I rowed over 100 miles, which was great.

The highlight of the trip was several days of extreme rain, which caused hundreds of waterfalls, flash floods in side canyons, rainbows, and an epic hike up Tapeats, over Surprise, and down Deer Creek--all of which were flashing and flooding. Luckily we got the group across and the creek and around the patio with ropes, and made it back to camp just before dark. The next day clear waterfalls continued to pour thousands of feet off the top of the redwall in the Muav Gorge, even with sunny skies, so the Esplanade must have been a river. I tested a new Sony waterproof camera, which has some neat panorama stitching, as can be seen by many of the photos below. For some reason the larger panorama photos mess up photo labeling. Most of them are obvious, such as South Rim, Granite Rapids lunch, Shinumo Creek waterfall, heavy rain rowing, Blacktail flashing, rainbow at camp below Blacktail, then the Deer Creek patio flooding and hand line use, and the bottom photo is at Spring Canyon (mile 204).











































































































































Muav Gorge waterfalls

Imlay Canyon (Sep '10)

What a fine day to do one of Zion's most difficult canyons. We had blue skies and warm temps in the 90s. Despite the warmth, Imlay Canyon starts up at around 7000', and most of the canyon is so narrow, twisted, deep, and dark, that it seldom sees the sun, which means cold temps--especially in the countless dozens of swimming potholes & scumholes that require multiple problem-solving, down & up-climbing, rope work, swimming, rappelling, etc. The final rappel is a fun free-hanging rap 140' straight down into the bowels of the Narrows, where a handful of tourists photographed and gawked at these stealthy but grungy guys who came floating down from the heavens. Bo led the hike with me, Shawn and Deanpaul. We left the Grotto at 6AM in the dark for the climb up the West Rim, and didn't get back until 6PM, so it was a long, challenging, and very rewarding happy day!




After hiking over 3 hours, we got to the beginning of Imlay Canyon here where we took a break in this little alcove before the canyon slotted up.





















One of the first of dozens of rappels.











Deanpaul took the pictures of me. Here I am climbing over a barrier that separates two pools.





















Swimming in scum. Even with full wetsuits, I got a little chilled by the end.









The final rap down into the Narrows.

Fat Man's Misery (Aug '10)

A group of 12 of us spent a beautiful day from sunrise to sunset hiking and canyoneering down Fat Man's Misery canyon over in the east part of Zion. Due to recent rains, there were probably about 40 holes we had to wade or swim through. Most of them were full of debris and organic material, and the smell alone made some of the group members nauseous. In the afternoon we were able to get to the East Fork of the Virgin River, aka Parunaweap, where the water was clear and helped us to clean off. The hike out is always memorable as you climb over 2,000' up a lot of sand and beautiful sandstone for over 3 miles.


Here are some of the group down in Parunaweap.


















An HDR type photo of the East Fork Virgin River in Parunaweap.


















We walked under this log jammed above our heads in Fat Man's Misery.




















A shot looking straight up in the narrows.

Grand Canyon Raft Trip with Sasha (June '10)

The time has finally come for Sasha to have her turn down the Grand Canyon. This time we opted for a two-week oar trip for 280 miles to the very end of the canyon at the take-out at Pearce Ferry. We spent a week getting ready and packed up. I arranged for the shuttle to pick us up in St George, where we joined 10 other guests on an incredible adventure. We spent a night and a long hot shuttle at the Marble Canyon Lodge before getting on the boats at Lee's Ferry. My friend Mike, from New Mexico, and his 12 year old daughter, Lauren, joined us; thus allowing Sasha to have someone nearer her age to hang out with.



A view from Navajo Bridge at the beginning of the Grand Canyon.













The first day we rode with the Moki Mac trip leader--Matt. Here we are approaching the bridge.












On the calmer stretches of the river, the girls got to paddle in this "shredder"--a cataraft style ducky.













Looking out of Redwall Cavern.











We slept under the stars each night on sandy spots similar to this great beach spot out on an island below the Triple Alcoves.













The canyon nicely reflects the water as we paddle down the still waters above Nankoweap.









At the Little Colorado, the girls swam this little rapid a couple of dozen times.













Boats and girls lounging at our camp at Carbon Canyon.












Four of us taking a break on a hike.















Sasha under Clear Creek Falls.













Our camp at Zoroaster.











The Ross Wheeler boat and camp.
















Shinumo Falls.











A view of the middle granite gorge.














Sasha's hands span a one billion year gap of rock that is missing!












Me trying out the oars.
















We ran into Bev several times on the trip. She is the first river guide we met on Stephanie's trip. Here she and Sasha relax in front of Stone Creek Waterfall.
















Sasha in front of Deer Creek Waterfall. Imagine if the Grand Canyon did not have any side waterfalls!











Sasha and Matt sitting on thrones of rock.



















A hike and wet scramble up into Matkat was everybody's favorite.














Sasha and Lauren sliding down Matkat.
















Our biggest hike was two hours up to Beaver Falls, one of my favorites up in Havasu Canyon.











The four of us and our guide taking a lunch siesta break.
















Sasha's shirt color matches the water of Havasu Creek!

















Nice cool temps in the lower canyon gave us relief from the heat, and these beautiful puffy clouds below Whitmore.










Shoving off from our camp at Parashant.













A womb-sized rock that Sasha fit in, and her pony tail dangled out the back.












Below Diamond Creek in the lower granite gorge, this waterfall at Travertine Falls was incredible!











Lunch in the shade at the mouth of Surprise Canyon. We ran into very few groups during the entire two weeks on this trip.











Sasha rowing the boat on the last day.












Our guides at take-out at Pearce Ferry: Mark, Doug, Matt, and Jay. The two weeks flew by and it was so sad to say goodbye.