Belize

Jacqueline has been bugging me to put our Belize trip on the blog, so I figure you have got to make the lady happy...
My dad, his wife Laura, Jacqueline and I flew out of rainy Seattle, which is how people always seem to describe Seattle, but this past week had been particularly rainy. Our flight was not too long and since Jacqueline and I seem to spend every minute playing card games anyway, it flew by so to speak. We arrived in Cancun and of course, chaos erupted immediately. Are we taking a taxi or a bus? Which bus? So on and so forth with my dad doing most of the haggling. We found a bus for a rather inexpensive price that would take us to downtown Cancun. I was happy that the buses were rather plush with television, etc... Greyhound needs to take some tips from Mexico. I guess if your citizens rely on public transportation, it would be a lot better. We were dropped off at the bus depot and from there, we weaved our way through downtown Cancun, finally deciding to take a cab to our hotel. We were staying at Las Margaritas and the rooms were actually pretty nice. We were hungry so we went downstairs to get some food and drink. They had a pool table that looked like it had never been used, so Jacqueline asked if we could use it. They said sure and it was the only business establishment that I know of that would give us free pool. Dinner was good and we finished the night with a game of Mexican train dominoes. The next day was a day to find our way through Cancun. We all took a taxi together and went to the beach. I could not believe the difference. Downtown Cancun was not that touristy, but the the beach area was ridiculous. We tried to find a place to eat, but had a tough time finding anything that was not going to cost a fortune. Finally, we just gave in and ate some expensive kind of okay food. Then it was time to patrol the shores of Cancun. The weather was not exactly ideal, being a bit overcast, so it was not exactly the time to go swimming. Still, the water color was amazing having that same tint to it that the water at Havasu has. We walked the beach until we got bored with it and then went over to the mall. This is what you go to another country for, to go to the mall. I bought a cheap pair of swim trunks, which took some time to find. Then we went over to the aquarium and checked out all the sea critters. A moray eel wanted to eat Jacqueline, but the glass there helped protect her. We saw the dolphins and sharks, petted a sting ray, all those fun things. Then we took a far too expensive cab ride back to downtown. I hadn't got a hang of the whole bargaining thing yet, but I would get there. Then it was a night of good food, drink, dominoes, and we even took a dip in the hotel pool. The next day we grabbed some Mickey D's and then hopped on the bus down to Tulum, still in Mexico. We grabbed some Subway and then headed down to the beach. The beaches were very nice and it was a good day to be there with the sun out. Jacqueline and I got into the water and then hung out on the beach. It was a beautiful day and we were enjoying ourselves when some topless woman walked by, which I did not even see. Somehow that became my fault and we headed back to the room fighting. I headed out to the Tulum ruins by myself to get some air. Of course, I missed Jacqueline within five minutes and it is so much less fun to be a tourist when you are doing it by yourself. Tulum was an old Mayan trading town and thus, the ruins. I headed back and we patched things up for another evening of good food, dominoes, and cervezas. The next day was basically a beach chilling day and I loved it. We walked the beach for a while the next day, but mostly just hung out. Jacqueline attacked the chip stand in the evening after the drink and dominoes, but other than that, not too eventful of a day. We were all geared up for our trip to Caye Caulker. It is an island off the coast of Belize. We had to wait one more day for it though, as we took a bus down to Chetumal on the Mexican side of the Belize border to break up the bus trip. We went to the Mayan museum there, which was alright. I am not one for museums, so it was good by museum standpoints. We all crammed into the small room there and I tried to check out some football (American style) on the tv before food, drink, and dominoes wrapped up our evening. The next morning it was another bus down to Belize city. This one was rocking. As in rocking us back in forth. So far it had been the Mexican buses with tvs and comfortable seats. Belize was not so hip and this bus was an old converted school bus. It got us where we were going, though, which included an uneventful border crossing. We were set to catch a ferry from Belize City to Caye Caulker, but we had a few errands to run. So we went to get some food, where my dad and Jacqueline got fish with the eyes still attached. We also got some money from the ATM, where Jacqueline had some issues getting money. It didn't actually give her any money for some reason, so we had to try another one. (That will come up later) Then we were on the boat. The locals all seemed to know where to ride to stay out of the wind and dry. We just let the wind blow through our hair and got the good views of the Gulf of Mexico with Caye Caulker approaching after not too long of a speedboat ride. We got to the island and had to find our place to stay. It turned out to be on the far end of the island, so we ended up having to have a guy give our luggage a ride. I seemed to be the only one who wanted to travel like a backpacker, which made life easy on me, but everyone else was dragging their wheeled luggage. I got in a bit of trouble for giving Jacqueline too much crap for hers, but I swear she carried her weight set with her also. How can such a little person have so much clothing? Anyway, we finally made it to our rooms with a great view out to a little cabana type thing off the shore. From there on out, the days just seemed to roll together. Each night we had drinks, great food, and Belkin beer with maybe a rum punch thrown in every now and then. It was strange for me to eat out so much and the prices were not exactly cheap. We were very grateful to Dad and Laura for paying for so much good food, lodging, and making the trip affordable for us seasonal park rangers. The island was very beautiful and we explored the whole thing while we were there. There was another island without businesses on it, that Jacqueline, Dad, and I swam the cut out to. Jacqueline was a bit nervous about getting chomped by a croc, but we made the swim without problems. It was fun to see the island in its natural state and we even got chased by some dogs. We seemed to run out of trail after a bit and then made the swim back. Jacqueline and I on another day went to check out the rest of the island the other way from our room away from all the businesses. It definitely had that island feel to it. The most interesting part about that hike, though, was when we saw a trail of blood coming from somewhere and realized that a dog just got its butt kicked and was bleeding everywhere. We were a bit nervous going by that pack of dogs to get back to our room. The island was touristy to say the least, but we were happy to do the touristy loving snorkeling trip that we went upon. We jumped in a jet boat and we were expecting a long ride, but instead it was just five minutes and boom we were out of the boat in Shark Ray Alley. There were sting rays everywhere. I was nervous to put my feet down especially knowing that the crocodile hunter was taken out by a sting ray. The water was amazing, though, as the salt content was so high, we could float with ease. I suddenly got used to the fact that a sting ray would pass by right below me. I was one of the lucky one to see a shark with Jacqueline. She tackled me and then swam away as fast as she could. I figured that if the shark wanted to eat me, it was going to probably out swim me, so I stayed and enjoyed the show. We took off from there to our next stop, which was a guided snorkel with our trip leader. On this, we had our only near injury when my dad was subsequently spotted by a moray eel, which could provide quite a bite. With less than a second to spare, the tour leader swept in with his magic stick and the eel when back into its cave in the reef. We followed the leader through an underground world I never knew existed before. The Discovery channel just does not give it justice until you are there in the flesh. I enjoyed that, but when he let us explore the reefs on our own, that was my favorite part. Jacqueline was getting cold, so she stayed in the boat. It was true that we had some of the coldest weather while we were in Belize, but it was still sixty-eight degrees out. I convinced her to come in with me and she even agreed once I conned her into getting back in the water that it was warmer in the water than sitting in the boat. I was just loving watching the fish swim out of the coral and they had to pry me out of the water to head back as we found a little niche with hundreds of bright yellow fish. It was awesome. So Jacqueline and I said enough with the island after having a subpar Thanksgiving meal there and headed back to Belize City on the correct ferry after we waited for the wrong one on accident the first go around. We had some business to take care of in Belize City as the bank that Jacqueline tried to get money from the ATM had ripped her off for five hundred dollars. So we waited for an excruciating long period of time before I got to speak my mind to the woman there to get a reassurance that she could get her money back at some point in the future. Then we were off on the bus to San Ignacio, which lays in the jungly part of Belize. I was a bit worried about finding a place to say, since we were just going on faith, but we found a fairly inexpensive place for four days at a home with a Canadian manager. We made ourselves at home and then had some Chinese food for dinner. Sadly, for the first evening on the trip, there was no dominoes, which was fine with me since Jacqueline had been kicking all our butts each night lately. Instead, Jacqueline and I played a game of we'll call it Idiot, although other travelers know it as a different name that may not be appropriate for all audiences. The next day was spent getting familiar with our city. We walked around and talked to shop owners about trips that we could go on. We finally decided to shell out the eighty bucks and go to Actun Tunichal Muknal, better known as ATM the next day. On this day, we tried to make the best of it for cheap, so we asked around and someone told us of a good road to hike on that took us outside of town. Jacqueline really wanted to see the jungle, so she got her way. We walked down this road all the way to where a bridge was under construction stopping our path. Than we turned around a bit disappointed at not seeing too much jungle life. Then I looked up and the trees and said, "What is that?" Suddenly, we realized that we were surrounded by iguanas on all sides. They were so huge. We even got a bit freaked out when one just fell straight out of the tree to the ground. I guess it was the quickest way down and supposedly they are able to do that and come out okay. To me, it sounded like a tree coming down. We also got to see some leaf cutter ants strolling along right in front of us, so we felt like we got our money's worth out of this day. The next day we were on the shuttle van taking us to ATM. This was a guided trip, which did not make me particularly thrilled, but we thought we would give it a try. After a long drive down a dirt road, we ended up at a trailhead. We took this trailhead about a mile in to where a river leaked out of the cliffside. We put our helmets and headlamps on and took the trip through the water and into the cave. I saw a thing like this when I was in New Zealand, but there is no escaping how cool an underground river is. But that was not our final destination, as our guide spotted the place where we needed to climb up. It was somewhat difficult scrambling, but Jacqueline made it fine to this upper chamber in the cave. It is an old Mayan site for ceremonies where they used to sacrifice things for rain and such other blessings to come. There were a bunch of old pottery remains smashed to release the spirit of the pot. The whole place was exactly how they found it only about twenty years ago, untouched by archeologists. The weirdest and coolest thing about this cave was that not only pots were sacrificed, but people also. There were skulls just laying around and near the end of the cave was the skeleton of what they believe to be a fifteen year old girl. It was creepy, but we had a good time despite the awful lunch that they provided us. The next day, we talked about doing some other trip, but instead we decided to head off on a trip of our own. We grabbed the town bus for a couple of bucks and it dropped us off a couple of miles away at a spot by the Mopan River. We walked on to a hand cranked bridge and were across the shore and on the road. Our goal were some Mayan ruins called Xunantunich (pronounced Shoe-nan-to-nitch). They were awesome and the best part of the day was that we felt like we had this entire place to ourselves. We were able to walk all around the ruins, up the stairs, to the very top of the building, anywhere and no one else was around. In the U.S. this place would be a mad house any day of the week. There was a ball court and some amazing stellae (behind an amazing woman). We had a great day and for rather cheap as we explored all around the ruins. That night we ate again at our favorite restaurant in San Ignacio, Martha's. We would bring our cards and each night we had the same waiter. After a while, he would take one look at us and say, "let me guess, two pineapple juices." He was right as the juice there was awesome. It was straight up squeezed right from the pineapple. They also had this glowing pineapple that I wanted so badly even though Jacqueline thought it was a bit tacky. They also had this crazy cat that begged. At first you thought it was cute and then when we realized that it was neglecting its tiny kittens to beg, you were a bit upset with it. The food there was good too and fairly inexpensive. Thus the last full day in Belize was finally approaching. We wanted to make the best of it, so we headed down the road to a town about three miles away. On the way, a man stopped to ask if we wanted a ride, but we wanted to walk and enjoy the country side. We got to the town and found some school kids running around, but not too much else happening. Our goal, which we found in our guide book, was to find somewhere to go river tubing. Our first stop from the book was met by some crazy dog that wanted to eat us, so we decided to try a different spot. Then we ran into the same guy who offered us a ride. He told us that his brother could do it, so we walked over to his brother's place and he loaded us up into his pickup with river tubes for ten bucks and drove us to this spot on the Mopan River to start our journey. It was nuts! There was white water like crazy and the only life jacket he had was on Jacqueline. I made her go first because I knew that I could end up halfway down the river before she got up the courage to get in. Finally, she did it and she screamed her way through the white water. I jumped in too and it was serious white water tossing me every which way. Then we were off for smooth sailing down the river. There were other such places and Mike, the guy who rented the tubes to us, told us that we should go right at every chance to avoid the scary stuff. We did but we still got some real rapids out of the deal. It was not too long before we were back at our takeout point, which he said to make sure that we didn't miss or else we would be riding all the way into San Ignacio. It was one of those things that Americans could not do in the U.S. because of the insurance costs involved. Jacqueline thought she was pretty tough after doing that and I did too. We said adieu to Mike and walked our way back into San Ignacio for our last night of pineapple juice. The next day we were up early to eat some pastries from the French bakery we visited often and we were off on the bus back to Belize City. We had a lot of bumpy rides ahead of us, so we tried to make the most of it. When we got to Belize City, I should have figured it out, but there were some hustlers there trying to get a buck from us. They told us that some bus went to Chetumal when actually it just went to the Belize border. So we talked to the guy on the bus and he told us about this minibus that would go to Chetumal. I was not sure how that all was going to work, because despite the fact that they speak English in Belize it still does not mean that it is easy to understand them. Well, we jumped on this minibus that took us to the border, but were stopped by all the border clearance we had to go through, which included some tax that we thought was in pesos, but it was in Belizean dollars. By the time we got out, our minibus was gone and we were stuck across the border. We thought the bus was still coming but a taxi driver harassed us and said that there was no bus and we were going to have to take his cab. He became very forceful and was chasing us down the road telling us some exurbinant fee for a taxi ride. Finally, I got angry and told him that there was no way we were taking his cab, he called me cheap, and two minutes later we found a cab for 1/3 of the price by some lucky twist of fate. He took us to the Mexican border where I still don't know what the hell happened there as the mass confusion ended with them just saying get outta here and we jumped in his cab again, where he took us to the bus station in Chetumal. There we caught a night bus into Cancun, where we could finally relax for a while. Once we got to Cancun, we did not know where we were going to stay, so we took a cab to the hotel that my dad and Laura were staying at. We were hoping to crash on their floor, but the place was way too nice and they were going to charge us like ninety bucks or something around that. So my dad unsuccessfully tried to sneak us in, wherein we ended up at 11:30pm taking another taxi back to downtown to Las Margaritas to stay there. We got some cheap food from a stand, which was actually some of the best that we had on the whole trip and went to bed exhausted. The next day we had to fly out, so after a big lunch buffet at our hotel that was basically all just shreaded meats, we took a bus to the airport and flew our way back to now snowy Seattle.

Lake Christine

The weather finally cleared from the downpour that had been pummelling Western Washington since I got there. I wanted to show Jacqueline Mt. Rainier, but because of the rains, the flood waters had closed the park. Thus my only choice was to go as near the park as I could. We were expecting to hang out with friends of ours who were up, Brad and Sharon, but since they had not called us, we took off on our own. With my mom's little Chevy Malibu, I was able to get us a considerable distance up the dirt road before deciding to park since we were hitting the snow line. We walked on from there assuming that it would not be long before we hit the trailhead. It was only about two miles on the road to the trailhead and then another couple miles or so up to the lake. So we really had our fun on the approach, throwing snowballs at each other and screwing around. It was fun to be around snow again as it really felt like winter was approaching. We walked up the road until it switched back up to the trailhead. Finally, we arrived at the trailhead and Jacqueline was happy to be wearing my mom's boots, which amazingly fit her well. We started up the trail which we were breaking the whole way. There were only a few inches of snow on the ground, but eventually it continued to grow until we were walking in nearly a foot of snow. It was not hard walking, though, as the trail was rather easy to find. We enjoyed a great view through the trees down into the valley below. Washington is such a fun state because you can be in winter in one area and look down below and there is fall. We continued hiking and before not too long, we were at the lake. We did not stay long because neither of us were in the mood to enjoy it. Jacqueline stayed a little while longer than me, but before too long we were ambling down the trail back to the road. The snow was coming down now and I was a bit worried about getting out on this road if we got into too much snow. But as we hit the snow line, it turned into just a drizzle. The only person that we ended up seeing was a state patrol out looking for hunters. He was pleasant especially since we were not carry any guns or deer carcass with us. We made it back to the car and I took it slowly down the windy dirt road, happy that we were able to enjoy our day.

Cape Alava

I helped my dad move out to the Olympic Peninsula near Port Angeles in Washington State during the first part of November. It was a long drive that took two days and included a flat tire on the freeway for me when I was driving my dad's truck. Once we had all of my dad's stuff moved in, we decided to go for a hike. We drove out past Neah Bay to Olympic National Park to do a hike out to Cape Alava. We figured that this would be a good hike considering it had been pouring down rain since we got to Washington. 

I figured it was a good thing to do to keep my mind off of missing Jacqueline who was currently in Michigan. The trail was wet, but not muddy, one of the perks of living in the state of Washington. A lot of the trail was planks and boardwalk because of the amount of water on this trail. My dad recalled his first backpacking trip, which was out here as a kid in the 1950s. It inspired a long list of trips through the backcountry of many states and countries. Today it was going to just be an easy roundtrip hike using the ocean coast as part of the trip.
Once we got to the ocean, the rain really was not letting up. We hiked up the beach a ways to look at the shelter they found in the 70s from the Makah, I believe. That was interesting and surprising that any sort of artifact could sustain with the weather in the Pacific Northwest. Well, we were definitely soaking wet and the tides were not cooperating with us much.
We had to decide whether we wanted to make it a long,wet, cold miserable day or just count our losses and head back the way that we came. We decided to head back the way that we came and let the ocean batter someone else with its waves on this day. Still, it was great being back in the lush green forests of the Pacific Northwest. The Washington coast is so original, with
many islands and interesting birds to gaze out upon.

What lies behind Bridge Mountain?

I was supposed to take a trip with Mark Nydell and camp up on the Southeast Slickrock area of Zion near Bridge Mountain. That did not work out. Mark had a job interview and had to bail on me. I decided to head out anyway and do it as a long day hike instead. I set out early and headed up Gifford Wash. It was a cool October day and Gifford usually has quite a bit of water in it. Attempting to keep my feet dry was going to be in vain unless I got out of the canyon earlier. 

I took a look at the slickrock that rose above me and thought that it would probably go. Bad idea and I knew it after not too long. Although beautiful views of such peaks as the East Temple were starting to open up to my eyes, the going was becoming ever so much more difficult. I was scrambling from ledge to ledge. At one place, I stood there for fifteen minutes kicking myself for getting into this kind of predicament. 

I had been out of Gifford Canyon before and thus knew that there was an easy way out. Oh well, I had to deal with it, so I got some momentum behind me and was able to pull myself up the nearly vertical face to a ledge that took me to the north around the peak I was on and then with a short scramble, to the top. The picture above is the East Temple from the top of the peak, a one of a kind view in the Park. I could also see my final destination, Bridge Mountain with the West Temple and the Towers of the Virgin behind it. 

From here, the way was still not easy. I had to go south, off the peak I was on and to the second canyon running east that would send me directly into Hepworth. I found the huge bowl that they were talking about. I had to do some interesting down climbing at places to get around obstacles. Soon, though, I was in the elusive Hepworth Canyon. I would estimate a dozen people at most each year get to see Hepworth Canyon. I was still off to explore, though. 

I walked down Hepworth to the back side of Bridge Mountain. There are three different options when looking at the gullies that come off of Bridge Mountain. I knew that the middle one took you into some fifth class climbing where a rope was needed. It was also the way out to see Bridge Mountain Arch. This is everyone's usual destination when coming to this point. I decided that I needed a partner to go out there, so I left that for another day. I did, however, scramble up the first gully I saw. It led me to some incredible views. I could see down onto the road that switchbacks up toward the tunnel above Pine Creek. I was able to get so many one of a kind pictures of Zion on a day like this. I had views of the cliffs that most people would never be
lucky enough to see. I went back down that gully and with still enough time, I decided to scramble around and see what the far gully had to offer. I was expecting to get cliffed out at some point. I didn't though. With just some third class scrambling, I was able to access the bowl right next to Bridge Mountain. The

views were incredible. I could see straight up Oak Creek, Springdale, Rockville, my house, the visitor center, etc... The whole main canyon area was right before me, just two thousand feet below me. I felt so lucky and I wanted to keep exploring. The top of Bridge Mountain seemed so close I could almost touch it. It was 4th class at best, so I knew that I would have to come back with a climbing partner if I wanted to attempt that. There was a canyon running west that basically met up with Hepworth. Looking at my watch and down into this spectacular, undisturbed, pristine country, I decided that this day required me to head back to the house at this point. I took one last picture of me with the Towers of the Virgin at my back and decided to head on down from there. This was a good idea, as I knew the going was not going to be easy. It went a lot faster knowing the way that I came. Soon I was back with the predicament of how to drop into Gifford Wash. With all the slickrock around me, who could tell. I ended up following a cairned trail, that dead ended. I picked my way down from there to a point where I had to make a decision. So I threw my pack on down, which happened to land in some water (sweet) and then managed to work my way down ending in a jump where I knew I could not get back up from where I came. Looking around the corner, it looked like I would not have to be a SAR victim on this day, thank goodness. I found my way into Gifford and from there it was a soggy walk home through the muddy quicksand of Gifford Wash. As a final side note, it was very fortunate that Mark backed out because the next day, the rains were torrential and it would have made for dangerous conditions in the area that I was scrambling around in Zion's pristine zone.

Changing Colors

My dad and Laura were out visiting for the weekend. There was a class at Zion that Laura wanted to attend and it was also her 40th birthday. They brought some friends with them (John and Karen) and we had dinner with them the night before at the Spotted Dog Cafe at Flannigans to celebrate Laura's birthday. The food was excellent. We also made plans to head out for the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek the next day to check out the Fall colors. Jacqueline chose it because she was the only one in the group who had actually done the

hike before. We had an hour's drive from the main canyon to Kolob Canyon. The weather was perfect out. It was still warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt on the hike, but cool enough so that we were not sweating profusely throughout. Jacqueline was extra excited because on this hike, the fall colors were definitely out. I gave her the
camera and that was possibly a mistake. She took picture after picture on this day. Every tree that was of a different color or hue, we would be snapping a photo. It was perfectly acceptable though and she truly got some great shots. My dad and John were just taking it leisurely so that the camera people could catch back up. There was nothing too exciting about the trail. A couple of old cabins dot the way as we go in and out of the creek bed constantly.

The Double Arch Alcove that is the final destination of the hike is definitely nothing spectacular. Jacqueline says that she likes it, but it is just like every other spring coming out of the rocks that you can see all over Zion. The hike was short and there was not too much exploring other than on the trail to do on this day.
It still made for an enjoyable morning and early afternoon to spend with my young, beautiful girlfriend, my father, and one of his friends. Definitely a great day to spend out in Zion as the end of the season approaches.

Havasu or Bust

at the start of Havasupai is not very exciting. Of course, you are hiking through some pretty open canyon country, so we were not expecting much else. I knew the hike pretty well having done it twice before. It took until about the fifth mile of ten, before we heard that beautiful, aquamarine flowing water coming down the canyon. It was a beautiful site, which Jacqueline had seen once before on a river trip a couple years previously. We made it to the campground office, paid our next huge fee, and strolled on down to the campsite. We did not have too much choice as far as campsites goes, but we actually found a respectable site to stay the night in. We had a nice evening doing

This weekend started out as a romantic weekend to take Jacqueline on a secret trip. I was planning the whole thing. She would not know anything about it, which would make it ever so much more exciting. Well, Miss Curious had to ask a whole bunch of questions so that she basically knew before the trip even began. That was somewhat disappointing, but I still had a jam packed weekend planned. It was supposed to begin when we got off work, with a drive to Lake Mead to go camping. What truly happened was a drive to near the edge of Las Vegas and a flat tire. I was so mad and after cussing up a storm for a few minutes, I started to change the tire. It was rusted in place and I had to get some help from people nearby. They were somewhat nice, but told us to get the heck out of that neighborhood before it got too late. So once the spare was on, we drove down the street to the Motel 6 and paid an exorbitant amount of money for a cheap room in a bad neighborhood. The best we could do to salvage the night was bring everything we had in my truck inside, play cards, and order pizza. It actually turned into a very nice evening. The next day we were up with the sun and out the door to the tire place we saw the other day. We just played cards the entire time we were waiting and they got the job done so that we could get going by 10:30am. I was pleased with that because we had a heck of a long drive out to the start of the trail into Havasupai. I paid another large sum of money and we were off. We finally got to the trailhead in the afternoon and were able to start the hike. The trail
our usual card playing and then awoke to the sun beaming through the trees. It was a beautiful sight, but we knew that we had to get going if we wanted to see some fun stuff. Jacqueline was very impressed by the waterfalls. We first went to Mooney Falls.
It is the longest and most impressive. From there, the trail turns into ladders and chains. I did not properly prepare Jacqueline for what she was to encounter. When it got down to it, it was just too scary for her, which was definitely understandable. We had a full day anyway, so we headed on back. We continued up the canyon to see the one we had basically missed seeing the night before. Havasu Falls
came in at this point. Years ago, I swam behind the waterfall, so I thought that we could do that. When we got down to the water, there were a bunch of other people there. We decided to bail on that idea because they were a bit obnoxious. I was disappointed because I did not get to show Jacqueline some of the more interesting and exciting things about Havasupai, but she was cool with it and really enjoyed the weekend with me. From there we did the nine mile hike out. Jacqueline was a real trooper. I was concerned on how she was going to do considering this was our first backpack together. She did a great job. Only once did she say that she had to rest, but that was two minutes from the top. I was impressed that she could keep up with me. We made the drive back to Las Vegas. The original plan was to spend the last night there. Now it looked like we were going to spend two nights there. We arrived in the late evening. I took the wrong exit and we ended up driving through the entire strip, which slowed us down. I did not care and enjoyed driving on my new all-terrain tires. We checked in and trying to save money, I took Jacqueline to the nicest restaurant in the hotel, where she was treated to a $100 dinner. I was really in love with this girl, for sure, because nobody else could get me to spend that kind of money on them. She appreciated it and looked drop dead gorgeous in her red dress that she brought for the occasion. The next day we made sure to enjoy the swimming pool before beginning our journey back to Zion, so that Jacqueline could work. It was one of the best weekends of my life, spending it with the woman I was in love with and I knew that Havasu would not disappoint.

Timpano-go

So my dad and I had been planning a weekend excursion up to the Uintas. He wanted to climb Mt. Timpanogos, because it was supposed to be a very good hike. There is a trail to the top of the peak. I was all for it and I was planning to meet him for the weekend. I got an opportunity to work some overtime for backcountry, so I wanted to take that to make sure that they would want to hire me the next season. That was going to put a crimp in our plans. We made it work, though, so that when I got off at 3pm, I was on my way up to Central Utah, a little past Richfield, where I would meet him.

After a bit of confusion, I met him at a junction with 24 and I-70. We left me truck parked in the middle of some town and headed up. We stayed the night at a hotel in Nephi.

Up early the next day, we were ready to hit the trail. I was not particularly thrilled when the sun finally came up and the peak came into view. Quite a bit of snow was resting on the top. I had no clue. I was enduring 100 degree days for so long that this was an odd site to me. My beat up old tennis shoes might not do the trick. After an IHOP breakfast, we were on the trail in the brisk morning light. I looked up at the trail just above me and thought, oh gees that is just covered in snow. Rocking the tennis shoes was going to have to work and I had to borrow a pair of cheap sunglasses from my dad, which made me look very hip. I endured the climb up the trail with some wet cold feet. 

It was definitely a steep, long climb. It was somewhere between 4-5,000 foot elevation gain in about 8 miles. Thus, it was rather steadily uphill. We ran into some folks on the way up who said that the snow got pretty deep for them and they had to go ahead and turn around. We were determined not to have to do that. We made it up to a little hut and the views were rather sweet from up there. We could see the Uintas caked in a fresh snow, the first of the fall that most likely would only last a few days. We continued on past the hut and soon the snow got deeper. It was easy for a time as we were following the tracks of the people we saw before us turn around. 

Soon we found the spot where they turned around. It got to be tough going, although my dad who was fully equipped was doing most of the hard work. We got to where we could see the summit ridge rising above us, but my feet were getting close to that too numb point. There were a couple lesser peaks around that I questioned scrambling on up also. It was so hard to actually see how to get to the top of the peak and not actually take that opportunity to climb it. We discussed the situation, but I had to bail on the climb. I felt bad as I obviously took the team down on this one. My dad was fine with it. I snapped a picture of him with the peak behind him. We took off down the trail to the valley below where the fall colors were already starting to decorate the landscape. 

By now, near the trailhead, the snow had began to melt. I knew that one day later and the peak would have easily been ours. It was just so hard to believe that in the middle of September when it is still pushing 100 in Zion, I could get snowed out just four hours in the north. Lesson learned, but overall it was a great day exploring the backcountry with my dad.

Imlay

It started almost immediately upon Brian's arrival to Zion. Once he learned that the two big boys were Heaps and Imlay, he was determined to get through them. I, being of a more cautious nature, was determined to stay away from those canyons because they posed the largest danger. Now that it was August and Brian would soon be leaving to attend BYU in the fall, the push to do one of the two was even stronger. Brian had been working at the backcountry desk and thus was privy to all the information coming in about the canyons. He heard that Imlay was full of water and this was a great time to do it. The summer and all of our experience going through canyons was finally getting to me and giving me more confidence. That is why on August 27th when he asked me to go through Imlay, I finally said yes.

This sent us into a flurry getting gear together and packing for the trip. We tried to invite others to go with us, but eventually we knew that our group would only be two. I was so nervous about getting enough sleep, but Jacqueline helped me get some sleep. It took me a long time to fall asleep, but I got a good five hours in by the 4am wakeup time. I was out the door immediately and we parked at the Grotto to begin our hike at 4:30am. The next few hours were spent hauling our gear and ourselves up the switchbacks to Scout's Lookout then down to the bridge crossing Telephone Canyon. Right past this bridge we split off for the sneak route. This took us through slickrock until we eventually took the canyon on the left of the two to pick. In this canyon, we found a deer carcass that was being attacked by maggots. It was something out of a scary movie because there were thousands of them. Down canyon, we got a wiff of the smell and it was none too pleasant. 

In this canyon, we had to negotiate a few obstacles, but just walking on the side of a cliff, I took a tumble. I was able to stop myself, but it was very scary. I did not realize it at the time but I would have fallen a good distance. We recovered from this to finally gain Imlay canyon proper. We did not have to wander far before it was time to put our wetsuits on. It was near about 6:30am at this time, thus giving us plenty of time to complete the canyon. It was now or never for the backout point and once we did that first rappel, I said to Brian, "Now we've done Imlay Canyon." I said that because there was no turning around with slot canyons. We were now committed. What came after this was nearly a blur because it all runs together. 

There were two sections, each with somewhere near a dozen rappels. Most went exactly like this: Throw your pack in the water, hook up, rappel down twenty feet, do a swimming disconnect, swim to a pothole, pass the packs to the first person to climb out, toss the packs in the next pothole, climb out, repeat. Brian and I had a system, which we did not even need to discuss. He went first nearly every time and I went second. He would rappel in and learn how to climb out of the pothole, I would do the heavy lifting on the water logged packs. There were some variations thrown in. Sometimes we would have longer rappels, sometimes we would handline shorter more awkward spots, sometimes we would have log jams to get around, but for most of the canyon we moved vertically by rappelling and horizontally by swimming. 

This made the most difficult part of Imlay being the amount of work and physical fitness required. It helped to have a very thick wetsuit because I never felt the cold water and I could float very easily. Eventually we popped out and could hear the waters of the Virgin River flowing 180 feet below. We peered over the edge to see the huge drop. I made the comment of "now we've done Imlay" after the first rappel, but nothing would make me believe it until I had finished the last rappel. Brian set up the last rappel and soon he was on his way. It was a long time before I heard him yell, "Off rope". It sounded a long way off. I walked over to the rappel platform and hooked myself up. I began on my way down, choosing not to hang my pack. It went fine, but it was so slow. I inched along first down the wall and then off into the air. It was a sweet, beautiful, amazing rappel to just be suspended in the air over the Virgin Narrows. When I hit the ground, a feeling of relief and accomplishment came over me. I looked around to see the other people around and I was expecting some sort of crowd, but no one seemed to really care. I think the best we got was some guy asking if we were climbing. It did not matter though because I felt quite a bit of happiness with myself and my good friend for our accomplishment. It was now only a little after 1pm and all we had to do was wander down the Narrows, catch the shuttle bus to the Grotto, and then we were home. It was not until 3:30pm that we were back at the vehicle, but a figured car to car 11 hours was rather decent for the descent.