Having canyoneered with Brian for a while now, I was ready to go out with someone else as he was gone for the weekend. Vid and Julia had a trip going through Mystery Canyon and I asked if I could tag along. I am sure that Vid was not too excited about it since Julia was a brand new ranger and he and I had never been on a trip together. I was starting to get very confident, though, and was excited to try a new canyon. We got going late. We were supposed to start at eight, but the rangers had some paperwork to get done. We finally got going and it was a hot hike up to Observation Point. We were slowed down more by running into a family with a dog, which made the rangers have to do some rangering. To make matters worse, Julia was a rather slow hiker. When we finally got to the drop in point of the canyon, it was already pushing noon. The route in was very steep and broken up. It was slick in places, especially if we wanted to go faster. We were not going to because Julia was going slow and said she could not go any faster. By the time we got to the first rappel, w
hich was a rather large one, it was already late in the day, around 2pm. Julia brought her gun and a sleeping bag, but neglected to bring an ATC. Vid gave her his and he spent the rest of the day rappelling on a brake rack. We pushed our way through with multiple rappels in a row. The order was me first, than Julia, with Vid last. This way Vid could always double check what was going on and I could give a bottom belay. The canyon was beautiful. The slotty sections were really neat and it was so lush. Vid and I started
humming the Indiana Jones theme because of all the swinging off of ropes. We got to the slide which was super cool. Right in the middle of this big narrow canyon, there was a huge rockslide that dammed up the dry bed and we had to climb over it. After that, there were only a few more rappels. One of these was a really big one where we had to clip into a rope and traverse across a scary ledge. I still got to go 
first on this one and it was nerve racking to go off of a ledge without seeing the bottom. The rappel was easy once I got started and halfway down I landed on a big rock. From there, I kept going into a short pool where I got to be freezing cold and belay everyone else. Only thing left to do now was the rappel into the Narrows. I heard that you usually get a crowd of onlookers, but since it was now 7pm, that was not going to happen. We were cold and it was approaching dark. This rappel was monumental for me though, because 6 years earlier when Brian, Jessie, and I had hiked up the Na
rrows after our Keyhole trip, we saw some canyoneers coming out of Mystery. I remember looking up at them and saying no way would I ever do that. Now here I was being the first one down. I went through a waterfall and balanced myself against the slippery wall. Eventually I was standing in the rushing run-off that was the late spring Virgin River. I gave a bottom belay for Julia and then got to watch Vid come down. We popped out late that night and I was incredibly excited to spend the evening at Watchman 36 with my new girlfriend Jacqueline.
hich was a rather large one, it was already late in the day, around 2pm. Julia brought her gun and a sleeping bag, but neglected to bring an ATC. Vid gave her his and he spent the rest of the day rappelling on a brake rack. We pushed our way through with multiple rappels in a row. The order was me first, than Julia, with Vid last. This way Vid could always double check what was going on and I could give a bottom belay. The canyon was beautiful. The slotty sections were really neat and it was so lush. Vid and I started
humming the Indiana Jones theme because of all the swinging off of ropes. We got to the slide which was super cool. Right in the middle of this big narrow canyon, there was a huge rockslide that dammed up the dry bed and we had to climb over it. After that, there were only a few more rappels. One of these was a really big one where we had to clip into a rope and traverse across a scary ledge. I still got to go 
first on this one and it was nerve racking to go off of a ledge without seeing the bottom. The rappel was easy once I got started and halfway down I landed on a big rock. From there, I kept going into a short pool where I got to be freezing cold and belay everyone else. Only thing left to do now was the rappel into the Narrows. I heard that you usually get a crowd of onlookers, but since it was now 7pm, that was not going to happen. We were cold and it was approaching dark. This rappel was monumental for me though, because 6 years earlier when Brian, Jessie, and I had hiked up the Na
rrows after our Keyhole trip, we saw some canyoneers coming out of Mystery. I remember looking up at them and saying no way would I ever do that. Now here I was being the first one down. I went through a waterfall and balanced myself against the slippery wall. Eventually I was standing in the rushing run-off that was the late spring Virgin River. I gave a bottom belay for Julia and then got to watch Vid come down. We popped out late that night and I was incredibly excited to spend the evening at Watchman 36 with my new girlfriend Jacqueline.
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