Wildcat

This day was like any other backcountry day, except Jacqueline got to go with me. I was working overtime, so since this was her usual day off, she came with me. I was hiking Wildcat Canyon Trail. It was a nice hike as the skies were overcast. We saw a crazy looking grasshopper. Other than that, I did some tree removal and talked to a few couples who were on the trail. Mostly, it was just a very enjoyable hike for a work day to be able to bring my sweetie with me.

Ashdown Gorge

Jacqueline was out of town at her friends, Melissa and E.J.’s wedding in Michigan. So I gave Eric a call and he and I went for a trip down Ashdown Gorge. I did not sleep well without my honey, so I was a bit beat for this trip. If it had not have been for the two hour drive from Zion, it would have been a piece of cake since it is all downhill. The scenery was just fantastic. The beginning of it was looking directly into Cedar Breaks. Then we went through some lush mountain meadows with scenic vistas in every direction. The trail went rather steeply down until we finally met up with a rather well flowing stream. We crossed this and stayed near it for a bit before traversing over and dropping into what was Ashdown Gorge. It was surprisingly sweet in there. It reminded me of the Narrows if the walls were only hundreds of feet high instead of thousands. The river was cool, but not cold and we crossed the creek a multitude of times. We were able to pick out the arch that was on the right side of the river. I was lucky enough to find a crystallized shell fossil, a rare find as I have never been particularly good at locating items like that. It was only a five hour hike before we were able to get to where our vehicle was parked on the lower section. That is where we saw our first people of the day, which was a couple that seemed to be in love and three other people that looked like they were on meth. An excellent hike, but the drive back was tough with only my few hours of sleep.

Oak Creek

I finally found a hike in Zion where nobody goes and it is probably for a reason. There was really nothing too exciting about Oak Creek. I followed the road that left from the maintenance area until I ran out of that. Then I followed the creek until it split. The drainage became ever more steeper until I finally ran out of room as big drop-offs prevented me from continuing further up the drainage. So I picked my way up the sandy slope. It was so hot out it was ridiculous, but I was able to make my way up to the base of the Altar of Sacrifice. That was rather neat and I could look off to my right and see a drainage that looked as if I could scramble up for a ways, but unfortunately it was so freaking hot that my water was running low. So I bailed and the slope was so sandy that I was actually able to run down it without any fear of losing my balance. I made it back into the drainage after fighting some brush and steep drop-offs, I was back in the drainage. The hike itself turned out to only be about 2.5 – 3 hours long, but it was nice to just go somewhere new, which was something that I had not got to do for some time in Zion.

Umm?

So this is what happens when
a) You don’t update your blog for a long time
b) You are not paying that much attention when you go on a trip.
c) You let someone else plan it
We went up to Salt Lake for the weekend because Jacqueline had to get her wedding dress. That was all fine and good, but my conditions were that we would get into the mountains and do a good hike. Well, what ended up happening was that we decided to wait for Jacqueline’s brother to go for this hike. Paul usually sleeps in quite late because he works late, so we were not on the trail until after 2pm. This is the sad part. I don’t remember the lake we went to or the hike we went on because Paul just took us and we followed him. I know it was either in Big Cottonwood Canyon or Little Cottonwood Canyon, whichever one Snowbird is in. The hike was very nice despite the throngs of people. The lake was very beautiful and it was fun to hang out with brother and sister Winter. It just turned out to not be a very memorable trip because my input into the planning process was so minimal. We were able to successfully burn up Jacqueline’s brakes on the ride down, so that we had to stop very frequently. It turned out to be not much of a backcountry weekend, but more of a chilling weekend with friends and family. We got to see my friend Jessie, while Jacqueline and I also got to chill with her brother and his girlfriend Addie. We also saw the Batman movie which to me was rather irritating.

Back in the Harness Again

It was tough to get back in the harness again after learning of a friend’s fall in Pine Creek. It was nice that I was able to avoid it for a little while. Jacqueline and I went out to Michigan where she was the maid of honor in her friends’ Kara and Dan’s wedding. It was an excellent wedding in Traverse City, Michigan. We had a lot of fun and it was great to spend some time with Jacqueline’s friends and their husbands. We also got to hang out with her brother Paul who was up from Salt Lake. When I got back to work, Derrick and I, the new volunteer, started out on a trip through the West Rim on a search and rescue. By the time that we were a mile or so in, the party was located and it became a backcountry patrol. I have done the West Rim numerous times, but this was Derrick’s first experience. The coolest thing we saw was a giant roach of some kind near Campsite 8 on the West Rim. The hot Zion sun really wore Derrick out and he was spent by the time that we got to the bottom. The next day was when I finally put on the harness again. Andrew Fitzgerald and I went through Spry Canyon. It was an excellent trip as it was Andrew’s first experience with Spry. I was having a bad day, though, as I was kicking rocks down on Andrew left and right. We had to build our own anchor after the last flash flood knocked out one of the anchors. I was pleased because we were able to skip the fourth rappel where it is required to lean over and grab that webbing while hanging over a big drop. I had a very dumb moment on that trip when on the last free hanging rappel, I adjusted my harness and forgot what I was doing halfway through. When I went to clip in, I did not feel that bite on the rope and I realized that I could have injured myself pretty good if I would not have realized that I had not double backed my harness. I caught it though, but it just reminded me that we are constantly only a few inches away from serious consequences all the time when it comes to rappelling.