Under the Rim

Mrs. Drake and I finally got out for a trip together. Her schedule was changing and I was studying hard for the math test to teach high school math. That meant we only had one day to hike, so we decided to go to Bryce Canyon National Park. I think it is funny that Bryce is called Bryce Canyon when it is not a canyon at all. It should be Bryce Plateau National Park. Well, on this day, Jacqueline and I dropped off the Plateau to do the Under the Rim Trail. We were going to do an eleven mile section that ended at Rainbow Point. The plan was to go there and come back. The trail was excellent, being well-maintained and wide enough for the two of us to fit side by side in places. There were beautiful views and lots of miles to keep us going. It was great to see the Natural Bridge from below. I never realized Bryce had so many miles of trails and the great part about it was, no one was there. For the entire eleven mile trip on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we saw no one. We had the whole place to ourselves to enjoy the hike. When it got to be time to start thinking about whether we were going to turn around, Jacqueline and I made a deal. I would let her bail on the roundtrip if she did the asking for the ride. 

She agreed, but when we had finished the trip, I had to get her going on the asking. I did not want to be there all day. Finally, it worked out that a couple would give us a ride. The only issue was that they would stop at all the viewpoints along the way. There are a ton of viewpoints in Bryce, so we had to keep getting out of the car and then getting back in before finally they realized just how far away we were and just finished it out giving us a ride to my truck. They were very nice about it, though, and we were happy to get that ride. The day’s hike just made me want to get back to Bryce and do the rest of the trip on the Under the Rim Trail.

Last Days of Rangering

I got to end my season with an overnight trip on the West Rim. Derrick and I needed to do some campsite monitoring, so we were sent up to the West Rim on one of the coldest nights of the year. The colors were changing so the West Rim was a good place to be. We were able to take our time because the day was rather short as we only had to get to campsite five. Campsite monitoring, though, is quite tedious, so it wasn’t a fast moving trip. We destroyed another shelter in site six. I am really getting sick of people building shelters in campsites. That is what you make a purchase of a tent for folks. We made it to site five and set up for the evening. We had a great view from the campsite looking down into the area of the technical section of the Right Fork. There were even some rock chairs set up that I did not have the heart to take down. Just an amazing sunset from there. The next day we woke to a very chilly morning. Derrick had a bit of a rough night in his bivy sac, while I slept comfortably in my tent, which really has seen the end of its days. The zipper broke on that trip and I was not going to keep suffering with trying to erect that structure with broken poles anymore. After not too long, it began to snow on us. I did not get any pictures of it because unfortunately the cold froze my camera and cracked the screen. Kodak digital cameras, while cheaper, seem to only make it a year before they are kaput. Derrick finally accepted my offer for the extra pair of gloves that I brought. We got our campsite monitoring done and were able to make our descent through the snowy conditions to the canyon floor. It was a most excellent way to spend my last two days of the season as a backcountry ranger.

Wedding Week Adventures

So, this was an important week; the week of our wedding. I was stoked because a lot of my friends and family would be up. My cousin Jon was getting married in Vegas the week before Jacqueline and my wedding. That meant that my cousin Ian would be up for the whole week. Jacqueline was taking the whole week off for work, but I figured that work is what I usually would do on my day off anyway, so I might as well work. So I got to take Ian and his buddy Derek who were up for the whole week on a few backcountry trips. The first trip we did was Keyhole Canyon. I had to take two brand new canyoneers on a trip, so I picked my first canyon from way back in the day. I got them fitted into wetsuits, harnesses, etc… and realized that I was much happier with the title of trip leader, rather than guide. Ian was all ready for some brutal hot hike in the early October sun of Zion, since I have dragged him out on some other long trips in the past. Keyhole was a welcome relief and they had a blast. They both did a great job with the rappelling and the only mishap was when Derek fell on a downclimb. Luckily, those wetsuits are in pretty good shape to help withstand the blunt force of that fall. The only complaint was that it was so short, but they had a great time. The next day, I took them for a more ambitious project. Joining us for the trip were my friends Eric Lassance, David Sanders, and Pete Sawtell. I was happy to have my largest group ever canyoneering be on a trip before the wedding. Everyone in the group seemed to get along very well. It was nice to have lots of good conversation, getting to catch up with David whom I had not seen in quite some time. It was so much fun and it meant a lot to me to have all of these friends to spend time with me. The hike went very smoothly as we all used wetsuit tops in the Subway section since the water was going to be rather cold. The big difference seemed to be us who had the neoprene booties kept ourselves warm, while those without were a bit chilly. After getting out of the beautiful Subway section, I was a bit impatient with my group because of all the week’s events. We were having dinner with the parents and I did not want to be late for that. We got out in good time though and we only had to postpone the dinner for a short bit of time. By the way, the wedding went great. We had a beautiful rehearsal dinner outside at the Nature Center and then had a splendid ceremony inside at the Nature Center since it was raining on our wedding day. The reception went great with excellent food, a mountain cake, and a great band. The most exciting part of all the festivities was to have all of our friends and family out to wish me and my ravishing bride their best wishes for the rest of our lives. It went so wonderfully and I would not change any part of it after it was done. It was hard to see everyone leave and I wish they would all come back to enjoy some backcountry and frontcountry adventures in Zion with the Drakes.