River Rescue in the Narrows

Second week back at work and I already got to go on my first big rescue. It was going to be my Friday and I had a hiking day, so I was happy to go. A few years ago, the Narrows was left pretty much alone during the high water times. There were a few hearty souls who would challenge the perilous waters during April and early May to run the river. Then, of course, someone published a guide book and the popularity took off. The message from the book was that it was a fun enjoyable ride without too many difficulties. The information from others soon became that this was not true. Anyway, there were three parties in the Narrows. One we knew to be an individual whose group had come out before him and left him in there. The other we learned when we arrived early in the morning had not come out the previous day. So my job was to help bring the boats that the boaters would use to the Deep Creek junction. Unfortuately on this rescue, my company was unfamiliar. It made for a rather odd day for me. Here I was the experienced person with this area, but the attitudes around me frustrated me. Dan was a brand new law enforcement ranger with a high opinion of himself and his position. He talked down to me like he was more important because he carried a gun. Ugh! Everyone, actually, had this unrelaxed attitude. That was frustrating for me and it made me uncomfortable in a place I knew so well. We drove all the way to the end of the road at Chamberlain's Ranch, past the point where we were supposed to park. I knew that was bad news, but no one wanted to listen to me on that one. It turned out to be a very good idea because hauling those boats was a pain in the ass. Logan and Don Sharlow drug their boats through the slow flowing North Fork, while Dan, Annie, and I switched off carrying the inflatable boats. The water was cool and the air was cold. I was the only one wearing shorts and it was not too bad, but the snow next to the water made it feel much colder. There were times when it was hard because of lots of mud. There had to be a balance between how much time we stayed in the water and how much time was on the muddy shore. Still, it was a beautiful spot to work and it was rather fun to go into the Narrows at a time when it was closed to hiking. What we learned with this trip was that it was the hike that really slowed every group down. It wasn't until 2:00pm when we finally got to the Deep Creek junction. I was happy to be there. When we got there, I started talking to Cody who was flying over us in a helicopter. It turned out that the one guy and the group that did not make it out the night before, had made it out in the morning. They reported another kayak floating in the river and another hanging from a rope on the wall. So this added the other group to the mix and all the boaters got ready to go. I got to carry all of their extra junk out including Logan's wet jeans that he had been hiking in. Awesome! The hike out took half as long and the company was much better once we broke the ice of not knowing one another as I hiked out with Annie and Carla from trails. I was glad that we were able to make good times as I was nervous that we would not make it out before dark. It was fun to see the beginning of the Narrows from the opposite direction and enjoy the waterfall and high cliffs. I let Carla drive back as we pulled in close to 9pm at the EOC. I was off to Norwood, Colorado the next day to interview for a teaching job. I hoped I would have the energy because that was a tough day. The rescue ended with the helicopter finding the boaters high on the cliffs where they were able to short haul them out. The thought of trying to escape the Narrows and get out, rather foolish. The whole boating expedition proved to be of no help, but you never know when you begin the day.

Jennings Wash

I know after ignoring my blog for months on end, this is not the most interesting way to begin, but it is the next trip I took. I started work again for Zion backcountry and Scott, our volunteer, had a day in Coalpits. I decided to go with him after he invited me. I wanted to make the trip a little bit different, because I have hiked Chinle, Huber, Coalpits, Scoggins, so many times that it does not seem new and different anymore. So I told him I wanted to go up Jennings Wash, which is a side tributary to Coalpits. I was happy to get a backcountry day hiking with someone else. Scott was from California and looked just like a young Robert Redford. 

He was a surfer and was very near to the end of his season. I am not sure if he was quite as excited for the side trip as I was, but it is always fun to find something new to discover in Zion. After 2-3 hours of hiking, we went past the Oil Well Ruins and up the side drainage with a small trickle of water. After a bit, we made the choice to take the side drainage up Jennings rather than continuing up to Terry Wash. The terrain was somewhat challenging with places we had to figure out solutions to interesting problems, but for the most part we were dealing with a little bit of water, quite a few boulders, and a whole bunch of poison ivy. Eventually we hit the somewhat consistent end of the side canyon drainage in Zion. We were stuck with the decision once the water ended to head up a large boulder field to the canyon wall that seemed to be high above. Getting close on time and noticing that Scott was not exactly thrilled about going up that, we decided to turn around. 

Did we miss something that could be interesting? Possibly, but most likely no. Jennings turned out to be just filled with poison ivy, a few short waterfalls, some pools, but not much of a trip I was dying to go back to enjoy. Still, it beats most other days of work and I was glad that I took a look to see Zion from a different perspective.

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Not Fooled in Many Pools on April Fool's

I gave Matt a call to see what he was up to. Eventually we got a hold of each other and decided to do a hike together. I was working at the school in the morning, so Matt came down to Springdale. We met at my house a little after noon. I went over my plan with him and he agreed. So I had heard that in the canyon that some call Many Pools, you could access the East Rim. This sounded like a fun experiment, so we set out. I had been in Many Pools a couple of years previously with Dave, a retired preacher working for the Zion Lodge with a bunch of enthusiasm. It looked plausible when we were there, so I believed it could work.

 Matt and I tried to stay high as much as possible. That seemed to be a waste of time. It was easy hiking, but eventually we were lead to a choice. If we stayed high, there looked to be a treacherous scramble with an impassable wall to attempt. Thus we finally agreed to drop into the canyon and continue up that way. There were places where it got narrow and others where we were cliffed out. But in all of those places there were other options to continue on our way. Some those involved gambel oak and manzanita, which gave us a bit of a beating, but never stopped our progress. 

At one point we ran into what we thought could be a petroglyph, but also it looked too real to be true and we both assumed it was fake. As we continued, we started to realize that we were going to make it. The most difficult spot was a steep slope to the left that lead us through the cliff that is the thickest section before reaching the East Rim. After we made it past this point, we knew that we were going to make it. Other signs throughout the day were a couple with backpacks on coming down about halfway through when we were up high and they were down low. 

Also, there seemed to be a sort of use trail that gave us something to follow. Matt and I were both happy to gain the East Rim. Then the thought of what should we do next came to us. We started going over to Deertrap, but after seeing all the snow still up on the East Rim, I did not feel like bothering with it. Then we headed down with the idea that we could hike to Weeping Rock and have Jacqueline pick us up there. Not having worked out this plan ahead of time and knowing that without cellphone service, hitchhiking was likely, we finally agreed that we would hike the East Rim to the East Entrance and then take Clear Creek down. 

That was what the plan was until we hit the only other canyon that I had taken to the East Rim before. Dave and I on a separate trip, had hiked this canyon thinking that at some point we would turn around. That never happened. We made it all the way to the East Rim and then hiked down the trail. On this occasion, I thought of my past experience and knew this was the canyon that Dave and I had taken to access the East Rim. I talked it over with Matt and we agreed that it would work. It did and honestly this was a more difficult canyon to navigate than the Many Pools canyon; causing us to go up and around on a couple of occasions and do some downclimbing. 

I was impressed by Dave's skills to make it up that in his sixties and I was impressed that Matt and I had done two canyons in one day, up and down off the East Rim. We just used Clear Creek to get back to my truck until we got sick of hiking in sand, then we just followed the road. It was an hour from where we came out of that canyon which is the last one before the east rim trail. We continued down to the house after a little over a five hour hike. I intended to ask Matt over for dinner, but when I saw Jacqueline, I knew we had other things to worry about. She was crying and that could only mean that her mom was getting much worse. Jacqueline's mom had been living with ovarian cancer since nearly the time that Jacqueline and I began dating almost three years ago. Her dad was telling her she needed to go home. 

We left a few days later and were able to spend a week with Ginny before she passed away April 14th. Ginny was someone who was very loved by her daughter and son-in-law and we will miss her greatly. She will always be a part of our family and we will make sure that her grandkids know her just as much as they will know their other grandparents. She will be in our lives and in our thoughts daily.