Savin' the Day

Well, we finished our week of vacation, which meant it was back to work. Luckily, doing my job, I tend to participate in the same activities that I engage in while on vacation. This week was no different as Dad was joining me for a West Rim expedition. With two days to enjoy the trip, we started from the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead instead of the West Rim Trailhead. Derrick dropped us off, but decided that he had better things to do then to hike with us. That was okay because I immediately put Dad to work blocking social trails on the Wildcat Canyon trail. We got a lot of work done and I was pretty confident that the
work we did would last into the spring. The colors were already coming out on the trail. This is always my favorite time of year to hike Wildcat because all of the oak turns into a colorful display. We were a little early for great colors, but it was nice to have some. We were hiking along minding our own business when I heard some voices. We stopped and listened. We heard them again. At this point we were about 3.5 miles from the trailhead and nowhere near any well known routes. They did not seem to be in trouble, but I had a good feeling they were not where they wanted to be. There was a wooded canyon below, so I threw down the big pack and scrambled on down to their location. I popped out of the woods to see a group of six men and women in their early to mid twenties. They were happy to see me and explained that they were trying to find the Subway. They were only about 2.5 miles off course. They explained that

they wandered down this canyon thinking it could be an entrance. They climbed down to where there were some

bolts and decided that the rope that they had would not make the drop. They were able to scramble back out, but were indecisive about which action to take to get out of the canyon and to get to the Subway. After I checked out their little canyon to see what it was like, I hiked them back out to the trailhead. I told them that any attempt to do the Subway today would be very foolish and to save that for another trip. They reluctantly seemed to agree with me and thanked me for assisting them. You just wonder how many times something like this happens when we are not out there. They could have got themselves in some serious trouble if they kept going down that canyon and who would have thought to think that they would be that far off route. We continued our uphill climb until we reached the West Rim trail.

From there, only one mile on the trail, we found Campsite #9 which was the only available campsite when I booked it for the trip. We enjoyed our evening playing some cribbage and hanging out. We were up early in the morning to continue our trip. We had all the excellent views down into the Left Fork and Right Fork from the West Rim to look forward too. We hiked along at a comfortable pace when we came into Potato Hollow to find a tent in a very odd place.

They were camped under a big tree in the meadow, not in the campsite. I went over to talk to them. No permit! I informed them that they were in violation, got their information, and continued on the hike. They were polite about everything and I think in the future they will do the right thing by getting a permit and camping in the campsite.

We continued on our way to find that the Telephone Canyon trail looked open.This trail had been closed for 4 years, so this was kind of interesting. We went on the West Rim Trail anyway to see the views. It was a perfect day to be out here where it was warm enough, but not too warm. I talked to a few more backpackers, but the rest of the day was just spent hiking. There is just something so satisfying about this hike. We had lunch near Cabin Springs and then just had the 3000 feet of vertical to descend.

It is all so peaceful until you get below Scout's Lookout to see the masses of people heading out to Angel's Landing. We did not go out there on this day, but I was able to check a Heap's group's permit. They had only done it twice and I was the one that checked their permit both times. They even took a picture with me to acknowledge the experience. We finished it out with enough time to get off of work on time. Dad did great and it was nice to have a dad in his 60's that could still keep up with me.