Tim is a good friend of mine who shows up at our house often before he flies off to one of his amazing trips around the world. This past year, it was Peru, Taiwan, and India. Soon he will be off to Bali. In the meantime, he works at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My summer time fun was coming to an end, but on the last day before Jacqueline had to go back to work, I got one last chance to go for a long hike. I took advantage given that Tim is a stronger hiker than me and in better shape. So I picked something that would challenge our endurance a little bit. We were going to start out in Meadow Creek connecting to Mineral Gulch which would put us in the Barracks before an ascent out through Checkerboard Mesa. Given that this hike was nearly a halfway meeting point for the two of us, we both left our houses early in the morning. I left about 6:30 a.m. after a rough night's sleep. I met up with Tim at about 7:40. We left one car at the takeout across from Checkerboard Mesa and the other we drove about 10 miles away to the head of Meadow Creek.
The descent into Meadow Creek is interesting. It is really chunky mud stone that when it rains turns into just mud. It had rained recently so we spent the beginning of the hike trying to avoid the quicksand, but soon gave up and just tried to avoid the really soupy stuff. There is a rappel not too far down into Meadow Creek, but I had been there once before, so I thought there was a way to get around. I was right. There was one more pour off, but this one was easy to get around also. The rest of Meadow Creek was a rather open, uninteresting canyon that seems to just get deeper and deeper. It is amazing to view from above, but from below it is wide open. We saw some sort of hawk, but other than that we just waited for the beautiful narrows of Mineral Gulch. They were worth waiting for. Mineral Gulch has exactly what the non-technical canyoneer is looking for with great narrows with no obstacles.
Time was beginning to be an issue. I assumed the entire hike was about 15 miles from my mapping software, but the twists and turns of the canyons were looking like my estimate was way short. When we found the pictographs of Mineral Gulch, it was already pushing noon as we had been in that canyon for 4 hours. It was looking like this was going to be a 20+ mile day.
We finally popped out into the narrows of Parunuweap known locally as the Barracks. I had been here a couple of times before, but only in this section once on another long day with Jacqueline and Eric. There were a couple of things that we noticed. One was that the canyon didn't smell so good. There were definitely some cows around. Another was that the water was really muddy, like chocolate milk muddy. This was going to slow us down considerably as each step we took into the creek was like a guessing game. Am I going to sink to my ankle or am I going to sink to my waist? We found a spot for lunch and knew that we had our work cut out for us. After eating it was following the river course, sometimes in the water, sometimes along the banks. We found the debris from a recent flash flood, but the water did not get any clearer after that.
Tim and I were both really interested in all of the side canyons coming in. Once again, every hike leads to newer more interesting hikes off that hike and we both thought it would be a good idea to backpack in here someday and just take lots of time to explore side canyons. We went into a few without finding any turn around points, but we just knew as the time ticked off, that we were going to have to just commit to the canyon on this day. There was also a small threat of thunderstorms and as we got later into the afternoon, we knew our chances of getting into a flash flood increased exponentially. Looking at the amount of sky that we could see, though, we tell that we were probably clear of any storms at this point.
The canyon seemed long and endless until we finally reached the narrowest section. I could tell we were near the waterfall when we had to wade above our waist for the first time.
Sure enough, we came upon it and it looked so different than what I had seen in the past. We knew that there was one way down this canyon and that this waterfall was the way down, but both of us looked at it and doubted whether we should attempt descending it. There was a lot of water rushing through a very narrow opening and what used to be a logjam was now just a rocky, rough cascading fall. There were three options. The first was going off the rock and that was a long way down. The second was the other wall, but that look very tight. The third, which we knew we were going to have to take was down the fall itself. Tim and I both looked nervous. We tried a few things and I lowered myself down into the waterfall. There was a lot of push from the weight of the water. With the noise and the lack of footholds, I just worried about being taken by the water, hitting my head and ending up in the pool below. I climbed back up. We had to find a better way. Tim suggested grabbing a log upstream. Great idea! We found one not far away, floated it down, and tried to jam it in between the rock and the ground. We failed and lost it downstream. Okay, let's try again. We went back upstream and found another 10 foot log that we floated down until we were at the falls. This time we put it over the falls. It was only halfway down, but we were afraid to lose it. It looked like it would work, but was it stable. Tim sat on one end while I slid down the log. Soon I was right in the waterfall, but as I descended the log began to move. I was essentially riding a log down a waterfall. After it jammed into place, I was able find a good foot hold, get myself off the log and out of the waterfall. I helped Tim find a foot placement as he descended a now stationary log and we were past the waterfall obstacle.
After that it was less than a half an hour before we made it to Misery Canyon. The canyon was so amazing here, but on this day, we were ready to get out. It was already 4pm and we still had a couple thousand feet in elevation to climb on a 100+ degree day with 5-6 miles left to go. We found the John Wesley Powell plaque and then it was up the steep walls. Having done this exit route a few times, it was easy to find, but I can only imagine talking yourself into this if you had never been there before. We got a little off route, but I knew how to find the exit from many times past, so we just trended west until we topped out. It was brutally hot, but at least the sun was not pounding on us given the haze from the fires in California.
Still there was a lot of sand slogging and with Checkerboard Mesa always in full view, the route seemed to go up and up for an indefinite amount of time. We finally topped out in the canyon next to Checkerboard and it felt good to descend. Along the way, we ran into a group of bighorn sheep who seemed not very concerned by our presence. We finally made it out about 6:30 p.m. which was a bit later than I was anticipating, but still with a significant amount of daylight left. I was pretty spent by the end, I have to admit, but it was well worth it for the scenery and the good company along the way. When I made it home, though, it was unfortunate to find out that our air conditioning had broken and we were now stuck for the evening until morning dealing with the hot Southern Utah heat.
Time was beginning to be an issue. I assumed the entire hike was about 15 miles from my mapping software, but the twists and turns of the canyons were looking like my estimate was way short. When we found the pictographs of Mineral Gulch, it was already pushing noon as we had been in that canyon for 4 hours. It was looking like this was going to be a 20+ mile day. 
We finally popped out into the narrows of Parunuweap known locally as the Barracks. I had been here a couple of times before, but only in this section once on another long day with Jacqueline and Eric. There were a couple of things that we noticed. One was that the canyon didn't smell so good. There were definitely some cows around. Another was that the water was really muddy, like chocolate milk muddy. This was going to slow us down considerably as each step we took into the creek was like a guessing game. Am I going to sink to my ankle or am I going to sink to my waist? We found a spot for lunch and knew that we had our work cut out for us. After eating it was following the river course, sometimes in the water, sometimes along the banks. We found the debris from a recent flash flood, but the water did not get any clearer after that. 
Tim and I were both really interested in all of the side canyons coming in. Once again, every hike leads to newer more interesting hikes off that hike and we both thought it would be a good idea to backpack in here someday and just take lots of time to explore side canyons. We went into a few without finding any turn around points, but we just knew as the time ticked off, that we were going to have to just commit to the canyon on this day. There was also a small threat of thunderstorms and as we got later into the afternoon, we knew our chances of getting into a flash flood increased exponentially. Looking at the amount of sky that we could see, though, we tell that we were probably clear of any storms at this point. The canyon seemed long and endless until we finally reached the narrowest section. I could tell we were near the waterfall when we had to wade above our waist for the first time.
After that it was less than a half an hour before we made it to Misery Canyon. The canyon was so amazing here, but on this day, we were ready to get out. It was already 4pm and we still had a couple thousand feet in elevation to climb on a 100+ degree day with 5-6 miles left to go. We found the John Wesley Powell plaque and then it was up the steep walls. Having done this exit route a few times, it was easy to find, but I can only imagine talking yourself into this if you had never been there before. We got a little off route, but I knew how to find the exit from many times past, so we just trended west until we topped out. It was brutally hot, but at least the sun was not pounding on us given the haze from the fires in California. 
Still there was a lot of sand slogging and with Checkerboard Mesa always in full view, the route seemed to go up and up for an indefinite amount of time. We finally topped out in the canyon next to Checkerboard and it felt good to descend. Along the way, we ran into a group of bighorn sheep who seemed not very concerned by our presence. We finally made it out about 6:30 p.m. which was a bit later than I was anticipating, but still with a significant amount of daylight left. I was pretty spent by the end, I have to admit, but it was well worth it for the scenery and the good company along the way. When I made it home, though, it was unfortunate to find out that our air conditioning had broken and we were now stuck for the evening until morning dealing with the hot Southern Utah heat.
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