Lazy Saturday Stroll

We did not have the whole day on Saturday for a hike, so I figured that we should go out to Cave Valley. We got a couple of friends, Eric and Izzy, to come with us. It was not until about 2:30pm when we hit the trail. We parked at the head of an old dirt road and walked on down. I had not spent much time in Cave Valley, being there twice and doing the same thing each time. This time we were down to do something a bit different. We headed past our turnoff and found ourselves in a highly eroded arroyo. This lead us to the slickrock. I looked to the right and said that it would go, so that is the way that we went. At the top we got a great view of Zion that was unique. From there, we scrambled on down into Lee Valley. The first shot did not work, but we stuck to it going right instead of left. This dropped us down. From the top, we could see an old road down where we now stood, but once we were there we found ourselves wandering through sagebrush and gambel oak. I just wanted to go to a point overlooking the dropoff. It was a fight to get there and the view was alright. Then we wandered on back. We hit the road toward the end of the point and we took that on back. I took a small trip to check out Wolf Spring Wash and I know that I want to try to explore it down to the Subway. That was left for another day. This old road lead up near the way we came. It was even blasted out of the slickrock at spots. That was kind of neat to find. There was so much left undone on this day, but it was more of a day to spend with friends. We got in a dinner at Pizza Noodle and some victories for Pete in Euchre and O' Hell to cap off the night. I was hoping to get out and do something else the next day, but instead I awoke to see that it was snowing in Toquerville. Oh well, I guess I would have to wait out another week at the Block.

Badger - Soap

I had a great trip with Brian and Angela Hays this weekend. Jacqueline headed up to Salt Lake City and I met up with the Hays' at Lee's Ferry. After getting off work at 6:30pm, I drove a little over two hours from Hurricane to Lee's Ferry. Brian and Angela left from Flagstaff about the same time and arrived at about the same time. Thus, this was a perfect spot to meet up for the two of us. We chatted for a while and I made some dinner, then we crashed out for the night. The river parties waking up early served as an adequate alarm clock for the three of us. I could hear them talking loudly at sun-up from the back of the truck. We had some breakfast then headed out. Our plan on this day was to slide down a rope through Badger Canyon, then head five miles across on the Colorado, and then pop out of the next canyon over, Soap Canyon. When we arrived at the first downclimb, we came upon two other people who seemed more surprised by us than we were by them. I think they were rather disappointed to not have the canyon to themselves. The first rappel did not even have an anchor set up, so Brian got that job done in no time at all. We found a nice holy outcrop with which to wrap some webbing around. It was a money rap, with a near vertical wall to walk down. Just around the corner was the next rap. A forty footer off one bolt with a piton backup. It was a difficult start, forcing us to drop off almost immediately. We all handled it easily. This dropped us into the narrowest part of the canyon. It was not much of a slot canyon, unlike Zion, but it reminded me of my youth and all the side canyons in the Grand Canyon. We walked down the ledges and mud filled puddles to our last rappel. We ran into a slight problem considering that the rap was only 20 feet, but the anchor was 65 feet from the bottom. We set up a single line, which Angela and I were going to rap off of. Angela did not like doing it single, with no gloves, on my skinny 9mm static. So in two seconds Brian came up with an ingenious design. He turned a single into a double by tying a butterfly with a figure eight rewoven attached. It was a great idea. I went off it first and it felt like a double. The rap was easy and after Angela went down, the other group showed up. They had a two hundred footer, so they just untied for us after Brian rapped off. There was a good sized block that Brian could have rapped off, but to not have to use any extra gear is always great. From there, it was smooth sailing down to the Colorado. The river was going nuts. They must have been releasing from the dam. Badger looked gnarly and we had a quick lunch by the rapids. From there it was time to get our cross country hiker on. The beginning was frustrating with large, black rock to navigate through. We put our bouldering skills to the test. It was a hot, sweaty, buggy experience, but soon we were popping out into much less intimidating rock to scramble through. This trip was unique, as most people don't do this loop. It took a couple of hours, but soon we were able to boulder hop our way to Soap Creek Rapids. From there it was just six mile out through Soap. Having done Soap before, I remembered that it was at least a bit interesting. The first three to four miles were just flat walking. The last two to three were boulder climbing. It was mostly easy to navigate with some short quick moves. One spot there was a rope in place that Angela and I used. Brian was a little bit too tough. There was one more spot where a rope could be used. I chose to go around and the climbers in the group chose to try it. We boulder climbed our way the rest of the way out to end an exhausting day. Eight hours total, but it always seems to fly by when you are doing it with friends. It doesn't matter if you are hanging off a rope or balancing perilously on the edge of a boulder, you still have to throw in a joke or put your two cents into the conversation. I had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with my newlywed friends. I wish my fiance could have come, but we will have many, many years to spend hanging with the Hays.

Cottonwood Creek

Another Sunday hike for Jacqueline and I. I was hoping to enjoy the warm weather that we soaked up the day before, playing tennis in the seventy-five degree heat. Instead, after getting battered by winds through the night, we awoke to a forty degree morning. Still, we put on our down jackets and were off to the Red Cliffs Reserve, a beautiful area only minutes from our house that Jacqueline and I just discovered. This weekend we were going to hike up Cottonwood Creek. We were all excited at first because there were trail signs and everything. Soon, those disappeared and we found ourselves following a cairned route. 

We ran into a gentleman in the small side canyon that was also lost. He asked about a tunnel and I told him we saw it about a mile back. He pointed out that we were in the wrong canyon and we figured he was right. Still we continued upon our way believing that there was most likely something up this way. 

We continued following a cairned route, which lead us over slickrock for a splendid side journey with amazing views. It ended with us running down a sandhill into a slickrock bowl. The trail disappeared from here and we spent quite a bit of time playing on the rocks and enjoying the Moqui marbles and crazy iron deposit rock formations everywhere. I suggested a sojourn down the next canyon over and it popped us out into Cottonwood Creek. I was glad we took our little sidetrip because the views were good, but not great within the creekbed. We went about as far as we felt like walking through the sand seeing just about the same thing throughout. Jacqueline was still feeling a bit sick, so we did not want to over due it. We made our way back down, finally popping out into the harsh, strong wind again to get back to the car. We were gone 5 hours and probably did around ten miles. We enjoyed spectacular views and we will be sure to return again to this new found area for exploration.