Hiking with Tom

Jacqueline's dad came up to visit. He had been on a bike trip with his buddies going from Durango, CO all the way up to Yellowstone. I was jealous of their adventure. It sounded like it was pretty fun. They rented an RV as a vehicle to follow so any time they became tired they could just jump in the RV. Tom took a break away from the trip to come visit Jacqueline's bro Paul and his girlfriend Addie and also to come down and chill with Jacqueline and I. We decided to take him on some of our favorite short hikes.

 First I took the two of them through Shelf Canyon. It is such a good short hike that gets you some slot canyon action without too many obstacles to overcome. Jacqueline was worried about her dad handling all of the boulders and such but he did fine. I gave Jacqueline the camera so we ended up with lots of pictures. It was a great pick because we were able to escape the heat of Zion as we got into Shelf Canyon the temperature dropped quickly. Everyone enjoyed the narrow section and I even played around stemming from one side to the other. We went until it started getting steep. From there, we headed back out, but we were not done hiking. We walked up the road until we found an easy spot to drop into Pine Creek. 

This is the non-technical section where it is still super narrow and cool, but no big obstacles to get around. Everyone enjoyed that too and connecting the two worked well because eventually it just shot us back out at the tunnel where we were right near the car. That is one of the few loop hikes you can make in Zion. The next day we were back at it with a trip up to the Kolob section of the park. We wanted to take Tom to the South Fork of Taylor Creek. This is my favorite short hike in the park and on this day it did not disappoint. It is so popular that there is a trail through there even though it is not on the map. We saw a few folks coming out as we were going in. 

At first it was hot, but luckily it was not too brushy. We climbed a bit of elevation but not too bad. I was using my new GPS that I figured out how to load map information into, so it kept me occupied. Eventually we ended up in the narrow crack that you can see from the road when you look at the canyon. This was much cooler with lots of shade. We looked up to see a climber high up on the wall that has a slight overhang. It looked like such a neat climb. 

They offered to let us go next, but I didn't think that was a good idea. We headed back into the canyon and eventually ran into mucho nieve. Snow? Is that how you say it in Spanish? We actually probably could have gotten through the canyon a lot further than normal, but it got a little questionable when it is eighty plus degrees outside and you can see the real ground fifteen feet through a crack. So we took a picture of the end and headed back. It was a fun weekend and I am glad that we got to show Tom some good places in Zion he had never been before. He is a pretty lucky guy to have such experienced tour guides every time he comes to Zion. We were happy to do it, though as it gives Jacqueline and I an excuse to get out together.

2009 Backcountry Staff

Here is a picture of most of the 2009 Zion Backcountry staff. We just happened to be on a rescue together. A climber fell on Feast of Snakes or something like that. He went down about twenty feet onto his back. He was pretty messed up with some broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. We could not really tell because he handled it so toughly. I got to help him get packaged and lowered down from the cliff that he was on. I ran the main line lowering him down to the ground. After that the other team took over and lowered him down a steep slope. From there, the military picked him up in a blackhawk helicopter. I was very close to the action as the blackhawk was hovering right next to us. They got him out of there without any issues and safely to the hospital. We hiked out the short distance back to the switchbacks and done with the rescue.

Taking Another Crack at Escaping Spring Creek

Having already been to Spring Creek a couple of times, I suggested it as a hike to Eric who had never been there before. He was up for it and I just wanted to make sure that on this trip we got a bit farther than Jacqueline and I made it in the past. The hike is really neat. At first, we started out in an open area near a creek that quickly narrowed. The creek dried up and we were stuck fighting the brush and occasional obstacle. The worst was usually the brush. A couple of hours in we made it past the area that Jacqueline and I got to a couple years ago. Eric and I contemplated turning back, but I was glad that we didn't. Jacqueline and I only made it to a break where there was a really narrow canyon. I asked Eric which way he wanted to go, but he didn't care. We decided to keep going up the main section of canyon. It soon began to open up. We also got some water back in this section. The walls did not seem very high and eventually we got to some snowy sections. The walls seemed to turn into scree and there were some places that we had to climb around the flowing water. 

I wanted to see if we could make it out of the canyon. We tried one spot, but it got too steep. We found another spot and this worked. Seeing nothing but trees, brush, and very steep hills, we decided to call this the end. I was happy that we had negotiated the obstacles well enough to escape the canyon.

 On the way back down we found a big dead bird and even found the time and energy to check out a side drainage that did not go too far, but became really narrow. It was a good day spent with a good friend and I was glad that Eric and I found time to explore Spring Creek.