With 3 hours of sleep, I left Socorro, NM for Green River, UT. I had just wrapped up my teaching job two days before. With teaching responsibilities out of the way, I managed to have an all-out marathon of writing and editing to submit the revisions of my last manuscript relating to my PhD minutes before leaving (the deadline would occur while I was gone on the trip). Not the healthiest way to start a trip, but I had a fantastic feeling of accomplishment and freedom. Exhausted, yes absolutely; excited, very! For the first time in I can't remember how long, there really was nothing I had to do. Usually I always have something nagging me at the back of my mind (PhD for the last 3.5 years!) and I can never completely relax. As I drove off, all I had was two weeks of adventures ahead, mostly planned for me. I was off to visit my mistress, the Colorado plateau.
As long as I had reception, I stayed awake by calling family and friends neglected by my lack of spare time of late. I weathered the long drive though Indian country, mostly flat open land punctuated by towering plugs of dark and ancient eroded volcanoes, to arrive in Green River where I met Ryan. From here we carpooled in Ryan's truck to Zion- I really appreciated the sleep as he drove! We met Jeff and Aaron at our campsite at a late hour. The weather forecast did not look great for the week- the monsoons had started and there were high probabilities of thunderstorms. Because of the length of trips and the need to get out of canyons before afternoon thunderstorms burst, the sleep deficit I started on continued all the way through the Zion trip.
Aaron, our keen German, was new to canyoneering (and rappelling as it turned out) so we decided day one needed to be some easy classics, of which I had been through all but Spry. A mountain lion decided to kill a deer at the last rappel in Spry, so the canyon was closed for the whole week while the lion consumed its meal. We got permits for Echo and Pine Creek, and since the following day looked like our best weather day we got a permit for Imlay (one of Zion's biggies). Echo first.
We hiked up the steeply zigzagging trail above Weeping Rock, delighted that the whole hike was in the morning shade. Once up, the trail contours along a blasted step on the side of Lower Echo canyon's slot. After crossing the middle canyon's exit and stashing some gear, the trail climbs further out of the slot and into the more open slickrock valley above. Jeff opted to put his wetsuit on for mysterious reasons and the rest of us took jabs at his judgement as we hiked the sun-baked trail shirtless to the upper start of Middle Echo. I decided to challenge myself by descending the whole canyon without my harness (i.e., downclimbing, handlining, and jumping my way down obstacles). Aaron had to learn fast, some of the most awkward rappels and downclimbs over enormous chockstone boulders were to be found in this first part of the canyon. We made good time bumbling our way down this particularly dry stretch of slot canyon. The wetsuits were hardly needed. The canyon alternates between sinuous, sculpted narrows and perfectly parallel-walled corridors where the canyon followed a subvertical joint in the rock. With the right turn in the canyon, sunlight reflected down the canyon walls until its essence was golden.
We found some water in places, including a slightly sketchy jump, but in general the canyon was very dry compared to my last visit. A couple distinct potholes I remember swimming through were bone dry. I think I would have pretty happily done the canyon without a wetsuit on that day, but no complaints.
We made good time and soon approached the Echo Chamber, the beginning of the end of the canyon. I love the view into it (below)- a "wide" portion of the canyon leads into a tall, dark chamber with opposing walls all but touching above. Inside the chamber, echoes resound spectacularly. We spent several minutes going for the best echoes and best monster noises, as the trail and its tourists pass nearby. And then the home stretch- a bit more narrows, a final rappel and a light at the end of the tunnel as we abruptly leave the slot canyon for the slickrock patio. Once changed (sneakily between passing groups of tourists), it was back down the hill for the day was not even half over.
No comments:
Post a Comment