Scott Card
11-12-2008, 06:56 PM
I posted this over on Yahoo but thought some of you might enjoy my last weekend's adventure/misadventure. Things to learn from my little goof-up. Sorry, I know how you all like pretty pictures and scratch and sniff stuff but I didn't have my camera for this one. So if reading is a chore, skip it, it is a bit long.
You may be wondering where this canyon is, I know where it is but
don't have a clue what it is really called. Here is the deal
(picture my red face, well, more red that usual, now). I screwed
up. I was supposed to lead a group through Monkey Business and East
Lep. Well, um.... I had only driven up top on the bench and only
paid attention one time where to park. The other times (2) I was
following someone who knew where they were going. Now, the story.
So with Tom's map firmly in the printer at my office, I left work and
met the group at Sandthrax on Friday night. The "real" leader of the
group who invited me to help the group get safely through the canyon
did have map. Whew! Saturday morning, after a wonderful night in my
toasty -40 degree bag, watching the shooting stars, I arose, we ate
and off we went up the dirt road. I was just having a great time,
probably telling a tall canyoneering tail of some kind, when someone
asked a really good question, "Where do we park?" "Oh, ahhh....
where is the map?" I looked at it and hadn't noticed we had passed
the 4 way junction between the Lep and the Bizness. So we kept
driving. We came to a 90 degree turn and went 1.5 miles past that
and parked. Off we went. Come to find out when I picked up the spot
vehicle we were 1.5 miles past the Foolin' Around parking area so we
were 4 miles east of where we should have been. See why the red
face? I had only one objective when I looked at the map, avoid
Shenanigans. Ah, I don't fit.
We shortly arrived at the entrance of the canyon and it didn't look
right. I looked down canyon and way down there was an arch that
comes from the left side of the canyon where another fork that joins
it from the right. Hmmm. The map shows an arch at the end of
Shenany. Better go west one drainage, still thinking we were in the
West Butler system but having doubts. So we did, go west that is,
and that is what we chose. Off we went down canyon. I was still
very uncertain that we were in Monkey Business thinking that the only
way to find out was to go all the way back to the car and then to the
paved road and actually measure mileage. But no. Time was ticking.
The canyon started with straight forward stemming, not exposed and
had a lot of it off and on with a few fun down climbs until the
canyon merged into the other fork. Sure enough there was the arch.
It was hard to see at that the reverse angle looking up canyon but
you could tell it was there. The canyon was deeper but still
reversible if needs be. Every obstacle was considered in my mind as
to whether we could reverse it. I was certain we were not in the
right drainage very soon into it. But, so far so good. We came to a
stemming section that I swear is virtually identical to the water
section of Foolin' Around - stem straight out, chock stone, continue
stemming and try to avoid the water. We all did avoid the water
except a couple of us who only got our feet/foot wet. Reversible,
Yes, but difficult and wet. After that section, we came to the first
rap. Ah yes, the time of true committment. Off to the right, LDC on
the side of the canyon, there was a little arch that had black
webbing around it with a rapide. Someone had been there before. We
sent one adult down to check out what was ahead. The canyon opened
up wide after that and it appeared to be the end of the slot
sections. There was a chock stone about 8 feet down this "V" shaped
slide followed by more "v" shaped slide then about a 15 foot drop
into a small alcove. Around the chock was some pretty worn webbing
where previous canyoneers had rapped. After rapping in I checked out
this chock stone and the exposure and decided to extend a rope about
60 feet from a chock stone up canyon to create an anchor, thereby
eliminating the exposure of the newbies down climbing and hooking up
on a chock stone below them. Another leader who is pretty athletic
and had some climbing experience agreed to go last and clean up. I
was perfectly happy to go last but he said he was comfortable and
wanted to. So hey, it would be nice for him to do that since this was
relatively new stuff for him. I determined that the danger of going
forward and pulling ropes was minimal since the canyon opened up,
except for perhaps an unexpected cold night bivy if the hike out was
too long. Based on my previous view of the area, I was quite
confident we could get out by dark plus we had at least half a moon
to hike by. Also, we had plenty of scouts/former scouts and plenty
of matches. Anyway, my review of Google earth and topo maps in the
past told me we were somewhere in the middle or east forks of Butler,
at least we were East of the stuff we were supposed to be in. Well,
I can say that the hike to the road was a slog and a long one at
that. We did look for the Kelsey exit but after seeing several ridge
lines, we quit that activity knowing it was useless. I told John,
dutch oven John that is, that we weren't in Kansas anymore and that
we needed to hoof it to the road. I was not sure which canyon
joining the drainage from the right was the right canyon we were
supposed to be in so we went forward rather that try to pick a
drainage and reverse it to the Kelsey exit. I will say that everyone
was a good sport and we had a fun hike out. At one point, one kid
asked if we were lost. I quoted Daniel Boone "I have never been
lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks". I told
him honestly that we had hiked the wrong drainage but that I was 95%
sure we would end up at the road near Hog Springs. He was OK with
that answer. I prayed for the 95%.
To end this never ending true tale, that was a beautiful drainage
which included one of the best desert swimming holes I have ever
seen. We avoided it due to the temperature. The rock formations
were well worth the hike, once. John and I hit the road first (no
joke) and hitched a ride with an Asian couple back to Sandthrax. We
asked the couple if it was OK to get in because we were a little
dirty. The response was classic given their accent. "It's OK. It's a rento."
Well, many lessons learned. When I went back up to get the spot car,
I dialed in the right places and it was painfully obvious where I
should have been. I have a promise to the group to get them down
there soon and do the right canyons this time. Looks like they still
like me and we are slated the first part of December. We all had a
great time. BTW, Tom, your map is spot on. Too bad I didn't follow it.
And a little help please, did the canyon we did sound familiar? Any
name to this little fork of Butler (I presume)?
You may be wondering where this canyon is, I know where it is but
don't have a clue what it is really called. Here is the deal
(picture my red face, well, more red that usual, now). I screwed
up. I was supposed to lead a group through Monkey Business and East
Lep. Well, um.... I had only driven up top on the bench and only
paid attention one time where to park. The other times (2) I was
following someone who knew where they were going. Now, the story.
So with Tom's map firmly in the printer at my office, I left work and
met the group at Sandthrax on Friday night. The "real" leader of the
group who invited me to help the group get safely through the canyon
did have map. Whew! Saturday morning, after a wonderful night in my
toasty -40 degree bag, watching the shooting stars, I arose, we ate
and off we went up the dirt road. I was just having a great time,
probably telling a tall canyoneering tail of some kind, when someone
asked a really good question, "Where do we park?" "Oh, ahhh....
where is the map?" I looked at it and hadn't noticed we had passed
the 4 way junction between the Lep and the Bizness. So we kept
driving. We came to a 90 degree turn and went 1.5 miles past that
and parked. Off we went. Come to find out when I picked up the spot
vehicle we were 1.5 miles past the Foolin' Around parking area so we
were 4 miles east of where we should have been. See why the red
face? I had only one objective when I looked at the map, avoid
Shenanigans. Ah, I don't fit.
We shortly arrived at the entrance of the canyon and it didn't look
right. I looked down canyon and way down there was an arch that
comes from the left side of the canyon where another fork that joins
it from the right. Hmmm. The map shows an arch at the end of
Shenany. Better go west one drainage, still thinking we were in the
West Butler system but having doubts. So we did, go west that is,
and that is what we chose. Off we went down canyon. I was still
very uncertain that we were in Monkey Business thinking that the only
way to find out was to go all the way back to the car and then to the
paved road and actually measure mileage. But no. Time was ticking.
The canyon started with straight forward stemming, not exposed and
had a lot of it off and on with a few fun down climbs until the
canyon merged into the other fork. Sure enough there was the arch.
It was hard to see at that the reverse angle looking up canyon but
you could tell it was there. The canyon was deeper but still
reversible if needs be. Every obstacle was considered in my mind as
to whether we could reverse it. I was certain we were not in the
right drainage very soon into it. But, so far so good. We came to a
stemming section that I swear is virtually identical to the water
section of Foolin' Around - stem straight out, chock stone, continue
stemming and try to avoid the water. We all did avoid the water
except a couple of us who only got our feet/foot wet. Reversible,
Yes, but difficult and wet. After that section, we came to the first
rap. Ah yes, the time of true committment. Off to the right, LDC on
the side of the canyon, there was a little arch that had black
webbing around it with a rapide. Someone had been there before. We
sent one adult down to check out what was ahead. The canyon opened
up wide after that and it appeared to be the end of the slot
sections. There was a chock stone about 8 feet down this "V" shaped
slide followed by more "v" shaped slide then about a 15 foot drop
into a small alcove. Around the chock was some pretty worn webbing
where previous canyoneers had rapped. After rapping in I checked out
this chock stone and the exposure and decided to extend a rope about
60 feet from a chock stone up canyon to create an anchor, thereby
eliminating the exposure of the newbies down climbing and hooking up
on a chock stone below them. Another leader who is pretty athletic
and had some climbing experience agreed to go last and clean up. I
was perfectly happy to go last but he said he was comfortable and
wanted to. So hey, it would be nice for him to do that since this was
relatively new stuff for him. I determined that the danger of going
forward and pulling ropes was minimal since the canyon opened up,
except for perhaps an unexpected cold night bivy if the hike out was
too long. Based on my previous view of the area, I was quite
confident we could get out by dark plus we had at least half a moon
to hike by. Also, we had plenty of scouts/former scouts and plenty
of matches. Anyway, my review of Google earth and topo maps in the
past told me we were somewhere in the middle or east forks of Butler,
at least we were East of the stuff we were supposed to be in. Well,
I can say that the hike to the road was a slog and a long one at
that. We did look for the Kelsey exit but after seeing several ridge
lines, we quit that activity knowing it was useless. I told John,
dutch oven John that is, that we weren't in Kansas anymore and that
we needed to hoof it to the road. I was not sure which canyon
joining the drainage from the right was the right canyon we were
supposed to be in so we went forward rather that try to pick a
drainage and reverse it to the Kelsey exit. I will say that everyone
was a good sport and we had a fun hike out. At one point, one kid
asked if we were lost. I quoted Daniel Boone "I have never been
lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks". I told
him honestly that we had hiked the wrong drainage but that I was 95%
sure we would end up at the road near Hog Springs. He was OK with
that answer. I prayed for the 95%.
To end this never ending true tale, that was a beautiful drainage
which included one of the best desert swimming holes I have ever
seen. We avoided it due to the temperature. The rock formations
were well worth the hike, once. John and I hit the road first (no
joke) and hitched a ride with an Asian couple back to Sandthrax. We
asked the couple if it was OK to get in because we were a little
dirty. The response was classic given their accent. "It's OK. It's a rento."
Well, many lessons learned. When I went back up to get the spot car,
I dialed in the right places and it was painfully obvious where I
should have been. I have a promise to the group to get them down
there soon and do the right canyons this time. Looks like they still
like me and we are slated the first part of December. We all had a
great time. BTW, Tom, your map is spot on. Too bad I didn't follow it.
And a little help please, did the canyon we did sound familiar? Any
name to this little fork of Butler (I presume)?