Deeps
06-30-2009, 01:53 PM
Early in the week my Friday plans fell apart and I adopted the annoying little brother persona begging to be allowed to tag along for an adventure. Any adventure.
I was checking Bogley from Mosquito Cove when Spry opened up late Thursday and jumped on it. Lucky me, my first canyon!
Finding the group Friday morning was pure com-o-dee. I asked the gate for directions to Pine Creek bridge and was told to drive through the tunnel and park there. Which is correct, except I needed to be at lower Pine Creek bridge. I waited around for 45 minutes at the top. While I was pacing and asking everyone if they were there to meet Tom a pair of rangers stopped me and asked what my plan was. I guess the full pack, helmet and harness gave me away? I explained the situation and they were super cool. They let me hop in the car and drove me up to the Spry entry to see if Tom was there. No dice. The rangers asked a few vague questions (maybe trying to determine if Tom was 'guiding' the group or just leading the group... When I explained I was there to meet a bunch of strangers from the internet one of them mentioned a group at the other Pine Creek bridge. OTHER Pine Creek Bridge? Awesome. Im an hour late now. I sat in line behind a single monster urban command center RV for our turn at the tunnel watching another 15 minutes slip by. When no oncoming traffic came through the ranger shack realized they had been holding both sides and let the RV, myself, and a long string of classic cars with drivers in prairie garb go through. Odd, odd, combo. I was fairly certain I'd missed the group at this point, or would pass them in the tunnel. I'm an hour overdue. Who waits that long? Well, thankfully they did, because Tom was still getting the permit at the VC when I showed up and met Paul, Chris, Ryan, and Yancy. I conned Ryan into being my video camera mule so I could bring the SLR. Tom pulled up about fifteen minutes later. I forget whether the chance for rain was 20% or 50% at that point. We decided to pack rain gear, and we drove two cars to the top.
Once up there, the rangers who had helped me reappeared, checked the permit, made certain none of us had paid Tom to guide us, and then gave him crap about his still-busted headlight they had cited him for last week.
The Spry approach was a nice mix of dry stream bed and slickrock. Tom was a good sport through an excessive amount of reality television discussion. Not the salacious tabloid parts of it, but the psychology of how it all gets put together and why it still sells.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04036/web.jpg
At the top of a climb we took a break against a sandstone cliff. Obviously Tom knows a lot. He wrote the book. But there are different ways to share what you know. Tom is the type who will make you work for it, every step of the way. Instead of pointing out the petroglyphs he would just casually mention that somewhere, on the rock wall behind him, there were petroglyphs. After looking for a few minutes he mentioned that they were faint. And sort of over there. Up higher. More to the left. There. That set up how the day would go.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0012/web.jpg
Tom really had me thinking and looking at each approach, anchor, and line of descent. Where does the weight shift when descending using two ropes to bypass a pot hole? A rope cinched tight fights against nature, and is more prone to fail than one that works with the load. I liked that he allowed us to go through the exercise of tightening the rope attached to the tossed pack as much as possible before explaining the mistake we were about to make. My time with Tom was thinking time. Every step through the canyon was 'well, what do you want to do here?'. Love that. It's how I learn best.
Early on Tom told me the two things to remember about canyoneering. I don't recall if he was quoting someone or if it came from him, but I like to think it came from Tom. First, you have to assume your partner is trying to kill himself. Second, you must also assume he's trying to take you with him. That parlays into his two rules of canyoneering, don't do anything to kill yourself, and if you do kill yourself don't do it in a way that it takes anyone with you.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0014/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0024/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0027/web.jpg
The long low angle rappel was a perfect warm up to make sure I hadn't forgotten what little I learned at my first and only practice rappel the week before. At the bottom I found two toads in a pool. One kept trying to jump over the one but couldn't quite make it because they were in mucky water.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0030/web.jpg
We were pretty much in agreement all the way through with one exception. After sending Chris into the pothole above the log jam I asked tom why we hadn't gone above on the rock to the right and dropped in there. Tom politely explained that was an alternate route, and after sending a member of the team into the pothole it would be impolite for us to not follow suit. In for a penny, in for a pound. Until Chris noticed he was covered in smallish, red, wiggling, worm/leeches. Then he asked Chris if he would mind if we bypassed the hell hole. There was some discussion about getting the full effect of the canyon, and while I didn't want to shy from the full meal deal I wanted some reserve left for Sunday.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0049/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04050/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04084/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04080/web.jpg
We used the pine tree instead of the choke stone at some point on the route. The webbing had slid down the tree and was not at a good angle for the cliff edge, so Chris and Tom replaced it with fresh higher up on the tree.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0079/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0106/web.jpg
At the double stage rappel Tom took us out on the ledge and worked with Chris and Ryan on rigging a munter hitch to lower me static. Apologies if all of the terms didn't stick, please correct me as necessary. Again Tom was leading the class. Why would you lower someone like this? We all threw out reasons from the person being injured/afraid/tired to a rescuer/worker/photographer that need their hands free to complete a task. It was a cool experience to work with Ryan while avoiding the pothole at the bottom. Tom would ask at each rappel who was going to set it up and by the end he was looking at me and I would sort of shrug and lamely explain that I was just concentrating on getting myself down in one piece. I should have taken him up on it. I regret not learning to tie a simple stone knot or biner block from the Emperor. At this point another group of six caught up with us from above, so I felt a little pressure to get moving.
Here we took a down climb into a swim section that ended with a long rappel. Tom had us go one at a time through to minimize waiting in the water. Chris was first, and as soon as he was on the rope I was in the water. Tom had me take the second rope so Chris could start to set the next rappel, and suggested I tie a stone on the anchor at the end of the swim. D'oh! I sucked the big one and said I was ok using the biner block Chris set, promising to pay attention and not to slide down on the carabiner side. As soon as I was through it started pouring rain with frequent lightning. There were still four of our party and six of theirs in what I judge to be one of Spry's worst spots if the water is rising. Tom got all of us through and the next group used our rope while Chris set ours from the tree at canyon left and Tom set himself as a meat anchor canyon right. With the continued lightning and rain we weren't out of the woods yet on the exposed ridge. I was glad to have a rain jacket
I was checking Bogley from Mosquito Cove when Spry opened up late Thursday and jumped on it. Lucky me, my first canyon!
Finding the group Friday morning was pure com-o-dee. I asked the gate for directions to Pine Creek bridge and was told to drive through the tunnel and park there. Which is correct, except I needed to be at lower Pine Creek bridge. I waited around for 45 minutes at the top. While I was pacing and asking everyone if they were there to meet Tom a pair of rangers stopped me and asked what my plan was. I guess the full pack, helmet and harness gave me away? I explained the situation and they were super cool. They let me hop in the car and drove me up to the Spry entry to see if Tom was there. No dice. The rangers asked a few vague questions (maybe trying to determine if Tom was 'guiding' the group or just leading the group... When I explained I was there to meet a bunch of strangers from the internet one of them mentioned a group at the other Pine Creek bridge. OTHER Pine Creek Bridge? Awesome. Im an hour late now. I sat in line behind a single monster urban command center RV for our turn at the tunnel watching another 15 minutes slip by. When no oncoming traffic came through the ranger shack realized they had been holding both sides and let the RV, myself, and a long string of classic cars with drivers in prairie garb go through. Odd, odd, combo. I was fairly certain I'd missed the group at this point, or would pass them in the tunnel. I'm an hour overdue. Who waits that long? Well, thankfully they did, because Tom was still getting the permit at the VC when I showed up and met Paul, Chris, Ryan, and Yancy. I conned Ryan into being my video camera mule so I could bring the SLR. Tom pulled up about fifteen minutes later. I forget whether the chance for rain was 20% or 50% at that point. We decided to pack rain gear, and we drove two cars to the top.
Once up there, the rangers who had helped me reappeared, checked the permit, made certain none of us had paid Tom to guide us, and then gave him crap about his still-busted headlight they had cited him for last week.
The Spry approach was a nice mix of dry stream bed and slickrock. Tom was a good sport through an excessive amount of reality television discussion. Not the salacious tabloid parts of it, but the psychology of how it all gets put together and why it still sells.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04036/web.jpg
At the top of a climb we took a break against a sandstone cliff. Obviously Tom knows a lot. He wrote the book. But there are different ways to share what you know. Tom is the type who will make you work for it, every step of the way. Instead of pointing out the petroglyphs he would just casually mention that somewhere, on the rock wall behind him, there were petroglyphs. After looking for a few minutes he mentioned that they were faint. And sort of over there. Up higher. More to the left. There. That set up how the day would go.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0012/web.jpg
Tom really had me thinking and looking at each approach, anchor, and line of descent. Where does the weight shift when descending using two ropes to bypass a pot hole? A rope cinched tight fights against nature, and is more prone to fail than one that works with the load. I liked that he allowed us to go through the exercise of tightening the rope attached to the tossed pack as much as possible before explaining the mistake we were about to make. My time with Tom was thinking time. Every step through the canyon was 'well, what do you want to do here?'. Love that. It's how I learn best.
Early on Tom told me the two things to remember about canyoneering. I don't recall if he was quoting someone or if it came from him, but I like to think it came from Tom. First, you have to assume your partner is trying to kill himself. Second, you must also assume he's trying to take you with him. That parlays into his two rules of canyoneering, don't do anything to kill yourself, and if you do kill yourself don't do it in a way that it takes anyone with you.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0014/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0024/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0027/web.jpg
The long low angle rappel was a perfect warm up to make sure I hadn't forgotten what little I learned at my first and only practice rappel the week before. At the bottom I found two toads in a pool. One kept trying to jump over the one but couldn't quite make it because they were in mucky water.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0030/web.jpg
We were pretty much in agreement all the way through with one exception. After sending Chris into the pothole above the log jam I asked tom why we hadn't gone above on the rock to the right and dropped in there. Tom politely explained that was an alternate route, and after sending a member of the team into the pothole it would be impolite for us to not follow suit. In for a penny, in for a pound. Until Chris noticed he was covered in smallish, red, wiggling, worm/leeches. Then he asked Chris if he would mind if we bypassed the hell hole. There was some discussion about getting the full effect of the canyon, and while I didn't want to shy from the full meal deal I wanted some reserve left for Sunday.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0049/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04050/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04084/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC04080/web.jpg
We used the pine tree instead of the choke stone at some point on the route. The webbing had slid down the tree and was not at a good angle for the cliff edge, so Chris and Tom replaced it with fresh higher up on the tree.
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0079/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/deanpaulrussell/100023/DSC_0106/web.jpg
At the double stage rappel Tom took us out on the ledge and worked with Chris and Ryan on rigging a munter hitch to lower me static. Apologies if all of the terms didn't stick, please correct me as necessary. Again Tom was leading the class. Why would you lower someone like this? We all threw out reasons from the person being injured/afraid/tired to a rescuer/worker/photographer that need their hands free to complete a task. It was a cool experience to work with Ryan while avoiding the pothole at the bottom. Tom would ask at each rappel who was going to set it up and by the end he was looking at me and I would sort of shrug and lamely explain that I was just concentrating on getting myself down in one piece. I should have taken him up on it. I regret not learning to tie a simple stone knot or biner block from the Emperor. At this point another group of six caught up with us from above, so I felt a little pressure to get moving.
Here we took a down climb into a swim section that ended with a long rappel. Tom had us go one at a time through to minimize waiting in the water. Chris was first, and as soon as he was on the rope I was in the water. Tom had me take the second rope so Chris could start to set the next rappel, and suggested I tie a stone on the anchor at the end of the swim. D'oh! I sucked the big one and said I was ok using the biner block Chris set, promising to pay attention and not to slide down on the carabiner side. As soon as I was through it started pouring rain with frequent lightning. There were still four of our party and six of theirs in what I judge to be one of Spry's worst spots if the water is rising. Tom got all of us through and the next group used our rope while Chris set ours from the tree at canyon left and Tom set himself as a meat anchor canyon right. With the continued lightning and rain we weren't out of the woods yet on the exposed ridge. I was glad to have a rain jacket