iflycr500
05-05-2013, 09:28 AM
So 5 of us hit Mystery Canyon last Sat. the 27th. Well we are not the fastest so we are getting good at hiking in the dark. Its so bad that if we are at watchman campground and want to walk to the visitor center around lunch we would take lights. Now this is one trip we do not want to finish in the dark. Well of course we started a little later than we wanted. Had trouble finding the start of the canyon. Death Gully was not advertised very well and we were a little slow through there. So now we are just hoping to make it to the narrows before dark. We did well through the rappels but arrived to Mystery Spring right as it was getting dark. We had a discussion on weather to continue in the dark or call it a night and wait till morning. It was decided to put the wetsuits on and continue with the trip. The scary part was making sure the rope hit bottom. I went first and just took my time and went nice and slow. After I made it to the boulder we sent the next person down. Then I went into the spring and of course it was a swimmer. Everyone made it down with no problem and we felt confident that we would be O.K. in the dark. The girls started singing and dancing to stay motivated and warm. It started to be really fun in dark with great attitudes that we got this. We made it to the last rappel into the narrows and Stef say's I want to go first. She did great and guided everyone down. Other than doing the 2 120ft rappels in the dark witch have been our biggest yet, we did have a couple of problems. 1st was we knew the shuttles were done running so we had a long walk out. We got lucky and a car was driving through and gave one of us a ride to the truck. The 2nd issue and the expensive part was we tied a knot in the end of the rope for the big rappels, I did not want anyone going off the end in the dark if it did not hit the bottom. Well I forgot to untie the knot on the last rappel before I pulled the rope. The end made it back to the top and was now stuck. Easy decision was I have to cut the rope. This was a brand new bought in Vegas on the way Canyonero. So I open my pack in the dark standing in the narrows looking for my knife and my gopro falls out and floats away. So this trip cost an extra couple hundred bucks. Everyone was safe and we had a blast. Money well spent is all I can say. Sure would like the video from that trip back.65742657436574465745