South Fork of Maidenwater Canyon

[Slot Machine]

On May 26th, 2014, Jason ( @goofball (http://www.bogley.com/forum/member.php?u=231) ) and I took a leisurely stroll through the South Fork of Maidenwater Canyon.

Oh wait, it wasn’t leisurely at all. I’m pretty sure we did 25 downclimbs. Plus I did 5-6 rappels, while Jason did 3-4 rappels.

The downclimbs are especially challenging because most of them start from a polished granite boulder. Your upcanyon hand, normally used as an anchor for the first 5-6 feet of each downclimb, becomes relatively useless. Plus the drops are realtively wide, normally 5+ feet, so stretching your feet waaaay out (back to feet) without using your hands becomes your go-to move.

Free advice: Once you start getting to wades that are thigh deep, put your wetsuit on. They only get deeper from there. We had 4-5 full swims at the bottom. I was happy to have my 3/2 on.

This adventure took us 5.5 hours at a very casual pace.

Special thanks to Jason for going through this canyon again (his 5th lap). It was a good canyon with great company. :mrgreen:

-Bob

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[MiCamp]

Looks sweet! Another canyon to add to my hit list.

[Iceaxe]

The Maidenwaters and Trail were really popular a few years back but seem to have fallen out of the flavor of the month club recently. Both Maidenwaters and Trail are excellent canyons.

And Lower Maidenwater is a great slot canyon hike for those looking to avoid technical routes. It's easily as good as Little Wild Horse and comes without the LWH crowds.

[flatiron]

South Maid is very nice. You can go thru it with other good canyoneers at a quick clip and try to downclimb everything possible - or take relative noobs thru it, assist them, and get them to start to understand and enjoy downclimbing. Lots of different techniques to practice.
I counted the drops one time and came up with 35. With maybe 3-6 raps.

And Trail also cool. I and my buddies were small enough that we stayed low on last 2 tight sections which made it much easier - think we did it in 2 1/2 hrs.

Great doubleheader !

[goofball]

nice pics bob ! you even made my bald spot look good.