Yo peeps. I'm in the Roost this weekend - are there any canyons that I should steer clear of because of hazardous conditions?
Anybody been down in that neck o' the woods recently? Is there a lot of water?
Thanks in advance!! :popcorn:
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Yo peeps. I'm in the Roost this weekend - are there any canyons that I should steer clear of because of hazardous conditions?
Anybody been down in that neck o' the woods recently? Is there a lot of water?
Thanks in advance!! :popcorn:
I doubt if you will find any water down there, but I could be wrong. If you do, you will be grateful though. Its freakn' HOT down there, with no shade on the approaches or exits.
It's been raining throughout Utah for the past week, so there's likely to be some water down there.
So how did it go?Quote:
Originally Posted by rockgremlin
Well thank you for asking! :2thumbs:
It went well...I'll give you a quick breakdown of events that may loosely be considered a "trip report."
Friday - ALCATRAZ. Awesome canyon. Definitely one of the best in the Roost. We were able to downclimb everything but the second (25 foot) rappel. There were 2 or 3 very small pools, and none of them were even ankle deep. Alcatraz is very dry right now.
The absence of water in Alcatraz was offset by the freakish overabundance of daddy-long-legs. In the deepest, darkest slots they were EVERYWHERE, crawling up the walls trying to get out of our paths. And since the daddy-long-legs were in the portions of the canyon that were the most narrow, it was impossible to squeeze through there without getting their guts and legs all over your back and chest.
Speaking of bugs, the gnats were still out in abundance but they weren't very aggressive - just annoying. The slog back to the car at the trailhead of Alcatraz SUCKS! Especially in the heat of the day.
After a hot Alcatraz, we were ready for a watery canyon. So Saturday we drove over to Moab and made an attempt at Professor creek. Once there, the monsoonal thunderclouds gathered over the La Sals, and we ended up hiking to the waterfall and no further...just in case. After Prof. creek we ate lunch at the new BBQ joint in Moab - "The Blue Pig." Pretty good food, I like what I see so far.
Saturday evening we topped it all off with Dragonfly in Arches. All the pools were tippy top full which felt great on our sunburns from the previous day. Watch out for a very thick and healthy crop of Poison Ivy in the lower section of Dragonfly -- it's everywhere!
Pics and/or video to follow....
I am curious as to how you downclimbed the first rappel. Do you drop down to the big bench then traverse behind the big drop, then downclimb in?Quote:
Originally Posted by rockgremlin
Nat
Ya, we dropped down to the big bench and traversed like you suggested. In all honesty, we handlined about 10-15 feet into the slot itself. We were gonna just drop in, but that last 15 feet drop off pretty steeply. We left the handline and picked it up on the return trip.Quote:
Originally Posted by nat