Ticaboo Mesa - Good Day Jim

On the weekend of May 2-3, lacking any partners we could team up with atthe last minute, my wife and I decided to return to Ticaboo Mesa and attemptGood Day Jim (GDJ). Two weeks before, we had completed Hard Day Harvey (HDH)with two other partners so it made some sense to return to somewhat familiar terrain.The reports we had indicated that GDJ would be somewhat easier. Of the twoforks you can start out in, we chose the “keeper pothole” fork for two reasons:1. We wanted the challenge of the keeper and 2. We figured if for some reasonwe couldn’t overcome the keeper, we could easily retreat up canyon and moveover to the other fork.
What we found: Before arriving at the keeper pothole, there was someopen wash walking with minor drops, then we arrived at the first main drop intothe canyon. Our primary beta was Luke’s but we also had two other sources withus. At this first drop, we descended just on the left side of the mainwatercourse by slinging a boulder a shorts ways back up and hand-lining it downthe short drop. We later retrieved the sling on the way back out.
After some easy and brief narrow sections, we arrived at the first rap describedby Luke and descended, but left our rope in place while we went down a little furtherto inspect the keeper. It was perhaps about half way sand/mud filled so it’s depthwas about 7 feet and the bottom was a fairly firm mud. It appeared easy enoughto overcome so we pulled our rope and found another anchor just above thekeeper. We set up a rappel line that extended well past the keeper – all theway down the slab. I descended part way to where I felt like I could make agood, solid pack toss, tied myself off and attaching a shorter 40’ rope tomyself & the packs, and tossed both our packs easily down the slab past thekeeper.
Once in the keeper, we could have just done a partner assist to get out,but with sticky, gooey mud on our feet, I figured it would be a little tricky,so since I had brought a couple of extra pieces of equipment for something likethis, I decided this was a good time to use it. I attached a Tibloc &etrier to the rope running to our packs and tried to ascend out while my wife waitedabove, but there was nothing on the lip/edge of the pothole to grab, so I askedmy wife to come on down and give me a boost so I could scramble a little higherand pull myself out. Then she followed, easily using the etrier and we finisheddescending the slab using the rappel line we had set up.
The remainder of the canyon offered many more potholes of various sizesand shapes – all of which were dry except one near the very end, just beforeyou join HDH and just before the 6 ft. drop onto the ledge that leads down toHDH. That one had very soft, gooey mud that one of my feet sunk completely into– a nice baptism for my new Bestard canyoneering boots. Some of the raps intothe potholes were a little difficult. The so-called “squeeze section” was verybrief and not particularly challenging.
GDJ really differs from HDH in two ways: 1. GDJ is much easier physicallyoverall because it lacks the extensive narrows in HDH that require so muchstemming & squeezing and 2. The main feature in GDJ is potholes, not tightnarrows. HDH has a way of luring you in. The first 1.5 – 2 hours is easy. Youthink you’ll be out in another 2 hours, but then the cross-jointed fins areencountered and the trouble begins. In GDJ, none of the other potholes everpresented any serious escape problem. If GDJ was in wet condition, the potholeescapes could be much more difficult than what we found and then it might deserve the "R" rating Shane gave it. Also, it should benoted that the week following our descent, there has been quite a bit of rainacross Utah and checking on radar, I saw showers in this area on several occasions.Never caught anything heavy though.
To escape GDJ, we utilized the GDJ exit on the west side of the canyon.After GDJ and HDH come together, it’s about a 20 minute walk down the open canyonto the big drop off with the cottonwoods below. From there, we followed thesame trail on the right side that follows the bench above the canyon bottom. Imeasured a 10 minute walk to where you begin the exit. It took us about 30minutes to gain the main elevation on the exit to where things begin tomoderate and level out some. Overall, it took us 2:10 to make it back to ourvehicle. Temps were close to 80° so that slowed us some. If using the GDJ exit,as you get near the top of the main elevation gain, there’s a platform areawith a 20 ft cliffband and a crack in that cliff is home to a beehive. If youpay attention, you can hear them buzzing around. That’s the first time we’veever found something like that in this kind of country. An interesting &brief diversion to the slog out of there.
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Originally Posted by peakbaggers

If GDJ was in wet condition, the potholeescapes could be much more difficult than what we found and then it might deserve the "R" rating Shane gave it.

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GDJ should be rated 3A III, which was how it was originally betaed when we first did it. I believe we did the route in 2002 or 2003 and I first published it in 2006.

When we first did GDJ there was no keeper pothole and I had a rating of 3A III, about 4 years after I first published the route I suddenly started receiving email's asking why the big keeper was never mentioned in the beta. The simple reason was it didn't exist when we first did the route. At that time I ammended my rating by adding the "R" because of the keeper and it's continuing to grow depth and unknown difficulty. Since then the canyon has stabilized and the keeper is simple enough to exit with a partner assist or pack toss so I believe the R-rating should be removed and have done so. Also we first did the canyon from the lake and it was several years before we did it from above, the lake is still my preferred option :-) The canyon was shown to us by a member of the Senior Canyoneering Community named Joe Wrona.

Anyhoo.... that's a short history lesson on the canyon, how/when it was betaed and it's rating. I thought some of you might enjoy knowing the canyons history. I guess the short answer to this rambling post should be "the canyons change".

:popcorn: