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Our accident in Englestead
What a gorgeous canyon! Would have been a perfect day if not for the injury sustained by one of our members. The following is a brief description of what happened...
We started off at the visitor center parking lot at the buttcrack of dawn 7:30AM. After our last trip, everyone was anxious to get an early start. Sadly we were one member short, his girlfriend wouldn't let him go with us ever again, due to being so late last time. We all decided to pile into one vehicle, making the car shuttle a breeze, but the car only holds 5 people comfortably, yet somehow we managed to pack 7 people in there. Amazing what motivation can do! I usually do this from the parking lot right before Orderville but we had some beta about a back entrance near the top trail to Observation Point and decided to try it. Not the best idea looking back. Lots of overgrown tree and bushes and the Range Rover now has a couple more scratches in it. It was a bit shorter approach though which was nice. Also I packed myself into the back with the luggage and could only sit sideways looking out the side window. The windy curvy roads and being sideways made me car sick! Can't recall the last time that happened. Not a pleasant feeling puking my guts out on the side of the road. Plus I topped my breakfast off with 3 big red juicy plums and my buddy thought I was puking up blood, haha.
Anyways, we finally got the 1st big rap and everyone including myself was a bit nervous, there was a group in front of us of 4 and I guess we were crowding one of the noobs in their group a bit. She actually asked us "Hey I kinda don't want a crowd for this can you guys go stand over there?". We obliged and she got down fine. They had an interesting setup. Their group only had 4 people. They had a 300 footer with a pull cord off one tree near the front, that the first guy used, then had a double strander going off the bird perch rap. Then had a guy on the bird perch doing a transition for the last 2 in the group. My guess for this setup was they didn't want to have the noobs rap single strand and weren't sure their shorter ropes would reach the bottom. Not sure though, I forgot to ask them when we got down there. But IMO going one single strand 270ish is way easier than rapping 100 to the birch perch, then transitioning while hanging for your life on that tiny ledge. I've done it both ways and think the birch perch is way more nerve wracking myself. Although you do save on the ropes dept. But they already had a rope long enough to reach the bottom setup on another station. Aw well it's a mystery.
They took their sweet time rapping so our group immediately assumed we would pass them. We had 2 – 310 footers and when we dropped our ropes they reached the bottom of the 2nd rap immediately following the first. So we were able to drop straight and avoid all 3 raps they had to do. But we got about 2 guys down while they were setting up the next rap off the log, and we never saw nor heard from them again. They were very zippy!
We had a blast in the canyon! My buddy busted out his Aussie style harness and I got some cool shots of him running down the walls. I'll put videos up in a bit. Everyone in our group really enjoyed the canyon. We bypassed a lot of the multiple raps by having such long ropes, but I guess there is about 11 raps in that place, and they are all very fun. There was thing of concern though, there was a huge amount of blood in the canyon. At first we thought maybe someone got a bloody nose or something and we just spit some water on it and wiped it off with a foot. But after 2 miles we kept getting worried that someone had indeed had a very serious injury in this canyon. Just drops of blood everywhere and little drizzles all over. I also don't think it was the group before us, but super recent, like Saturday I bet. Then our only injury happened. A member of our group was stemming in one of the skinny spots and somehow his thumb popped out of it's socket and then right back in! It happened so fast and did not interfere with his awesome stemming action, but when he pulled his glove off, it was tender and mildly swollen. He could move it fine but it was slightly uncomfortable. Our perfect record is now broken!
We made it to the Orderville and OMG it got super hot for a bit, if I had to guess I would say 103ish. I was dieing and soo looking forward to the water section. Then we get to the water section and it gets cloudy and starts raining, LOL. But the water was still very refreshing and welcoming. I would guess about 60 degreees. Felt a little warmer this year. The water level was still a little low so I wasn't able to bust out as many cannonballs as I would have liked too. But there were plenty, let me assure you. Unfortunately I forgot to delete the vids from last trip off my GoPro and my stinking memory card filled up! So by this time I had put it away and was just enjoying the awesome water playland.
We made it down to the narrows and were surprised to not find a splatted canyoneer at the Imlay drop. We had plenty of time and would have been able to offer way more support on this adventure, aww well. We walked down the rest of the Narrows, even with the busloads of tourists it was still pleasant. Love this place! Headed to Oscars for a victory burgers and beers, went home and made sweet love to the wifey. Ahhh perfect day!
For our next adventure we are planning a "Telehuinin" trip, should be another day of crazy fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjBKl5oHc9E
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Taking a picture of a guy photobombing a guy taking his picture!
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IMMA PHOTBOMB YOU OMG WTF BBQ!
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I'll belay you later dude! I puked up my breakfast and need a sammich!
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Mmmmm Rootey. The picture doesn't convey it but this thing was HUGE! Amazing what pressure can do.
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This one goes out to a very special stalker, you know who you are. :2thumbs:
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I call this one "Fly you fools" after a hero of mine Gandolph the Grey.
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Canyoneering is serious bidness
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