Me, Chabadiah and our wives headed down to Zion for some canyon fun. We made it to the visitors center in Zion from Orem in 4 hours. We had known that Pinecreek was out of permits so we decided Spry would be a good one. None of us had done Spry before.
We picked up a Keyhole permit for that night just in case. We hadn't had dinner but we decided to hit keyhole anyway. We started from the pull-off toward Keyhole at about 8:30 PM. It was a ton of fun in the dark. We finished up at 10:30 PM and headed to mosquito cove. Hung up our wet gear and went to bed.
We woke up at about 6 am to some sprinkles so we through all our stuff in the car and pulled a tarp over us and went back to sleep. We were worried about the forecast of 40% chance of rain. We woke up at about 7:30 and the clouds were moving pretty fast and didn't look to bad so we thought we would try it out and if it looked scary we could bail.
It took us a couple of hours to get breakfast and put all our gear back together and we were at the Spry trailhead at about 10 am.
I couldn't figure out the terrain from my topo map. I am not very good at reading them in the first place but usually I can make sense of it. This time we hiked up some steep slickrock for about 45 minutes thanks to my superior map reading skills. We ended at a cliff and after some discussion we realized that the river bed at the bottom of the cliff was actually Pine Creek. We had gone up the wrong drainage. I hate to admit it but we did. We hike back down looking for somewhere to make our way into Pine creek. We eventually made it back down to our car and started on the right path at 11 AM. Adding almost a mile to our trip. Note: Just for reference, when pine creek goes under the road the tunnel is big enough to walk through that is how you know you are on the right track. The drainage just up the road to the East has two pipes that drain under the road, that is the wrong one. The guy at ZAC said that there are some owls up that drainage but we saw none.
Our path http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1245379
So now we are sure we are on the right path and everyone is pissed that we just wasted an hour. In all the Beta and guidebooks we read it doesn't mention the difficulty of the climb in, except for one website (climb-utah.com) that mentions 4th class pitches. So I am telling anyone who tries this canyon. Get an early start the 4th class pitches last for about 2 1/2 hours. My wife told me that she would rather do the entry hike to Mystery from weeping rock than do that again. I would disagree with that but that puts the difficulty into perspective.
The hike in the creek bed was shaded and nice. The route up on the slick rock was pretty obvious to us. After we found it we noticed a cairn and were happy that we were on the right track.
I didn't take any pictures of this part of the hike because I was too dillusional from the mass amounts of elevation gain to remember to take a picture for reference. We did not find the petroglyphs.
We got to the top and started our bushwack down into the mouth of Spry. A few clouds started to move in that looked a little hairy but we didn't think they would be a problem. We ate lunch at the first rap and watched the clouds. We felt good about it so I set up the first "rap" with our two 60 m ropes.
The first rappel is more like a walk down a slight slope to a stanky pothole then a small rappel to the bottom into a big stinky pothole. The canyon at this point is pretty wide so we weren't worried about the rain.
We made it to the second rappel and the water looked really gross. Chabadiah and I decided to check out the trail around the pothole. We could see how awesome the small section of narrows was after the rappels so we decided to tell the girls that we couldn't hike around and we had to go in.
The second rap was into a deep and long pothole that ended at a log jam where you set up the third rappel into a cool, almost subway section of very short narrows. The third rap was pretty tricky and required a flip upside down to get over a stuck log.
The fourth rap was kindof weird. The bolts were set up on the opposite wall from where you stand and you have to lean over a drop. I would estimate the drop at about 35 feet. So you have to start the rap on the wall across from you then turn around because that wall ends shortly then it turns to an overhang. It was a fun rappel.
The fifth rap was a really cool one from three bolts into a really dark slot.
The sixth rap was almost immediately after the fifth one. It was from a chokestone into a deep pool then over the edge to another pool. Our 60m rope reached all the way.
The seventh rap was a shorter double rap as well. Down to a knee deep pool then over into another pool.
The Eighth rap was into the stinkiest pool in the whole canyon. I think Chabadia said he got pictures of green bubbles from that pothole. To make it worse it smelled like dead fish. This rap was also a double. Down and then into a narrow spot. Swim to the end of that one and there were anchors for the ninth rap.
The 9th was a cool rappel with a little water running down because of people in the pothole behind you.
At the bottom of the 9th rap there is a large pothole that is very shallow, like ankle deep. I walked to the end of it and noticed a bunch of rope burns over the side. I could not find any anchors. At first I thought to tie the two 60m ropes we had. I didn't think that would be a good pull though. There is a large chunk of rock that was sticking out on the left side that I could see a rope burn on. I was going to set up some webbing for an anchor there but when I climbed to the top of the ledge on the left I notice there was already an anchor about 15 feet to the south on two trees.
The 10th rap puts you into the boulder field. Walking down we made it to the last rap after what felt like an hour. It wasn't really that long until we made it to the 11th and final rap.
We were worried about the time because we rented some wetsuits for the girls and I rented some 5.10's from the Zion Adventure Center. So it made the last little bit of the canyon a semi rush.
The 11th rap was a really fun one. It is an overhang from almost the start. I may west bunnied my backpack and it made a world of difference from other free-hanging raps I have done.
We made it to the road in about 45 minutes and I heard Iceaxe talk about making a sign for hitchhiking. I got my brand new laminated "Next Trailhead" sign out and the first car to pass us stopped.
Chabadiah hitched a ride with the two gypsy girls and brought our car back down. We raced back to the ZAC and made it at about 8:57. We were worried that they wouldn't let us return the stuff since we were supposed to have it back by 8 pm. They were awesome and stayed a little later for us so we didn't have to drive back from Cedar City in the morning, where we had reservations for a hotel. We were too late to play in the pool or hot tub but everyone was happy to have a warm shower and comfy bed that night.
Since renting the 5.10's from ZAC I have decided they are a must have. Can't wait to get me a pair!
Spry was an awesome canyon and worth the entry hike in my opinion. It has a few technical spots that keep you thinking and enough rappels to keep your attention. 10 out of 10 in my book.
Now for the pictures.
Sorry I didn't get any of the 10th or 11th rap. My battery died. Hopefully Chabadiah will have some.
muddy river by misquito cove
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...muddyriver.jpg
view of Pincreek canyon from top of hike
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...fpinecreek.jpg
View of Spry from top
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...yonfromtop.jpg
Clouds over Spry
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...dsoverspry.jpg
Steph on first rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...onfirstrap.jpg
cool cliff after first rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...anyoncliff.jpg
Em in pool after second rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...rsecondrap.jpg
Steph and Em in subway part after 3rd rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...fter3rdrap.jpg
Chad on weird 4th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...adon4thrap.jpg
View from the 4th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...from4thrap.jpg
Balancing rock
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...alancerock.jpg
group at bottom of 5th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...omof5thrap.jpg
6th rap anchor
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...rfor6thrap.jpg
Steph on the first part of 6th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...ehon6thrap.jpg
Chad starting second part of 7th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...adon7thrap.jpg
Steph on 9th rap
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...phon9thrap.jpg