"Roadhouse"/SmithFk/MinorFk/PO/Shuffleboard/Wormhole/"IttyBittySmitty"/SF Maidenwater

It was a very Smith Fork weekend.

The Premise:

Tooled out to the Henries/Ticaboo area for my bachelor party weekend this past weekend, May 17-18-19. Knocked off eight canyons in three days. Initiated some new blood into the sport, and generally had a real good time. Weather was fairly decent apart from some rain Saturday night.

The Canyons:

"Roadhouse": Also known as the "Hite Airstrip Slot", this is a short quickie right off UT-95 between the Colorado River and Dirty Devil Bridges. It is a short romp through the Cedar Mesa, including several short narrows and a couple of bypassable dryfalls. Big thanks to Udink for the beta on this one! He didn't have a name for it when I asked him, so I hereby submit the name "Roadhouse" to the canyon names judges for consideration. It's right on the road, and while it's refreshing, it might also leave you bruised and dirty. We did it Friday night on our way out.

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narrows

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ben avoiding the HUGE puddles

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alex + dryfall

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the ricochet chamber

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kevin avoiding some potholes

Minor Fork of Smith Fork: Thanks to BluueGnome and Matt W. for the beta on this one, and for the Ticaboo Wormhole as well! This short quickie makes a good warmup for those headed to the Smith Forks. It's tight, shallow, and short. We stopped about 3/4 of the way up due to an awkward water feature but otherwise enjoyed this one.

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group shot

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potholes in the Minor Fork

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Minor Fork

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Minor Fork stemming

Smith Fork: I'm surprised more people don't come do this easy walk through slot from the top. I realize lot of people do from the lake, but from the top the access is way easier than other canyons of similar difficulty. Kind of an unheralded beginner gem!

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narrows

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pool where we exited

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from above

PO Canyon: This is a blast! The southeastern half of a twin-canyon system, PO is a tight, twisty, obstacle filled beauty of a slot. We did the bottom 1/3rd and then exited. While not technical, the canyon provides lots of easy problems, mild stemming, and water obstacles. Big thanks to Penny M for pointing us this way. What a fun time! I need to come back and do the whole thing now.

all shots in PO Canyon

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Shuffleboard: We dropped in and did the lower half of this slot, which is nice and tight, although nice as tight as PO. The obstacles are also easier to negotiate in this section. Still, it is a beautiful section of sandstone and shouldn't be missed. Big thanks to the Emperor himself for tipping us off to this nice little crack!

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pothole stemming

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more stemming

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more stemming

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some go high, some go low

Ticaboo Wormhole: Half of our party waited in the Smith Fork here, while the other half of us crawled up to check out the bottom of the R/X slot that is the Wormhole. We got a ways up, perhaps 60'-70' up and about 200' in before we got to the first (last coming down) of the crux moves and turned around. Still, what a place to get into even a little bit! Spooky!

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a nice view down

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wormhole

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exploring the x section

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wormhole

"Itty Bitty Smitty": About ten minutes down from the Wormhole we came to a dryfall/pool combo in the Smith Fork itself. Based on the time we decided to head out, so we turned and climbed out on the east side of the drainage. We worked our way up a side drainage where we came across a very short, very shallow, and very fun slot that a couple of us stemmed up in about 15 minutes. It was very fun. I hadn't heard mention of this one before so we called it "Itty Bitty Smitty". Only got a pic at the bottom because everybody else was waiting on us and we had to hurry.

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looking up

South Fork Maidenwater: We did this one on Sunday morning on our way out. We parked on the road, scrambled down the east side of the fill, walked up the tunnel, and then made it maybe a half a mile up the South Fork of Maidenwater before being stopped by an awkward dryfall. Beautiful narrows with the ever-present diorite chunks from the Henries! The "R5" immediately above the road in MRK's DD/RR/Henries book is apparently gone(?).

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the tunnel

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narrows

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kevin stemming

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ben in the sunshine

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narrows

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jess + SF Maidenwater

The Camping: We were planning on camping somewhere in the Cane Spring Desert/Ticaboo Mesa area but honestly after driving after and looking at spots, we decided they all sucked and headed to Starr Springs. Someone had mentioned somewhere (here or the-collective-that-shall-not-be-named) that "it was too far to camp for those doing the Smith Forks"; well, we did and had plenty of time. Just get an early start. Starr Springs is like a Hilton compared to camping on the Mesa.

random camp photos
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All in all, it was a great trip. Didn't get to make it into upper Psycho D as planned (had some beginners), but we made the most of it and had a great time. And, it gave me motivation for future trips (Offshore Canyons, Upper Trail, etc...). Go Utah!

FWIW: I ascended and descended the canyon referred to here as "roadhouse" from Lake Powell back in May 1996 and then again in Sept 2010 (accessed via kayak). I know there were people in there long before that. We always referred to this canyon as "Hite Mini Slot" but had no knowledge of an official name and no expectation of having any name "stick". It was a neat little canyon, but not in the league of any that would be a destination, so that was my guess as to why I didn't see it named on any map. The name we came up with was more generically descriptive than meant to be a proper name.

I hope you don't think I thought I was finding a new canyon. I had done a lot of looking and couldnt find any beta around except from Udink, and he didn't know any name for it either. I'm sure it's been named by lots of people but the problem is they don't bother telling anyone so how are you supposed to know? The name "Hite Mini Slot" sucks so if you want to suggest a better name please do. I will continue to call it "Roadhouse", with quotes, simply because there isn't an agreed upon "official" name yet. I wasn't trying to claim owner ship or first descent or anything other than enjoying a canyon I'd never been in. Since it doesn't have an official name I figured I would suggest one. If someone who was one of the first decides on a better name than I will use it. Not sure why you have such a problem with me, but you always seem to have only negative things to say........

WOW! What a fun weekend! Thanks for the awesome TR :2thumbs:

Those are some sweet pics yeti!

Looks similar to a few canyons (more like washes) north of Moab.

no thought about it (naming it). I just was a bit surprised I never heard anyone else ever mention this place since it was so close to Hite. No need to get defensive about naming it. Like I said, the "name" I used was only generically descriptive, not a "proper name". We had, and still have, no expectation of naming it or any other canyon. I'm not sure what you read in my post to interpret it as an attack. there was none.

As far as any problem with you, I've only ever said one very very minor thing (not sure where "always" comes from) in that I thought it was a bit amusing that you came onto the canyon Collective and immediately made an unprovoked veiled threat to anyone/everyone there "who thought they might be better than you" (not that anyone even implied that). If you remember my post, it was also directed at that specific behavior, not you personally. So relax, no one has a problem with your name for this canyon. As far as “Hite Mini Slot”, that was never intended to be its name (like I said in my post). But, it’s near Hite, it’s a “mini” canyon, and it’s a “slot” so that seems to at least be a good description of it. For what it’s worth, I actually think “Road House” is a descent proper name for this canyon.

I wasn't getting defensive, I was explaining my logic behind giving it a name. I had been calling it "Hite mini slot" during my researching and that just doesn't really sound like a quality name. It's like saying "Moab slot canyon". I mean, it works.....but really? If people don't like the name we (there was six of us that decided) suggest, then by all means, we will happily use whatever name is told.

It wasn't a threat on CC, it was simply stating my view. You respect me, I respect you. It's a very simple (and quite common) view on life. Tired of people (not just canyoneering, but kayaking, climbing, biking, etc) copping attitudes and putting themselves on pedestals above the res, and just wanted people to know up front I am not like that, and if you want to be, then don't talk to me. No threat, spoken or implied. You chose to respond in not very friendly manner, on my post. "This is what I was leaving on Bogley"....Leaving people wanting to be treated with respect? That was clear in my CC post. You mis-read it, or chose to read into it as you did, and so you defeated your own argument. If you were leaving the drama behind, why bother saying what you said in the first place? Why not take that high road and offer a friendly hello? Then I post this, and no "thanks for the TR", or "nice post" or anything, just an immediate ":nono:, this is how it is". So when my only two contacts with you have been those, how else do you expect me to react to you? If you "are leaving that behind" and truly don't have a problem, then you have an odd way of showing it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yetigonecrazy

Not sure why you have such a problem with me, but you always seem to have only negative things to say........

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Defensive. :nod:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yetigonecrazy

I wasn't getting defensive, I was explaining my logic behind giving it a name.

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Funny. :lol8:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yetigonecrazy

Tired of people (not just canyoneering, but kayaking, climbing, biking, etc) copping attitudes and putting themselves on pedestals above the res, and just wanted people to know up front I am not like that, and if you want to be, then don't talk to me.

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Defensive. :nod:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yetigonecrazy

Why not take that high road and offer a friendly hello?

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Funny. :lol8:

Nice TR! Loving this thread. :popcorn:

I'm sick of it.

You need to lighten up a bit, Yeti. No one would find things to be offended over in this thread unless they were trying. Great report, though. Looks like a wild trip.

Just a clarification: I only posted to this thread since this is the first ever mention I saw online or anywhere of the little canyon near Hite that I did way back before I knew anything about "canyoneering" and long before Google Earth. It was a slot we found by dragging a boat over a mudflat/sandbar to get to the opening. It was 17 years ago (hard to believe how time flies). Large boats could not get there at that water level since the mudflat would block them and it would have been tricky to try to walk across it (quicksand). Re-visiting it in 2010 was pretty cool, and the water level was much lower. I was trying to determine if the water level in 2010 was going to be high enough to get there by boat, so I looked at lake levels and tried to match them to aerial photos showing the water level at known dates. I correlated the water level from the aerial with the lake level as best I could before the trip and it was just barely high enough to get close by boat (we were putting in at Hite). I noticed that this canyon had never appeared in anything published and was not on Slot Machine's Google Earth Map (very nice, BTW :2thumbs:). When I saw this trip report, I recognized this canyon and only sought to relate my experiences there since it seemed to be off the radar and not talked about prior. It seems like things were different back then, before the internet explosion, and people didn't talk about things like this the way they do now. I was just relating my experiences there at what I affectionately remembered as the "Hite Mini Slot", no baggage attached.

Great report... and I saw nothing to get offended about.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

Great post! I really enjoy the shots!

I loved the TR! :2thumbs: Sounds like a great bachelor party and was enjoyed by all.

Thanks for sharing.