My son was going to be down from College for spring break and hadn't been in Englestead for a couple of years. My daughter had never been there and she was also out of school for the day so it seemed fitting to plan another trip through. We got a few more people together and it was set.
To avoid any car shuttling, not sure why but I try to avoid it, we parked over on the East side by the alternative Birch entrance. Hiked down the roads and atv trails straight into Englestead. We left the cars around 8am, very easy approach, thanks Tom.
The first rap is always a little intimidating and Bruce volunteered to go first on the brand new 320' x 8.3mm rope that I bought last year but had never used. I had rinsed the rope in the shower for about 30 minutes, and it really seemed to help as it was not really that fast. Based upon a previous report, 4 of the group decided to take wetsuits, bad choice in my opinion. My son and I wore neo shorts with hooded vests expecting a little more water. One pothole that was waist deep. Definitely not enough to justify the extra weight.
The rest of the canyon went quick and easy. Rap through the upper section, stroll through the mid section encountering numberous downclimbs and log jams. Into the second narrows section, leapfrogging the ropes forward. Ours consisted of a 320', thank Kyler for packing it all day in and out of the canyon, 1 @ 100' & 2 @ 120'. Perfect combo to get the first pull and then have plenty of short ones to distribute between people and keep the raps moving forward. The canyon seemed a little shorter this trip, maybe just because we flowed through it easily.
Lunch at the Orderville junction, dry as a bone. After an hour or so lounging around and getting the sun to soak up as much moisture as possible from everyones suits, we headed up. Devin scramble up the Orderville rap and set a rope for us to batman up. Then up and out the Wild Wind exit. The only problem now was it was way to early in the day for that hike out in the middle of the sun. Oh well, just keep going. We all ended up back to the cars around 4pm. Not a bad day, 8 hour round trip through Englestead then up and out. The best now, no car pickups, just head back into town for a little food.
Thanks for another great day in Zion everyone for coming with ushttp://canyoncollective.com/attachme...4187-jpg.8654/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...4194-jpg.8655/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...4196-jpg.8656/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...4199-jpg.8657/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...4204-jpg.8658/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5300-jpg.8659/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5336-jpg.8660/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5364-jpg.8661/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5373-jpg.8662/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5393-jpg.8663/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5410-jpg.8664/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5433-jpg.8665/http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...5474-jpg.8666/
