6/8 - 6/11/17. West Baker / Neon / Ringtail
Thursday afternoon we hiked in from the Egypt trailhead and set up camp about a 1/2 mile downstream of Neon. Knowing we were doing Baker & Ringtail and trying to avoid some of the Neon traffic.
Friday morning we hit the Ringtail approach and about half way up, veered off towards Baker. Route finding was fairly easy and we made good time and found a way down off the ledges for the drop into Baker. We all carried 4 and 5 mil suits, but it was pretty warm and all the water and swims actually felt really good and we never did suit up. Group of 10 of us were about 9 hours round trip from camp.
Saturday morning we headed up the Neon approach. We seen a group of 4 rapping in, so we choose to not get congested and went another 20 minutes up canyon and found a spot that we could downclimb in. Quite a few downclimbs, swims, wades etc we came to the first keeper pothole. The group of 4 was still at the keeper trying to get out of it. We suited up and were ready to go when they finally were able to escape. We filled 2 potshots, threw them past the keeper which was in full swim mode, with about a 6' lip. With a little assist and Brians skilled he was out in under 30 seconds. We sequenced our group through really quickly and headed down canyon to play in all the water and swims. Golden Cathedral rap dropped into about 4' deep water. Awesome place.
We got back to camp around 2pm, Grabbed some food, filtered another 2 litres of water and headed to Ringtail. We hiked way too far up Ringtail before dropping in and wasted a couple of hours on the approach and walking down a sandy canyon before hitting the good stuff. The bid keeper was completely dry with about 10' vertical slimy lip. We threw a pot shot which did not hold, 2 would have worked for sure, but me being 6'5" and Todd prob 6'2", Brian climbed up us and onto our shoulders then we boosted him up high enough that he could get over. Everyone else was quick to the escape as we were starting to loose light. We moved quickly through the canyon, never suiting up, and I wish I would have taken more pics, but we wanted to get out before dark.
Of the canyons, Ringtail is the bang for the buck in my opinion, although Neon is cool with all the water and the Cathedrail
Sunday morning was a 6am start and hike out before it got too hot.
Great trip with some good friends
