Full Imlay 07/15 - 07/16/2016
Going to start off with a quick lost & found post: Green ATS Device & Galaxy S7 phone. The phone must have fallen out of my pocket when hiking in upper Imlay. The phone is waterproof, but is likely broken, I would still like to retrieve the phone even if broken for the memory card & in attempt to save personal pictures & memories :) Yes it was a VERY expensive canyon trip for me lol. If you find either of these & are nice enough to return them to me please email me at: dakotabelliston@gmail.com
After setting up car shuttles, renting some canyon gear from ZAC for 2 members of our group, we reached the trailhead at around 10 o'clock. Surprisingly the hike in was not that bad. We kept a leisure pace & good company made the approach go by very fast. Immediately dropping in to the canyon we felt like we dropped in to a oven. Temperatures were high & it seamed the sun was slowly cooking us alive. The time spent on the big wall rappel (I think rap 5 or 6) was not nearly as fun in full sun exposure with no place to hide. After we got down in to the depths of the canyon things quickly started to cool off and become tolerable. The canyon was fairly dry from my previous visits to Imlay with some potholes completely dry & others about half full. 2nd to last rappel before the crossroads is when I noticed my phone was missing from my pocket. It could have fallen out multiple times & most likely in water. I usually watch my phone like a hawk & constantly have it in my hands to get pictures but I guess the awe of Imlay caught me off guard. I searched up canyon & in water sections as much as possible. The canyons were fairly dry so we were not in wetsuits yet & searching for the phone was deathly cold in prolonged water exposure resulting in me calling it off. Nothing is worth risking your life :) We reached the crossroads at about 7 o'clock & set up for the night. The sandy alcove made a great place for setting up our beds & blocking the moon light in order to help us sleep better.
Saturday morning we woke up around 7 o'clock & started packing up. Knowing we had water within the next 200 yards we decided to go directly in our wetsuits. As we were putting our packs on a group of 5 arrived at the crossroads from the sneak route. We set down canyon quickly met by cold water. When we got to the notorious log jam we went 1 by 1 into the water and worked out way across. As we walked up the log jam there was some shifting requiring extreme caution. PLEASE be careful. We had a log jam collapse a few years ago & pin a member under the water for a few seconds. Luckily it was not more catastrophic that year. This time we made it across without incident. Moving into the pot hole sections we were required to partner assist out of about 3 and hook out of another 3. This time around nothing was extremely difficulty & was quickly passed by our group. Around 4 o'clock we reached the final rappel. This is one of my favorite rappels of all time looking down into the beautiful narrows.
Hiking out the narrows was beautiful & LOADED with tourist who asked us about every 100 feet what we were doing & why we had so much gear. We made it back to the shuttle all tired, sore, a couple blisters, and smiles on our faces. As per tradition we stopped in at Oscars café to grab a giant burger. Overall a successful trip. We wore 5mm wetsuits, 5mm socks, & NO gloves throughout the canyon. Nobody ever complained of being cold. In fact we got to a point where we would often dunk ourselves in every pothole to keep cool.
