This is pretty long it turns out :blahblah: . If you want to skip the story telling and get to the trip report scroll down to where it says trip report.
As the dark set in we kept climbing the ridge, watching the little red light blink on the radio tower, damn it still looked a long ways aways and my knee was not feeling to good. I looked down at the GPS only to find the batteries dead. 'Sweet, another addition to our wonderfull day.' I thought to myself. I sat down and looked back to see how Kathy was doing, I was pretty shur she had to defrosted by this point, maybe calmed down a bit. I dug into my pocket and found a fresh set of batteries and clumsly fiddled with the battery cover, my still frozen fingers not working as I wished I finally got it off. Just as I got the GPS up and going Kathy came into sight. I could tell it was getting darker for I could only see a shadow of her face.
"Doing alright?" I asked.
"Yeah I'm making it. We their yet?" Half joking she asked.
"Yup, just over the next ridge, I swear!" Giving my best sarcastic slur to hopefully cheer her up.
"If I didn't know you so well I would believe you, but you are also the one that said the canyon was dry, and the one that said we would make it out by dark." I sat their half laughing about the whole endevor.
"Yeah my fault, I forgot about daylights savings time, at least I told you to bring sandals just in case it was wet." Half of it was true, I won't tell you what half.
We drank some water and shouldered the packs one more time. Two wet ropes, soaking harness and all the miscellanious crap was taking a toll on my back. We kept heading in a general direction of up, the GPS mileage to the truck was slowly ticking off, I new we where not right on course but pretty close. The moonlight offered a better view than any headlamp, except the occasional crash into a forray of thorny bushes that I didn't see till I was half through, ignoring the pain I just wanted some food other than the bagel and energy bar we packed, that and a cold one out of the cooler sounded real good.
Finally the ridge started to even out, turning into a somewhat flat plain, I knew we where close. I started vearing southwest to aim more for the truck now that we where not in canyon country anymore. I almost passed right over the road, I was hell bent for crashing through another juniper when I looked down and realized the light colored ribbon winding through the trees in the moon light. "Sweeet!" I yelled, "We are so their." Kathy managed through the jungle to join me at the road. "Are we their yet?" she asked once again, I could tell in her voice she was relieved. Didn't blame her after taking a good fall, getting half frozen, hiking on a bum ankle, and being covered head to toe in a thick clay like mud, then walking aimlessly through the dark following some dumb ass who forgot to set his watch.
The rest of the walk was quiet, only broked by a few udders of how good dry clothes and food souned. As we arrived at the truck their was no talking, just a mad dash for the food box and the cooler. Finally we started laughing about the whole trip. "So we have a whole week of this ahead is the plan?" Kathy said smiling. "Yup, but I will set my watch to the right time and if you are lucky I will avoid the frozen streams from here on out." I muttered through a mouth full of chips and beer.
The Trip Report:
Birch Hollow was an awesome canyon, a little downclimibing, several rappels into beautifull country, and a nice back country setting. Although usually dry, if their is water flowing at the top, it is flowing even more at the bottom.
I set out with a good friend from Oregon, having a late start we hauled ass down to Zion and tried to get this canyon in. The road to the start was dry with a few mudholes that a passenger car could pass. We hit the trailhead and headed down. As we desended we found a parade of mud to waddle through and most of the stream was frozen allowing easy hiking across the ice covered mud.
At the first rappel we voted to by-pass to avoid getting wet for as long as we could. Their was a decent flow going over the rim and no good anchor spots to avoid the water.
Second rappel we put the sandals on and just went for it. Halfway down we landed in a pile of slippery mud that as we found out takes three washings to get out and makes walking interesting.
As we continued down the canyon we admired the beauty of the canyon. It is a beautifull setting with pine trees and high walls abundant. Unfortunatly by the time we got the biggest drop my friend Kathy was starting to shiver uncontrollably from the wet and cold that we did not prepare for. As I set up the anchor off an incredibally small (although looked well used) pine tree kathy walked back and fourth trying to warm up a bit. The idea of jumping jacks came to mind but she had a bum ankle from a previous injury, so were out of the question.
Once down the drop the canyon tightened beautifully. The red flow going through added to the scenery. It also added the fun debate of "how deep do you think it is?" I was always a good friend and went first, waist deep was the concensus on most of them. A lot of the drops looked like they could be down climbed in drier conditions, but neccesitated a rope with the water. All the anchors were well set and easy to find the whole way down. On a short 15' drop Kathy slipped and let go of the rope (!) smashing into the wall tearing up her hands and elbows. For some reaosn still unknown she did not fall to far. All we can figure is that the belay device set against the wall breaking the rope.
By the time we got to the bottom kathy was shivering uncontrollably and pretty shooken up from the fall. We stopped and put our regular shoes back on for the hike up Orderville canyon.
By the time we reached the wild wind junction dark was definatly setting in fast. We decided to hit the ridge and follow it up knowing that it would get dark first in the canyon. The ridge hike was steep and quite frankly a pain in the derier. Covered in brush to tangle in allowed for route finding to be quite the chore. Where we ended up was about 1/4 mile from where you should end up if you follow the directions. (P.S. if it gets dark look for the blinking red light, it is pretty close to where you parked...).
I would like to do Birch Hollow again in a little drier weather. Although we did notice fairly fresh footprints going down the canyon the whole way, just be prepared for a little wading if the stream has any water in it.
Overall, sweet canyon. The rest of the trip included pine creek, keyhole, and spry. Although a blast Birch Hollow was a permit free, uncrowded, and cool canyon if you ever get an evening ;)
