Foolin' Around (kinda long)

[Scott Card]

First post, here goes. Sorry no photos, camera was DOA at trail head. After Freezefest, I asked Tom Jones for suggestions of another canyon since he led me and some of my regulars through East Fork of Leprechaun. He saw the varied skill and fitness levels of the Mapleton homeboys. Tom suggested that for more meat than Lep East that we do Foolin' Around. Oh baby, what a blast. After many failed attempts, (scheduling problems, weather etc) we finally left the day jobs. We arrived at Sandthrax (very nice and clean I might add) and set up camp. We ate John's dutch oven cooking (pineapple honey chicken, steamed veggies with cheese, and lemon pudding cake - hungry yet?) We retired and I went to the back of my truck for the first time to sleep a night there. I am now, I believe dipping my toe into the redneck realm, having slept a night in the back of a truck. We arose to a cool but pleasant morning and ate breakfast. Off we went and we arrived about 9:30 am-ish at the parking spot and headed west to the entrance of Foolin' Around. We had good fun rapping, down climbing and scraping our way through several narrows. When we came out into a big open area we noted a significant drainage to the right and wondered what that was. We saw foot prints coming out and wondered if we droped in the wrong spot or the wrong canyon. After a quick check of the map and GPS, we confirmed we were in the right canyon but there was another little spur that looked fun. After reviewing posts from last week it sounds like we spotted Ram's and company's foot prints coming from the "Messing Around" spur of Foolin' Around. Is that right?

Off we went and entered what we then immediately recognized by the descriptions as the "fourth narrows." Dark, wet, skinny and off the deck a bit. I explained the bunny strap to those that had not tried this madness before and on came the wet suits and harnesses. Most in this particular group had never done any stemming. I saw a lot of game faces on as we entered, knees were placed against the wall, backs against the other wall and packs dangled below. My calls of "how ya doin' back there" were met with a bit of grunting and not much more. The two in front of me were off and running. They were more fit and trim and had a bunch of climbing experience. The stemming was not too long, maybe 15-20 feet or so in that particular spot. I saw a spot below that looked wide enough, just before a chock stone and decided to elevator down. I did, it was wide enough but what I didn't see from above were three-3" to 4" logs poking out of the water like a pitch fork. They were almost directly below the chock stone so I couldn't really see them from above. After getting hung up on the stupid logs a couple of times by the leg strap, pack getting stuck, etc., I finally got over them. That was more difficult than it appeared. Down to the hand and knee I went, sidways in the water to crawl at a wide spot. I called to those above to keep stemming at least till they were past the chock stone and the wooden pitch fork obstacle. They came and down into the water they went, hands and knees at times and sucking it in at other times. This was getting good. Game faces still on for most. Then we came to the swim. That water felt like about 32 1/2 degrees. Note to self, neoprene socks next time. After the swim, out we popped into the sun. Nice....Warm... gentle breeze to dry us off quickly. Off with the wet suits and we had a little lunch. We walked a few hundred feet to the last rap. I must say that was an interesting rig but was well done and safe. I hate to bring up the "bolt" word but wouldn't a bolt be less obtrusive than what is there. I'll leave it to someone else to decide. For future descenders, I would carefully inspect that length of webbing that gets grinded by each canyoneer as they hook up to the left, and slid the shoot going right, grinding the webbing all the way to the perch at the lip of the overhang portion of the rap. That final rap was a good one.

We were tired but not done. We decided to skip the bottom part of Butler and took the Kelsey 4th Class scramble up and out. That was to me the scariest part of the trip. The rock about midway up is junk. Nothing to grab onto with out it breaking off and the footing was slippery. We all carefully ascended and gratefully (thanks Tom for the map) veered right and onto easy slick rock. I wouldn't have wanted to do the last section of that crack.

Our original plan was to go down the middle fork of Leprechaun to test our girth, but due to the amount of stuff we had and our general fatigue level we opted for the easier East Fork. A couple guys in the group weren't with us for our one day of Freezefest and hadn't done it before. It was just as fun as I remembered. From drop-in to Belfast Blvd. it was 50 minutes. Then out we went to the truck at Sandthrax. We met Steve Lewis and the Arhardts (sp?) just pulling in and setting up, Nice folks. Looked like they were in for a windy, if not stormy night. We quickly packed up and picked up the shuttle car and off we went to Rays for burgers and then home to more snow, (yuck). Thank you Tom for the suggestion to do Foolin' Around. It delivered everything this group wanted and was perfect for the varied skills and fitness of this particular little group. More please.

Scott Card

[Iceaxe]

More please.

Nice TR..... if you want more I would move over to the Posion Springs stuff.... lots of fun to be had there over the next month.

[rock_ski_cowboy]

More please.

Nice TR..... if you want more I would move over to the Posion Springs stuff.... lots of fun to be had there over the next month.

Or Alcatraz. Mmmm good.

[Iceaxe]

Or Alcatraz. Mmmm good.

Yeah the Roost should also be primo for the next month....

But I've met some of Scotts's gang and I think Alcatraz might not be a fun day for some of them. Some of them are wearing a lot of dutch oven cooking around the mid section

Scott's group would probably have more fun in Larry, Bluejohn or Not Mindbender.

[Scott Card]

**But I've met some of Scotts's gang and I think Alcatraz might not be a fun day for some of them. Some of them are wearing a lot of dutch oven cooking around the mid section***

Present company excepted I hope. Alcatraz is on my personal radar screen. I know who you are speaking of regarding girth and I tend to agree. That is why we were going to do Middle Lep (my sly way of testing for other stuff -- testing them and me) but due to pack size and too much junk like wet suits we opted to do right fork instead. But with the right partners, I am game. Done BlueJohn and I've done Larry. Both are a romp. We test newbies in both canyons. Any others besides Not Mindbender? I think this canyon has motivated some to get to a gym. We will do Quandry in a month or two to test skill for Imlay this summer.

[Iceaxe]

Alcatraz is on my personal radar screen.

You could get through Alcatraz with the big guy easier then through middle Lep. If you do Alcatraz just put a smurf in from to warn when to go high and stay high..... put a smurf in back of him to offer a knee when required so he can get on top of the skinny stuff.....

This kinda reminds me of something I thought was pretty funny this past weekend..... We were doing a pretty hard canyon. My partners were all 30 or younger in age. Anyhoo..... as I was passing out the team gear at the trailhead they start teasing me about "what is Ice going to carry? Pillows????"..... they thought that was pretty funny..... but I told them "nope.... you carry the ropes and I'll carry the extra 20 years".....

Probably have to be an old guy to really appreciate that...

[Scott Card]

This kinda reminds me of something I thought was pretty funny this past weekend..... We were doing a pretty hard canyon. My partners were all 30 or younger in age. Anyhoo..... as I was passing out the team gear at the trailhead they start teasing me about "what is Ice going to carry? Pillows????"..... they thought that was pretty funny..... but I told them "nope.... you carry the ropes and I'll carry the extra 20 years".....

Probably have to be an old guy to really appreciate that...

Age, wisdom and wit trumps youth most times. Nice one. I also use the same trick with younger fellers - rope 'em and slow them down.

[rock_ski_cowboy]

Alcatraz is on my personal radar screen.

You could get through Alcatraz with the big guy easier then through middle Lep. If you do Alcatraz just put a smurf in from to warn when to go high and stay high..... put a smurf in back of him to offer a knee when required so he can get on top of the skinny stuff.....

I remember Middle Lep being more difficult than Alcatraz, but then again it was my 5th canyon, and hard things have gotten easier, so my current conclusion is that they are similar in difficulty. I guess Ill have to revisit Shim to be able to form a valid opinion.

[Iceaxe]

I remember Middle Lep being more difficult than Alcatraz

That's how I would rated them, particularly for a big guy.

[savanna3313]

Alcatraz is on my personal radar screen.

"nope.... you carry the ropes and I'll carry the extra 20 years".....

Probably have to be an old guy to really appreciate that...

That's a good one..... As an old girl, I can appreciate that as well. I had lots of fun in my younger years, but I'm still having lots of fun and I now know better about most things. Except for men......for some strange reason I still don't have them figured out.

[accadacca]

Alcatraz is on my personal radar screen.

"nope.... you carry the ropes and I'll carry the extra 20 years".....

Probably have to be an old guy to really appreciate that...

That's a good one..... As an old girl, I can appreciate that as well. I had lots of fun in my younger years, but I'm still having lots of fun and I now know better about most things. Except for men......for some strange reason I still don't have them figured out.

Same goes for womenz...

[Iceaxe]

Same goes for womenz...

Just pour Tequila down a woman and the mystery evaporates quickly.

[savanna3313]

Same goes for womenz...

Just pour Tequila down a woman and the mystery evaporates quickly.

You don't even need the tequila part for that to happen with a man....

[Iceaxe]

You don't even need the tequila part for that to happen with a man....

I'm the first to admit that men are just big dumb animals

[savanna3313]

You don't even need the tequila part for that to happen with a man....

I'm the first to admit that men are just big dumb animals

That's what makes them SO appealing....... woof!