Cheesebox, Mid. Lep, Eardley and Medival Chamber

[mrbrejcha]

Sorry if this is long and boring,but you don't have to read it. I don't have very many pictures either because I almost broke my camera in Cheese and didn't want to take it through skinny lep, and didn't want to drown it in eardly. My buddy has the Med. Chamber pics, and I'll post them when they come in.

Cheese Box (West fork)
Well, it seems like I've been gone for much longer than a week. I left Durango after work on sunday 5/13 and drove to the cheesebox road. I woke up early and found the upper trailhead, parked and headed off. I was excited because I'd never been in a wet canyon before and I got a wetsuit for my birthday. I walked the rim around the first rap then dropped in. After some strollin there was a down climb/slide thing, then a nice wade. Soon after was the confluence of the side drainage I was in and the W. fork of Cheese. I looked into the narrows and it looked wet, so I broke out my "new" wet suit. I packed evertything in drybags but my camera and headed in. After about 20ft. I tripped and took a digger in thigh deep water. I somehow kept my camera dry but put it away for the rest of the trip. The canyon after my digger was a blast, there was lots of fun swimming and wading, a few down climbs, 3 or four short raps and more water. When the canyon widened up and looked like it was finishing up I took off my wetsuit. I headed down canyon looking for an exit but I found the longest swim yet and it was a bit chilly. luckily it was 90 outside so I was dry in minutes. I found the exit, headed up to the road, stashed my pack and road walked to my car. When I arrived at my car i realized my keys were in my pack. I took out the spare I'd stashed only to find it was a spare ignition key and not a door key. I ended up finding a stick trying to hit the power lock button through the crack in my window. It took a half hour but I got it and was on my way. I headed for Sandthrax that evening, when I got there it was deserted.

Leprechaun (Middle Fork)

In the morning, I was pretty sore from Cheese but I was really excited to do Leprechaun. I probably started the approach around ten. It was a nice approach with good views. I crossed the left fork and dropped into the middle. I got a little confused at the top of the canyons trying to figure out the forks but a quick map check straightened things out.I dropped in and headed down. It was skinny already. I came to the first "rappel" pretty quick. I just did a handline down my rope. The canyon started with a few fun down climbs, and squeezing. I came to the second "rap" and handlined down again. Good thing I brought my harness! The canyon kept getting skinnier and more physical. It was easier just to stem the thing than try and shimmy. I came to one spot I couldn't fit through, so I went up a bit, there was one spot where I had to army crawl. A fork came in on my right and the canyon got pretty dark. Soon a fork came in on left and the canyon got wide and interesting. Then I was back in the shrubs, and soon after came my car with the beers and barbeque. Middle Lep. was really fun and pysical. It killed my clothes. It is a good thing I was by myself because about halfway through, I ripped a giant friggin' hole in the ass of my pants. I do have a picture, but I'm not going to moon the internet.

Lower Eardley

I headed for Hanksville and the Swell that evening. I drove to the Eardly TH and set up camp in some trees. In the morning I woke up and started out around eight. I found a sicky geo on the first part of the approach. I reached the mouth of the canyon and headed up to check out the last pool. It was gorgeous in there, it looked like a sandstone version of the lower part of the Black Canyon (gunny gorge). I went back to the end of the canyon and headed up the reef. This was a really crappy hike. It was hot, steep, and a pain in the ass, but the view was nice. Eventually i reached the drop in point and headed down canyon. it was hot and I was was anxious for swimming. After some boulder hoppin the canyon began to narrow and the floor slowly turned from sand to rock. I went through a few wades before the first "rappel" where I handlined down off three(!) bolts in to a pool. The next rap was supposed to be into a big pothole, but the canyon was pretty full so I wasn't too worried. I rapped in, swam, climbed out, swam back and pulled my rope. I think the next pool was the one I jumped into, then there were raps and swims all the way to the end. It was really fun. At the base of the last rappel I ate lunch before swimming through. Earedly was really fun but I don't think I'd do it again. The technical section was a blast and the scenery incredible, but there are a RIDICULOUS amount of uneccesary bolts and the approach hike up the reef sucks.

The next day I was supposed to run Westwater with some friends so I headed for the put-in. I stopped to get gas and ice in green river and call folks to get their ETA's. Cel phones are stupid. My phone had been off for three days and when I turned it on I got a lot of messages saying things I didn't want to hear. Apparently, no one could get the trip coordinated so we weren't going on the colorado river anymore, but we were going to run the Dolores river instead (which is great because it rarelyruns and the timing was amazing). Anyways, I had that evening and the next morning to kill and a buddy who was already on his way to the wrong put in. I met up with him and we figured Moab was on the way to the new put in and we had two cars. We decided to do medival chamber on our way.

Medival Chamber

We camped up at sandflats that night and set off pretty early to set up the shuttle and grab breakfast. We started down the wash and strolled through the desert. We were seeing a whole lot of footprints. When we came to the first rap, a guided pary was dropping in, so we hung out in the sun and waited. When they were out of the way I began threading the rope,and guided party showed up behind us. We rapped in and there was wading at the bottom. When I looked down during the rap I watched my sunglasses fall off my hat right into the muddy water. I searched for a while but found nothing. We pulled the line and looked around. What a great place to be! Eventually we headed down to the arch. We looked at it form a lot of angles before walking out onto it. We went out and set up our ropes.We got off the arch again to check if they were touching, then went back out. We clipped in, gave a high five, and both jumped backwards off opposite sides of the arch! Just kidding, we sat down and inched our way over opposite edges. I thoght it'd be fun to play the weight/wait game. "You ready?"_ "Yeah"_ "Ok, Wait....no weight, wait, weight!" Eventually we both went over the edge and after looking at rock for 20 feet we were both swinging around on opposite sides of the arch out in space. It was someting else! After a few pictures we were on the gound. We pulled our ropes and headed for the car. On the way down, we ran into a lot of folks going up, one of them asked my if I'd made it to the arch, I said "Yes, it's a nice place to hang out." It is funny to me, and that's all that matters.

[stefan]

thanks for the report ... i enjoyed the humor

sounds like a nice blend of different canyon styles/location, way to be versatile.

[Wasatch]

Nice, thanks for sharing.