20071024 - UT, Canyoneering North Wash

[AJ]

Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...61/t_=38054161


Several folks, including some of my best friends, had been wanting me to do a less aggressive canyon trip. I wanted to do one of the hardest canyons that is in one of the less aggressive areas, so we set up a great trip that had options for everyone. The area is North Wash, somewhat near Hanksville, Utah. It has shorter canyons (usually 2-6 hours long) so the less aggressive group could do a canyon at their level, and the more aggressive folks could add another canyon on afterwards. I also had some friends that are quite competent along, so one of the days, I planned on doing the hard canyon, and they would take the group down an easier canyon.

I opened the trip to an outdoor group that I do activities with; and was originally a little concerned we would have a lot of people join (based on the number of folks that had asked me to do a less aggressive canyon trip.) I wanted to have less than 12; but would go up to 20 since I hadn't been doing many less aggressive trips lately. Likely because we were going for a long weekend, we only ended up with 6 for the entire trip; with 2 more joining us for just the weekend. As I'm definitely one for smaller groups, it was a great number.

If it's all about the journey, not the destination; we got quite the treat for the journey out there. I borrowed the car of a great friend, Jonas, to make the trip down there; he has a Subaru which gets twice the gas mileage of my Commander. (Add the fact that the North Wash is mostly pavement, so with our plan we were less than a mile on dirt roads for the entire trip; so we didn't need the capabilities of the Jeep.) On the way down, felt some swaying back and forth; and thought it was the wind. At around 11pm, when we were on highway 24, about halfway between Green River and Hanksville, the swaying got worse. I knew then it wasn't wind, and pulled over. One rear tire had gotten a piece of metal stuck in it, and had lost most of it's air. Glad we stopped when we did; damage could have been much worse.

Unfortunately, the spare was also low on air. Luckily, I had cell reception, and called my road service company. They said they could tow the car to a service center, but it was past my mileage allowance, the service center wasn't open, and that they could only take one person. Since there were three people in the car, two people would have to wait on the side of the highway for who knows how long; likely the next day. We had tents and things so it was certainly possible, just not a great option.

Tried to flag down two infrequent cars, when we were deciding what to do. They didn't even slow down. Geez, that's really crappy of them since we are out in the middle of nowhere with our hazards on. I tried calling the local police, and they let me know that there was a service station in Green River open 24 hours. Another car did stop for us, and gave us a backup plan of an old can of fix-a-flat. Thanks! Didn't want to put it in the spare, as I thought the spare had enough air to drive slowly on and heard the fix-a-flat can be a pain to clean up; and we didn't know if it would even be good anymore. Turns out that the people who stopped were new canyoneers heading to the Roost, so I gave them some info and pointers on possible routes.

We decided to drive slowly on the partially inflated donut spare; stopping and checking it every 5 miles. It got a little warm, but worked okay. Filled up the spare at the Green River exit. Drove into town, and got to the 24 hour truck stop around 2am. The rear tire had too much damage, so we looked through piles of new tires and found one that was the same size. Put it on, and was back on our way. Got to the campsite around 5am, quickly set up camp and got some sleep. Quite the adventure.


Thursday 10/25:

Woke up at 7am, and was pretty tired from getting less than two hours sleep coupled with the lack of sleep I was already running on before the whole tire incident. Will sleep good later tonight, that's for sure. For now, there's canyons to explore! First light is around 7:15am, Sunrise is around 7:45am, sunset is around 6:30pm and civil twilight ends around 6:50pm. We made a relatively quick breakfast, I made some warm water for people to have tea or hot chocolate. It was around 35 at night, which isn't too cold; but cold enough for some. We made a Hog Springs (toilet) run, and then headed over to Left/West Leprechaun. http://www.climb-utah.com/Powell/leprechaun1.htm (I had done two of the three forks of Leprechaun before, but didn't remember which two. My memory for the canyons is bad anyway, so on the optimistic side, I get to enjoy every canyon every time through!)

Got to the start of the approach around 8:30am and were on our way. There were six of us; Brian, Becky, Jonas, Tanya, Jen and I. This was Tanya's first canyon, and Becky was still recuperating from knee surgery; so we took more of a leisurely pace. We reached the drop in for Left Leprechaun around 9:45am. It worked out really well. I thought six was a great number to have, and we could give lots of pointers as we went through. For those looking for a challenge, we were able to downclimb many of the places people would rappel. I was able to downclimb everything to the confluence of Left and Middle Lep, which was around 12:30pm.

At the confluence, we took inventory. There was plenty of sun for people to hang out; we had six more hours until sunset, and there was a shortcut up between Left and Middle. Brian, Jonas and I would climb up the shortcut, and do Middle Lep. Jen, Tanya and Becky would hang out at the confluence and wait for us; basking in the sun and enjoying the perfect clear lower 70's weather. We had a quick bite to eat, and climbed up the steep slickrock between the two canyons. There was a spot near the start where Jonas and Brian appreciated a handline, just in case. We traversed the slickrock, and dropped into Middle Leprechaun at 1:15pm.

Middle Lep was great. Has some wonderful sculpting, and some challenging downclimbs or raps. There is also some tight and dark places. I was able to downclimb everything again, and was thinking that while it was a little more strenuous, that the gals would be able to do this canyon given a full day; I think they would enjoy it. Then we hit the really tight section. We had to work our way across the canyon above the ground, in a tight area. Okay, the gals probably wouldn't enjoy this part. It's definitely a lot of work, and the canyon had a couple of really tight spots. Including one downslide that I had Jonas and Brian ready in case I got stuck. It would be my ribcage that might not have fit, so if I wedged, I wouldn't be able to breathe. Fit through fine though, but good to be prepared. We got back to the confluence around 3:15pm; plenty of time. We had a quick bite to eat, and then continued down the canyon with the whole group.

I had forgotten how cool the section called Belfast Boulevard was. It's a deep, dark and tight section that has some chokestones that you have to crawl under and around. Very fun. There are a bunch of initials and other carvings from way back in time at Leprechaun Junction. Near the end of the canyon, there is a really beautiful subway section. We finished the canyon around 4:30pm, and headed back to camp. Everyone did great, and had a good time. Both canyons were dry with only a few muddy sections that you could climb over. We packed our bags for the next day, so we would be ready in the morning.

We chatted with a few of the other canyoneers camped at the Sandthrax campsite (where we were also camped); there were two other groups led by Courtney and Rick Thomson. Then made our way back to our camp for a delicious potluck dinner and campfire, complete with S'mores. Still headed to bed relatively early, as I was pooped.


Friday 10/26:

We woke up in the dark at 6am, had a quick breakfast, made a Hog Springs run, and then drove to the trailhead. Since we were doing a relatively larger, more committing, and possibly water filled canyon today; we wanted to start early to have as much sun for the canyon as possible. The canyon was South Maidenwater: http://www.climb-utah.com/Powell/maid1.htm

We started hiking at 7:30am, when it was just starting to get light. The sun rose on our approach and gave us wonderful views. On the way in, we saw some deer make their way up a seriously steep slickrock slope. Wow. Neat how the species adapt to their environment. We reached the drop in point around the head of the canyon around 9am, and took a quick food break.

We then climbed down into the canyon, and enjoyed the fun. There were a bunch of rappels, handlines and/or downclimbs; depending on your skill and desired excitement level. There were three (relatively) deeper water sections, all three were just below waist level. Two of them could be stemmed enough to only get knee deep or less. The last one (very near the exit) had too muddy of walls to stem. Nobody used wetsuits and nobody was very cold; but we had good weather. The water lines on the wall showed that this was really low water for this canyon.

Overall, it was a great canyon with lots of fun obstacles; including one huge chokestone near the middle of the canyon that you could crawl under to get through to a downclimb on the other side. I was able to have some fun and add to the challenge by downclimbing all but one rappel. Might have been able to do that one too, but it was just over 30 feet and would have been a full stem all the way straight down, a bit over from the closest anchor. Thus, not easily protectable, so it was not a necessary risk.

At the end, there is a man made tunnel through a cliff band; interesting design. We hit the tunnel around 2:45pm, and were back at the cars around 3pm. Drove back to camp, prepped for the next day, and again shared dinner, stories and a campfire. Ben and Stephen arrived late in the evening.


Saturday 10/27:

Woke up with the sun around 7:15am. Talked to the less aggressive group; who was going to do Middle Maidenwater today. Went over details with them, and made sure they had all the gear they needed. We also went over our backup plan as Ben and I were heading in to do Santhrax today, and they were going to be our rim rescue team if necessary. They headed out, while Ben and I made final gear selection for Sandthrax. We ended up deciding to carry three big brothers (size 2,3,4) and two cams (BD Camalot Pre-C4 size 5, BD Camalot C4 size 6) as well as a 100' 8mm dynamic line.

Sandthrax is a very challenging canyon: http://www.climb-utah.com/Powell/sandthrax.htm which Kelsey calls a deathtrap.
It also had quite an interesting story when it was first descended: http://www.climb-utah.com/Powell/sandthrax1.htm

Due to this, I had still been a little nervous about what we would run into. I'm pretty sure that Ben and I would be up to any of the challenges we came across; but you can't help but wonder... We had a backup plan too (the other group could fish us out from the rim if we ran into something we couldn't pass through), so I knew we would be safe in the end. I just didn't know what to expect, so it was a nervous feeling, but also eager anticipation. We hiked up the slickrock and was at the entrance around 10am. The first rappel comes up pretty quick, and we dropped in. Pulled the rope, and now we were committed to going the distance (or getting fished out

[tanya]

Excellent!

[utidcapaco]

Thanks A.J. Awesome trip report & pics! Question for you: would you feel comfortable taking competent kids (age 8-11) through Blarney? I've had an 8-year-old through the right fork of Leprechaun without a problem. In fact he's now the 11-year old on our trip. Anyone else care to weigh in on this? Thanks!

[Jaxx]

Excellent TR. I am glad to see that your yellow shirt isn't the one that got destroyed.