TR summit of MOS & Lodge/employee/MOS/Wylie canyon

[trackrunner]

Another belated TR. Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Bo, Dean Paul, Andy, and I had planned on Englestead down and out Orderville. But it stopped raining epically about an hour and a half before we were to meet up and still cloud cover. With the iffy weather we decided to hike to the summit of Mountain of the Sun and then a decent of Lodge/ Employee/MOS/Wylie canyon. And if it turned bad we could always turn around before committing. Turned out the weather was nice.

The summit with canyon was a good combo platter. No pics since I had to leave the camera at home. Maybe the others will post their pics up.

Read the beta carefully. Just so you know you need to exit the water coarse for 4 rap or else it will be well over 300' close to 400'. There are bolts and some very dicey anchors people of used in the water coars. But read the Beta carefully.

For the drive home on Sunday DP and I stopped by the SF of Yankee and did the pothole portion of this canyon.

[Deeps]

I'll add super belated photos and what I recall to your belated TR...

Shaun and I got a late start Friday before Labor Day. With the holiday traffic, we weren't in our sleeping bags until 1 am. Just before it started the lightning show and torrential rain... At one point, the side of the tent was deflecting into the middle of the tent from the wind! Lots of lightning, little sleep. I could hear a stream below us in a gully raging. We woke up at 5:30 and the rain had stopped. I rigged a couple of extra guy lines on the tent so it wouldn't blow away into the ravine if the wind picked up while we were away.

When we met up with Bo and Andy the sky was still cloudy. We backed out of Englestead worrying about the clay pack logging road to get to the trailhead and being stuck if the rain were to come back. Bo suggested climbing Mountain of the Sun and exiting Lodge Canyon. So we did.

We followed the same drainage used to access Spry Canyon. Stopped at a petroglyph panel I had seen on that trip, and a cave further along at the base.

The hike to Mountain of the Sun killed me. I don't know if it's because my ribs are partially fused and reduce my lung capacity, or because I'm out of shape. Or a combination of the two. I was gasping even though we had cached most of our gear near the cave and taken only minimal stuff to the top. The sun had come out and temps rose quickly to the low 90's, with a rare humidity from the rain soaked ground. I sucked through 2 liters of water before we reached the summit. I still had a liter left at the bottom with my other gear, but that was a long way away and I had no idea how long the rest of Lodge Canyon would take. At the top, we found the register of people who had climbed Mountain of the Sun going back to 1982 and wrote our names in it.

The climb down was easier on my lungs but more difficult overall because of loose talus and rock skree. Lots of sliding and falling rock. Shaun handled the route finding.

We grabbed our gear near the cave and the canyon started it's drops soon after. There were a couple of long, easy rappels, and a few awkward starts over edges with under hangs. The ground here was pretty dry, like the rain and wash had just rolled along the surface without soaking any of it because of the steep inclines. Our steps turned the loose hillside soil exposing dry sand underneath. Lodge Canyon felt more spread out than the others I had done, and the distance we covered seemed to double because of climbing Mountain of the Sun.

By the last rap I was finishing off the extra liter of water I was carrying. I could see the lodge another mile down canyon where we would catch a shuttle back to our car. The rappel was a 200' drop onto wet slickrock with hanging gardens and a waterfall. Great place to cool off and get wet for the last push out.

We got an early start Sunday so we could take in Yankee Doodle Canyon outside the park. Shaun suggested trying the other entry point in the adjacent drainages to get to a few potholes he had seen from the cliff edge. This canyon had a few rappels, but mostly fun down climbs. The sand along the wash was still wet, and it made the bouldering and chimney down climbs really slippy. Lots of rubs and scrapes on my forearms and elbows.

Great, fast trip. We pulled into Salt Lake around 6.

Lots of pictures here: http://homepage.mac.com/deanpaulruss..._Labor_Day_09/

Highlights:

Lodge / Mountain of the Sun:


The rain the night before had the water running.


Sticky sand and quick sand.


Petroglyph.


Cave entry.


Inside the cave.


Bo at the summit.


Shaun at the summit.


Me. Sweat much?




Horse head.


Lunch.


Rope management.


Bo.


Down climb.






Andy on belay.

Yankee Doodle: