November 12th Big Spring Canyons

[Audilard]

Well, one of the Big Spring Canyons anyway...

My brother-in-law and I headed down Friday at about 2 and arrived near the High Spur trailhead at about 6 p.m. The road is in decent shape except for a couple of recent places that have washed out fairly well. Up past High Spur to Big Springs Northwest Fork there is a deep wash out that ripped my trailer hitch plug off.

We ate some dinner, set up my AWESOME homemade truck tent and wondered what to do since it was only 6:30.



We had a beautiful clear night, with a full moon so we decided to go "Night Canyon'ing" down to the first rappel of Big Spring Northwest, which is essentially the beginning of this particular canyon. Immediately found water looking down the bottom of the rappel. A bit of background....this was the first trip to the Roost for my brother-in-law (you can see in the video how much he enjoyed the canyons) and we didn't have wetsuits so our intent was to enjoy some canyons while avoiding being wet all day. There is a lot of moisture right now, not only being held in the sandstone, but also the ground. You can tell the canyonlands are super saturated at the moment. So we wanted to avoid water.

I knew that High Spur wouldn't have water for most of the way so we hiked over to the High Spur trail and down to the start of the slot. While walking along the road a van came up behind us and I recognized Mark Olivares. Chatted with him a bit about our plans and where he had been. I failed to introduce myself to the other two in his party.

High Spur, or any canyon for that matter, was eerie at night, but fun.



We exited right where the circle starts and got back to the truck around 10 and called it a night.

Got up around 7, had some oatmeal and drove down to Big Spring West and East. I really wanted to do Northwest, but there was water everywhere past the rappel so we tried West first and ran into unavoidable water right before the first rappel as well. You can walk above and around to view the rappel on the other side and from there we found water down-canyon as well. Frustrated, we got out and decided to try the East Fork, knowing there would be one spot at the end that would be unavoidable.

FYI, I am an accountant by day so all my maneuvers are extremely over-thought and calculated. I'm a very careful climber and therefore look extremely uncomfortable and ungraceful. I also have a very healthy fear of heights, but won't let it keep me from enjoying canyoneering. I just have to psych myself up most of the time.

Here is a 20-minute video of our day....100% pure entertainment. Enjoy!

[Sandstone Addiction]

Looks like y'all had a great time! I enjoyed your video--thanks Audilard for sharing it.