Irish Jihad (Highlighting the East Fork of Blarney)

[Kuya]

The Blarney Canyons were better that I hoped they would be. After hiking all 3 forks of the Leprechaun canyons, this one (Right Fork of Blarney) was the next one to hike!

Jeff had just drove into camp, and he was to join our little group. Before we knew it, and really felt ready, we were on our way back up to the top of the mesa, heading for the canyon entrance. It didn't really take that long to get the head of the canyon, and before long we were romping through the beautiful canyon.

Right before we left the trailhead, we spotted a group of 11 canyoneers going the same way we were. we were SO HOPING that they would be doing a canyon other than the one we were doing. Fortunately for us, they were doing the West Fork of Blarney, and not the East. PHEW! we had avoided the monster group!

The narrows in the Left Fork were beautiful (I have yet to visit a section of slot canyon narrows that arn't LOL) They were so different from what we had seen previously. It was so cool to "feel" the different personalities of the canyons. This one was so different from its neighbors (the Leprechaun canyons)

We all enjoyed the new canyon. all the down climbs were fun and relatively easy. the canyon was "wide" and pretty easy to traverse. It as fun to see my friend Jeff confidently traverse through the canyon. He had purchased a pair of 5.10 approach shoes, and they made him a much more confident slick rock scrambler!

It wasn't too long before we were exiting the canyon and gearing up for the next one. Right Fork of Blarney canyon proved to be a good one!