Mystery after dark

[iflycr500]

So 5 of us hit Mystery Canyon last Sat. the 27th. Well we are not the fastest so we are getting good at hiking in the dark. Its so bad that if we are at watchman campground and want to walk to the visitor center around lunch we would take lights. Now this is one trip we do not want to finish in the dark. Well of course we started a little later than we wanted. Had trouble finding the start of the canyon. Death Gully was not advertised very well and we were a little slow through there. So now we are just hoping to make it to the narrows before dark. We did well through the rappels but arrived to Mystery Spring right as it was getting dark. We had a discussion on weather to continue in the dark or call it a night and wait till morning. It was decided to put the wetsuits on and continue with the trip. The scary part was making sure the rope hit bottom. I went first and just took my time and went nice and slow. After I made it to the boulder we sent the next person down. Then I went into the spring and of course it was a swimmer. Everyone made it down with no problem and we felt confident that we would be O.K. in the dark. The girls started singing and dancing to stay motivated and warm. It started to be really fun in dark with great attitudes that we got this. We made it to the last rappel into the narrows and Stef say's I want to go first. She did great and guided everyone down. Other than doing the 2 120ft rappels in the dark witch have been our biggest yet, we did have a couple of problems. 1st was we knew the shuttles were done running so we had a long walk out. We got lucky and a car was driving through and gave one of us a ride to the truck. The 2nd issue and the expensive part was we tied a knot in the end of the rope for the big rappels, I did not want anyone going off the end in the dark if it did not hit the bottom. Well I forgot to untie the knot on the last rappel before I pulled the rope. The end made it back to the top and was now stuck. Easy decision was I have to cut the rope. This was a brand new bought in Vegas on the way Canyonero. So I open my pack in the dark standing in the narrows looking for my knife and my gopro falls out and floats away. So this trip cost an extra couple hundred bucks. Everyone was safe and we had a blast. Money well spent is all I can say. Sure would like the video from that trip back.

[iflycr500]

Lena

[iflycr500]

Lena

[Aj84737]

Damn sorry bout the gopro. My gopro took a tumble in that canyon as well. I took my helmet off when I was setting ropes on the mystery springs rap and ended up bumping it and watching my helmet and gopro slide down the cliff. Thankful it landed in the upper pool and still works good. At least you guys got out and found a ride. That would have been one hell of a long walk out otherwise.

[Iceaxe]

I place a TXT file on all my camera memory cards that reads something like

REWARD-PLEASE READ.txt

name
address
phone
reward if found and returned.

[tcott]

I place a TXT file on all my camera memory cards that reads something like

REWARD-PLEASE READ.txt

name
address
phone
reward if found and returned.

So how often are you losing cameras to have come up with something like this???

[Iceaxe]

So how often are you losing cameras to have come up with something like this???

I lose or destroy at least one camera a year, I'm pretty hard on them. To me it's usually the memory card I really want back and not the camera.

FWIW: I did lose a GPS with a similar message embedded in the memory and it was return a year later.