Kiddie Canyoneering: Cassidy Arch Canyon

[Kuya]

Blake: "Hey Dave!!!!! So we have a change of plans :) Don't worry we are still going to do Cassidy Arch Canyon, but +Joel can't make the trip :(. He just texted me and said he can't come. AND.... Josh is going to bring his 3 kids. He has two 3 year old twins and an 8 year old girl.! :)"


Dave: **look of worry quickly followed with a forced smile** "Sounds good, I am just here for the ride!"


Moments later....


Dave Texting his wife: "This is going to be an interesting day"


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On Jan 11th, +Dave Owen, +Josh Davis and his 3 kids, and I all embarked on the canyon journey through Cassidy Arch Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park. Little did we know how awesome this day would be! Cassidy arch is one of the best "bank-for-your-buck" canyons I have done. The hike along the trail to the top of the canyon is relatively easy. You find yourself meandering up a nice maintained trail that grants you access to some views of some really beautiful country!


After a beautiful walk along the rim of the Grand Wash, we found ourselves looking at the majestic Cassidy Arch. It is a large and very beautiful arch and it was so cool to see it in person!


This little canyon starts with a BANG! right off the bat, we find ourselves rigging a 140' drop with a retrievable anchor. Rigging the drop for that rappel was the easy part :) What made us nervous was taking 3 children down the canyon with us! For the first time ever, we had to rig our rappels for two. Don't worry, I watched a You Tube video on how to do it, so we were totally fine!! ;) **chuckle chuckle** Seriously though, I DID do some research on how to perform an Assisted Rappel (You Tube definitely helped) and the evening before the trip, Josh and I practiced from the comfort of the rope hanging from my basement ceiling. AFter that bit of practice we were confident we could rappel safely with the kids. SOOOOO.... what did we do. We rigged up Dave and Josh's daughter and sent them down first! The interesting things about them doing it first is that they were the only two on the trip that hadn't ever learned or practiced an assisted rappel LOL. They were good sports and trusted what we told them. Dave was the first in our group to successfully descend a 140' drop in tandem with someone else.


Soon enough, It was my turn to rappel with one of Josh's 3 year olds. What a task that first rappel was! I had to manage the pull cord, keep the child from falling off the edge of the cliff while you were trying to rig everything, get the child harnessed up, clip into the rope, clip the child into the rope safely, keep the GoPro from snagging in the tree, Arrange the child on the correct side so I could rappel correctly, and finally safely descend the drop with out smashing the kid. Yeah, it was quite the rappel! The best part about all of this was how the kids reacted once we were descending down the rope! They were as happy as could be and were having a TON of fun! They LOVED it. I am not sure that they were really aware of what was going on, but they sure did have a fun time hanging in their little harness. They were not shy about looking down and trying to find their Brother, Sister and/or Dad.


Well... the first drop was done, only 6 more to go!


We got better with rappelling with the kids. Every drop proved to be a unique and challenging experience. Some drop were completely overhanging. others required guide lines to get to. Some had narrow starts, but in the end all were wonderful adventures.


Cassidy arch canyon has 3 arches you get to rappel though! It was so pretty and so fun.


Because we had 3 kids with us, what normally would take us about 3 hours took us 8. We were so proud of all the kids. Josh's daughter hiked the whole things all by herself. and the Twins hiked most of it. Every once in a while Josh would pack them in his baby-backpack, but that was mostly for the hike up to the arch.


speaking of packs, I laugh everytime I think about Josh's pack for this trip. Usually his pack is filled with ropes, webbing, and other canyoneering gear. This time it was a Baby Backpack, hauling an occasional child with the associated harnesses, helmets, extra food, clothing, diapers, and wipes! HAHA! That has gotta be the best canyoneering pack ever!


This trip was one of best canyon adventures ever. Not only was the canyon extremely pretty and wonderful; it was also really fun to troubleshoot and problem solve how to get small kids through safely. For me it was a wonderful day. It was fun to see Josh beaming with fatherly pride! I can only imagine how happy and excited he was to have his kids with him for some of his favorite activities! That just might be the perfect day for a Dad. I hope one day to experience it for myself :)

[Bob]

wow, great trip

[Cannon]

DUDE, YOU GUYS WIN!!!

[Sombeech]

Awesome report!

[Kuya]

Thanks guys! :D It was a great day.

[Slot Machine]

Blake... Wow... Being the proud parent of a son that will soon be three, this is one of the most thought-provoking reports I've ever seen. Worth a discussion, since I don't think anyone has ever taken a pair of 3-year-olds down a "real" canyon before.

First, amazing video! Filming yourself with a toddler in tow, while executing a big rappel, seems like a VERY tall order. Your shot at 5:06 is excellent, showing great awareness of those tiny fingers. People often forget about their own fingers on starts like that. Well done. The shot of Josh on the overhang is also excellent, showing great athleticism while keeping his toddler from getting squished.

Some questions, as I try to wrap my head around this.

What did the mother of the twins think about the adventure? Will Josh ever have to babysit again? Has she taken the kids and left?

Cassidy seems like a HUGE pain to do with small children (added risk aside). Why so bent on doing Cassidy, when good hikes abound in the area? If you had it to do over, would you take them through again?

Perhaps canyoneering with toddlers will be common in the future. Would you recommend that others with toddlers do this?

Also, did you use a Fiddlestick on rap #1? If not, why not?

[Kuya]

Blake... Wow... Being the proud parent of a son that will soon be three, it is one of the most thought-provoking reports I've ever seen. Worth a discussion, since I don't think anyone has ever taken a pair of 3-year-olds down a "real" canyon before.

First, amazing video! Filming yourself with a toddler in tow, while executing a big rappel, seems like a VERY tall order. Your shot at 5:06 is excellent, showing great awareness of those tiny fingers. People often forget about their own fingers on starts like that. Well done. The shot of Josh on the overhang is also excellent, showing great athleticism while keeping his toddler from getting squished.

Some questions, as I try to wrap my head around this.

What did the mother of the twins think about the adventure? Will Josh ever have to babysit again? Has she taken the kids and left?

Cassidy seems like a HUGE pain to do with small children (added risk aside). Why so bent on doing Cassidy, when good hikes abound in the area? If you had it to do over, would you take them through again?

Perhaps toddler canyoneering will be common in the future. Would you recommend others with toddlers do this?

Also, did you use a Fiddlestick on rap #1? If not, why not?

BOB!! Thanks for chiming in. I love your questions.

The mother of the kids DID approve the trip :) BUT there were some rules. the twins (3 year olds) were only allowed to rappel with certain people (people she trusted to know what they were doing) AND she was there to watch us practice rigging up the assisted rappel in the safety of my basement.

You are correct, Canyoneering Cassidy Arch Canyon with toddlers is NOT the easiest adventure to do in the area. The Dad went into this adventure knowing that he might be walking back to the car with his kids and waiting for the rest of us to do the canyon. He figured it was a win-win for him (either he would be able to go canyoneering with his kids OR he would be able to spend a day in National Park with his kids).

If I had to do this trip over, I would do it most willingly :) The only thing i would do differently would get a kiddie harness for BOTH of kids (it was a pain in the butt having to share one harness). Also, with all kids having a harness on, I would girth hitch a 5-10' tether to them and have that tether always connected to a responsible adult in the group at all times. The scariest part of canyoneering with these toddlers was managing them near the cliffs. once they were on the rope with me, I was no longer worried, but before then, I was scared to death!

"Would [I] recommend others with toddlers to do this?" ABSOLUTELY NOT! If you mess up you not only kill yourself you kill your kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes I realize how hypocritical this is.)

Did I use a Fiddlestick? NO. While I do enjoy using a fiddlestick for some rappels, using it for this drop did not seem like the best choice. We used the 2-Ring Sling. It worked perfectly. Just make sure the kids are away from the fall zone when ya pull the sling down. The 2-Ring Sling just feels safer and since we were rappelling with children we figured we should use the safest methods we knew of.

[Sandstone Addiction]

Josh's kids are very brave. Looked like they were having fun even on the first drop.

Makes all the difference in the world to have a competent leader, like you all had, for each child. Something I didn't have on my families first adventures.

I commend y'all for a great adventure and most of all for making it a safe one.

I loved the video, especially the boys playing in the dirt! Awesome!

[Kuya]

Josh's kids are very brave. Looked like they were having fun even on the first drop.

Makes all the difference in the world to have a competent leader, like you all had, for each child. Something I didn't have on my families first adventures.

I commend y'all for a great adventure and most of all for making it a safe one.

I loved the video, especially the boys playing in the dirt! Awesome!

Thanks Dave :)

You bring up a few good points. One thing that made this a successful trip was the personality of the Kids You have to understand that these kids are really really really active kids and are very full of energy. (I mean what 3 year old do you know that can hike 3 miles for 8 hours?) these kids love being with their dad and they love doing what he does. these little kids LOVED the rappel. They were happy, and laughing and smiling right off the bat on the largest drop! (totally blew me away! I expected crying and such. not the case with these kids)

Additionally, Having a team of canyoneers that are willing and competent are essential to a trip like this. In our case, the Dad and I were very comfortable with the thought of rappelling with the kids. We were more worried about child management on the cliff edges, AND conditions of the canyon. We went into this canyon knowing that we might have to rig lowering systems, Haul systems, Zip Lines, Traverse lines, Guided Rappels, etc.

[Rob L]

I have to admire Kuya for introducing his kids at an early age to an activity that we all know has its risks.

All activities, like letting the kids walk to school, or playing on the swings in the park, or going on a Disney ride have risk to some extent (and that extent can be very subjective).

They'll hopefully learn the ropes early on (pardon the pun) on what is safe to do in all walks of life, so in my humble opinion I see nothing wrong in them taking part in this kind of activity. I certainly wish I'd had the opportunity at some point earlier than it came to me.


Great video too!

Rob

[Kuya]

I have to admire Kuya for introducing his kids at an early age to an activity that we all know has its risks.

All activities, like letting the kids walk to school, or playing on the swings in the park, or going on a Disney ride have risk to some extent (and that extent can be very subjective).

They'll hopefully learn the ropes early on (pardon the pun) on what is safe to do in all walks of life, so in my humble opinion I see nothing wrong in them taking part in this kind of activity. I certainly wish I'd had the opportunity at some point earlier than it came to me.


Great video too!

Rob

Thanks for this, but it wasn't my kids hehehe. My buddy Josh brought his kids, but yes! I too admire him for introducing his kids to the activities he loves at such an early age.

And I agree, there is risk associated with many thing. The most dangerous part of this trip was probably driving to the park with screaming kids in the backseat!

[Sandstone Addiction]

The most dangerous part of this trip was probably driving to the park with screaming kids in the backseat!

I'm guessing the drive home was much quieter...

[Kuya]

I'm guessing the drive home was much quieter...

MUCH MUCH MUCH quieter! LOL