Prep: In the weeks before or trek in Zion’s slot canyons, Erik had recounted story after story of tortured exploits, near death experiences and months of lingering numbness in the extremities. This may be practiced fisherman tales, but I determined to stack the deck somewhat more in my favor this time and scoured the sport stores for solutions. You see I really hate being cold and I get cold easy. That is why I took the time to invent a custom insulated super gaiter for my glacier climbing exploits. It was a bit spendy, but a hundred dollars lighter, I emerged from GI-Goes with the drybags and Gore-Tex sox and flow though tennis that I figured would make the icy waters survivable and I thought maybe even tolerable. The weeks just prior to departure were so rough and the need for my presence at work so critical that we had to assemble a team of 3 to cover for me over the long weekend. I was compelled to feel a little guilty (only a little) but bottom line, my dear sweet wife made the trip possible by packing and assembling the food and gear while I was slaving at work. I owe her …
Thursday: Erik Mueller and his brother Chris and I flew into Vegas, rented a sedan and drove for 4 hours or so (I was sacked out) arriving at Zion National Park a very late 2AM.
Friday: 1st thing in the morning Erik’s friend, Jason arrived and together we boarded a park jitney heading up river. Echo Canyon was great with several small rappels and many torturous passages and one too many trash compacters. At this late season, this was our “affectionate” name for stagnant pools; the mountain sewer system one was compelled to negotiate by swimming, wading or occasionally plunging. Some smelled barf awful due to some small and definitely long-dead varmint. Of course – that’s just something to whine about to keep the popularity down!
Erik Mueller’s Echo Canyon WEB journal
After a wonderful –cool wash-up in the Narrows river, we chowed down, filled every water container we had and hit the road for a drive to real desert desolation in the Escalante region. Late at night we found a deserted side rode and spread out our bags in the middle of it. Our fading vision was graced with a spectacular milky way that stretched across the canopy occasionally accented by plenty of shooting stars.
Saturday: We all piled into Jason’s 4 wheel SUV over very rough roads tried to follow the rough directions in the guide book to the launch point of Egypt3 canyon.. The head begins in a shear 400-foot horseshoe canyon drop off. A steep hoodoo strewn field leads down to the canyon bottom where the route winds like a paper-thin rattlesnake for miles. Sometimes for long stretches the path is so narrow I had to take my helmet off, turn my head sideways and control my breathing to time my sideways shuffle. I had over-packed with safety gear for this one and for long 50-100 yard stretches at a time, I had to carry overhead my overstuffed pig sack or drag it beneath or behind me. That part was a killer. Jason had a bigger chest than the rest of us and at one point had to back out and find another path higher up. Towards the end we rapped into some pools that should have led to the Shangri-La vistas at the end but here comes this rattlesnake swimming back and forth in front of us and really nobody really wanted to try out Jason’s theory that “a rattlesnake can’t bite you while swimming” Not too distant thunder clouds added to our consternation. I had brought an explosive bolt kit to try an emergency, but we found that the sandstone would not support the bolt, but heh -it was worth the try. After doing a bit of dumpster diving in a pretty clean hole for my expensive sun glasses we made a hasty egress to higher ground. He hike back up to our car was exceptionally long and tedious for me, but even worse for Erik who was progressively getting sicker and sicker. He was really feeling terrible by the time we got back to camp and was ready to bag the trip. But with all us priesthood brethren I wasn’t ready t throw in the towel and so before Jason left for Salt Lake we all laid our hands on Erik’s head and used our Priesthood to bless him. I can’t recall who was voice, but we left it in God’s hands and agreed to get a comfortable hotel in the little town of Escalante for the evening’s convalescence.
http://www.canyonclimber.com/escalante/Egypt3/
Sunday: By morning Erik was much better. We cleaned up as well as a bunch of backwoods roughnecks could and for the local chapel for Sacrament meeting.
We took lunch at a favorite cliff jumping spot at Upper Calf falls. This is a favorite and is well populated with fellow hikers of all ages. Suddenly a very brazen lady stripped off all of an already skimpy outfit and dove in. My companions saw the spectacle and warned I averted my eyes for some minutes to allow her time to get out and re-clothe. I finished my lunch and then glanced back to the cliff and well - there she was (all of her). Do you cause a confrontation with her? and possibly her biker buddies? or hold your head down and try to convince and rationalize to yourself that tolerance is some kind of supreme virtue. Frankly, I was afraid. This was my own 1st rappel all over again at Goat Rock. I could hear my own words echo, “Bravery, in fact, is doing what you must do even when you are scared.” My conscience stung until finally I flung hesitation to the reeds and commanded, ”Put some clothes back on!” She did and in a few minutes we and others all amicably enjoying the jumping and refreshing water. My fears were in fact more conjured than real. Regardless, even as an adult, I had still to learn the 10th Scout Law.
A thundershower with lightning striking about chased us back to our car and with that we drove on to caressing on majesties vistas after another.
We made camp on some private land and enjoyed a small campfire and decent food. Erik and I were sharing a tent until he could take it no longer – apparently my slight nasal infection what creating quite a ruckus. I was forthwith banished.
http://www.canyonclimber.com/escalante/uppercalf/
We drove to Lower and upper slots trailhead and despite having GPS coordinates and a description, still we struggled to finding the start. Erik and Chris are very good at this and after ˝ hour of poking around we found the right path up a sweeping river valley. The lower cave was a thin cleavage that was hardly to be seen at all until you where standing right in front of it. Unfortunately with out a lot mote gear than my one rope, it had an insurmountable obstacle that forces us to tedious blistering hot over climb of that section. Finally, we found a scree scramble of a down climb and from then on had a great time. After finishing that slot we had to go overland again– yes more hot and dry, but not nearly so hard. We found some prickly pears and barrel cactus to eat as a treat. An exfoliated sandstone down climb brought us to the end of the upper slot. Entering the exit requires us lower each person down a corkscrew via a hand belay. I was the last one and had no one to belay me so I scooted down stemming and sliding until a dropoff where my buds waited with up-stretched hands to support my feet in a sort of circus act. On one long section I called the allenary canal (stinky dank) we all fall in the water – Chris most spectacularly. We used our ropes several more times before escaping. The long walk out dries us off mostly, but we all were very glad to strip and bathe in the river. The privacy near a highway wasn’t perfect, but we were desperate at that point to clean the yuk and smell off. Smelling and looking oh so much better we found a decent country restaurant and ate real cookin – mine was trout. We finished of the day overlooking Zion at sunset. Another hour or so drive brought us to a sleepy little Mormon town where we sleep at the base of a water tower overlooking the town.
http://www.canyonclimber.com/zion/RedCave/
This was a easy short trail to a flowing and very cool (cold) creek. With my Gore-Tex sox, it is fairly comfortable for me, but I think my companions suffered a bit more. This slot a fairly large and we just sloshed upstream enjoying the beauty. Then we encounter a couple of 10-15 foot waterfalls. One had broken aid ropes so we had to re-rig the rope ladders and Erik and Chris found a large log to aid the assent. This was a super clean and dramatically different slot – perfect for the final leg before rejoining civilization.
http://www.canyonclimber.com/zion/Kanarra/