Friday, May 10, 2024

Long & Gravel Canyons Backpack

     After seven years, I finally returned to the Long and Gravel Canyons backpacking canyoneering loop! This trip has been one of the best experiences of my life both times I've been there. It contains so many of my favorite features to satisfy my sense of adventure. Physically demanding, check. Days on end in nature, check. Stunning natural features, check. Mentally stimulating route finding, check. Mentally stimulating planning, check.

    Both times, I've been lucky enough to have good weather and fantastic company! The first time around, my shoe's sole began de-laminating on day one and altered the trip significantly. The second time around, our filters began failing on day three. To fix the shoe, we sewed paracord through the rubber and tied it to the shoelaces. To fix the filters, we sent an InReach message to our friend Joy who joined on day four to bring in a fresh and better filter. 

     This time around, we allotted another day to make sure that we could complete all of the side canyons, including one that required technical gear. It turned out to be a really good canyon! I'm calling it 6281T for now since that's how Steve Allen pointed out its location on the 1987 7.5 USGS map in his book. There is surely a better name to be picked for this fantastic canyon.

     Roughly five months before go time, Travis, Aaron, Mike and I were out having dinner and drinks, catching up on life one random winter evening. We all decided that we needed an adventure to get our asses ready for. That evening, this loop popped into my mind and so it began. We started a plan. The following weekend, we loaded our packs with weights and headed to the Camelsback stairs. With around 45lbs the first time, we did six laps. The soreness over the following week was temporarily life altering! You know when you do leg day at the gym for the first time in way too long? Yeah, that's what it was. My calves burst out in revolt. Two weeks later, we did the same thing. Weeks went by and we continued this routine. Sometimes, we went for regular hikes with packs on. Bit by bit, we increased the weight in our packs and distances of our hikes. It was becoming apparent that we were ready to rock and roll this trip! 

    Over those five months, we kept gathering lighter and lighter gear to make the trip more enjoyable. I kept a word document of each piece of gear that was upgraded and how much it saved over the previous piece of equipment. My little gear scale was getting a real workout and I loved every bit of it. I even swapped out the frame stays in the far upgraded backpack (Hyperlite Northrim 70L). In total, I cut off roughly 16lbs from the last trip! That is an extreme improvement, especially when considering the terrain we were going over. There were three "luxury items" that I decided to bring that didn't come along last time and they were well worth it. Those were a chair that connected with my sleeping pad, a little bluetooth speaker, and, don't laugh too hard, a harmonica. 

     When we woke up at the trailhead on the morning of, we all very meticulously went through our gear to make sure not even one little thing was left as there really was no "one little thing." Everything was critical to our success at that point, well, minus the harmonica I suppose. We were all bare bones on gear to save every gram. Three well trained machines with the least we could possibly put on our backs to ensure we could boogie as quickly as possible and see all of the amazing things that lie before us. 

    Our first benchmark check was how quickly we made it to from the start down White Canyon to Long Canyon. The typical time is an hour or more. We made it in 45 minutes. This was just the beginning of stellar speeds. This crew was hungry and ready for everything this environment could throw at us! Beast mode was activated!



    In Long Canyon, we found many amazing sites and obstacles. There were multiple up-climbs that tested our strength. Sometimes, we chose teamwork. Others, we wanted to prove our mettle and manhood. At the end of both days, we found stellar campsites.


Next up was the most challenging day of the trip, the day we made the transition from Long Canyon to Gravel Canyon. There are a number of things about this day that make it challenging. The first is that there is no water along the route. We each brought roughly five liters of water, which worked out well on what ended up being a nice, cool day. Before heading out on this trip, I found what ended up being a better route out of the side canyon than Steven Allen documented in his book. It was both shorter and easier, win - win! Roughly half way into our day, we got to the climb up onto the prow. The climb was more challenging than I remembered. Luckily, we had a solid climber in the group. Travis made short work of the climb and dropped Aaron and I the pull cord to help us get up. Later that day, after making it into Gravel Canyon, we quickly realized that Gravel Canyon didn't have the fresh water flow in the upper reaches like Long Canyon had. We walked and bounced over boulders in search of water and all we got was sand. We had to continue on well past the confluence canyon where had planned to meet up with Joy. Finally, after a long boulder field, we found three pools of clear water. Our filters were barely working. We sent an InReach message to Joy to grab a pump style Katadyn filter with an MSR SiltStopper pre-filter attached out of my car. She found it and brought it in to save the rest of the trip! Fresh water flowed rapidly into our water bottles once more. Thank goodness! In other news, we made the connect from camp two to camp three in seven hours! We were all quite proud of ourselves. 

    Day four was our second biggest day, adding in a technical side canyon to the distance we needed to cover in Gravel Canyon. What I called 6281T Canyon on the map was really awesome! I kind of expected very little traffic as the beta in Allen's book is hard to read and piece together. Upon reaching the top of the canyon, it was clear that there had been other travelers to have found this fun canyon. There is still no beta on this one on the interwebs. We ended up using a sandtrap for the first rappel and a boulder on the second. I would have preferred to have stayed in the watercourse for the second, but there was concern about sticking the sandtrap in the deep pothole along the way. All in all, it was a really fun addition! Then, we got into the meat and potatoes of upper Gravel Canyon. We made it to camp four and sat around the fire, enjoying yet another victory and satisfying day.

    Days five through seven involved reaching and exploring Cowboy Canyon, fun rim walks, exploring some side canyons and having a good ol' 'trip.' Cowboy Canyon had a really fun downclimb to start things off. The whole canyon was a lot more fun that anticipated! Joy and I made the rappel into the final cavern on day six to get perfect lighting and, wow, was that worth the effort required to ascend back up as there was no good climb out on the walls below. After completing such a fantastic trip, we went into Hanksville, filled up on all the Stan's burgers we could fit, and headed to Meadow Hot Springs to soak our weary muscles.






On the technical side of things, I created and shared a KML with all of the pertinent information of how to do this trip. The most important things to know are the exit from Long Canyon, the point to climb up to the prow, the drop off of the old jeep trail towards Gravel Canyon, the rim drop in to Gravel, where we found water for camp three, how to get to the start of the fun technical side canyon (6281T), which rim to choose in a couple places in Gravel Canyon, and where to drop into Cowboy Canyon. Hopefully, you enjoy this trip as much as we did! Here is the link to the KML and a jpg of the area map.

Track of Long Gravel Loop - Hit Download On The New Tab





Monday, March 02, 2020

2020 So Far


Random highlights of the Ë=mÇwË¥Ëñ² in 2020 thus far:

After watching The Game Changers, I made it seven weeks without meat.  I've brought back healthy meats (lean meats, i.e. salmon) in small amounts.  I feel amazing!  This is the best I've felt in more than a decade! Even beer and dairy have been cut out.  I may have shed an internal tear over that last statement.  I miss you dear imperial stouts.  Note, I didn't say anything about wine or spirits. In other news regarding this diet, be prepared for a drastic increase in gas.  Don't ask me (or my co-workers) how I know.  You may risk being socially ostracized.

My friend, Seth Ogle finally talked me into taking some tango lessons.  What a vastly different way to learn body mechanics.  Things like yoga, climbing, skiing, or canyoneering all teach you to use your body in fun and clever ways to be more efficient.  Well, tango is a whole new world on that front.  I'm still a total noob, but have a great time stepping on other noobs feet!  

The pursuit of a top 100 Robie Creek half marathon result continues.  With this new diet, I've seen as low as 182lbs on the scale this year.  What a difference from two years ago when I never saw numbers under 200lbs.  April 18th, Robie Creek, I'm coming for you! That and those last two of the six pack.  I can clearly see four.  Two more to go. 


Running the stairs at the U.S. Bank Building has hit a new high... or low?  I've taken my PR down from last years best of 2:41 to a 2:31 this year.   Nearly a 7% improvement!  I usually do the 22 floors with 326 vertical gain four times and can't walk right afterwards.  Good times for a type II fun weirdo like myself!

As usual, most of my days are consumed by writing SQL queries, making and perfecting reports, security requests and the occasional fixing issues in the system at large here at one of those state agencies.  Yes, that was probably the most amazing thing you've read in all of your life.  Turns out, making my living is pretty damn boring to pretty much everyone other than me.  Well, sometimes it isn't the most thrilling to me either.  

The Addaday Biozoom percussion massage gun is maybe one the most amazing things I've ever purchased.  This thing is undoing many years of damage to my low back muscles from hundreds of thousands of miles spent riding a road bike laid over too far.  If you have tight muscles (yeah, that's everyone), you might want to consider one of these things.  Life altering technology right there!



Wilma, my beagle / black and tan coonhound mix continues to make inroads to being a confident and happy rescue dog from Texas.  She has learned to be quite the hot springs dog, hopping right in whenever we get there.  Getting to run on trails or on the local canal bank make her life go 'round this time of year.
 


I've been reading a ton of Mark Manson's material.  The goal being to make myself a better person.  The last relationship I was in made me want to do better in the future on multiple fronts. His stuff covers a whole lot of really intriguing ways to be better that I wish I had known a long ass time ago.  He's most notably the author of The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*.  Here is his best free online stuff. https://markmanson.net/best-articles

Speaking on the personality topic, I decided to retake the Jung Typology test that I took for the first time in 2016.  Apparently, I'm a little more polarized than I was before in my same old thought processes.  If you're interested in taking it, here it is: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp



Upcoming canyoneering trips to Southern California (Angeles National Forest) and Moab keep my attention towards the future.  Maybe I'll even share a pic or two here after they happen.

Here are a couple videos from last October's Zion trip:





Monday, January 28, 2019

Lucy The Beagle

Lucy the beagle

Notes about Lucy:
Lucy was born on May 16th 2006.
Terrie Johnson of Orofino was Lucy’s breeder.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Lucy came into my life at some point in June of 2006. For years, Jami and I had agreed to get a dog
once we had a house of our own with a fully fenced yard. When we first bought our house, the back yard was not fully fenced. We were oh so close to being proper dog owners. The very day the fence was finished, a tiny puppy showed up. Life as I knew it changed as the adventures and life with Lucy began that day.

One of my first memories of puppy Lucy was on a hike we took out in the Owyhees near Wilson Creek. The moment we got out of the car, we let Lucy out and she took off for everything she was worth. At that very moment, maybe a hundred jackrabbits took off in every direction. I had never seen anywhere near that many rabbits at once before. She knew they were there well before we did. The hilarious part was that she was far too little to run down even the slowest of the bunch. It was quite the scene to watch her try so very hard with those tiny legs. We nearly fell over laughing.
That summer, we took her on her first backpacking trip. Four miles each way with a fairly good trail to an alpine lake seemed like a pretty good introduction for this little fur baby. The limited number of down logs and large rocks we had to cross were virtually all too big for Lucy’s tiny legs. The effort to try to get over them was something to behold though. It was pretty much the last time she ever struggled getting anywhere. Her endurance was becoming quite apparent even at such a young age. Given that was also my nature; I fell in love with that little badass quickly.

Sometime shortly after her first backpacking trip, Jami and I had her out on a hike in the upper sections of Hulls Gulch. There is a sign that still exists today that tells the mileage of various loops in the area. It is a big sign that is made of railroad ties and looks almost like a giant cross. Lucy looked up to the sign, must have seen it as a giant monster and high tailed it back down the trail. We laughed uncontrollably and then had to go rescue the scared little puppy. There were very few times that I remember Lucy being truly scared of anything.

The first winter in Lucy’s existence brought an unexpected new trait, a love for water. Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming either. We were soaking at a hot spring one day when it was well below freezing. Lucy was still little and had to run around to stay warm. Eventually, it was becoming obvious that she wasn’t winning the battle to stay warm. When she came near us, I grabbed her and put one paw in the water. Her eyes grew with excitement and to our surprise, immediately hopped in. She snuggled up and fell asleep. This turned out to be a trend that would last the rest of her life.

To avoid delving into things too deeply, I’ll cut straight to it. About a year after getting Lucy, Jami and I split. This resulted in Jami keeping Lucy. Often, I would go pick Lucy up and take her on adventures. Many times, I kept her a while afterward and never really wanted to take her back. I was hoping to make her my own. Jami moved abroad and eventually made the decision to stay abroad in 2012. She offered Lucy to me permanently! I jumped at the opportunity. This was some of the best news I had ever received. I remember the moment that she was offered to me like it was yesterday.

When Lucy came to me full time, she was quite overweight and under-exercised. She had been spending her days with Jami’s in-laws who were not taking her out enough to stay fit. Also, Lucy’s life goal was always to be as fat as possible. She clearly had a mental disorder towards food. It was the see food diet… she saw it, she ate it. She even licked the floors. Her obsession with food was kind of crazy. Anyways, the excursions that I was taking her on leading up to this point were not enough to keep her trim or fit.

At the time, I worked a swing shift. This allotted a good amount of time in the middle of the day to take her out and run her alongside the mountain bike. We lived near a section of the greenbelt and Boise River that wasn’t yet paved. It was perfect as there was virtually nobody on this section of the greenbelt at that time of day, so she could run off leash to her heart's content. When she got too hot, I would stop and let her swim in the river. During this time, she learned that I would wait for her if she stopped to sniff something in the middle of our ride / runs. I probably shouldn’t have let her figure that out. She utilized that trick for the rest of her life. Either way, she became a very fit beast in no time flat.

She steadily got better at going along with the mountain bike. She even got so good that I started taking her out on the foothills trails. That is saying something for a beagle! A handful of times, I had the chance to ride behind her as she tried to keep up with other people riding with us. It was quite the show to see her use some entirely different running technique to try to keep up at high speeds downhill. She splayed her hind legs out in a fascinating way that I wish I had footage of. She looked kind of like a rabbit running for its life at full throttle.

Sometimes, she would still fall behind even with all of that effort and fitness. When she realized that she was not catching up and steadily being left further behind than she was comfortable with, she would make a frantic howl that was both hilarious and a bit sad that she was terrified to be left behind. We never left her so far behind that she would truly be out of a safe range.

In September of 2010, Lucy had one of her many brushes with death. I was in search of a new kind of adventure in a canyon out at Three Forks Oregon. At that point, I only knew about the long way to get to it that led us right through prime rattlesnake territory. The first of three encounters had me convinced that Lucy was going to be bitten repeatedly. From a vantage point of about fifteen feet away and five or so feet above, I could see a seriously pissed off rattler ready to strike. Lucy went within a foot or two of it many times and completely disregarded all of my calls. She was always the independent sort. To this day, I still wonder if she just messing with that thing. Eventually, I got the bright idea to just leave the area and she would follow. It worked. No three hour rushed drive with a venom infused pooch.

In the summer of 2011, I took Lucy on a 23 mile backpack trip along the Elkhorn Crest Trail in Oregon. On day three, she saw something well before I did. Families of mountain goats up on the hillside were her direct target. As it turns out, Lucy was quite a bit faster than they were. As she was chasing, I called and called for everything I was worth. She paid no attention what so ever and she thought it was her best chase of all time. Little did she know that it could have ended very badly. Luckily, she must have sensed their aggression as she got closer. She was very close to momma when she slowed down and turned around. She came back and seemed quite proud of herself. Just another day in the life of Lucy.

One of her biggest challenges ever was to the highest peak in Idaho, Mount Borah at 12,662ft. This was quite the experience. To get ready for this one, I got her a real harness and rope that I could lower her over the big drops (up to about 10ft). This kind of stuff was new to her, but she handled it with ease. Getting past Chicken Out Ridge went smoothly in both directions. She seemed to be a natural at this kind of thing. The rock is quite sharp and wrecks many dog’s pads. Lucy had tough pads and was only a tiny bit worse for the wear. She was six her first time up. She performed this same feat once more the very next summer.

During an extended cold snap one winter, a group of us decided to go visit Smith Creek Falls. This place is quite spectacular when frozen! Lucy joining us on this adventure nearly cost her a paw. We let the dogs out when going to look out over the canyon cliff. Moments later, we heard a blood-curdling howl that Lucy only made twice in her life that I know of. The sound was consistently coming from the same place so I thought she had been attacked by something. When we got to her, her paw was stuck in a coyote trap. My first thought was that her paw had been completely destroyed. I was hysterical but quickly pulled myself together to focus on getting the trap undone. The trap was popped open and she walked away unharmed. The trap snapped directly on the smallest part of her paw. We got lucky that day! We went on to explore the frozen falls and were treated to absolutely breathe taking sites.

That same winter, Lucy had an encounter with a big cat, swam in water that had an inch and a half of ice on top of it and tore off a dew claw all in one day. This was the first time I had been through the far upper section of Jump Creek. For some crazy reason, three of us and two dogs decided to try this in the middle of winter. We humans put on eight millimeters of wetsuit to go through the cold water. The dogs, well, they shook off the water each time and kept on trucking. Just as we were suiting up, Lucy disappeared up the South wall of the canyon. Almost exactly the moment I finished putting on my second wetsuit, I heard the craziest sound I ever heard come from Lucy. It was unquestionably her, but it was the strangest sound I had ever heard a dog make. My immediate thought was that she was being killed. It was not the kind of sound you want to hear your dog make. I took off as fast as I could possibly run up that hill, which turns out to be really hard in eight mm of dry wetsuit! When I got about two hundred vertical feet up from the bottom of the canyon, I found what looked to be a den between a few big boulders. I was yelling for Lucy, but she wasn’t responding. She was hot on a trail. I saw her white flag of a tail pointing straight up in the air maybe 20 yards away and dashed for her. She clearly wanted me to follow. I wasn’t in for this game, so I grabbed her and took her back down to the start of the canyon. She seemed bewildered by the fact that I wasn’t helping her track down the big cat she had clearly pushed out of its den. There were scattered bones of all sorts no more than a tenth of a mile up at an opening in the canyon. Luckily, Lucy’s bones did not get added to the pile that day.

Somewhere in this time frame, my old roommate left the backyard gate open while I was away at work. Lucy, being the perpetual wanderer decided to take off on an adventure. There was bad decision making on my part as well. This happened to be during a time when Lucy had been scratching at her collar quite a lot so I decided to just take it off of her that day. She was on the loose and without any identification. Man, I should have known better than that. Well, I had a predicament on my hands. After taking off work early, I rode my bike all around, up and down every street in the vicinity calling her name. She was nowhere to be found. Not cool! Finally, I had to go to bed, stressed out to the max. I posted what happened in an ad on Craigslist with a few photos of her. At some time around 9am the next morning, I got a call from the dog catcher saying they had found Lucy and to come get her before she made her way to the humane society. I met up with them and learned that a woman a few blocks away found Lucy wondering around and took her in for the night. She had enjoyed the company of this lady’s golden retriever and a new kind of dog food for the night. It ended up being just another adventure that ended well for little miss Lucy.

In the summer of 2012, a couple friends and I decided to do a quick backpack trip to Hyndman Peak, the ninth tallest peak in Idaho and the shortest of the “12-ers.” Hyndman isn’t very technical, more of just a workout in the woods, Lucy’s favorite kind of adventure. Along the way back down, she decided that some smell was worthy of getting lost for. She failed to pay attention to where I was for long enough to lose my track. We were in the middle of a battle of wills and I just kept going, expecting her to catch back up. That never happened. Somewhere around a mile and half further down the trail, I finally realized that she wasn’t going to catch up. I ran back up sans backpack to find her still sniffing whatever had caught her attention. Her will won out that day, no doubt.

That same summer, Lucy and I were out on a hike on Eastside Trail up by Bogus Basin. Lucy and I spotted a coyote at about the same time. For whatever reason, she thought it was a good idea to chase it for everything she was worth. I knew exactly what was going on as there is almost always another one or two just down the hill out of sight. They lure a dog to where they can attack and kill their next meal. That meal was going to be Lucy if I couldn’t chase hard enough on foot myself and convince her to stop. She wasn’t always the best listener. She was a beagle and all. Well, she must have finally recognized the terror in my voice and looked back at me bewildered. She couldn’t have been further away than 20ft when she finally looked at me. It was just enough of a stop for me to catch up to her and drag her away. Sure enough, there were two other coyotes just down the draw from where we were. I had to keep her on a leash for the next mile or so as they continued to follow us.

In late 2013, I was introduced to a group called the Hash House Harriers. The Boise hash used to be a pretty fun group! Typically a couple hares leave before everyone else and lay a trail with flour dashes every so often for the rest of the hash. A check, an X denoting to look in the other three directions than you came from, can lead you on a wild goose chase until somebody finds the three dashes in a row that denotes true trail. At the time, the Boise group was setting some great trails through the most unusual places. Shortly after starting such shenanigans, I realized that Lucy would enjoy it as much as I was. Wow, was that ever a correct realization! She learned to call out the on-on’s with her howls. She also earned herself her own hash name.

Around the same time I started hashing, I was also out running in the foothills fairly often. I would let Lucy run freely with me. She had gotten pretty good at staying with me for the most part. One night at hash that started at Camels Back Park, I decided to see what would happen if I let Lucy run freely with all of the hash. That turned out to be a bad choice on my part. With people running every which way, she quickly got distracted and followed the wrong people. She lost me entirely in under a mile of running. When I finally caught up with the front runners, I realized that she wasn’t with them. I ran back along everywhere we had been and found no trace of her. Finally, I decided to check my car to see if she was there. Sure enough, she tracked down the car and was hanging out waiting for me. It was kind of funny, but it could have ended differently. Thank goodness for not losing her that night.

She was building her confidence being alone on trail. In the past, I had waited at least a little while for her when she stopped to sniff out whatever it was her nose led her to. Little by little, I was pushing her to figure her own way back to me if she stopped to sniff too long, a routine issue. There finally came a day while out running in the trails behind my place on Bogus Basin Road that she lost me entirely. She knew these trails extensively, so I felt confident that I would find her back at the house when I got there. Whatever she found to sniff must have been pretty good. She wasn’t home when I got back. I called for a few minutes and went back up the trail to look for her. She came barreling down the trail in hopes she would beat me back. This became a thing in the future as she got more comfortable with that trail system and knowing where to find me if she took off on an adventure. I eventually resorted to bringing along doggy snacks and giving her pieces as we went. That changed her attention span dramatically!

Somewhere in this timeframe in Lucy’s life, I decided that she could make it through Smith’s Crack cave. I’m not really sure what I was thinking that day. Sure enough, we handed her off through all of the hard parts alright. She added an element to the challenge, no question about that. She surely questioned my rationale that day as well. She was on all fours maybe half of the time in there. She was well adept at being handed up over boulders and cliffs throughout her life, that’s for sure.
While I was gone on a technical canyoneering trip in Utah (not dog-friendly), a friend of mine named Nikki took Lucy to a hash at the Navajo Room, a local dive bar. At this point in Lucy’s life, I guess she had decided that it was ok to take a dump in dumpy bars because that is exactly what she did that night. She was always bold to do whatever she felt like. That night, she next leveled things.

To stick with the Lucy was bold theme, there was a cake incident. One night at a friend’s house, there was a cake baked for a graduation party. I pretty much gave it away already with that last line. Yeah, you guessed it. Lucy got it and annihilated it before anyone caught on. She was always a garbage gut, but that day she scored something a little bit tastier.

Another day that Lucy scored big in the food department involved a burrito. It was well wrapped in tinfoil. It was in a paper bag. I wrapped a blanket around the paper bag. Surely it was safe to leave in the car as I made a quick run into a convenience store, right? In under two or three minutes, Lucy had the bag opened, the tinfoil removed and most of the burrito ingested. As I got to the car, her inhale pace increased to mach one. It was a sight to see for sure! I’m certain she didn’t even regret it as I launched her into the back of the car as punishment.

Between her nose and her appetite, she managed to find many a “tasty” morsel during her life. One time, it got her quite literally stuck in a bad situation. She had been around chickens all the time at the place I lived when I first got her. She wasn’t one to chase them, but she was always interested in their food which we always kept her out of. She did eventually find a different chicken coop that she could get into though. While visiting my Dad, I heard Lucy howling from a distance down by one of his neighbors. Lucy had never really been a random howler, she howled for a purpose or with me when I got her going. I knew something was up. I followed the sound to quite the scene. She had managed to get into the coop and ate their food in excess. I don’t mean a little excess either. She had gotten so fat from eating that she could no longer fit through the fence to get out. Her belly was enormous! While her food-obsessed mind probably never regretted that decision, it probably should have. What happened to the yard over the next few days… ‘nuff said!

A funny bit of Lucy’s history included her fear of the Time Zone Bridge just outside of Riggins. Throughout her life, Lucy always loved watching out wherever we drove. She would pay attention for hours on end. The one place that always got her was that damned bridge. Every single time, she would cower as if we were going to smash into a wall and die. Sometimes, she would even turn around and face the seat as if she didn’t want to see as we died a fiery death.

Lucy’s last long backpacking trip was at the age of ten. It was the first time I had ever seen her struggle. It was a four day, 42 mile trip through the Bighorn Crags. It was quite clear that she was beyond exhausted at the end of the trip. It was not easy for me to see as she had been a monster in the mountains whenever we hit the wide open trails in the past. I blamed it on the garbage she got into in a fire pit at the beginning of the trip. Looking back at it, it was age beginning to rear its ugly head. The trip was not over yet, though. We had planned to hike up the trail for Goldbug hot springs, a really special place! Lucy was unable to walk any further. She wouldn’t follow. I loaded her up in my backpack and packed her up with us. What I’d give to load her up and take her along anywhere even just once more.

In her last year of life, we were driving up North to visit my Dad and family for Christmas in a crazy snow storm. Jen had just gotten her Subaru. The brakes shuttered and bounced. The tires were a little bald. There were three little girls and two dogs in the back seats. My stress level was pretty high as you could probably guess. At around four hours into the five hour drive, Lucy started ripping some awful farts. One might think, maybe it’s time to let the dogs out to see if they have to go. In the fight with the snowstorm, this never crossed my mind. Not long later, the smell wouldn’t go away with the windows down and was quite a bit ranker. Yeah, she couldn’t hold it and literally crapped in the car. As if I didn’t already have enough to deal with. Luckily, most of it went on the rubber floor mat and the snow outside cleaned it up nicely. That was a crazy experience for all involved.

In Lucy’s final few months, she struggled to get through even our most calm hikes in the foothills. I knew I was going to lose my best friend soon enough. All of these good times together were coming to a close. It was incredibly hard to watch. There were multiple times when she seemed to be on her last legs only to get better and fool me into hoping for at least another year.
Over her last few days, she made it very, very clear that she wasn’t going to weather this last storm. Even writing these words drains me like the loss of strength I saw from her. I miss that little beast terribly.

I was near or next to Lucy her entire final day. In her last hour, I put her bed outside in the sunshine and gently laid her down in it. The hope was that she could enjoy a little more time outside. Somewhere in there, all strength had left her and she stopped moving her head to follow my whereabouts. With about five minutes to go, she was wildly moving her eyes around to find me. Luckily, I caught this in time to say goodbye. I sat down with her knowing she wanted my attention. With maybe 10 seconds of life left, she used up every last bit of what was left in her to lift her head and look me in the eye. She wagged her tail ever so slightly. A moment later she seized up and died. A little piece of me died that day. I hope you enjoyed your time with me as much as I did you. The many hundreds of amazing photos and memories of you are all that remain.

Goodbye, Lucy.





Tuesday, November 01, 2016

California Canyoneering Videos

The four canyons we did in California were all extremely beautiful and each had their own unique qualities.  They were also all worthy of their own videos.  Here they are.  There are really high resolution versions (up to 1440) available on youtube.  

Best of the four canyons
 

 Lower Jump Trip - The North Fork of Kings River
 

Lower Stevenson Creek
 

Upper Jump Trip - North Fork of Kings River
 

Big Creek

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Getting After Adventuring! 2016 Was The Real Deal

It's that time of year when the big adventures are starting to come to a close for a little while or at least it feels like they should be for a bit anyways.  This year has got to be the most intense of all adventuring years for me.  I went into this year with a pretty good stash of vacation days and a solid motivation to see some incredible places.  It was a success!  Many awesome friends joined in on some stellar adventures covering a whole lot of land.  Thank you to my many cool friends for the good times!

While these photos don't cover all of the places we went, it gives a pretty good representation.

To open up the season, a group of us headed out to Oreana in March to check out Hart Creek during the short window that it flows.  There are plenty of swimmers and even a cave like section where the creek goes under a giant boulder the size of a house.  It was a hit with the entire crew as it offered a lot of beautiful sites, some fun downclimbs in the creek and even a bit of stemming. 



Next up on the agenda was an April trip to Robber's Roost, the land of many amazing slot canyons and a rich history of outlaw hideouts.  The most notorious of those outlaws are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  It is also the area where Aron Ralston managed to get his arm stuck in a slot canyon, BlueJohn Canyon.  He eventually cut his arm off and escaped through a giant showing of will power.  You have probably heard about the movie they made out of this epic adventure gone wrong, 127 Hours.  Another bit of history that we got to experience were the four to eight thousand year old pictographs known as the Great Gallery done by the Ancient Ones, very cool!

The goal was to see canyons, but we also got to go see some older and newer history locations!


Here is the rock (in the middle) where Aron Ralston was trapped for five days.

Here is what remains of Butch Cassidy's hideout, the chimney.

Here is the best portion of the Great Gallery

The start of Alcatraz: rappel off of your vehicle into a 160ft deep toilet bowl (tough to capture the  entire shape in a photo).

An especially scenic section of Alcatraz Canyon

Elise is pretty small and she barely fit through sections of Alcatraz

There were sections that were dark enough to require headlamps.  This was taken as we were coming out of an especially dark section.

 Near the beginning of Little BlueJohn Canyon

A deep, dark section of BlueJohn

 The final rappel in BlueJohn Canyon, the full version.  This is the pool where Aron Ralston slurped up all the water near the end of the movie.

 A section of sideways slanting deep dark slot canyon in Larry Canyon

Dave using some fancy footwork to avoid some dirty water in Larry Canyon


Next up was an eleven day trip in May to Arizona to see a very big section of the state.  We started in the Secret Mountains in the Coconino National Forest in the Northern section of AZ.  The first canyon we did had been on my radar for a number of years after reading about a keeper pothole that three bears had found their way into looking for water only to drown.  Subsequent descents of the canyon meant that canyoneers had to swim in the nasty pool of death to complete the canyon.  A point had been brought up in one of the canyoneering forums about what would you do if you came upon this pothole while the bears were stuck and still alive?  That would be a bad day.  What I learned when I was there is that the pothole is directly at the bottom of a 100+ foot rappel of which you cannot see the bottom of when you start.  You would absolutely have to have ascending gear on your harness at that point or, at minimum, be able to lock off very proficiently and hang around for longer than one should ever sit in a harness.  Otherwise, you're bear fodder.  As we had hoped, the pothole was full of water and we swam across it knowing that the bones of three bears were 25 feet below us from a few years back.

The next day, we found fresh bear tracks at the end of Insomnia Canyon.  Shortly after, we discovered the remnants of a hunting camp that had been completely ransacked by bears.  There was shredded gear left and right.  That hunter had lost a good amount of gear and probably had one of the scarier days of his life.

These canyon have incredible names because they hold incredible places!  
Illusions and Insomnia Canyons:




Here is the start of the 320 foot rappel near the end of Insomnia Canyon


After finishing these two canyons, we took a day off to recover, see Sedona and move camp so that we could do another canyon a few miles away that involved hiking a long way down the West Fork of Oak Creek.  As it turned out, this creek is now the most beautiful place I've ever seen!  So spectacular is this place, I will unquestionably be back someday.


Next up in AZ was a transition to the Eastern section of the Coconino National Forest.  There was a fire burning in the area and the Forest Service had shut down many roads in the area.  One of those roads was our road to the start of both of the canyons we wanted to do.  We lucked out though.  The road one ridge over was still open which only added a half mile each way to the start of these canyons.  Bear and Sundance Canyons:



The final rappel in Sundance Canyon is absolutely spectacular!

From here, we moved South towards Roosevelt Lake.  Along the way, we got to see things like Devil's Bridge, Montezuma's Castle and Tonto Natural Bridge.  I was especially amazed by Tonto Natural Bridge!




The next two canyons were quite spectacular as well!  World famous canyon The Jug - Lower Salome Creek lived up to the hype.  I finally got to see saguaro cacti in person as well!
The Jug and Parker Canyons:

Exploring The Jug

Ken doing a 20+ foot jump in The Jug Canyon

Parker Canyon, full of red quartzite rock


Immediately after coming back from the long and wonderful trip to Arizona, planning began in earnest on the next trip.  A return to Moab had been on my agenda for quite a while.  Five days in June were open and we made it happen.  While we did complete a number of the things I had hopes for, an even larger number of things did not get done which warrants at least another trip back someday.   We got in some mountain biking on the well known Slick Rock Trail, a few canyons and some good times hanging around camp.  In Pleiades Canyon, we managed to get shut down by too much water.  When we reached the fifth rappel, it became clear that there was way too much water in the canyon to safely descend the rest of the way.  It was a good time checking out the sections we did, but the best part is at the end.  After further analysis, I've determined that it is best to do this canyon when Mill Creek is under 20 cfs (a live feed can be found on the internet).  Mill Creek and Brumley Creek (which Pleiades is part of) share the same head waters and will have similar rates of run off per their drainage areas. 

The final canyon we did, Granary, held quite the experience as well.  There are two sections to this canyon.  In the second half, we realized that there were now fresh footprints in front of us that were not there in the first half.  Then we came upon a fresh hole in the sand where it appeared a deadman anchor had been.  Upon looking over the edge, we saw a rock with new webbing around it at the bottom of about a 12 foot drop.  After finding a new anchor and rappelling down, we realized that whoever had taken this fall, fell into about two and a half feet of water and must have been okay enough to walk out or some serious rescue had occurred here very recently.  Maybe an hour later, we came to the giant pour off ending of Granary Canyon that overlooks the Colorado River; what a site!  As we sat, eating and taking in the view, a group of four came out of nowhere South of us.  The pour off is too big of a rappel for most groups to pack that long of a rope (at least 400 feet) so the final rappel was set up about a mile North of the large pour off.  The final rappel is also near the exit vehicles and keeps you above the road with much more beautiful views as well.  Anyways, it was clear to us that this group was lost.  They were searching for the final rappel to the South when it is to the North.  They were extremely low on water and didn't know where the end of the canyon was.  They would have been out there over night no doubt if they had not come upon our group.  Even with the waypoint of the final rappel anchor, it was still a bit challenging to find.  Once we did find it, we asked how long their rope was.  As it turned out, they only had a 180 foot rope and it was a 200 foot rappel.  Even if they had actually found the final anchor, they would have had a serious issue with those last 20 feet!  As we set up the final rappel, we got to talking about that deadman anchor that had pulled out of the sand earlier.  Little by little, they let on that it was actually the last guy in their group who had taken the fall.  They had meat anchored everyone else (meaning they rappelled off of the weight of another person in the group).  Ballsy to just hop on a deadman anchor without testing it at all beforehand!  Maybe that's why they're called deadman anchors....

Anyways, here are the photos:

Andrew on rappel in Granary

Jumping off a 20+ foot cliff into five feet of water in Mill Creek

As far as we made it in Pleiades Canyon
 

Lots of water!  Too much to finish the canyon!

Mountain biking Slick Rock Trail



By this time, the temps had risen enough that it was time to start hitting the mountains in Idaho.  Summers in Idaho are hard to beat when you consider that the high alpine lakes become available.  First off was a Forth of July loop around the Toxaway - Alice Lakes.  Weather was good and we got to see a lot of snow melt.  Next up was all new to me, the Bighorn Crags!  We spent four days and four nights in some incredibly beautiful mountains.  The first night in backpack mode was spent at Terrace Lakes followed by Ship Island Lake and then Big Clear Lake.  We also stopped in at Goldbug Hot Springs afterwards to relax our worn out legs after 42 miles of backpacking.  My beagle, Lucy, was so worn out that I had to pack her up to Goldbug.  That's a first for her. 

Ship Island Lake

Terrace Lakes

 Goldbug Hot Springs
 

After finishing up a couple good backpacking trips, it was time to get back on the canyoneering bandwagon.  August came around and it was time to mix things up.  Class C canyons of the Pacific Northwest were on the docket.  I had zero experience in this area or type of canyon.  My eye had been on a couple of these canyons for years, but they had eluded me.  Not this year!  A serious go-getter named Erik Bernhoft had quite a trip in the works.  He and I had been in contact a few times over the last year about various trips that we had done and wanted to do what the other had done.  Turns out, this guy is quite the adventurer and is friends with a lot of other people who are pretty dang good at what they do.  Still, I wanted to show up knowing at least enough about what we were doing to not come across as the guy who can't add to the trip.  Maps printed, beta read, group gear loaded and I left town with high hopes of being beneficial to the trip.  By the end, I'm pretty sure that I had accomplished said goal, but there was unquestionably a learning curve to be garnered from this trip.  Everyone on the trip were my kind of people.  They all had a major appreciation for these kinds of places.  Also, it was so incredibly nice to not have to lead a trip for once.  The canyons really stood out for me!  I will, for sure, be back.  In fact, two weeks later, I did repeat one of the canyons on the way to the coast with some friends.

Big rappel in Big Creek, my favorite canyon from the trip

A little jump in Big Creek

Coiling rope at the end of Big Creek

 Punchbowl Falls in Eagle Creek

Lost Creek

The final rappel / waterfall in Parkett Creek

A rappel in Parkett Creek

A couple weeks later, a few of us headed over to Portland, Astoria and Cannon Beach.  Along the way, we decided that we had time to go down Eagle Creek, which I had done a couple weeks previously.  We got to venture around Portland and get a feel for the culture, which is quite a bit different than Boise.  One goal I had had in mind for a long time finally got fulfilled: mixing the chocolate stout with the hazelnut brown to make a Snickers at a Rogue Brewery.  It was good, but did not compare to the amazing mix I had come across the night before at McMenamins, a combination of their Terminator Stout and the Sleepy Hollow Nut Brown.

A walk along the beach at Cannon Beach was both relaxing and beautiful.  This town has quite a lot going on for how little it is.  The whole trip ended up being quite the success!  Lots of fun packed into a three day weekend!

Cannon Beach

Nick overcame a fear of rock jumps and had a good ol' time!

Metlako Falls in Eagle Creek

As September came, the perfect time to venture into the Owyhees was also in the works.  One of the best places to go with the temperatures that September offers is Three Forks.  There are fantastic canyons and hot springs in the area.  It also is quite remote which is so nice to feel completely away from it all sometimes.  We hit up the Middle Fork and then soaked the hot springs and had an amazing weekend!

Three Forks Hot Springs with a good bunch of people


The Middle Fork


Reverse back to the May trip in Arizona, when we were first introduced to an incredibly competent canyoneer named Michelle.  We had agreed that we needed to plan a trip to some amazing canyons in California.  Late September / early October was decided upon and it got put on the calendar.  After putting in a little bit of homework on the canyons that were on the play list, I got super excited!  Not just a little excited either.  We're talking super jazzed!  So I packed up all my gear and hit the road for my first solo drive to California.  This was something that I had contemplated doing for years.  California is loaded with a whole lot of amazing wilderness that deserves exploration, even if it comes with the stigma (to Idahoans anyway) of being California.  The trip turned out to be absolutely spectacular!  It had everything!  Beautiful scenery, super technical sections, physically challenging canyons, big jumps, lots of swimming, hanging out on a one and a half foot ledge 200 feet down from the top of a cliff with 400 feet still to go, being attacked by hornets, finding bear track all over the place, and finishing a canyon in the dark by jumping 30 feet into a pool with very little visuals as to where I was supposedly landing.  This trip will not be forgotten.... ever!  It will, on the other hand, be repeated!

Ken taking the plunge on a big drop in Lower Jump Trip Canyon
 in the North Fork of Kings River

Prior to taking one big step, my nerves were on high guard

A rappel right through a big waterfall in Lower Jump Trip

 Another big jump!  Lower Jump Trip

A big stemming section in Lower Stevenson Creek

Waterfalls galore in Lower Stevenson Creek


A crazy rock block formation in Upper Jump Trip that
we rappelled right under and through the falls!

No sooner had I emptied my car out of the remnants of the awesome trip to California then did we come up with the idea to hit up the Owyhees one more time before the temps start dropping off.  It was a trip to the ill named Dickshooter Creek.  Permission to cross the land owners land was received and we began loading up two Jeep Wranglers to cover the five hour drive out there.  Two or three of those hours are along roads that are barely passable even with all the clearance of those Wranglers!






And there you have it, the adventures of 2016 thus far.  For now, I'm more than ready to take a break from trip planning. 

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