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Back Story:

In early March of this year, we shared some pictures of our spring flowers with some friends and family. Nancy, who lives in Springdale, UT outside Zion NP, responded that she was “looking forward to a San Juan river trip in May.” Never ones to miss an opportunity to go to Zion, we responded “Sounds great – you must need someone to take care of Ellie while you’re gone.” Long story short, here we are living in Springdale like locals for a week in late May. We know Ellie appreciates us; she’s sitting on Carol’s lap demanding attention as I write this.

We notified friend Steve that we would be in Zion; would he be interested in meeting us for whatever period of time he could spare and possibly explore some canyons? We’ve only known Steve for 2-3 years, but we’ve quickly learned he doesn’t do things in small measures. Steve showed up with his stepdaughter Nikki and her beau Spencer, plus Stacy who works with Nikki’s mom. Just to take things over the top, Steve also brought along Roxana and Maggie who work as writers for the Salt Lake Tribune and are currently engaged in producing a series of articles called Novices in Nature where they go out and try various new activities and then write about them for the Tribune. Additionally, they have a Tribune photographer along to record the events. Scott of the Tribune was to come and spend a day with them / us in a canyon and record the festivities.

We also arranged to meet some new Springdale friends Amy and Roger to accompany them on a day trip to locate one or more recent cougar kills and record the site’s characteristics, etc. for the biologists performing the study on Zion cougar habits.

The Trip:

Thursday, May 15th we finished packing and departed around noon, planning to get about halfway to Springdale. We spent the night at a hotel in Victorville (30 minutes out of our way, but the room was cheap). Travel Inn and Suites Victorville – don’t you stay there. We booked a non-smoking room which they obviously rent to smokers and then try to clean up; we found an ionizer still in the reeking room and spent a bad night trying to breathe and not hear the neighbors. We did have dinner at Johnny Reb’s Southern Roadhouse in Victorswill which, in a veritable festival of irony, seemed to be owned by, operated by and employ many African-Americans. I had pulled pork and hush puppies; Carol had a bbq chicken burrito. One of these dishes seemed more “Southern Roadhouse” than the other, but maybe that speaks more to my lack of imagination…

Friday, May 16th I was up and showered at the crack of dawn. I changed clothes outside the room and sequestered my smoky tshirt. Off and away, we were so glad to get to Springdale. We shopped for groceries, came “home” and petted / fed Ellie and then made coconut ginger red curry with chicken and enjoyed a nice evening on the patio with Nancy and a bottle of Pinot Noir. Steve showed up and introduced us to Stacy, Maggie and Roxana. None of these women had ever been in a technical canyon before; Steve’s plan was to take them through Pine Creek Canyon on Saturday. There’s something to be said for getting thrown in the deep end to sink or swim, I guess.

Saturday, May 17th, Pine Creek Canyon day. Steve is busy learning how to herd cats, so to speak. Long story short, our group consisting of Steve, Nikki, Spence, Roger, Carol, Rick, Maggie, Roxana and Stacy is gearing up to enter the canyon about 12:50 in the afternoon. We make our way down canyon and come to the first obstacle – a short jump into a pool that is about waist deep. All bypass this fairly quickly except Stacy who spends a lot of time dithering and breathing hard, but finally committed, jumped and learned it wasn’t so bad after all.

We reached the first rappel, which has two stages. Roxana and Stacy took to the process of getting set up and abseiling pretty smoothly. Carol and I followed them down and we set up the second stage; shortly Carol and I were at the bottom and Carol went ahead to set up the next rappel. I can’t remember exactly who came next, but the net result is everyone except Roger, Steve and Stacy go down. Stacy was having a problem trusting the equipment and herself. Steve wound up lowering her down the first stage of the rappel but that didn’t go too well. About this time it was 2 PM already and I was starting to get nervous – at this rate we wouldn’t have exited the canyon until after dark. Steve somehow got Stacy to rappel the second stage herself and she looked OK, so we proceeded on down canyon.

On the subject of “never assume”, Roger was in front and set up the rappel into the Golden Cathedral; I briefly had a moment where I was going to ask him if he was sure the rope was down, but then I figured he knew what he was doing. After the big splash, we reset the rope so it reached bottom.

All else went fairly well until the last rappel; Carol went first on single strand and then we set the rope length for double strand rappels. I went next, followed in turn by Roxana, Maggie, Roger, Nikki and Spence. Some time elapsed and we heard Stacy coming down the rope pretty much sounding like she wasn’t having the time of her life; I truly figured she’d never do this again. Steve got down and after rope pulling and maintenance we headed down canyon. The group fairly quickly spread out; the last of our group appeared as Steve and Nikki, having gone with Roger to do the car shuttle thing, came back with the cars.

Carol and I went home. I walked up to the gas station to get some apres-canyon refreshments (beer, if I have to be explicit) and – there’s Tom Jones. Invited Tom back home to have dinner – I made chili using some pintos I’d had cooking all day in the crockpot. We had a nice evening, got caught up.

Sunday, May 18th. Steve’s plan is to go through Spry canyon. His team this time consists of Nikki, Spence, Maggie and Roxana. By all reports, everything went well except that at the Black Wall rappel, Maggie accidentally got her glove caught in her rappel device and was unable to release herself. Steve wound up descending to her on another (thankfully available) rope and freed her. Everyone involved got a good lesson in stuff happens in canyons, and they need to be taken seriously or someone can easily get hurt. Steve and I subsequently had a discussion about how we always carry rescue equipment just in case – except when we don’t – and why we prefer single-strand rappels – then there’s always a rope available at the top of the rappel for rescue work.

On another subject, apparently Steve discovered at Spry Pass that some people had brought no food and only 1 liter of water or less. It turns out that what desert travel veterans view as common sense – bringing plenty of food and water for an 11 hour day out – is actually learned behavior for novices. That group got a good lesson in sharing resources for the common good…

Carol and I opted for our favorite Zion hike – up Angel’s Landing – an easy day out, being only 5 miles and 3000 feet up and down. On our way back we met Stacy at the bottom of the trail; she was headed up Angel’s Landing also – she reported that she made it to the top, which surprised me a little as Angel’s Landing involves some fairly severe exposure to heights.

Monday, May 19th. Today was a big day – we were planning to go through the Left Fork and the Subway. Scott, the Tribune photographer, arrived last night and now Steve was trying to get the whole gang (Steve, Roxana, Maggie, Scott, Nikki, Spence, Stacy, Carol and Rick) geared up, packed and off. We were better than an hour behind schedule by the time we got going.

At the exit trailhead (Left Fork), we cached Maggie and Roxana’s car. I cached some food and fluids in their car as well, knowing that after the long grind out of the canyon we’d want refreshments. Jumping ahead in time – we once again learned that what seems like common sense to the veterans is learned behavior to novices – Maggie and Roxanne left their car keys in one of the cars at the jump off trailhead so when we all got back to the exit trailhead, not only was there no immediate food and fluid reward – whimper! – but some of the group had to hitch a ride up to the jump off trailhead to get the other cars. Oh well, lessons for everyone, and it didn’t actually kill me to wait a while for food – thankfully Nikki had humped some extra water up to the trialhead which she shared with Carol and I.

Anyway, arriving at the jump off trailhead (Wildcat), it was already late and hot so Carol and I made the decision that we’d skip the Russell Gulch portion of the day, not wanting to carry technical gear the whole day. Scott (the photographer) of course was not doing the technical portion as he had no experience and Spence decided he was also going to skip it.  Stacy was determined to go through Russell Gulch which required carrying harness, helmet and wetsuit. In a ripple effect, Nikki then carried her technical gear as well so she could support Steve in Russell Gulch.

While waiting, we wandered over to the Wildcat trailhead sign and were looking at the map. Scott, Roxana and Maggie came over as well; “Where are we going?” Uh-oh. I pointed out the route on the map but I don’t think the map scale sank in – the day was 10 miles long over rough terrain.

Finally, we set off. The hike in was fairly easy; mostly but not all downhill. By the time we reached the bifurcation where Steve was going to take a group down Russell Gulch, Stacy had decided not to go that way and Nikki then decided to stick with the other group, too. After some final tuition from Steve on how to find the Left Fork, we set off. In a preview of coming events, I detected Scott huffing on some of the up climbs as we went along. We easily found the route into the Left Fork and subsequently found the route that Steve talked about leading back up into Russell Gulch as far up as the last rappel.

We dropped packs and started the waiting game. It was shady and pleasant, but we did have more than our share of flies, gnats and other bitey (this is a Carolism; don’t bother getting out your Funk and Wagnalls) critters. At one point, I started talking to Scott about how Carol and I were semi-famous because we’d met another newspaper photographer while out in the woods and had subsequently been published in “The Bakersfield Californian” newspaper. Scott asked the photographer’s name, and in a major case of “it’s a small world”, it turns out that Scott (the Tribune photographer guy) had gone to school with Casey (the “Californian” photographer guy) and they were still good friends. The connections are amazing to me.

After waiting a little over an hour, Steve, Roxana and Maggie appeared at the top of the pour off; about 80-90 feet up Steve estimated. Now the value of Scott’s major DSLR’s with the big lenses became apparent. Several major advantages over our waterproof point-and-shoot cameras – the telephoto lenses, the ability to shoot 8 frames per second continuously and the much larger dynamic range resulted in Scott getting some great shots we can only dream of getting. On the other hand – Scott’s gear must have weighed in at least 20 lbs or so with dry boxes, dry bags, camera bodies and lenses – plus Scott got virtually no shots in the wettest part of the canyon because all this gear had to be stowed and protected. Oh, and the 20 lbs of gear thing came into play soon after the fun part of the canyon was over and the multi-mile march out started. More on this later.

The Subway portion of the Left Fork is indescribably beautiful and fun. We did have some moments getting everyone over the simple obstacles but mostly it went smoothly. Playing around in the falls later, Scott discovered why we wear shoes with lots of traction and move gingerly on wet, mossy, slanted slickrock – he went down hard, saved the camera, but reported the next day his elbow had swollen up to baseball size overnight – ouch.

After some final munchies at the falls, we all went on down canyon, finding the exit trail and climbing out. Steve wound up carrying Scott’s pack. Lucky for Steve, Carol and I were sharing carrying his big (heavy!) rope.

I have to mention that Nikki and Spence were carrying a “water purification system” – not a water filter…

Back home, Carol and I browsed a little and then fell into bed. I think Steve spent the night on “our” couch, though I can’t say I heard him until the next morning.

Nikki, Spence, Stacy, Maggie and Roxane drove off for home that night – we did hear later that Nikki and Spence didn’t make it too far before they checked into a room for the night – good call.

Tuesday, May 20th. We spent the morning sleeping and eating. Scott stopped by we looked at all the pictures he took – 632 shots, of which probably no more than 20 will get published. You wish I were that sparse in publishing pictures – ha.  Scott left for home.

We hung out most of the rest of the day with Steve, finishing the evening (5 minutes before we left the house Steve Ramras knocked on our door and we learned he’d been in Echo canyon and discovered snowbanks that were unnavigable without an ice ax) with dinner at Amy and Roger’s house (all 5 of us) where we discovered the charms of a drink called a Black Velvet which in this incarnation was Roger’s home brewed Stout with champagne poured on top. Good stuff (despite how it sounds), but I found myself totally enamored with this home brew thing – that Stout was really good. We made plans to get together with Roger and Amy the next morning to go cougar kill hunting and called it a night – Steve headed back for SLC reporting that he made it home about 4 am – yikes.

Wednesday, May 21st. Amy called; she didn’t have the latest coordinates (the cougars involved have collars that report to satellites periodically; the biologists infer a kill site from frequent visits to the same spot) and by the time she got them, the weather didn’t look good. I had made a Benadryl run; Carol was suffering greatly from the canyon time with all the little bitey things. Hearing about possible bad weather, we did the only logical thing for weather-starved Bay Area denizens and piled in the car to drive up on the Kolob plateau looking for weather. We took a bunch of wildflower pictures and got as far north as Kolob creek – we could see fresh snow in the mountains by St George as well as on the top of the Kolob plateau. At Kolob creek we got out and looked around just long enough to go holy crap it’s cold and pile back in the car.

Back home, the Benadryl kicked in for Carol and we spent a quiet evening after arranging with Amy to try the cougar thing again the next day. I did figure out how to work Nancy’s TV enough to watch our Lakers win the first game of their series with the Spurs before bed.

Thursday, May 22nd. Amy called about 8:30, weather looked good so we went over and piled into their car and took off. Amy and Roger both had GPS’s with the coordinates loaded so off we went through the woods to find a cougar kill. Basically, the coordinates get you close and then it’s a matter of casting around nearby until you find a kill, assuming there’s one to be found. Kudos to Amy and Roger for participating in the study, for sure. I think we were in the vicinity bushwhacking about for better than an hour when Carol stood up on a rock to see Roger and me, then looked down in the brush and there it was – the remains of a deer.

Roger and Amy measured it, checked it’s age, made notes of the location, slope, vegetation, etc. Amy pulled a bone to check the condition of the marrow later. Success! We went back to the car and went looking for another kill site on Smith Mesa. This one seemed to be pretty close to human habitation; this cougar was living dangerously. We didn’t find the kill site, but did find a pretty little canyon where I found 12 frogs within 4 feet of each other sitting above a water hole. Cool.

Last year, Carol and I had gone off into a canyon on Zion’s east side looking for petroglyphs, guided by info from a ZAC friend of ours. We spent a long day in a canyon and had lots of climbing fun, but didn’t find the petroglyphs. Amy and Roger drove us to a canyon they knew about – which turned out to be the same canyon – and we found them. It turns out that Carol and I walked right by the petroglyphs, which were off a little use trail that left the main wash. We’ve been so trained to stay in the wash to minimize damage that it didn’t occur to us to go exploring up these use trails – I’m pretty sure we made some comment about the insensitive jerks that made those trails…

We wound up making kind of an international potluck at Amy and Roger’s – chili, hummus, homebrew, Aloo Gobi, Jarlsberg, Monterey Jack and having a great (yummy!!!) evening hanging with Sookie, the hummers and checking out all the construction. What a great day.

Friday, May 23rd. Carol was having knee troubles and it was too wet to go climbing, so we decided to go take a look at Echo canyon and see if we could see Ram’s snowbanks. We got as as far as a little beyond the turnoff to the East entrance trail and then the weather started to look threatening. As an aside, I’ll never trust long range forecasts again as I’d looked at one before we left San Jose and it said sunny and hot all through the week in Zion so we left our wet and cold weather gear at home, never again. On the way back down, we met a couple and I happened to say something like “hope you have your raincoats” which kicked off a discussion about rain and lightning and carrying aluminium poles. They asked where we were from and then told us they were from Durango, CO, so I said “hey, we met a couple from Durango two months ago in Death Valley, Steve and Sue” and lo and behold they’re friends with Steve and Sue (Bret and Ilona (sp?)) so now the world is getting really small – but there’s  more.

Further on down the trail, it’s spitting frozen water on us (snow, soft hail, whatever) and as we enter the overhung part of Echo canyon, I notice a couple of people, one of whom has a large canyon keg on the ground so I said something about “are you going to go into Echo” which starts a discussion and pretty soon the woman says I think I know you, aren’t you Rick um Spaniel or something and yeah, only no “i” and it turns out she’s Randi Poer, whom I’ve met and actually been talking about on this trip – I went through Cibeque canyon in Arizona with Randi when she was the subject of a Jeep magazine article and we were slowed down by the Jeep photographers, which came up with Scott and the two Tribune canyonettes. Also, it turns out her partner Mat was in Echo with Ram (Steve Ramras).

This is getting freaky; I’m going to stop talking to people so I don’t meet myself on a trail…

Saturday, May 24th. Nice easy day, a hike up the Parus trail and a little trip reporting…

Ellie’s human is here, so we’ll head for home tomorrow morning.

I’ve started organizing pictures here; check back for updates…

~Rick

P.S. Many thanks to Ellie for letting us hang out at her house all week (and Nancy, too!) – what a wonderful treat for us. Ellie came out OK; plenty of brushing and petting and lapsitting.

P.P.S. Thanks to Steve for arranging all the entertainment and to Amy and Roger for the cougar kill hunt and for the dinners, Black Velvets, Stouts, Sookie time and showing us the petroglyphs and everything else…