Thunderstorms and Whitewater

Six more days have slipped on by since our last blog post.  Keeping up regularly with the blog and roadtripping around is proving to be quite tricky!  We left Zion almost a week ago now with slightly heavy hearts.  We had so much fun in one of our favorite desert playgrounds but we definitely got our fill of canyoneering fun.  For the first time this trip, not all went according to plan, and this certainly won't be the last time that happens.  The weather report  said 30% chance of rain for the Canyonlands area so we liked our odds.  About an hour after we got to the park, the skies looked like this:

We quickly got chased out of Canyonlands by some serious thunderstorms as that 30% chance of rain blossomed into a non-stop, hearty downpour with tent pole breaking winds.  With no signs of the storm breaking, we decided to jump ship and look for calmer weather, with a hostel or motel in Moab our destination in mind.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, there was no room in any inn for these shepherds, so we made our way to Castle Valley where we knew there would be free camping.  The weather broke and we were able to stay dry that night.  The next morning, we woke up early with the sun shining and decided to spend the day in the Fiery Furnace in Arches.  This is the only place in the park where you can hike off trail and is essentially a giant playground for adults of sandstone fins and towers that you can climb all over! 

 

The skies starting to turn grey again while we were immersed in the Furnace so we hedged our bets and made our way to the put in of our white water rafting trip where Mike's Salt Lake friends were starting to gather.

We got to do the Westwater Canyon stretch of the Green River over Memorial Day weekend, which is a short but beautiful stretch of river carved through massive sandstone walls and filled with class 3 and 4 rapids.  After all the rain in the past two days, the water level was really high, and the river was flowing rapidly.  We floated with a total of 17 people in 5 rafts, and Mike and I were in the 5 person paddle boat.

The first few river miles on Westwater are pretty calm, then all of a sudden you get to the narrow stretch of the canyon where the rapids form, and this is where the real excitement starts.  It was a cold and rainy morning, so everyone was pretty cold for the beginning.  We stopped right before the rapids to change into warmer gear and have a little safety talk, then into the business!  The rapids are so close together that as soon as you get through one, you're right in the meet of another, so that section went by in a flash but was incredibly fun.  The waves were enormous, but not one boat flipped and we had a clean and safe run.  Since the water was flowing so quickly, we were in camp by noon and had the rest of the day to hang out and play.  We couldn't have asked for a better crew to travel the river with!

The next morning, we slept in and took our time breaking camp.  The sun finally came out so it was hard to leave the beach, but check out time was 11 at the "Beach Motel", so we shoved off and made for the take out.  An hour later, the raft trip was over, and we caravanned with the rest of the group back to SLC!  It felt good to come back to Salt Lake and we're really looking forward to revisiting friends and places that we fell in love with when we lived here.  Yesterday morning, Mike and I hiked up to the peak of the flagship mountain that overlooks Salt Lake, Mt. Olympus.

We have both done this hike several times, but it's such an iconic trail in the Wasatch range that we had to start there.  While we're in Salt Lake, we're staying at Mike's friends' house, Mikey and Krista, who are both away at traveling nurse gigs in Baltimore, and were kind enough to open up their house to us.  It's nice to play house and sleep in a bed, take showers on consecutive nights, and cook real dinners for a change!  We won't get too spoiled with these luxuries since we're about to relinquish them for 4 months while we're on the PCT, but they sure are nice for now!

We'll be staying in Salt Lake City until Wednesday afternoon when we fly back to Cincinnati, OH to go to my friend Katie's wedding!!! The PCT start date is coming up quickly! Only two and a half more weeks until our first day on the trail. We'll be posting our hiking schedule very soon :-D

Zion - Part two!

The past two days in Zion we did two more fantastic canyons! Paul drove down from Salt Lake City on Monday night and joined us for both canyons. On Tuesday we got to do Englestead Canyon. I think Englestead was my favorite of all six canyons we've done this trip. It actually includes three separate canyons; first you drop into Englestead, then you follow Orderville canyon out into the Narrows and the Virgin River. We had to drive to the top of the plateau in order to get to the head of Englestead and we didn't start hiking until 10:30am. Then we had to bushwhack for a few minutes searching for the correct trail to drop in. We finally found the trail and started hiking along a dry wash and after about 45 minutes we came across the first massive rappel. Here's the video of tossing the rope. Listen for the "bang" around second 8, that's when the rope bag hit the bottom: 6 seconds of free fall!!!

 
The first rappel in Englestead is the largest rappel I've ever done in my life. It's a straight vertical 300 foot drop in! I was a little uneasy heading over the edge of that rappel because you can see straight to the bottom. I triple checked the rappel set up and then down I went!

Once you get to the bottom of the rappel you land on 12 feet of solid ice. It was like a refrigerator down in that canyon because it never sees the sun. I put my wetsuit on to keep me warm while I waited for Paul and Mike to drop in. After several more shorter rappels, we found ourselves almost 1,000 feet lower in elevation than we were an hour beforehand. We walked and continued descending for almost three more hours until we finally reached the Orderville canyon junction. We knew we were a little behind schedule so after a quick "lunch" we were off again.

Orderville is like a water park playground for adults. You approach several deep swimming holes that you have to jump in from ledges 5-10 feet high. You can usually see the bottom and get a good sense of how deep the hole is but sometimes it's much shallower than it looks. Luckily we avoided any twisted ankles. We made very quick work of Orderville and got to the Virgin River junction in only an hour and a half. Once we were in the Narrows we knew we just had an easy stroll back to the shuttle stop at the Temple of Sinawava. Tired, wet, hungry, and cold; we got on the shuttle and prepared for our 45 minute bus ride back to the campground.

Mike and Paul retrieved the car from the top of the plateau while I cooked dinner. It was a long day through Englestead but we had SO much fun! We went to sleep early and got ready to do Mystery canyon the next day. Since Mike and I had already done Mystery merely four days ago, we knew what to expect. We decided to approach the canyon from the Observation Point trail instead of running the car shuttle. The 2,100 feet of elevation gain in 4 miles up to Observation Point proved to be more exhausting than I expected and I was suffering from low blood sugar. My head was dizzy and my legs were tired, but after I had some food I started to feel a bit better. We took a long break at Observation Point before heading to the Mystery canyon drop in at Death Gully.

Death Gulley is a steep loose 45-minute scramble down to the top of Mystery canyon. Roughly 5 minutes into the scramble I slipped and cut my left hand. We tied a hankercheif around my hand to control the bleeding and kept moving. I was having a rough start to the day! Luckily Paul carried an extra rope so we were able to get through the first 6 rappels in an hour. One person was able to set up the next rappel while the other two cleaned the previous one. Moving quickly and efficiently through canyons is good training for us if we ever intend to do one of the more challenging descents in Zion such as Heaps or Imlay. 

 We continued scrambling down the canyon which requires a lot of pressing with the palm of your hand. I was struggling with some of the down climbs because of the scrape on my hand but I was able to keep moving through the pain. When we made it to the Mystery Springs rappel we were all in good spirits. Mystery Springs is a natural spring coming out of the rock. The water from the rock allows plants to grow directly on the walls and creates a "hanging garden". The gardens are usually made up of mosses and flowers. Check out the bottom right of this photo:

 

The water from Mystery Springs trickles down the canyon and creates some interesting habitat. The canyon becomes a beautiful little oasis with many plants and small pools with waterfalls. It's a short walk to the final rappel down the waterfall and into the Narrows. I was the first to rappel and this time I didn't slip! When I got I the canyon floor there was a group of school kids watching us. One bold little guy came up to me and said "that was so cool! You deserve a high five!" I told him that he should try to go canyoneering some day :)

After Mike and Paul got down we walked back to the shuttle and got on the bus around 3:30pm. It was much warmer than the day before and we had a pleasant ride back to the campground. We finished the evening with hanging out at the swimming hole and making fajitas for dinner! Paul had to drive back to Salt Lake City that evening so we said our good byes. It's been really great catching up with old friends while we're in Zion. Good company has made these canyons that much more fun for us!

Today was our final day in Zion, my 26th birthday, and a much needed rest day. We spent the morning at the museum and then we were at the swimming hole for 4 hours before we had some delicious pizza and beer for dinner. I'd say it was a great start to the year! While we were at the museum, we noticed an arch high up on the canyon walls. It'll be on our to-do list of things to get to the next time we're here.

Tomorrow morning we'll be heading to Canyonlands National Park to do some short day hikes. Saturday evening we'll be meeting up with some more Salt Lake City folks to raft Westwater canyon on the Colorado river. Looking forward to moving on to new adventures although Zion will be missed!

As a side note, if you want to get emails about when our blog is updated without having to check Facebook or Google+, then you can "subscribe" to our blog. Go to blogtrottr.com and then you'll need to type in your email address and the name of our blog (erinp220.blogspot.com). I've never tried it so let me know if you have issues!

 

Canyoneering and desert life

It's been too long since the last blog post--9 days! We've been staying very active and busy in Zion National Park.  Zion is a special place for me and Mike since we had some of our first outdoor adventures together here when we started dating. After a long drive from Bakersfield, we set up our campsite in the Watchman campground on Tuesday night which was going to be our home and basecamp for the next 10 days. Our campsite neighbors were a friendly brother and sister from Idaho who spotted our Settlers of Catan box from across the campsite.  They came over to say hello and we ended up getting a quick game of Catan in before we went to sleep that evening.

On Wednesday morning we woke up fairly early to take down Pine Creek Canyon; a notoriously cold and wet canyon which required wet suits. We parked the car at the exit of the canyon and hitched a ride up the road from a mid-twenties British guy touring the States.  Mike was still rummaging gear out of the car when he stopped to pick me up, and he didn't seem as pleased to offer up his car after he saw Mike running over too :) Once we got to the top of the canyon, we quickly got our gear together and rushed to the first rappel to beat a group of 6-8 Europeans.  Even though we beat that group, there was already another group of 3 older gentleman set up on the first rappel.  It was difficult to get a sense of remoteness in Pine Creek because there were so many other people around and the noise from the traffic going through the tunnel was very loud, but Pine Creek is a fun and beautiful canyon none the less. It's steep walls block out most of the light, which keeps it pretty dark and cold for the most part, but there were plenty of pools to play in and obstacles to dodge, which kept us plenty warm.  After roughly 2 hours we exited the narrow section of the canyon and began our 'short' walk to the car.  We ended up taking the wrong exit trail out and came out higher than our car was on the hillside, which added an unnecessary 300 feet of steep climbing to our hike.  The bottlenecking and route finding hiccup aside, Pine Creek was a phenomenal start to our canyoneering adventures!

A beam of light shining though an opening in Pine Creek

After doing Pine Creek with my weighty 70 meter dynamic climbing rope we decided to upgrade our rope system to a static line with a pull cord. Since my 26th birthday is coming up this Thursday, Mike gave me an early birthday present: a brand new 8.3 mm diameter, 40 meter long static line (and its accompanying 6 mm diameter 40 m pull cord for longer rappels)! This new system is not only lighter than my climbing rope, it will also absorb less water and sand in the canyons.  When you're hauling these ropes on your back through the skinny canyons, every pound makes a difference!

On Thursday we didn't have any canyon permits lined up so we decided to tackle some of the less intense day hikes around Zion. We did iconic Angle's Landing in the morning--reaching the top in under an hour! We started early to stay in the shade for most of the hike and were some of the first people to the top.  After we climbed down, we found a beautiful swimming hole away from the crowds that we passed at the bottom of Pine Creek canyon.  What a great way to beat the 95 deg heat.

Looking down from Angel's Landing

My friends Nicole and Yvette drove down from Salt Lake City on Thursday night to join us for the weekend fun. On Friday morning all four of us woke up early to do the elusive Mystery Canyon. Mike and I have been wanting to do Mystery for a few years but we've never been able to secure permits since they only allow 12 people to enter each day.  With some advanced planning on this trip, we solidified not one, but TWO Mystery permits.  With this being our first Mystery experience, we were all very excited; its considered one of the premier Zion slot canyons since it has a little bit of everything. We hiked up 2,100 feet from the Weeping Rock past Observation Point to get to the canyon entry, which left us pretty exhausted (as you can see).

Exhausted hikers near the top of Observation Point

After walking down a steep loose gully (aptly named Death Gully) for roughly 30 minutes, we finally got to the first rappel. Mystery Canyon is full of short, quick back-to-back rappels through classic narrow canyon. You forgot how hard you're working since you have a smile plastered to your face as you descend the rappels through the canyon.  After some scrambling, down climbing, and a few more rappels we finally reached the first water obstacles of the day. The water was fairly low, we only had to get in up to our waists. The final rappel out of Mystery Canyon is hands down the best.  You come down a 40 m waterfall into the Narrows where tourists spot you and crowd around in awe to watch you drop in.  It's as close as most of us will probably come to celebrity status. The waterfall creates a mat of slippery moss on the rock where you're placing your feet, which makes for a tricky rappel.  Everyone made it down clean and without embarrassment, except when I took a quick stumble or two near the top, then cruised my way to the bottom in style. Mystery was by far our favorite canyon we've done so far in Zion, and we can't wait until round 2!  We all celebrated our achievement with some beers and s'mores around the campfire and Yvette serenaded us with her mandolin!

Scoping out the waterfall rappel into the Narrows

On Saturday, Mike and I had permits to do the Subway and Das Boot. The Subway is the most popular technical canyon in Zion and the allow 80 people to go down the canyon each day. We were lucky to get permits to the Subway for two people, so unfortunately Yvette and Nicole couldn't join us. The Das Boot section is an additional 1.1 mile of narrow canyon above the traditional Subway route that is seldom done, and since Mike and I had both already done the Subway, we decided to kick it up a notch and throw in Das Boot (plus it's really fun to say in a terrible German accent). There is a ton of standing water in Das Boot which made for an hour of incredibly cold swimming and wading!  It was an absolutely gorgeous canyon, though, and by the time we made it to the Subway, the normally chilly water there felt like a bath in comparison. Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this day because we forgot the camera in the car. I guess we'll just have to do it again next year! We also forgot our permits at camp and wouldn't you know it, we bumped in to a ranger on our way down. Of course the one time we get our permits checked is the one day we forgot to bring them! Luckily, the ranger was really nice and understood our story so he let us off the hook, which can be a hefty $150-1000 fine. The Zion rangers are really good folks!

Yvette narrowly escaping the crushing blow of a cascading boulder!  Sweet moves!

If two days in a row of all day canyoneering wasn't enough, we had a permit to do Behunin Canyon on Sunday for our third canyon in a row.  This might have been pushing it since these canyons take 5-10 hours to do and feel like a work day of effort, but we couldn't help ourselves.  When we woke up on Sunday morning both of us were very tired and sore. Yvette and Nicole motivated us by hiking up to the Angle's Landing lookout with us where we parted ways.  Mike and I continued trudging up another 2 miles past the lookout to the head of the canyon. Neither of us were feeling too great at that point, but with a lunch break and the promise of fun rappels, we were re-energized. You lose elevation fast in Behunin; the first four rappels are back to back and descend roughly 550 feet all together and you finish with a 160 ft free-hanging rappel into the Emerald Pools area. After we pulled the rope on the last rappel we scrambled down a boulder field and jumped in the first pool of fresh spring water that we saw. It was a great way to finish that canyon.

After Behunin yesterday, we were feeling pretty grody and decided to splurge by spending $5 on a 7-minute shower in Springdale. Three canyons in three days makes you feel pretty gross! Today is our rest day which means absolutely no canyons and no hiking! It's time to rest and clean up.  We slept in, got a fantastic $8 breakfast buffet in town, did laundry and are catching up on some reading (and blogging). It feels good to give our legs a rest! Mike's really good friend Paul is driving down from Salt Lake City this evening to join us for more canyons on Tuesday and Wednesday. We leave Zion Friday morning and head to Escalante for a short day before the rafting trip next weekend.

Resupply boxes and calorie counting

First, I want to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day! Your adventurous spirit, determination, and optimistic attitude is what I model my life after every day. You were the one who taught me to love the mountains and appreciate the wilderness. I think you are amazing and I'm so excited to see you in four weeks!

We arrived in Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon and we've been keeping very busy! There is not much outdoor activity in Bakersfield--it's fairly flat and hot. The closest mountains are over in Tehachapi Pass about an hours drive away. Instead of playing outside, we've been able to focus on our preparations for the PCT resupply boxes. 

During our 3.5 month trek along the PCT, we'll be continuously restocking the food and fuel in our packs about every 5 days.  There are two main ways to do this.  Most hikers either prepare pre-made food boxes that they ship to post offices or gas stations in the nearest towns to the trail, or buying food at grocery and general stores in those towns.  Since food availability and quality varies quite a bit from town to town, we're planning on doing a mix of the two; we're shipping 8 resupply boxes throughout the hike, then buying the rest of our food at local groceries stores. The longest period we'll have between resupply stops is 8 days (through the High Sierras).  Making the resupply packages ahead of time takes a lot of careful planning.  We need to make sure we have enough food and weighing out precise portions of each item we'll be eating so we don't go hungry, but no so much that we are adding an unbearable amount of weight to our packs.

Since we need to carry multiple days of food at a time, our calorie to weight ratio is extremely important. We tried to pack the most nutrient-dense high-calorie food items that we could; foods like pasta, nuts, peanut butter, and energy bars are a must.  Our plan for dinner has always been to dehydrate our own meals and during his time in grad school, Mike has been working to perfect six different dehydrated meal recipes for us to eat during the trip.  On the dinner menu will be:

1) beef and 3-bean chili

2) meatball and veggie pasta in red sauce

3) Asian stir fry with udon noodles and peanut butter brown sauce

4) chicken and veggie risotto with white gravy

5) tuna and broccoli mac and cheese

6) Katmandu curry

Just because we're gonna be living simply doesn't mean we can't eat like kings, and these meals should be gooooooooooooooooooood!  Since food never leaves your mind on long backpacking trips, having filling, delicious meals to look forward to at the end of the day is crucial for morale and appeases those hungry hiker daydreams.

The full contents of one resupply box look something like this

 and consist of:

	Calories per day
	Mike	Erin
Two packs of instant oatmeal	300	300
Pepperoni and salami slices	200	0
Home made beef jerky	100	100
Cocoa for hot chocolate	140	140
Stinger honey energy gel	120	120
Justin's individual peanut butter packets	190	190
Energy bars: Cliff, Kind, Luna, Mojo	240	200
Trader Joe's dried fruit: flattened banana, mango, pineapple, apple, oranges	100	100
Almonds variety	380	190
Gatorade instant powder drink mix	75	75
Home made dehydrated dinner	700	500
Candy Bar: Milky Way, Snickers	240	200
Total	2785	2115

Other items in our resupply boxes include maps & Yogi's guidebook pages for the next section of trail, fuel canisters, toilet paper, and extra ziplock bags. Mike's dad will be mailing us the boxes two weeks before our estimated arrival at each location. Extra items such as batteries, clean socks & underwear, and new shirts will be thrown in to the boxes as needed.

Since our resupply boxes are mostly completed, we decided to take a little break from planning and toured the Pacific coast today with Mike's dad. We drove 2.5 hours west and headed for the Hearst Castle, which is a famous and ridiculously opulent estate built in the early 1900's on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean by one of the first American media moguls.  The Castle is ENORMOUS and filled with lavishly over the top architecture and art pieces that were collected by some one that had more money than they knew how to spend, but it's worth a visit. We took the grand rooms tour, which was a 40-minute walk-thru of the gathering room, the dinning hall, the breakfast room, the billiards room, and the theater, which was just the tip of the iceberg of the estate.

The architecture of the Hearst Castle was very elaborate. California State Parks took the responsibility to preserve and restore the castle. There were several rooms undergoing restoration projects. The large outdoor swimming pool was also emptied and undergoing renovations.

After we were done at the Hearst Castle, we drove south along Highway 1 to see an elephant seal viewing area. We found hundreds of seals just 50 feet away from the highway laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. They were entertaining to watch but the high winds caused us to retreat back to the car and head to lunch.

We continued driving south to Pismo Beach where we grabbed an excellent seafood lunch and then finished the trip with a walk along the beach. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday in California! I'm glad we were able to spend some time with Mike's dad and see the Pacific Ocean before heading east to Utah.

We'll be staying in Bakersfield for the next few days preparing for the canyoneering trip to Zion. The current plan is to spend ten days in Zion, starting on Tuesday, and taking down 7 awesome canyons with some friends that will be visiting us in the park.  We can't wait to get back to the Utah desert where Mike and I had some of our first adventures together as a couple just over two years ago now!

Really big trees and windy mountains

The past three days have been so amazing!!! We drove from Portland to Jedediah State Park in northern California and pitched our tent. We still had some daylight left so we did a short one mile loop hike. The trees are HUGE!!! Pictures do not do these giant conifers justice. That night we fell asleep listening to some heavy rainfall. In the morning we were planning to do a mellow 5.2 mile hike to The Boy Scout Tree.

The Boy Scout Tree trail is approached by a very scenic dirt road that weaves in and out of some massive redwoods. It was an adventure avoiding the potholes filled with water, trying not to get stuck, and at the same time checking that the bikes on my roof weren't hitting any of the tree branches. Luckily Elliot made it there unscathed--only one minor scrape on the bottom. The hike was fairly flat and very mellow with minimal crowds. At the end of the trail we saw a short waterfall and finally, The Boy Scout Tree. This tree was by far the biggest one we had seen. Unfortunately, somebody had nailed a sign into the tree to label that it was indeed the Boy Scout Tree. It erks me when we can feel so remote sometimes only to be dwarfed by human impact.

After our hike we began driving over to Mt. Shasta. It took us roughly 4.5 hours to get there but the drive was fantastic. We took the scenic Redwood Highway and then the famous coastal highway 101.  We stopped to walk along the beach on a gorgeous, sunny California day.

That night we camped at the trail head to the Avalanche Gulch approach of Shasta. The weather that evening was miserable! Very cold and wet. Luckily, the forecast was showing sunshine for our climbing day. We had intended to only do a single day of touring (aka skiing) on Shasta and we weren't planning on reaching the 14,179 foot summit. Mike met a fellow skiier at the trail head, Mark, who was on a road trip and was planning on touring alone so he joined up with us.

We left the parking lot at 6:15am and made quick work of the first 2,000 feet, reaching 9,000 feet by 8:30 am. Our goal was to get to Helen Lake at 10,400 feet, but the wind was relentless up to that point. We were getting knocked over by the gusts. Mike and I kept our skiis on for a while and Mark gave up on skiis and began booting up the steep slope. After Mike took a slide, we switched over to just boots also. We made it up another few hundred feet and decided to take shelter on a ridge behind a few rocks.

We sat in our wind protected spot for roughly one hour, waiting for the wind to die down and for the sun to warm up the snow. Eventually, we decided to start our descent, despite the icy and slippery skiing conditions. There were some small patches of good powder from the snowfall the previous night but it was mostly windswept and left the underlying icy layer. On the bright side, we were able to ski all the way to the parking lot without any major injuries! All in all, it was a really fun adventure. I'm glad we were able to get our skiis out one last time before heading to the desert.

We're currently on our way to Bakersfield, CA where we'll meet up with Mike's dad. There we'll be doing some final preparations for the PCT hike and getting ready for our canyoneering adventures next week in Zion.

Adios Seattle!

After an extremely busy week, I finally left Seattle today. I've been saying goodbye to friends throughout the week and it was definitely starting to wear on me. I get a little emotional saying bye to people because it's impossible to know when I'm going to see most of these people again. When I first moved to Seattle, I knew nobody and I was extremely depressed and lonely for the first 3 or 4 months I lived there. Now I feel like I'm leaving my extended family behind.

I was able to get a few days of sunshine and boating in this week before I left. We had the warmest weather of the year this week. Unfortunately, the warm weather also caused high avalanche conditions in the Cascades. Due to the unstable snow conditions, Mike and I decided to skip doing Mt. St. Helens and start driving south sooner than planned. Tonight we're staying in Portland with some friends and going to watch a hockey game. Tomorrow we'll be driving to the redwoods in Northern California. Hopefully we'll still be able to climb Mt. Shasta mid-week next week after a few days in the redwoods.

Seeing Mike today felt like a relief after saying goodbye to Seattle. I'm so glad we are finally done doing long-distance and we don't have to leave each other this Sunday to go back to work. I know that we'll have an adjustment period and need to get used to seeing each other every day but I feel like our 2 years being 300 miles apart taught us how to communicate very well. We're both excited to begin this new stage and looking forward to all of the upcoming adventures!