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| Backpack | 10.00 Miles |
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| | Backpack | 10.00 Miles | | | |
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| partners | | Okay, not a backpack, but I did a little hiking for three days, and didn't want to log them all separately.
Drove up Thursday night. Original plan was Enchanted Tower, but the weather looked pretty serious over there, so Jack's was possibly a better option. Camped Thursday night after making a reasonable fire.
Friday, the majority of people headed into the canyon to climb. I wandered around a bit in the direction of Lost World, and located a trail that dropped into the canyon. Decided not to risk anything with the foot, and took a couple pictures instead. Went back to camp and stretched for a bit before walking into the canyon. The climbers on Casino were feeling rather warm, but at that point the sun was almost about to go behind the canyon wall (in another hour and a half.. ugh). So I walked over to Main Wall and stayed in the shade while splitting sangria and grapes with the others. Clouds eventually covered the sky, making the canyon more tolerable. However, we decided it wasn't enough. Janelle and I, and some of the others, packed up and left for East Clear Creek for some cliff diving and swimming! It was late in the day, but the water still felt good. And it was nice to wash away the sweat and grime of the day.
The rain set in Friday night, so we awoke to little puddles in our tent Saturday morning. The sun was shining bright, and did a great job drying everything out. The climbers went back into the canyon, and I decided to do a little dirt road exploration on foot. There are a few roads in the general area, so I walked down a couple of them. One led to the very end of a ridge, and down into the canyon, where Lost World actually is. I again decided not to follow the trail all the way in, so took a few pictures and tried to find any bolted routes from up above. Didn't see anything, so went back the way I came. Ended up walking the wrong way down another road I encountered, which took me away from camp. But I could see one of our bright white canopies, so left the road early and walked back to camp. I'd left intending only to walk about three miles, but ended up with six. Not bad, and my foot felt great. Did more stretching and some ice massage, and then joined the other climbers below at Swiss Wall. A few of them were already packing up to go swimming again, so I said hi and bye to James and walked back out.
By the time we got to the creek again, it had begun to rain and the air was becoming a little colder. This did not deter us, as the water was still nice enough. We jumped in and swam around for a bit and wore ourselves out before going back to camp yet again. It continued raining off and on for a while, so James and I retired early. Woke up in the middle of the night a few times, to a big, bright, clear, moon-lit sky. Breathtaking.
Sunday morning I joined the last of the climbers as they went to Cracker Jack and Casino. It was a rather easy day for most. Tojo used James's single rack of nuts to trad climb a few of the sport routes. That was pretty cool! James followed and inspected and removed the placements on his way to the top. He laughed when he got to Tojo's slung limestone column -- probably not the best thing to fall on right after a rain? It was getting hotter again, and even the clouds weren't helping. More important, we were getting hungry! Walked back out of the canyon and drove home, stopping in Payson for some delicious food at the Pizza Factory.
All in all, an unexpectedly great trip. No climbing for me, but the small explorations and swimming made up for it. And of course, it was great to see Beans and the others again! |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Next up were a couple 5.10a's and then a 5.8 (Ante Up) that I actually had more trouble on. All climbed out at that point, I took a nice long walk through the canyon to check out the dry creek and as many trails as I could find. The canyon is pretty rife with them for the climbs, but they don't go very far. I returned in time to watch Janelle bust over a roof, but lost my sunglasses in the process. Luckily when I noticed they were gone later on, they were pretty easy to locate. Think I'll be installing a system of bungees from now on so that I stop losing things (ie - headlamp, lens hood, lens cover, etc!) every time I step outside.
