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The weekend after the Zion's Canyon hike, it was unofficial gay day at Lagoon promoted by Q Salt Lake. The theme was to wear red shirts so everyone would know who the homos were. It was funny to see the straight guys that unwittingly wore red shirts too.
Chad Hall on the stairs to Colossus.
The day started at noon with us storing our coolers of food and libation in the reserved pavilion. Next came the rides. We knocked out most of the big ones early. The Bat, Colossus, Rocket (twice), Spider, and Wicked. We ate lunch and did a few more of the requisites like the Tidal Wave.
Chad and Brandon riding the gondola.
We stopped by the photo shoot scheduled for 6pm but there were only a handful of people there and we decided we didn't want to be in such a small picture so we played video games for a few minutes. Back to the pavilion to gather things and we set off for the patio at Try-Angles for one of the last beers-on-the-patio-Sunday of the summer.
Brandon, Chad H, Craig, Me, Pants, and JML123.
On Friday, I picked up John, Nicki, and Brit from John's house and we headed to St. George. We met up with Weston and Dave who went down the night before to get permits for hiking the Subway in Zion's Canyon. Unfortunately, permits for the Subway were already gone; seems people started lining up outside the permit office at 3:00am the night before. Weston and Dave arrived at 5:30 and had already missed out.
They decided to get us a permit for the Orderville slot canyon instead, also called the Waterpark. It is a 12 mile hike with a dry first half and wet second part. We made our way to the family condo, had a beer, and all went to bed. Before bed, Weston pulled out six cammo shirts that he and a friend had customized with iron-on decals on the back. Mine was Frostman. John, Nicki, Brit, and I decided to take liberties with ours and removed the sleeves for a more fashionable look.
Up at 5:30 to get a start on the day. We stopped at Smith's for sandwiches to take with us on the hike. Since 1/2 of the hike is wet, we had plenty of sealable baggies with us.
To get to the starting point of the hike, we drove through the tunnel, out the other side of Zion's and into East Zion's. Up a dirt road to a service road and we found the entrance. It took us until 9:00am to arrive.
About two miles of the hike is just getting to the slot canyon along a dirt road. Finally we entered the slots and had a great time just walking along and talking to each other.
Me in the dry part.
Eventually we came to the first obstacle which was about a 20 foot drop into a pool of stagnant water. This signaled the beginning of the water features. There were anchors in the side of the mountain to be used for rappelling down the drop. Weston and Dave brought along two moutaineering harnesses which the girls used to get down. The guys all just used their hands to lower themselves.
Me rappelling down the first obstacle.
This is where the funnest part of the hike began. From here on out, we were walking through water. From somewhere unseen, water just appeared and there was a stream. At first it was never more than just a few inches but as we proceeded, there would be deeper and deeper spots. We were splashing, jumping, playing in the water. It was cool and very refreshing.
Some chest deep water.
Eventually we got to places where the water was up to our chests after a descent. Then over our heads. Finally there were some spots where we had to swim after descending in order to touch ground again. It was amazingly fun. Honestly I was pretty nervous after the first descent because I'd never done anything like that before, but my confidence began to grow after that.
Last obstacle.
Getting close to the seeing people.
Finally after about 7 hours, we came across so other people hiking. They had hiked up from the upper visitor's center as far as it was allowed to go upstream. There were still about 3 miles left to go back to catch the shuttle. But at least we were seeing people again and we knew we had made it out alive.
The last three miles seemed to last for a week. It was by far the hardest part of the hike. There were buried, slippery rocks all over the place which made walking very difficult. And at this point, there were more and more people so we had to skirt past them.
Seeing the visitor's center was the most beautiful site. We caught the shuttle back to the beginning of the park so I could drive Weston back to get his car. It took almost 2 hours round trip to get back and pick everyone else up. We decided on our way back to St. George that we were just going to into a restaurant without showering because we were so tired and hungry. It was 10pm before we sat down to eat. Midnight by the time we got home. Everyone was in bed within 1/2 hour.
The whole gang at the end.
The next morning, Weston and Dave decided to just head back to Salt Lake as well. The day before they were convinced they would be able to do the hike up Angel's Landing after doing Orderville canyon. However Sunday morning, they were as sore as everyone else. It was sort of validating to know we accomplished something that made even experienced hikers worn out and sore the next day.
While my pictures didn't turn out so hot, here's a link to some professional ones:
http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/albums/index71.htm
Last weekend, a bunch of us left Friday night and headed for the cabin. A group of friends has gone to the Oneida Narrows to float the Bear River for several years and last year we all figured out that their camp is only about 20 minutes away from my family's cabin in Ovid, Idaho. So for the second year, we joined up with them to float the river.
John and Greg drove to Preston before Craig and me, and made their way to the local watering hole for some pool. Upon walking in, the missing-most-of-his-teeth local asked them if they were married and/or from San Francisco, which I found hilarious.
We finally met up, grabbed some food at the local salmonella station, and headed for the cabin. Arriving late, we quickly got ourselves situated and poured some drinks. Next thing we knew, it was 3am. Bed time.
Next morning we drove and met up with Shane and Tut's camp at the top of the dam. I felt quite lucky to have the cabin where we could retreat after the rafting and get a nice hot shower. I'm not above pitching a tent but if you don't have to....
We launched around noon after dropping off a few cars at the bottom. Since it took some time for the return trip of the vehicles, we decided to begin our hops and barley tasting. By the time they were back, most of us were half in the bag. And of course we took plenty of them with us.
The river.
The group.
Craig, Greg, and John.
The trip was a blast. It took about 5 hours to float the entire river and just as we were picked up, it started to storm pretty hard. We made it back to the cabin in one piece, ate dinner, and were all in bed by 9:30pm. It was a long day.
