जिओं नप

Last week I went to Zion National Park. I used to always say Zion's. Anyways, the church boys were having a superactivity down there and I was designated as "the guide" since I have experience with ropes, etc.

Ben on the Hoodoo summit of Angel's Landing.


I have never done any canyoneering so I was kind of excited to check it out. Before I go any further let me say that I've always viewed rappelling as a mode of transportation for getting around places while climbing and have never sought out rappels for the sake of rappelling. Sidenote: That place in August is sweaty! Yikes it was hot. We did two canyons: Orderville and Pine Creek. The way the permits worked out everyone in the group did the Subway except for me & my bro-in-law Ben. We did Orderville and it was cool. Orderville isn't a very narrow slot canyon so it was mostly just fast hiking with a few obstacles along the way like short raps, wading through poo errrr stagnant pools. Ben resorted to the adult diaper method of wading so as not get get his shorts wet with stink water.

Ben using the adult diaper technique through the quagmire.



We covered about 10 miles and then Orderville emptied into the Narrows where the virgin river is and ran into about a 1,000 people. I heard every language there except english. Ich liebe Zion.

Orderville Canyon.


Mini falls in Orderville.


The next day we did Pine Creek. The canyon itself is only a mile or two long, but there are alot of obstacles & swims to do along the way. It went pretty uneventfully except for when the rope sunk in an 8 foot deep lake, when I bruised my right butt check falling onto a log, when several kids nearly got hypothermia from being wet in a cold canyon--thank goodness I brought wetsuits for them, and several people tried (unsuccessfully) to remove themselves from the gene pool. Just kidding. It went pretty good but all that stuff did happen. Back to the rope sinking - I was sending some kids down the rap line into the big cathedral lake while Ben went bobbing for ropes in between dry heaves down below us. After 4 or 5 tries he finally got it and there was much rejoicing. I was rejoicing because I wasn't going to have to bob for ropes with Ben. Everyone else was rejoicing because they were happy.



Last rap out of pine creek



We ended up making it through the canyon in pretty good time and had plenty of time to enjoy the swimming holes on the hike back to the road. I love swimming in rivers.

Here's some random stuff from the past few weeks:

Mac or PC? An upgraded computer lab.


Cool view from a few weeks ago.


This bathroom was almost mine. Awesome!