Day 2: Weather sucks - we spend all day shopping and driving around. Move in with Jeff Knell. Every time we stop by at the university and get back to the meter a few minutes late there's a ticket on the car. Amazingly efficient parking lot patrols they have there! All tickets were donated to the garbage bin outside MEB. Eric questions the ethics of this.
Day 3: Still cold but I get Marti and Eric to climb anyway in the afternoon. All possible partners have excuses so we're on our own. Marti watches Jay while Eric and I do Tarzan (5.6). Eric does great but has serious trouble feeding rope on the belay. I feel like I'm soloing anyway. Halfway up we notice Marti going nuts in the parking lot. She has a message for us but we don't understand. Later she hikes up with Jay to tell us mountain goats have been watching us from above. They decide to reappear as we rap down so Eric gets to see them after all. On to Bushwhack (5.8). Marti leads and lowers from the anchors. Eric tries and does quite well, although he cheats by getting his whole foot into a crack that I can barely get my big toe into. Looks like rain so we bail.
That night a massive poker game has been arranged in our honor. Old timers include Gary Lindstrom, Mark Bradakis, and Al Davis. Eric and Marti join in (the Knells take Jay for a bit); we stake Eric for $5 and he plays poker like a pro. After two hours, he's only down 0.35 and thats because he forgot to drop cards in a game of Guts once. As I managed to lose $15, Eric keeps rubbing it in. After Eric and Marti leave I have to endure abuse since my wife (Marti won $2 or so) and kid made out better than I. Poor me.
Day 4: We leave in the morning for Moab. My brother, Jim, from Portland joins us in Price - they are driving to Colorado at the same time we are by pure chance so we decide to meet. Eric rides with his cousins to Moab. In Arches, all kids are highly motivated to climb rocks and hike so we head for Delicate Arch. Weather looks threatening but no problem. For some reason, Eric actually enjoys the hike and doesn't complain about being tired.
We decide to motel it due to poor weather. We end up in a very expensive dump. Moab sucks.
Day 5: We part company with my brother and meet Marti's cousin Paul and his son Brad in Colorado Natl Monument. The objective is Independence Monument (5.8). The weather is bad but slowly clearing so we hike in at a slow pace. We don't start the route until well after noon. Marti and the kids play at the base while I lead Paul and Brad. Everything goes well - my #4 camalot vanquishes the crux with no sweat. All you need is the #4, a few wires, and runners for this route. Unfortunately, when we arrive at the base of the last pitch Brad was too cold (he was in shorts!!) so we backed off. Eric objects to the hiking (about 6.5 miles) but makes it back alive. After dinner in Grand Junction we head back for Mooab and camp at a really nice spot near the Titan.
Day 6: Lazy morning. Given a choice between hiking and climbing, Eric chooses to climb. We head for the potash road (with zillions of other sport climbing weenies) and suit up at the base of an easy 5.7 friction route. Eric decides to try a lead (his first) so I clip the first bolt for him and off he goes. He takes some time getting used to the rock but finally gets the sequence up to the bolt figured out. The crux is 3 feet left of the bolt. On his second fall, he rolls over and bumps his head (we should have put his helmet on!!) and wants down. Although he's upset there's no real damage done. Marti and I bag some random sport route next door and then Eric is feeling better and does his route toprope (twice!) to show it who's boss.
On to Canyonlands. We arrive after 4, the campground is full. I talk everyone into an afternoon / evening hike and we strike out for Paul Bunyan Potty - about 3 sandy miles up a jeep road. Eric objects to the hike but we plug on. The potty itself is OK by Eric. We scramble around and find a way up into the base of the potty. Also a neat litle indian ruin for Eric to see. Great views in the sunset light and we boogie back as fast as possible. Arriving just after full dark, Eric gets his first view of a really clear night sky and gets really into finding stars and constellations. We camp just outside the park.
Day 7: Eric won't do any big hikes so we do a fun 1/2 mile loop with ladders, an old cowboy camp, and a spring. Then back to civilization. Almost nobody climbing in Indian Creek - we head for the same place I had been to with Dave Youkey after the titan trip long ago. Armed with more big stuff than last time I attack a 60' layback with just a couple hangs to reclaim gear. After a fast lesson on laybacking, Eric gives it a try and flys right up with just a couple hangs - his first 5.9. Jay is unimpressed though. Marti also cranks up and I toprope a 10 from a common anchor. Everyone is impressed as the rope saws a deep cut in the rock where it runs over an edge. Lots of petroglyphs on either side of the climbing area.
We arrive in Natural Bridges and get the last camp site in the official campground. There are kids next door so Eric is happy. After dinner, I talk Eric into a twilight hike. Marti drops us at Kachina bridge and then drives to the next one up and comes down to meet us. The sun goes down and the stars come out - we have flashlights so no major epic. Eric has fun but occasionally gets 'the spooks'. After meeting Mommy everything is better though. She has remembered where the trail leaves the streambed so we don't get lost. We turn off the lights and hike under the natural bridge by starlight - really amazing.
Day 8: Next morning I manage to lock the only keys in the trunk at the visitor center. With help from a guy with some tools, we rip out the back seat and unpack the trunk from inside until the key appears. We vow to make an extra key but it never happens. Eric and Jay think the situation is hilarious.
The main objective the the 'Black Hole' - the gnarliest slot canyon in Kelsey's book. The crux is a 600 foot swim through the narrows in really cold water. Marti and Jay plan to drive shuttle. Eric and I are wearing swim gear and are mentally prepared for cold water. Really. About a mile into the canyon, a deep pool fills the canyon bottom. This must be it! Eric puts a toe in the water and says 'No way!!' We mess around while I try (and fail) to rock climb on past. Looks like time to turn back. But no! I decide to go in and at least get around the next bend. Turns out, it's not even waist deep and there's only one bend. It's just a pothole - false alarm. I take Jay and Eric, then Marti follows. After some neat narrows it opens up a bit and the sun comes in. The kids decide to play in a warm shallow puddle while I scout ahead. Turns out that the black hole is still a long way down. With lots of chimneying I get there without any swimming but have a number of boulder problem epics above the frigid pools. Once at the black hole, there's obviously no finessing it using chimney technique. For one thing, recent flash floods have covered everything with a fine layer of sand. Also, I had told Marti I would be back. Plus, it's COLD water! I wisely retreat to find the sun has left the canyon and my family about to retreat without me. Eric is now quite cold so we blast back to the car as fast as possible.
We proceed on past Lake Foul and drive to Hanksville and then to Capitol Reef. There's lots of room in the campground so we're happy. We go out for dinner and have a really terrible meal. Oh well.
Day 9: Not another hike! We force Eric to do it yet again, this time to Hickman Bridge, just over a mile from the car. After reaching the bridge, we go off adventuring trying to find 'the jail', a bizarre set of 5 interlocking holes forming a chamber in the canyon wall. We try to walk out on the bridge but Marti vetos an exposed section. Just before we start back, I find the jail on the far side of the bridge. Turns out that it's quite a bit higher off the ground than I had remembered, so Jay doesn't get to go in. With much help, Eric is inserted and pictures are taken. A smaller formation accomodates Jay.
The next stop is Escalante. We arrive at the Calf Creek campground and find a site vacant. After pitching the tent, we head into town and do laundry. That evening my parents and brothers (Alan and Doug) arrive and set up camp in a motel. Although growing larger, Escalante is much nicer than the zoo in Mooab.
Day 10: Our first hike in Escalante is a set of slot canyons that Marti and I had been to previously. Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch has four nice slots within a short walk of the car. We started in Peek-a-boo, a short but extremely beautiful slot. We use a short rope to help Mom and Dad up a short cliff at the start of the slot. Once inside, you pass under a number of small arches and through lots of twisty (but not deep) slot to get to the top. Eric loves this stuff and Jay did OK too. Next we went to Spooky - the narrowest of the slots. Eric had a blast but my Mom got claustrophobia and bailed out after a while. Some bozos had been writing all over the walls - what losers.
We left the kids with the grandparents and stomped over to Brimstone, the deepest of the slots. None of the guidebook authors had made it all the way through due to water and drops but we decided to take a look. After a bunch of easy slot hiking we came to a pool. I chimneyed over most of it and started to wade but Marti and my brothers mutinied so we retreated. It looked easier than the black hole but we were not equipped for water travel.
I talked Marti into hiking out through the last slot, the upper part of Coyote, but this turned into an epic. It took a lot of work to get Mom, Dad, Jay and Eric up the canyon. I drove up the road and the hiked down canyon to meet them and found them just emerging from the slot. They decided to go back to the original trailhead so I hiked back to the car and returned to the original trailhead to meet them.
Day 11: The final slot wiped Marti out so she opted to remain with the kids while I hiked with Alan and Doug. Jeff Knell told us that the truely classic hike in Escalante was Coyote Gulch. While Marti and my folks played with the kids, Alan and Doug and I took the brave rental car out to 40 mile ridge.
For the most part, all you see from the road is sand and desert. We passed a turnoff to a hilltop but a sign for '40 mile trailhead' led us on. Kelsey's book calls this a 4 wheel drive road but the only problem is deep sand. By driving way too fast the brave rental car made it to the end of the road. Once you pass the turnoff there's not much chance to stop anyway.
We didn't know where to find the crack in the rock (the only way down to the river) so we started down through a sandy trail and then worked left onto rock for easier walking. We eventually hit the rim above coyote and followed it to a point above the confluence. From here the crack and the large sand dune below are easy to see. You don't really need a map or compass to get to the crack as long as you bear roughly toward the confluence of Coyote with the Escalante.
The crack was no big deal - I didn't even go through most of it since the rock on the left was easy to climb. From there we roared down the sand, reaching the gulch in just 4 or 5 minutes (it would take a LOT longer going back up!). We then walked down to the river (barefoot to avoid getting out shoes wet) and walked just a bit upstream for an outstanding view of Stevens Arch. We went back up to our shoes and ate lunch at the turnoff to the crack. For here we worked upstream. This is definitely the best canyon hike I've done in Utah - nice stream, waterfalls, arches, everything. The path was pretty good and we were able to keep our feet dry although my Tevas would have been nice.
At Jacob Hamlin arch there are gigantic undercuts formed by the stream meanders. I would have needed a fisheye lens to get a good picture. After walking around the arch and then back through it (a little exciting!) we found the way out of the canyon. Just downstream of the arch a rib of low angle rock provides an easy climb - even Alan was able to do it. There were some steps carved in the rock but these were not really needed. At the top a bunch of cairns mark this rib.
We were unsure where the car was so we wandered up into the desert hoping to find the road. This was a big mistake - we should have walked along the rim on solid rock downstream until we saw the cars. Instead we slogged through loose sand forever until we spotted the cars from a hilltop. As the parking lot is easily visible, there's not much chance of losing your bearings.
We bopped back to Escalante (the hike took about 6 hours) and met everyone. They had been mellow and watched the kids play all day. In the afternoon they visited Devils Garden on the Hole-in-the-Rock road and Eric had a great time there.
Day 12: After a bivi in the local motel we started slowly toward Zion. The hike of the day was "Round Valley Draw", a tributary of Hackberry canyon. This is just off the road paralleling the Paria into Arizona. After a short hike, the canyon drops into a slot. We used the rope to get Grandma and Grandpa down a short chimney. After lunch, we continued on past some chockstones. The drops were only 10 feet or so but this was a major procedure with the whole gang. Mom had real trouble with her knees. Just after the drops is the tightest part of the canyon. I continued down another mile until an easy exit was found but everyone decided to go back up rather than go down and have to rimwalk back up.
After the hike, we continued south past Grosvenor arch and the Cockscomb to pavement again. Up and over into Zion; everyone jumped into a motel while Marti and I continued on to Vegas.
Day 13: Marti and I are climbing heros and bag Epinephrine while Eric and Jay play with their grandparents. We arrive back in Zion at 1:30am.
Day 14: This is the last day with my brothers and parents. Marti and I slept in while everyone (except the kids) headed for the east rim. We hiked up to meet them in Echo canyon and had lunch there. Driving back we stopped at the top of the tunnel and Eric and I took Marti and Doug down the slot canyon there. Eric and I had gotten a ways down two years ago - it is really deep and narrow with swims and rappels but this time there was too much water so we backed out. After pie and ice cream, we parted company and headed for Flagstaff.
Day 15: We were tourons for a day. Eric liked Sunset Crater but the best thing was Slide Rock. The sun was warm but the water was COLD! This didn't stop Eric. From there we rolled through Feenix and into Tucson where we stayed with Saumya and Wendy Debray and their son Arun. Arun and Jay are about the same age and had a great time together.
Day 16: Another touristo day. No climbing - just laundry, a visit to the CS department to see the old gang, and the desert museum. Eric and Jay had a great time there.
Day 17: We head up to Rap Rock with Mike Soo, Colleen, and her boyfriend Tom. The plan is to play around at the base a while and then head up over the chickenheads. After taking turns on Ciboni and Bender-Axen we leave Marti and Jay on the ground and head up. Eric climbed Bender-Axen with a little help at the base. From the pine, I led the 5.9 finger crack (can't even remember the name anymore!) while Mike did the standard 5.7 line. Eric had no problem on the 5.7 since it was friction and we collected on the next ledge. While Mike and Colleen decided to keep doing leads up the heads, Tom and Eric and I started climbing in tandem and buzzed right up to the top. Some of the overhanging bits were pretty exciting for Eric but he was climbing next to Tom to help keep him on the easiest line. This is probably Eric's biggest rock climb yet. We arrive back in Tucson at an absurdly early hour since the usual Rap Rock epics were successfully avoided.
Day 18: It's now the weekend and we have arranged to meet Tim Schnieder (a netter I ran into in rec.climbing) in the stronghold. After meeting him, his girlfriend Karen, and another couple in Benson we headed for sheepshead. The plan was for Marti to climb with them while I entertained the kids. After giving everyone excess beta for the Greedy Varmit, we parted company. After deciding that Tombstone is pretty worthless we drove into Bisbee and signed up for the mine tour. The tour turned out to be really great and Eric had a fantastic time. While in Bisbee we noticed lots of clouds passing by and then some rain and thunder. After the tour, we drove to the East Stronghold and played around for a bit. Around 4:30 the rest of the gang pulled in with a tale of woe. After finishing the first pitch, a storm came in and sent everyone packing. They hiked back to the car and set off in search of some sport routes right next to the road but the cloud followed them and it started raining again when they arrived at the rock. They decided enough was enough and made for the campground.
After we got camp set up I talked Tim into a quick strike on Beeline in the fading light. A novice climber joined us, Seth, and we ran up to stronghold dome. I talked Tim into doing the lead and he flew up with no problems. Seth and I both made it with a minimal amount of fuss and then I led the last pitch to the top. We hiked out by moonlight and joined everyone else at camp.
The plan for the next day was Whats My Line. I knew Eric would have problems doing both the hike and the climb in one day so I suggested to him that we bivouac up at the climb. Eric was all excited about this, mainly because he thought bivouac was a cool word I think. So around 9:30 I asked Eric if he still wanted to bivi. He was excited even though it was well after dark so I packed up all the climbing and bivi gear and some flashlights and we took off. About halfway up Eric started to run out of steam but I kept him going until we reached the divide. There was a nice sandy area in the streambed and we threw out our bags and sacked out.
Day 19: Eric and I hid in our bags until the sun finally reached camp. After a quick breakfast we packed up and were about to leave when Tim and Seth showed up - perfect timing! We ran over to the climb and found two guys who had camped right at the base slowly getting ready to go. We quickly changed shoes and ran for the start of the route after telling them we would be moving fast. Seeing that we had 4 in the party, including a 6 year old, they were not reassured. However, we were the early birds and we charged up in search of the proverbial worm. I led the first pitch without much trouble. The climb starts with a pendulum out onto the face (above massive exposure!) and then lots of chickenheads. The belay is probably about 120' up and 35' left of the start of the pendulum. Eric and Seth crossed without any problems (Eric swings on the rope all the time so this was no big deal!) and joined me at the belay. Both of them had a back belay to keep them swinging very fast. Unfortunately Tim didn't have a back belay and all of my pro had fallen out. We had the rope caught over a chickenhead right over the traverse but as Tim swung arcoss the rope popped off the head just at the end of his arc and he suddenly flew another 40' across the wall. He was running with the traverse and was caught by suprise. When he joined us at the belay his ankle had swollen up and he guessed it was a sprain. Looking back, there were a lot of ways this could have been avoided. There were lots of better heads to thread the rope around; I also could have sent a sling down to Seth to use on the head.
Anyway, Tim was hurting but still willing to finish the route. The other two pitches went without a problem. Eric started getting cold (the wind was pretty bad) but kept going. Marti and Jay appeared at the base and waved to us. We lowered Eric down the raps and then hiked out to meet Marti. We decided to let Marti, Eric, and Tim hike out to the west where the trail is much nicer while Seth and I would get the cars. Meanwhile, Mike Soo and some friends had come up to join us and had started just before we topped out. We watched as the last man contemplated the pendulum. Like us, they did not have the rope clipped into anything between the belay and the start of the swing. However, in this case the rope had caught on a head 20' horizontally across from the climber. We kept yelling "FLIP THE ROPE" but he decided to climb across on friction toward the head where the rope was stuck. After getting about 5 feet closer he decided to go for it and went flying with 15 feet of rope out to his right. With a loud yell he shot almost all te way across the face and wound up under a small overhang. Even though he swung much farther and faster than Tim had he was uninjured and finished the pitch.
After hiking back with Seth I drove around to the other side and picked everyone up. Tim seemed to be doing pretty well. We then drove back to the camp to get Tim's truck. Unfortunately his ankle prevented him from staying another day as he had planned so we all headed home. We met Mike and his friends at the Dairy Queen next to the Thing and got to hear their tales of terror as we dined.
Day 20: The weather was cold so we took Eric to the Pima Air Museum. He got a kick out of all the military stuff there as well as all the planes from the base flying overhead. That afternoon we drove up to windy point only to find the place closed down due to a movie shoot there. There was even a fake body lying at the base of Hitchcock. The sherrif dudes said it was a TV movie - Seduced by Evil - with Suzanne Somers. Since windy was out, we continued on to Goosehead. Eric 'belayed' me up the standard route (1 move of 5.7) and then followed me up. From here, we decided to try something we used to do back in the old days. Marti tied the end of the rap rope to the highway guardrail forming a perfect tyrolian traverse. Eric was totally fearless and went zipping down with no problems. I put him on a long sling so his hand couldn't reach the biner - this way he couldn't acidentally shred his hands. I tried to wimp out but Marti forced me to do it too. Unfortunately she had a hard time tightening the rope with Jay helping here and I almost dragged butt on some boulders. Oh well! A cold wind was blowing so we decided to call it a day and head down.
Day 21: This was the last climbing day. We finally got Gene away from work and he joined us up at wimpy point. The movie shoot was still going on so we headed to the Rupley area. Eric really wanted to do his first rappell so we started with Hunchback. Gene led the 7 but Eric was too cold so we had to pull him up on the rope. The free rap turned out to be no big deal for him (he tried another one in the gunks a few weeks later and got spooked at the lip and then got his hair caught in the brake - we've decided he can wait a while to be a hotdog rappeller).
After this Gene and I did Recovery Room (10-). Gene and Marti did R1 (8) with Marti leading the first pitch and Gene providing far too much beta. They flew up the second pitch and we decided to bag just one more route so we did Border Patrol (10-). That was the end since Gene had to get back. We stopped at a really nice rock and mineral shop and Eric started a rock collection. That night the Debrays threw us a farewell party. Cliff and his family were there as well as Gene and Sanjay. Mike Soo wanted to go but his truck had been broken into.
Day 22: Marti took Eric and I to the airport and we flew back to CT without much trouble except the last leg of the flight was cancelled so we had to ride a cab from White Plains. Arrived home around 3am. Marti visited her friend Marcie and got to see the emus and rheas.
Day 23 - 28: Marti had to drive the rental car back to SLC with Jay. She passed through the Salt River canyon, Canyon de Chelly, the Pertified Forest, and Moab and Jay did just fine. After staying with Jeannie and the new baby again she finally arrived home.