More Canyons

I had a great couple of days canyoneering this weekend. North Wash is terrific in November, when it is dry, and we were blessed with almost perfect weather. I was joined by Dave Jarvi, Russ Nelson and a new friend, Craig Crow. None of us had met Craig before, and his presence was a little unusual. He had read a post of mine in a canyoneering forum asking about North Wash conditions and mentioning that I was heading there. He asked if he could go along. In some circles this might be considered a faux pas, or at least socially awkward. It is less so in the canyoneering community, and after talking to him on the phone, I invited him to join in. And yes, he had a very different background than the rest of the group. But he was an able canyoneer, an intelligent and thoughtful conversationalist and a great team member. We all enjoyed getting to know him and having him along.

We drove down very early Friday morning and squeezed and shimmied through West Leprechaun, which is even skinnier than East Lep. After some shredded clothes and a few canyoneering lessons for Russ, we finished in good time and headed to Merry Piglet, a recently "discovered" canyon that proved to be a fun and interesting way to top off our day. For dinner I made a teriyaki noodle and tuna dish with fresh vegetables and we gorged ourselves and sat around the fire talking mostly politics, which was surprisingly stimulating and not vituperative in the least.

We got an early start Saturday morning and descended Constrychnine, which I had done a year ago with Angelica and Lanee. But I had forgotten what a beautiful canyon it is, and we all marveled at the magnificent rappels, although a few hearts beat rapidly staring down the 190 foot drop. Still, we made good time through the canyon, grabbed an early dinner at Stan's in Hanksville and were back home before 8:00 o'clock Saturday night.

I really can't think of a better way to spend a couple of days.