Sunday morning was the start of the last full day on the river for Kerry and Nate. They had a lot to accomplish and some interesting challenges ahead of them so they were up and moving about well before 7 am.
Big Nate found himself a little breakfast nook to enjoy his morning coffee. Kerry is not a coffee drinker and his refresher of choice is a spot of milk tea.
Nate’s Breakfast Nook
Getting water is a constant endeavor! One can filter the river water, but the side canyons often contain springs that provide a much clearer alternative to the turbid river water.
The side canyons also offer interesting features as well as providing a venue for some of the typical shenanigans. Here Kerry indulges in one of his standard Yoga poses, the Tree, while Nate, who has amazing flexibility for someone 6’5″ tall has opted for the Hand To Big Toe asana.
Nate’s paddling skills were greatly improved after three days of practice on the river. Here he confidently negotiates a short stretch of white water.
Nate showing his paddling skills
There was a group of paddlers out of Saint George who Kerry was already familiar with, and Sunday saw them rendezvousing with them.
Sadness and tragedy struck the Saint George group that morning. There was a married couple that was rafting with one of their teenage sons. The other son had opted not to go, and that morning they had received a message informing them that the other son had committed suicide. The helicopter in the video below is the one that they had summoned to airlift them out of the canyon.
Rescue Helicopter
Below is a slideshow from the morning rambles. “Tom” at the end is Tom Seletos, one of Kerry’s business and adventure partners. They had already encountered Tom’s wife Mari on day two. They had started at different times, and Sunday was when they would finally rendezvous.
There are a number of options for exiting the river. Kerry and Nate were heading to the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River where they would hike out to a trailhead where I would pick them up. The Saint George group would float further down the river as it morphs into an arm of Lake Powell. They had arranged for pickup by a motor boat operating out of the Bullfrog Marina. That option avoids the off road driving of the HITR road for any car shuttles, but replaces it with a much longer drive passing through Hanksville.
The reunion with Natalie and Keith took some of the pressure from Nate as the subject of Kerry’s video appraisals of his kayaking skills! Even on the river, though, one must watch one’s back!
Heavy Traffic
By about 1:30 Kerry and Nate had put in about 10 miles down the river. The Saint George group had separated into group bracketing the Dynamic Duo on the river, and Nate had located a very clear and easily accessible spring where he could support his insatiable thirst!
Status Report
It was not long before they had a potentially disastrous encounter with a sharp rock!
Oh No!!!
The rental kayaks were supposed to have patch kits included, but none were found. Even if there had been a patch kit it might not have a patch large enough to repair a tear this long. The option of trying to float the two of them using one functioning kayak would require a LOT of walking and dragging. Not very appealing. Luckily fortune smiled on them again!
Fingers Crossed!! Will it hold?
A fellow rafter had a large enough patch and some adhesive so they were able to craft a patch that worked, sort of! When applying a patch on the road there are always some tense moments and uncertainty about whether the patch will work. Do you have the right adhesive for the surface? Did you apply the patch properly? It’s fingers crossed time!!
The delay while waiting for the pack to set was an opportunity to engage in their usual shenanigans. One of Kerry’s staples is the jump shot, and I have had to capture many images of Kerry in flight. Once I discovered that the key to getting the right moment is to use burst mode that task was much easier. Here we see some impressive air time.
One of Kerry’s standard pictures. Very well executed!!
The delay also provided them with an opportunity some additional explorations up a side canyon.
Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! There was even a small waterfall that Kerry was able to use to take a shower!
Shower time!!
Kerry could have waited for his shower! The patch held, sort of. There was still some leakage and they had to make frequent stops to reinflate. As Kerry is considerably lighter than Nate they had swapped rafts and were making decent progress down the river. Shortly before 7 pm they encountered some rain.
It’s been a busy day!
Below is a slide show from their fourth day on the river
By 8 pm they were settled in to their last night of camping on the river. They were also enjoying the company of Tom and Mari as Tom had finally caught up with the group. Kerry and Nate would be exiting the next day via a hike out of Coyote Gulch where I would pick them up, and the rest of them would continue on down the river for a pickup from Bullfrog Marina.
Sunday night camp with Tom and Mari Seletos and friend Keith
My Sunday was not as exciting. That morning I had received a message from the outfitter that I had made a reservation for a jeep with. They regretted to inform me that the jeep I was supposed to get had been returned in a broken condition and would not be available on Monday.
I did some phone work that morning and found that the closest location that had a jeep available for Monday was in Cedar City. The bad news was that Cedar City was 130 miles away, but at least it was on our route home which made the drop off easier. I spent a substantial portion of the day driving to Cedar City to pick up the jeep and then driving back to Escalante.
The Starbucks in Cedar City has a table that was set up in order to honor MIA’s in anticipation of the upcoming Memorial Day. The title was “In Honor of those missing this Memorial Day”.
My AirBnB in Escalante and the rented Jeep
There was also a possibility of thunderstorms that night so I opted for comfort and rented and AirBnB in Escalante for the night. It was reasonably priced and way overkill for what I needed. I had the entire second floor of a large Craftsman style house, and it actually had bed space to sleep eight!
Down on the Escalante River Saturday was a great day for Kerry and Nate. They started the day just after 7 am. Their campsite was just below a rock feature known as ChopRock.
Saturday morning on the Escalante
True to form, Kerry set out to get to the highest point he could but soon ran into an obstacle.
Here is a nice view of the previous night’s campsite from above.
Friday night camp from above
Here is a bit of a slide show from their morning below Chop Rock.
Then it was back to the boats for a few miles of paddling to the mouth of Neon Canyon. Neon Canyon is a very popular destination along the river. It is easily accessible to hikers from a trailhead off the Hole in the Rock road that is only about 30 miles from Escalante. Neon is also home to an amazing feature called the Golden Cathedral that has been on Kerry’s bucket list for a long, long time. They beached the boats and started a mile long walk up canyon to the Golden Cathedral.
The Golden Cathedral did not disappoint!
The Golden Cathedral
At this point Kerry was really wishing that he had the necessary gear to go for the ultimate Golden Cathedral experience. The section of Neon Canyon above the GC is a serious slot canyon, and the E-ticket experience is to climb up to the table land above, descend the slot canyon, and then rappel down through the holes in the ceiling. That requires appropriate ropes and harnesses that they had not brought!
If only we had the right gear!
Such a beautiful setting was not to be left without some good shenanigans!!
When they got back to the river their prayers were answered. They met up with a pair of hikers, Brett and Dean, who had the right gear and were planning on making the descent, so they teamed up with them! By 1 pm they were off on the hike up to the Neon slot drop-in point.
Off to the head of Neon Canyon
Just before 2 pm they had reached a point where they could descend safely into the slot.
Dropping in
Soon they were in the canyon and applying their canyoneering skills.
Winding through the slot canyon
It was soon time for what Kerry refers to as Type 2 fun as they reached their first flooded stretch.
Kerry and Nate got some pro tips from Brett and Dean on how to negotiate the deeper water. Note the hole in the rock that provided access to this point. Looks like a tight squeeze!
Hands up, inflated pack!
Kerry gets a little crazy here! Probably would have been a good time to be wearing a helmet.
Cowabunga, Kerry!!!
About 3:30 they had reached the point where they could drop through the ceiling of the Golden Cathedral. Time for a gear check.
Canyoneering requires some specialized gear
Kerry was the first one down and made sure he had his camera ready to roll.
View from the mid-rappel
The last part of the rappel into the Golden Cathedral is a relatively short free hang section.
Free hanging in the Golden Cathedral
Then it was Nate’s turn to descend.
Nate descending
By 4 pm, with another bucket list item checked off, they were back on the river as they only had one more full day and many miles left before they would be leaving the canyon.
Helmets? Don’t need no stinking helmets if you can limbo!
Of course there was still time to explore any side canyons that they encountered!
After a short exploration it was back to the river, and around 7 pm they found a good spot to camp for the night.
Here is a slide show from their afternoon.
As for me, I woke early Saturday morning at my campsite along the Fremont River in the FishLake National Forest to a steady rain. I set off back towards Capitol Reef, hoping to find a coffee shop or restaurant to get some breakfast. The pickings were very slim, and it wasn’t until I got all the way back to Torrey before I found an open restaurant. The skies had cleared, and just after 8 am I was able to watch a group of tourists set off on a guided llama tour targeted for families traveling with kids.
Llama expedition departs
My plan for the day was to do a bunch of driving. In my excursions the previous day I noticed an interesting unpaved road, the Notom-Bullfrog road, that runs about 31 miles from UT-24 along the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold all the way down to the Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell. The road runs between the Waterpocket fold on the west and the Henry Mountains on the east and looked like a very nice route!
Approximate route of Notom-Bullfrog road
At about 9:30 I set off down the Notom-Bullfrog road. The first couple of miles were paved, but the rest was dirt. It was mostly smooth, with only a few rough sections. Quite a contrast from the Hole In The Rock road!
Notom-Bullfrog road near UT-24
The road runs parallel to the Waterpocket Fold and you can see the steep escarpment where the land east of the fold had dropped relative to the west. What we can see is just a hint of a much larger geologic event that happened 50 to 70 million years ago where a major fault caused the east side of the fault to drop around 7,000 feet. That fault was buried deep in the earth, and what we see today is the result of the uplift of the Colorado plateau followed by erosion.
Waterpocket Fold from the Notom-Bullfrog road
From Wikipedia, “The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as “reefs”, from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962.” In the video above you can clearly see the reef-like nature, and try putting yourself in the place of a settler trying to take a wagon to the other side of a reef that extends 60 miles from high mountains in the north to deep canyons in the south and you can understand why this part of Utah was very sparsely settled.
The Fremont River starts up in the Wasatch Plateau to the west of Capitol Reef just 8.4 miles above where I had camped for the night. Water must keep moving from high ground to low and the Fremont River provides a channel for a flow from the Wasatch Mountains all the way to the Colorado River. The canyon carved out by the Fremont River as it moves from the 10,000+ elevation of the Wasatch Range down to the Colorado River provided relatively easy access across the reef. UT-24 follows the course of that river from Loa all the way until it is joined by Muddy Creek to form the Dirty Devil River just downstream from Hanksville .
The first 20 miles of the Notom road passes through areas that are quite open and sprinkled with the remnants of early ranches and small settlements. At about 20 miles you reach the turnoff for the Cedar Mesa campground, which is probably the only campground in the National Park where there might be space available without advance reservations. It is primitive, very small (five sites), and available on a first come first served basis.
Mt. Pennell of the Henry Range
Below Cedar Mesa the road enters a relatively narrow wash, and then in another 13 miles it meets the Burr Trail Road. That road is the only other paved road that cuts across the Capitol Reef. It terminates at UT-12 at Boulder. The BT road leaves the relatively flat wash and cuts east across the canyon lands immediately above Lake Powell. There are spectacular deep canyons and great views of the very depleted Lake Powell. About 4 miles from Bullfrog Marina the Burr Trail merges into UT-276 for the final stretch.
Visitor CenterView of the Marina
The BF Marina was quite underwhelming due to the extremely low water levels. The Visitor Center was closed and my car was the only one in their parking lot. I made a very brief stop and then started back up. One option from this point would have been to take UT-276 to Hanksville, but I opted to retrace my steps up the the point where the Burr Trail Road cuts across the reef. Some people turn up their noses at out-and-back routes, but I find that, especially in areas that are so scenic, the return looks like completely different trip.
When the BT Road descended back into the wash below the Cedar Mesa Campground and proceeded north I was very conscious of how intimidating what appeared to be a solid wall of cliffs would have been to explorers. When I reached the junction with the Notom Road the Burr Trail Road headed west into a canyon where a set of hair-raising switchbacks starts a five-mile climb to a summit at 6822 feet.
At the summit the road exits the National Park and enters the Dixie National Forest for a 30 mile drive to Boulder. The road traverses forested uplands and crosses canyons and washes. One of the highlights is a 5 mile stretch through Long Canyon, a narrow canyon that is sometimes bracketed by beautiful red sandstone cliffs.
On the Burr Trail Road in Long Canyon
When I got back to Boulder I stopped at the Burr Trail Grill for some lunch and a piece of pie. I had some cell service and started to deal with an issue that had been troubling me. My car was a Prius with a lot of miles on it, and the front bumper had taken a real beating over time. Thursday evening I had taken a drive 18 miles down the Hole In The Rock road and my bumper and moldings beneath the car had shaken loose, and I had even lost a piece of the bumper assembly on the road. I had done some emergency repairs using baling wire and duct tape, but I would need to drive 36 miles down that road, and then another 10 on roads that might make the the HITR road look like a walk in the park, in order to pick up Kerry and Nate. The prospect of making the return trip over those roads with a fully loaded car was looking pretty daunting.
The kicker was when I looked at the weather report and saw that there was a good possibility of thunderstorms for Sunday night. There were some very dusty sections on the road, and if it rained they would turn into mud. I decided that the prudent course would be to rent a jeep for the pickup. Escalante and Boulder are very small towns, but I did find an outfitter in Escalante that had a jeep that would be available Monday, so I reserved it.
Then it was back to Escalante for some hang time at Escalante Outfitters, dinner, and then camping for the night where the HITR road intersects UT-12. The next morning would bring some good and some not so good news!
At the end of the last episode in this series I was sacked out in my car 18 miles down the Hole In The Rock road, while Kerry and Big Nate were camped along a bend in the Escalante River about 9.3 river miles downstream from their put in point the day before. It is now Friday, May 12, at the beginning of the day.
Down on the river, by 10 am Nate and Kerry were up, about, and getting ready to continue on their adventure. Boats had been reorganized and pumped up.
Friday morning, ready to shove off
While the bulk of Kerry and Nate’s adventure involved floating down a long river, I was off on an adventure of my own. I had gotten up early, driven back to Escalante for espresso and breakfast, and was on the road doing what I love to do–driving.
View of the put in location from UT-12. From here the road descends, crosses the river, and rises along Calf Creek Canyon on the other side
The plan for the day was to investigate Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol Reef is a 75 mile drive north of Escalante along Utah Scenic Byway 12, aka UT-12, an incredibly scenic road through some of the least traveled parts of the country. I was on the road by 10 am, heading north on UT-12 from Escalante toward Boulder. The first scenic part of the road winds its way along an escarpment about the upper Escalante River with lots of curves, vistas, and steep descents and climbs.
The most awesome section is called the Hogback. For several miles the road is on the top of the ridge separating the Escalante River and one of its main tributaries, Boulder Creek. There is a steep drop off on each side down into their respective canyons. Someday I want to get set up to capture video on my drives, and this road would be the first I would I would want to capture.
Shortly before Boulder there is a Forest Service Road named Hell’s Backbone that joins from the left. There is a loop drive from Escalante that goes due north into the Dixie National Forest and then connects back to UT-12 via the Hell’s Backbone route. I had hoped to do that on my trip in this year, but the change in focus from Escalante to San Rafael nixed that!
Looking down on Boulder Creek where it descends from Boulder Mountain into Boulder
Boulder is the only town in the 55 mile stretch between Escalante and Grover. It is the most remote town in the contiguous United States and did not even have a paved road or electricity until 1947. It is a farming and ranching community that sits at the base of Boulder Mountain. That mountain is the source of the bulk of the water that flows down the Escalante. Boulder Mountain has a very flat summit with over 70 square miles of land above 11,000 feet, and it is snowmelt from this plateau that feeds the Escalante in the spring/summer.
The area that I explored on this trip
From Boulder the road goes over the shoulder of Boulder Mountain through the Dixie National Forest. There are some nice growths of lodgepole pines along the road, and on the east there are vistas of the Henry Mountains and the Waterpocket Fold. The Henry Mountains were the last mountain range in the lower 48 states to be mapped and surveyed.
Henry Mountains from UT-12. Mt. Pennell is about 26 miles away as the crow flies, or about 100 if you go by car.
Meanwhile, down on the river Kerry and Nate were making good progress. Here is Nate entering a bit of a rapids.
It’s all about the setup when encountering obstacles
Once Nate got his raft straightened out it was smooth sailing.
The right line makes all the difference
Back on the road, about noon after about 65 miles I reached Torrey at the intersection of UT-24. UT-12 terminates here, and UT-24 is the main east-west artery in this part of Utah. Torrey is the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park if one comes from the west as UT-24 provides access to I-70 at Richfield. On the east the route goes to Hanksville where it turns north to join I-70 a few miles west of Green River. There is a route to the north that would use UT-72 from Loa to I-70 for what looks like an incredibly scenic 40 mile drive. Maybe next time!!
The Visitor Center for Capitol Reef National Park is about 11 miles east of Torrey. The road takes you along an escarpment that is a feature of the Waterpocket Fold. The WF is a geologic feature caused by a wrinkle in the earth that runs from Lake Powell in the south to about 8 miles north of Torrey. For once, I did remember to stop and get photos of some of the prominent features along the road.
Sulfur Creek
The Fluted Wall
The Castle From Afar
The Castle Up Close
CRNP is a long and skinny park that runs from north of Torrey about 80 miles down to Lake Powell. The main tourist accessible feature is the Scenic Drive that turns off of UT-24. Not very long, at only 8 miles, but very scenic. The road runs along the west side of the WF with access to a number of slot canyons that descend from the fold. My hiking abilities were severely limited, but I did stop at the ultimate point, The Golden Throne trailhead, for a very brief sojourn.
Golden Throne Trailhead
On The Trail
Can You Say Slot Canyon?
I returned to UT-24 and continued east. The road crosses the widest portion of the park, and in the 30 miles from Torrey to Caineville you can see the transition from the uplands west of the park to the deserts to the east as the road follows the Fremont River. The Fremont runs from the FishLake National Forest along UT-24, across the Waterpocket Fold, and joins up with Muddy Creek near Hanksville to form the Dirty Devil River.
While I was enroute from Torrey to Hanksville, Kerry and Nate were having more adventures on the river. There is no way they could carry enough water to last four days, so they could either use their water filters to pump potable water, or take advantage of many springs that can be found along the way.
Fresh water from a spring
It wasn’t always smooth sailing! While the river flow was pretty good, there were still numerous spots where they had to leave their boats.
Nate gets hung up
For this blog I am working from the media that Kerry and Nate captured on the trip, but unfortunately the files I have don’t have any location information. As a result, it is hard for me to determine where they are. Here Kerry gives a clue about how far downriver they have come while on a side exploration.
One must keep an eye on the weather when running a river as a heavy rainfall somewhere upstream can have serious consequences in a narrow canyon.
What if it rains?
Having read a lot of Edward Abbey the name Hanksville stood out for me, so I continued east on UT-24 until I got to Hanksville about the same time that Nate and Kerry were being rained on. I stopped to eat some Mexican food at a restaurant called the Outlaw’s Roost, and from the porch I captured a nice view of the Henry Mountains.
The Henry Mountains from the Outlaw’s Roost in Hanksville
I wanted to find a coffee shop where I could sit, read, and check my correspondence, but even a cell phone signal was difficult to find. I drove back to Torrey where I could at least get a signal and started to look for some place to stay for the night. Camping options are very limited in the National Parks, but there are many opportunities to camp in the National Forests, so I searched for dispersed camping areas in the FishLake National Forest. I identified a likely location that was about 30 miles away, so I made my way there passing through the small towns of Bicknell, Lyman, Loa, and Fremont.
While I was driving to Fishlake National Forest, there were some significant developments on the river. Here they meet some fellow travelers!
Fellow travelers
Here is one of the significant hazards that will be encountered on a rafting trip.
Watch that head!
Up until this point there have not been much in the way of identifiable landmarks that I can use to identify their position. One big help is to identify the places where creeks join the river. Here they have gotten to Silver Falls Creek! The various tributaries have their own canyons that are great targets for exploration, and the creek mouths create excellent camping sites.
Silver Falls Creek
In the map below the put in location is marked in blue at the top left, and the confluence with Silver Falls Creek is at the bottom right. The straight line distance between those point is about 15.6 miles, but the river distance is on the order of 35-40 miles. There is nothing straight ahead about a canyon here.
Travels on river days one and two
Rather than camping at Silver Falls Creek, Nate and Kerry pushed on down river for another hour and met up with some friends.
Meeting friends along the way
Mari’s husband Tom is one of Kerry’s partners in Full Tilt Team Development, and the two of them have done a lot of “hanging with Ward” over the years. They have done things like riding out a thunder storm at Reflection Canyon, descending slot canyons in Zion, rafting the Grand Canyon, and traveling to Everest Base Camp to name just a few. Both Mari and Tom have been featured in a number of Kerry’s YouTube videos. Meeting up with her means it’s time for shenanigans!
Kerry had a big mileage target for the day, so he decided to keep on down the river to take advantage of the remaining daylight. Finally, after about 29 river miles they set up camp in sight of one of their prime objectives, Neon and Chop Rock canyons.
Second night campsite, the morning after
About the same time that Kerry and Nate were settling in for the night I had also reached my destination for the night, a campsite along the Fremont River in the Fishlake National Forest.
At one point just past Fremont there was a road closed sign, but I ignored it and continued on until I reached a very nice campsite along the Fremont River. I opted once again to sleep in my car rather than set up my tent. In retrospect that was a prudent decision. I had been puzzled by the road closure, but as it started to rain I realized that the low area next to the river was a prime location for flash flooding.
Can there be too much river access?
Given how much it rained overnight I was very happy that I had opted to sleep in my car in a lot that was several feet above the river!
In May of 2023 I was the support person for a kayaking trip down the Escalante River by Kerry Ward and Nate “Big Nate” Brouwer. Wednesday, 5/10, started with a drive up to Encino to assist Kerry with one of his Full Tilt Team Development jobs. I arrived at a park where the event was to be held at 11:40 am, met Kerry, and we started to set up the event. It was a fun outdoor event that included a rocket launch and culminated in a bike build where the bikes are donated to a local charity.
We finished up the event by about 4 pm and then made the drive up to the Morgan Castle which serves as one of Kerry’s homes away from home. We stashed the gear from the event, loaded Kerry’s expedition gear into my Prius, and made a nightmarish rush hour drive across the 210 to Arcadia where we picked up Big Nate. The next stop would be Las Vegas where we would pick up inflatable kayaks for the expedition.
On the way we stopped for nourishment at a Taco Bell where Kerry and Nate picked up some crucial expedition food. The plan was for them to drop into the river on Thursday where Utah 12 crosses it just east of the town of Escalante, kayak and camp down the river for four days, and then hike out Monday to a rendezvous point off the Hole In The Rock road. They had, of course, packed some food, but the piece de resistance was the Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito from the Taco Bell Value menu. They are super cheap (currently only $1.19), filling, nutritious, and travel well when stuffed into a pack. I think they each bought about a dozen.
The American Ninja Warrior set in Las Vegas
Shortly before midnight we rolled into Vegas and made our way to the location where a very large empty lot had been transformed into the set for the American Ninja Warrior competition. Our friend Kyle Deschamps has been involved with that competition since the very beginning and got us access to the set where the final rounds for two seasons were being filmed. We got to watch several of the competition runs, hung out for a while with the very wild and crazy crew that runs the event, and then crashed for the rest of the night at Kyle’s lodgings near the set.
In the morning we rendezvoused with Kerry Sherman at the hotel where he was staying. Kerry S. was in town for a conference and had gone to REI the day before to pick up the inflatable kayaks that Kerry W. and Nate would be using. Kerry S. has been an invaluable friend and resource for many expeditions past and future! The inflatable kayaks were rather bulky. Once loaded there was barely enough room for Big Nate in the back seat.
At the Escalante Visitor Center
Luckily for Nate it was only a 300 mile drive to Escalante, and we pulled into the Visitor Center for the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument just before 1 pm. The river traverses that monument and the trip would take them also into the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. After a brief stop to check on current conditions and get the necessary permits we were off to the put in location where Utah 12 crosses the river 15 miles east of town.
Gear Inventory
By 1:30 pm we were at the river, had unloaded the gear, and Kerry and Nate were working on organizing it. Since we were at the drop in point already they would only have to carry everything about a quarter mile to the water, but on the extract they would be making a 2.5 mile hike with 1000 feet of elevation gain. That looked like it might be a considerable challenge!
Big Nate loaded down
Then it was down to the rivers edge where the kayaks were inflated and loaded with the gear. At 2:18 pm they were in the river and making their way downstream!
And they are off!!
Within the first five minutes they had already encountered their first whitewater. Minimal to be sure, but indicative of the kinds of obstacles they would be encountering along the way.
Running the rapids!
As they made their way down the river they were honing their kayaking skills. Within the first hour Nate was showing some promise!
When coming around corners they often had to negotiate passage past obstacles like piles of brush or fallen trees.
Coming around the corner
Steering can be a challenge. Not sure if Nate’s rotation in the slide show below was intentional or not!
In the first segment they were not really in a proper canyon as there was only a wall on the right side. There were still places where that wall overhung the river. Below we see Nate passing under the eaves and getting up close and personal with that wall.
Beware! The river will take you to places you would rather not go. Here Nate successfully negotiates a bit of a tangle with the bank. Poor Nate gets picked on here as Kerry is doing the filming and we don’t get to see Kerry’s misadventures.
Raft Problem Solving
My first travel experience with Kerry was an 11 day trip to Iceland. On the trip I noticed two things: first, if there is a high place, Kerry is on it, and second, he wants documentation. His travel companion is expected to be the photographer. He also has very high standards for his pictures, so Nate got some instruction from the Full Tilt School of Adventure Photography.
In the sequence of shots below the first slide would be unacceptable. Too much wasted space in the bottom of the shot. The kayaks tell a bit of the story, but no need to show both of them. The second slide is only marginally better. The third is a big improvement but fails at the top as the rim of the rock wall behind Kerry is a key feature. The fourth slide pretty much nails it but could be just a wee bit closer. For Kerry it is all about the framing!
A safety note is in order here. When we went to the Visitor Center this year I remember the ranger talking about the need to wear helmets, and cautioned that rafters had at times bonked their noggins on this overhanging tree. Not so likely when the water is this low and slow, but if the water were higher and rushing through that would be a problem. Given the conditions Kerry and Nate were quite safe, but if they were in a situation where being tossed from the boat in a rocky stream was a likelihood, then helmets would be essential.
In the hurry to get from Vegas to an early put in we hadn’t had time to stop and eat, so after less than two hours on the water their favorite time had arrived! The pause that refreshes!
Burrito O’Clock
There was no shortage of magnificent vistas as they made their way downstream. Canyonlands are a great place for a photographer!
The view downstream
I’ve done a lot of walking around with Kerry, and I am able to keep up with him mainly because he is always stopping to investigate some feature, or pet a cat. At about 5:20 ss they came around a bend he noticed what looks like a cave. So, they beached their boats to explore the cave.
The Cave!!
Even though the cave was a bit disappointing depth-wise, it did provide an opportunity for some classic Ward hijinks. Actually, both of them are inveterate photo hogs, and if there is a proper frame they will use it!
At places where the river widens out, it also gets shallower, so there are going to be many more rocky hazards. In the picture below we can see a bit of a boulder field that they need to negotiate.
There might be a way to float it a through, but sometimes all you can do is get out and walk!
Meanwhile back at the ranch, I was in Escalante after doing some exploring down the Hole In The Rock road. I had made plans to meet up with one of my trail angels. In 2018 I ran the Zion 50K ultra marathon. About 18 miles in I was at the top of a very steep descent that filled me with terror when my feet slipped from under me and I wound up flat on my back. My despair was deepening when I heard a voice asking if I was okay. I looked up and there was a beautiful young lady who turned out to be not just the sweeper but an explorer and writer named Morgan Sjogren. I had a chance to chat with her as she shepherded me through the next eight miles of the race.
Morgan spends most of her time exploring the desert in the Grand Staircase/Glen Canyon area ala one of her heroes, Edward Abbey. She had planned to be in Escalante at this time, but had made a rare visit to the big city, gotten sick, and was stuck recovering in Salt Lake City. Although our planned meetup did not happen, I was happy to see that “Path of Light”, her new book, was prominently displayed at Escalante Outfitters.
Can you say “slot” canyon?
Down on the river, shortly after 6 pm Kerry and Nate had spotted a very narrow crack that appeared to go all the way through the wall. This very tiny slot canyon was definitely worthy of further exploration so they beached their boats and checked it out.
Found something very cool!
One of the cool things about descending rivers in the canyon lands is that you will encounter many side canyons that are also worthy of exploration. Kerry and Nate did some very in depth (but definitely not very “in width”) investigation. Nate took the lead into the canyon, but soon reached his limit and tagged up.
Big Nate tags up
In Nate’s defense, he is known as Big Nate for a reason, and at 6’5″ or so takes up a bit more volume than Kerry does. He does, however, gamely follow as Kerry takes the lead.
Nate follows Kerry’s lead!
Then came a dream come true, a Shangri-La moment as they burst through the crack to a parallel canyon, a very different world from the one they just left! I am trying to pin down the location, but it appears to be a horseshoe bend kind of a situation where the river doubles back on itself. If so, then this slot would provide a shortcut across the neck for ultra runners traveling the river. Small ultra runners, traveling light!
Shangri-La!!
Of course, such a fine feature is worthy of some of the usual shenanigans!
It was time to set in for the night, so they began to look for a campsite. About 30 minutes down the river, or 9.3 miles from their start, they identified a great spot and settled in for the night.
As for me, after dinner at Escalante Outfitters I had headed down Hole-In-The-Rock road to see if it was as awful as it had been described by the ranger at the Visitor Center. It was. Serious washboard for a long, long, way! I made it down about 18 miles, identified a place where I could camp, and settled myself in for the night. I had brought along a tent, but opted just to sleep in my car, which worked out okay.
Day 6 of this edition of Hanging With Ward ended well after midnight with me handing over the driving to Kerry Ward somewhere in the vicinity of Beaver, Utah. Kerry finished the drive to Saint George where we crashed once again at the home of Kerry Sherman. We spent a couple of hours in the morning drying and cleaning gear.
Gear cleanup
Kerry Sherman once again proved that he is indeed the “Host with the Most” by whipping together a very nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and tortillas.
Kerry Sherman is The Host With The Most!!
Once we had eaten our fill it was time to load up the car and hit the road back to Las Vegas. The drive back was fast and easy! This was Sunday of a three day weekend and there were not many people on the road, at least in the morning!
Loaded up and ready for the road!
We spent the afternoon enjoying our luxury accommodations at the Waldorf Astoria by lounging around in the pool area. There are cabańas lining the pool area, and the lads tried to camp out in one. They were very quickly informed that they were for rentals. How much was the rental? Five hundred dollars. They declined, and the deck chairs were free.
Lounging! In the background you can see one of the $500/day cabanas!
Max’s son George was in Las Vegas on a pre-graduation excursion/celebration with several of his buddies, and he and one of his friends joined us at Sushi Neko for our second all-you-can-eat sushi excursion for this trip. I personally don’t eat that much, so all you can eat is not usually a good deal, but Kerry, Max, and the young fellows can really pack it in.
Max had a flight out that evening, so we dropped him off at the airport. I was very impressed by the ease of access at Harry Reid International Airport! I got a lot of practice as on this trip I did two pickup’s and three dropoffs. Once I learned how to avoid the Strip on exits and approaches it turned out that our location at the Waldorf was extremely convenient!! I got kudos from Chris on my driving ability. He thought I must have been a rally driver, which was significant praise as for many years he and his brother co-owned a rally car in Australia. I had to let him know that it was just my years of delivering pizzas for Domino’s in Michigan that gave me my training.
Kerry and Chris at Mt. Charleston trailhead
Since the rafting excursion had been cut short we still had another day, and Kerry had a big item on his bucket list. Mount Charleston is about 40 miles from Las Vegas, and at 11,916 feet is a worthy peak to bag. The next morning we were up early and I dropped off Kerry and Chris at the trailhead at about 6:40 am. Some of the trails from this location were closed, but the trail up to Mt. Charleston had just opened on Friday. That early in the morning the area was virtually deserted.
First leg
This hike was also significant for “peak-bagging Hardwick”. They would be able to also do Mt. Griffith, and these two peaks would put Chris at 350 peaks on his lifetime list. His goal is 1000. Chris is amazing man with big goals, and that makes him a perfect adventure companion for Kerry. Last year the two of them spent a month driving around southwest Africa in Thor, Chris’s Land Cruiser, and this July they will explore west Africa for a couple of weeks before Kerry splits off to Ethiopia.
Even though it was Memorial Day, it was not long before they encountered their first snow!
One Memorial Day many years ago I decided to hike by myself to the summit of Mt. Baden Powell in the local mountains. The trail up from Vincent Gap is one of my favorite training routes. It is short, only 4 miles one way, but intense as it gains almost 3,000 feet in that time.
Kerry found a small treasure
About half-way up the trail disappeared in the snow, and as Kerry said in the video I opted to bypass the switchbacks and just go straight up. Going up a mountain is an example of a convergent process–if you just keep going up you will reach the peak. There were footprints going up, so I followed them and reached the top after a short but very intensive climb. I was all by myself on a beautiful, snow-covered peak and it was wonderful!
More snow near the ridge
Then I started to think about going down. My plan had been to follow my footprints back down, but there were all kinds of footprints heading in all kinds of directions. I realized that going down is a divergent process. There are many ways to go down, and a lot of them will kill you! About the time I was starting to fear for my life, a group of hikers who were actually prepared–long pants, jackets, crampons, ice axes, and maps–reached the summit. I was able to go down with them and was spared being the subject of a lost hiker story.
View of route to Mt Charleston from Griffith Peak
By about 9:15 they had summited Griffith Peak and Chris was one peak closer to his milestone of 350 peaks. They were about 2 miles from Mt. Charleston, and the route traveled along the ridge between the two summits. Some of the terrain between the two peaks was relatively flat, snow-free, and fast and they were able to actually do some running.
Running the ridge
Part of the route passed through a forest of dead trees. It looked like at some time there had been a fire and the trees never recovered. The remains were very weathered and there were no signs of new growth.
Through the dead forest
Shortly before 11 they were on the final approach to the summit. There was considerable snow on the route and Kerry was able to point out one of the dangers hikers must be aware of when traversing snow areas. Beware the cornice!!
Beware the cornice!!
As they approached the summit they began to notice some very interesting artifacts! Large pieces of twisted metal and cables that appeared to be the remnants of a plane crash.
Wreckage from a 1955 crash of a secret flight out of Burbank, headed for the SkunkWorks
The wreckage was from the crash of a C-54 cargo plane that was being used to ferry workers from Burbank to the top secret Skunkworks at Area 51 in Nevada. On a stormy night in November, 1955, the plane did not make it over the ridge between the Griffith and Charleston peaks. Check here for a nice account of the incident.
By 11:30 they had achieved Chris’s summit number 350, and Kerry engaged in his usual shenanigans. When I picked them up after the hike Chris had shown me his photos, and I saw the picture below.
The trip back down was a bit more challenging than they expected. The trail had to cross some avalanche slopes that had been well-shaded and still held substantial amounts of unstable snow! Even using the “correct” route down can pose significant risk, so significant care is required.
Traversing an avalanche slope
In an earlier video Kerry had referenced traversing “properly angled” snow, and this is an instance of having to traverse very improperly angled snow! One slip, and you are going to fall a long, long way. Below we see Chris (who is a very experience mountaineer) using proper techniques for crossing such patches.
Chris Hardwick using proper technique
The Dynamic Duo were not really properly prepared for such conditions, and were lacking the most important tools in the mountaineers quiver, ice axes! Ideally they would have had a pair of ice axes so they could use them as Chris does in the video above. Chris at all times maintains three points of contact as he moves across and uses his very makeshift ice axe substitutes to dig into the slope.
You use what you can find
I am happy to report that despite the extreme danger they survived the descent!
Shortly after 2 I got word that they were close to the end and would be emerging from a different trailhead. I posted up as close to the trailhead as I could and waited for them. Before 3:30 Kerry emerged. He said Chris was lagging a bit behind, but he was short of the 20 miles he wanted for the day. He ran on down the road heading back for Vegas while I waited for Chris.
Bringing it home
Chris arrived in short order and gave me the lowdown on the day while we killed time to allow Kerry to get far enough ahead to log his 20 miles. I hit that pretty much on the head, and soon we were on our way back to negotiate the nightmare of driving in Vegas on a holiday! Kerry was happy, however, as we got to take one more pass by the Bellagio fountains as they were in full eruption mode.
Bellagio Fountains
We were back at the Waldorf Astoria just after 4:30, and Chris was able to shower and pack his gear before we made another airport run to drop him for his flight. Kerry, Danielle, and I went to a Dim Sum restaurant, Xiao Long Dumplings, for our final meal of this Las Vegas excursion. We were up early on Tuesday to drop off Danielle at the airport, and then Kerry and I headed back to LA. Happily, it was one of the smoothest drives back I have ever done, and up until we got into the LA metropolitan area I don’t think that my speed went below 80 for more than a couple of miles!
Friday, 5/24, or day five of this edition of Hanging With Ward, turned out to be a long day. So long that it actually spliced into the next for a long stretch of sleep deprivation. That is not an unusual feature of an adventure with Kerry, as detailed in my Sleep? Who needs sleep? blog post from the August, 2018 edition!
Luckily, I was quite rested up going into the day, having had the benefit of sleeping in beds at reasonable hours for the trip so far. There were some short nights, but I seem to be able to get by without extended periods of sleep. Six hours is a long night for me, and getting up early has never been an issue.
My original plan was to camp out for four nights as I had in May, 2023 when I supported Kerry Ward and Big Nate for their float down the Escalante.
However, just before 7 pm I got a message from Kerry about a change in plans. They were going to do ChopRock the next morning, hike out in the pm, and then I would pick them up and we would make the 4+ hour drive up to the San Rafael river to join Kerry Sherman and friends for a two day float down that river. I knew then that Friday was going to be a long day with a lot of driving at the end, so I opted for comfort instead of camping and spent Thursday night in a very cute lodging in Escalante, Dora’s Country Cottage.
I did spend a restless night, but that is the norm for me when traveling. I was up early and spent a good part of the morning hanging out at Escalante Outfitters. I had my large cappucino, did some reading and planning, and had a delicious Escalante BLT sandwich. I even treated myself to a piece of cheesecake! For long periods of time I was the only customer.
Friday afternoon I took a drive into the mountains north of town, gaining several thousand feet of elevation in just a few miles and traveling through several biomes until I got up into the tall trees. Due north of Escalante one quickly enters the eastern portion of the Dixie National Forest, and there are countless opportunities for dispersed camping that I hope to explore at some point.
Dixie National Forest north of Escalante
I still had some time to kill, so headed back to town and found a shady spot next to the Escalante River. The bulk of the flow in the lower Escalante comes from the snow melt from Boulder Mountain, but that input comes in downstream from the town, so, except for extreme rain events the flow through town is sparse to non-existent. I spent my time reading, finishing up “Light Perpetual: A Novel”, by Francis Spufford, an author whose work I have been really enjoying. A bit later I was visited by some of the wildlife!
The Escalante River in town
At 6:24 I received a message from Kerry that the Three Amigos (Kerry, Chris Hardwick, and Max Simmons) had reached the mouth of Fence Canyon and would pump water, repack, and start back to the trailhead. ETA 9-9:15. I drove out to the trailhead a bit early to cut down on the night driving.
The view from the Egypt 1 trailhead
There was a small group camped at the trailhead. They were going to be doing a multi-day trip much like the one the Amigos had done. They planned to take four days to do what the Amigos did in two. They were eagerly awaiting the return of the Three Amigos as they wanted to get intel about the canyons in question.
About 9:30 Kerry arrived at the trailhead and had a chat with the group camped there. Chris and Max arrived shortly after, and I was apprised of a development that was going to make an already long day even longer. Max had gotten his hand caught between a rope and a hard place and had sustained some substantial damage. It had bled substantially and he was in some pain. They had no first aid gear along, so he had just put on a glove that had managed to stanch the bleeding, and he wanted to have it examined by a doctor.
That was more than a bit of a problem. It was 10 pm on a Friday night, and we were in nowhere, Utah, 27 miles from the nearest paved road with no cell phone service. We loaded the gear into my car and I made the drive up Hole-in-the-Rock road until we got the Utah 12 where we could get some cell service. A search for 24 Hour ER’s turned up a number of options, with the closest one being 66 miles away in Panguitch.
Screenshot
I hit the road and just before midnight we pulled up at the Emergency Room entrance at Garfield Memorial Hospital. Within seconds of our arrival an orderly appeared asking if we needed a wheelchair, and that was just the beginning of some top flight emergency medical care. Max walked in, found that he was the only patient, and was attended to by what seemed to be about 4 or 5 lovely nurses. I was a bit envious! While we sat in the waiting room a nurse came by and gave us cans of coconut water to tide us over. I can’t say enough nice things about the service we received at this hospital!
They cut the glove from Max’s hand, cleaned it up, took x-rays, and determined that nothing was broken and he didn’t even need stitches. We were free to go. The lads were pretty drained from their adventures over the past two days, and we were due to meet up with friends Sam and Audrey in the morning at the Swinging Bridge over the San Rafael river. That was 188 miles and over three hours away. A search for some lodging proved fruitless, so it was back to the road again.
The first phase of the trip was a 60 mile drive up US-89. Route 89 is a pretty awesome road that runs from the Mexican border up through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana to the Canadian border. I have driven quite a few miles on that road and have ambitions of driving the entire route, but I prefer to do it in that daytime! The ride was going smoothly, but as we approached Interstate 70 it began to rain.
By the time we got on the interstate the sprinkling had turned into a downpour. That segment of I-70 has pretty indistinct lane markings under the best of conditions, and under a heavy rainfall it was very difficult to see them, so the next 40+ miles were pretty nightmarish. I finally reached the point where I was at my limit and found a pull out where we could stop and I could close my eyes for 30 minutes. By that time the rain had stopped and the rest of the drive passed without incident.
At the Swinging Bridge trailhead
Just before 5 am we arrived at the Swinging Bridge trailhead on the San Rafael River. Sam and Audrey had driven in the day before and had already headed down the river. Sam had left his truck at the trailhead with the keys in the exhaust, so Chris and Max moved over to the truck and the four of us settled in to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before hitting the river.
By about 8:30 we were up and moving around and trying to decide what to do next. Kerry Sherman had put in the day before about 20 miles upstream with a couple of friends. They were planning on a two day float terminating about 20 miles downstream, but we didn’t know how far they had gotten or if they were up or down stream from us. Sam and Audrey had put in at the Swinging Bridge about 7 pm the day before and were some unknown distance downstream. Water in the river was flowing quite nicely at just over 300 cfs.
Water under the bridge
The segment above the Swinging Bridge passes through what is known as the Little Grand Canyon and is a serene flat water float that is very scenic. There are numerous opportunities to stop and explore side canyons rife with pictograms and petroglyphs. Below the Swinging Bridge the river has two segments, known as Black Boxes 1 and 2, where the canyon narrows and there are some extensive rapids ranging from Class II to Class IV.
About 9 we received a message from Sam that they had gotten downstream a few miles to just before the first Black Box where they had camped for the night. Sam had planned on running the two BB’s, but Audrey very sensibly had balked at rapids running without safety gear like life vests and helmets. They had come out of the river and were hitch hiking back to the Swinging Bridge with the plan to drive back up the river to Fuller Landing where they could put in and float the Little Grand Canyon. We resolved to do the same.
We did have a bit of a problem, however. My gas gauge said we had about 60 miles left, and the nearest gas station was in Green River, about 50 miles from where we were. My gas gauge tends to badly underestimate remaining miles, but trying to make the 20 mile drive to the new put in location and then get safely back to gas was not a prudent option, so our first task was to climb back in the car and make the drive to Green River to fuel up. The advantage was that we did get to see the stretch of road between the river and Green River in the daytime, and I got a chance to get some coffee.
By 10:30 am we finally were back on the road. We crossed the river at the Swinging Bridge, and the next 10 or so miles took us through some pretty fantastic canyon lands in an area known as the San Rafael Swell. There were interesting rock formations and pictograms galore along the road.
Just before noon we reached the put in location at a location called Fuller Landing. We found Sam and Audrey as well as several other groups who were also entering the river at that point. There was even a drop in dog for our entertainment!
Drop in location at Fuller Landing, complete with dog!
The lads then finally got to unpack their pack rafts, something that they had been looking forward to for a long time! The previous May I had supported Kerry Ward and Big Nate on a four day float down the Escalante. They had rented inflatable kayaks from REI for that trip, and the kayaks themselves were quite a load to carry. The video below shows Nate with his load, and for reference know that Nate is about 6’5″ tall. They were lucky there in that they got to drop straight into the river, but the exit four days later required a 2.5 mile hike with 1000 feet of elevation gain. Not easy with such a load!!
Big Nate with gear for a four day float down the Escalante River
For this excursion they were using Pack Rafts, a kind of mini kayak more suitable to the kind of flat water rafting they were planning on doing. Sam and Audrey were using some more deluxe rafts that cost from 1 to 2 thousand dollars, but Kerry had found some considerably cheaper Chinese versions by Wonitago that are currently available for under $300 from Amazon. They pack down to a very small package that weighs just over 6 lbs!
Unpacking the Wonitago “Enjoy Passion” pack rafts
The Wonitago rafts have an inflation process that doesn’t require a pump, making use of the carrying case as an inflation device. It does work but is more than a bit tedious, so for excursions like this one where it isn’t really necessary to carry the raft it would be advisable to have some kind of a pump.
Chris inflating his pack raft
Just before 1 pm the now Two Amigos (Max had decided to opt out of the rafting so as not to stress his hand anymore), plus Sam and Audrey, were ready to drop in and head down river.
Max had decided to opt out of the pack rafting, so the two of us were free to explore. Max is also a fan of coffee shops, so my plan was to do a scenic excursion. My plan was to first drive down to Hanksville where I had found a very nice little coffee shop named Mowgli’s that I had visited on an earlier excursion, but unfortunately it was closed. Instead we had some Mexican food at the Outlaw’s Roost, a local restaurant.
Hanksville sits in the shadows of the Henry Mountains, which were the last mountain range in the lower 48 states to be surveyed due to their very remote location. After our repast we drove down Utah 95, a very scenic route that starts in Hanksville, skirts the Henry Mountains to the east, and then winds through the canyons north of the Colorado River. The full route crosses the Colorado River at the Hite crossing and then continues through far southeastern corner of Utah until it terminates at US-191 south of Blanding.
Colorado River from the Hite Overlook
We were working under a deadline as we needed to be back at the Swinging Bridge to retrieve Kerry and Chris, so we only got as far as the Hite Overlook. I took some pictures, but the wind was so strong that I feared being swept off the edge. I suffer from some vertigo, so even under the best of conditions I am not one to step right up to the edge, so I am falling back on the video I took when I traversed this route last August.
River at the end
Then it was back in the car for the 120 mile drive back up to the Swinging Bridge. Our timing was perfect–we arrived just as the rest of the crew were extracting their rafts. There had been some thunderstorms in the interim and the river at that time was noticeably higher and faster than it had been in the morning.
All packed up and road ready
It took less than an hour to deflate, repack the rafts, and reload the car. We were ready to head back to Saint George, but Sam knew of a hot spring that was almost on the way back. In addition to cats, Boba Tea, and high places, hot springs are one of those things that Seńor Ward does not pass up, so the next stage was a 2 hour drive to Monroe, UT, a small town south of Richfield for a quick soak in a natural hot tub.
Just before midnight we were back on the road. The drive along I-70, while only about 30 miles, seemed like forever, and by the time we hit I-15 it was apparent to me that my time behind the wheel had come to an end, so I relinquished the wheel to Kerry and closed my eyes. Thus ended a very long day! I will close with a slide show of images taken by Kerry and Chris on their 17 mile float down the San Rafael River. They did see a lot of other folks on this trip, and Kerry even picked up a hitchhiker for a short stint!
When we last left our intrepid adventurers they had successfully descended the technical portion of Neon Canyon and landed in the pool in the Golden Cathedral. Wet gear was hung out to dry. Chris Hardwick slept in his tent, sans rainfly, while Kerry and Max camped cowboy style on the sand. By 6 am there had already been signs of life. Gear had dried and the morning light was flooding the Golden Cathedral.
Golden Cathedral in the Morning
The three amigos, Kerry Ward, Chris Hardwick, and Max Simmons readied themselves for a challenging day. Kerry needs no introduction here, but some attention to his companions is warranted as they both have pretty extensive shared histories with Kerry.
Chris Hardwick is an Australian entrepreneur and adventurer currently living in Vancouver, CA. Chris owns a Land Cruiser named Thor that he keeps in Africa. He and Kerry spent a month last year driving Thor around the southwest of Africa and will be exploring east Africa in Thor this July.
Max Simmons is easily Kerry’s oldest friend. They were born within months of each other in India where their parents were doing work related to public health. Their parents are great friends and the families have maintained close connections over the years, doing things like vacationing together. When Kerry was spending his formative years in East Lansing Max was living in Ann Arbor and would often make the 60 mile trip to Lansing to hang out with Kerry at places like Pinball Pete’s.
Three Amigos–Chris, Kerry, and Max
There is a large rock wall near the Golden Cathedral that has a lot of petroglyphs, or artwork etched into the stone. Some of it was created by indigenous people from time immemorial, but there is also a lot that is of more recent provenance. Think of it like a big, stone bathroom wall.
The objective for the day was going to provide a peak adventure experience for the three amigos. There are certain constants when hanging with Ward. If there is a high place, he is up there; if there is Boba place he wants some; if there is a hot spring, he is in it. He is exceptionally attracted to slot canyons, the more difficult the better. In 2018 I was crew when he, Kerry Sherman, and Sam Edwards descended the very challenging Heaps Canyon, and the target of the day, ChopRock, promised significant problems to untangle.
According to Canyoneering USA, “It is a nice one, one of the best. It can be very difficult, and should always be taken seriously. It is not a place for “Youth Groups”, college outing club adventure hikers, or “experienced outdoorsmen”. It is a place for experienced canyoneers.” There is a certain body of knowledge required to safely descend slot canyons. Proficiency at using climbing harnesses and rigging anchors for rappels is essential. There are places where rushing water has carved out deep potholes (keepers) that may be filled with water, so the canyoneer must know how to deal with them. Narrow spots may be clogged with debris making every descent different from those that came before. Teamwork is essential to make it through, and while the Three Amigos are a pretty small team they rank high on that teamwork index.
Heading up riverLooking down to the Escalante River
Shortly after 8 am they made their way out of Neon Canyon and began wading up the Escalante to the mouth of ChopRock. Near the mouth of the canyon they followed a trail taking them up to the table lands above the canyon. By 9:30 they were well above the canyon and the serious route finding began.
The table lands above and between the canyons alternate between slickrock, or bare rock surfaces, and pockets of sparse soil. In a very lightly traveled region like that leading to a difficult canyon like ChopRock trails are largely nonexistent or very sparsely marked. Kerry is very adept at negotiating such a landscape as I saw first hand when Kerry, Tom and Mari Seletos, and I took a memorable trip to Rainbow Canyon in this area several years ago. You can find Kerry’s video on that trip here.
By about 10:20 they had identified their slot canyon target below them and were looking for a way down to it.
On the table lands and looking below for the target canyon
They picked their way down to the slickrock along the canyon rim looking for an access point where they could make their way down to the bottom of the slot
On the slickrock above the slot and looking for a way down
By about 11:40 they had identified a point where they could scramble down to the bottom of the canyon. It wasn’t long before they came to their first rappel and immersion in water.
In this type of canyon there will be places where you need go go down but can’t even see the bottom. In the video below Max takes a leap of faith while praying that the rope is long enough to get him down safely.
Where did he go??
Max did indeed find the bottom and Chris and and Kerry joined him shortly. Shortly after 1 pm they had another opportunity to rappel down into a lake. In canyoneering even entering into the rappel can be challenging.
Happiness doesn’t last forever, however, and pretty soon they were into the “Grim Section” with some long swims and very tight squeezes. This is not a canyon for people with large frames!
Canyoneering is not recommended for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia. Also not for the portly among us! Kerry has a very slim build, and even he was squeezed on occasion.
Wetsuits are essential for this type of escapade. Part of the mystique of ChopRock stems from the fact that in May of 2005 a pair of young men attempted the canyon without proper equipment and wound up dying from hypothermia. Depending on water levels there may be many hours of swimming required.
The Three Amigos posted a lot of pictures and videos early in this adventure, but the volume of media dropped off sharply as they traversed the Grim section. It’s kind of hard to get out the camera when one is swimming through a long section trying to keep the gear bag high and dry.
There is a goodly amount of problem solving required to get through some of the tight spaces. There may even be sections where the bottom of the canyon may not be too narrow to afford passage and it is necessary to do things like go over an obstacle.
Problem solving and cooperation are essential
Through the labyrinth
Near the end of the slot portion Max sustained an injury to his hand. On one of those difficult entries to a rappel he got his hand caught between the rope and a rock. If injured there is nothing much one can do besides soldier on. There is no backing out once you have descended into the depths of the canyon. Max did violate one of the precepts of responsible wilderness travel by leaving something behind, but I think the wilderness will recover!
Finally, the end of the slot portion was in sight. It is quite common for these slot canyons to end as hanging canyons requiring a significant rappel that is one of the highlights of a slot canyon descent. The final rappel at ChopRock pales in comparison to the 300 foot exit from Heaps Canyon, but a 90 foot drop is nothing to sneer at.
Last one down
It’s always cool when you can do a spider drop into a pool of water for the finale!
Once down it was an easy walk down the canyon back to the Escalante River. Kerry was able to send me a message just before 6:30 predicting that they would be back at the Egypt trailhead shortly after 9 pm.
On Thursday, 5/2024 we had another early start. We woke well before 5 am at Kerry Sherman’s basement in Santa Clara, and saw that we had been joined during the night by Max Simmons. Max had flown into Las Vegas and then taken a shuttle up to Saint George, arriving after midnight. We packed up gear for the next phase of the adventure, and started on our way to Escalante and the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. The plan was for them to hike down to the Escalante River, spend a couple of days exploring slot canyons, and then inflate their pack rafts and float down the Escalante River for a couple of days. My role was to drop them off and then fetch them four days later.
When we got to Cedar City we had a choice. There is a mountain range between Cedar City and Escalante. There are three routes, two which bypass the range on the north and south. We opted for the more scenic route that goes over the top even though it is marginally slower. The summit of the mountain range is over 11,350 feet, and we got to see some snow on the way across.
Just after 11 am we arrived at the Escalante Visitor Center to get the necessary permits and information about the state of the river. The rangers indicated that the river flow was kind of low, and while it is possible to float some sections of the river there would be a lot of places where the rafts would need to be dragged or portaged.
The next stop was Escalante Outfitters, which is my favorite hangout in this area. They have coffee, great sandwiches, and really good pizzas. The lads bought sandwiches and a couple of pizzas, some of which they ate then, and the rest they packed along for later. We then headed down the Hole In The Rock road for the 28 mile drive to the Egypt 1 trailhead.
At the trailhead we met up with friends Bobby and Audrey. After some clowning around and organization of packs the sojourners were off just before 1:30 pm. The plan was to make the 4.7 mile hike down to the Escalante River, cross the river to Neon Canyon, and hike up the canyon to the Golden Cathedral. They would set up a camp at the GC, and then hike up out of the canyon and upstream to a drop in place for the slot portion of the canyon.
The hike down to the river went quickly, and just after 3 pm they entered the lower portion of Neon Canyon and started to make their way up to the Golden Cathedral (GC) which they reached just before 4 pm. The Golden Cathedral is a rock formation about half way up the canyon. There is a hole in the ceiling of the formation that is at the end of the technical slot portion of the canyon. The highlight of a Neon Canyon excursion is to rappel through the hole after descending the technical portion.
The Golden Cathedral
When they began to set up their campsite they discovered a possible problem. Chris Hardwick had a two person tent, and Max Simmons had rented a three person tent. When assembling gear at Kerry Sherman’s house that morning a decision had been made to cut down on weight by not bringing along rainflys for the tents. Chris had left his back there and had his tent sans rainfly. Max, however, not being familiar with his gear, had inadvertently brought along the rainfly and had left his tent in Saint George.
The very meager campsite
Just before 5 pm they made their way up to the canyon rim and headed up canyon to a point where they could drop into the technical portion of the canyon. That’s where the real fun begins!!
On the canyon rim
There are a number of factors that make a slot canyon technical. They are very narrow, prone to flash floods, and are often choked with debris like entire trees that have been washed down. There are places where the canyon descends abruptly and ropes are required to rappel down. Sections may be flooded and require swimming to get through them. Neon has all of those features and you can see some in the slideshow below.
Sometimes there are faster methods than a rappel to get down…
Just before 7:30 pm they reached the final rappel down into the Golden Cathedral.
Setting up the drop into the Golden Cathedral
Kerry descending into the Golden Cathedral
Once they reached the Golden Cathedral there was enough open sky that Kerry could get a message out to me. He said that they were making a change in the plan. Instead of rafting down the Escalante they were going to do ChopRock canyon the next day and then come back out to the Egypt 1 trailhead. Kerry Sherman had taken a small group up to float the San Rafael River earlier that day, and there had been discussion of doing that instead of the Escalante. The lack of flow, combined with the lack of tent capacity had tilted the scales in that direction. The new plan was for me to pick them up the next evening (Friday) and then make a 4.5 hour drive up to the Swinging Bridge on the San Rafael River where we would post up for the night and put in the river Saturday morning.
My friends think that I have an adventurous life. The sad truth is that I don’t have a lot of things on my bucket list to do and tend to get stuck in my routines. If left to my own devices my adventures would be few and far between, so it helps that I have a friend who has a bucket list that is infinite in length and does not let a moment slide by without chalking up an adventure.
Kerry Ward is a proponent of what he calls the Full Tilt Life (FTL), and he embodies that principal all the time. When one spends time with Kerry one needs to be prepared to be on the move a lot. Kerry and I have a symbiotic relationship. In order to maintain his FTL he sometimes needs some support, both for his work and for his recreation.
If, for example, he has a job for his company, Full Tilt Team Development, in Calgary one day that goes until 5 pm and then a job the next morning at 8 am in Phoenix, then it helps to have a friend who will pick him up at 10:30 pm at LAX, drive all night to Phoenix, work the job with him, then drop him off at the Phoenix airport afterwards. Sometimes connections can be challenging, and connections are my speciality. I have both the willingness and the flexibility to jump in and help with those connections.
On the recreational side, if he has a nine day open span and sees an ultra marathon in Cappadocia at the end of it, then it helps to have a congenial traveling companion to share expenses and driving for a road trip who he can call up on a Tuesday and ask “want to go to Turkey this week?” The great thing about retirement is that I can say “sounds great, let’s do it!”
The current adventure began on Monday, 5/20, when I drove up to the Morgan Castle in Hollywood to pick up Kerry and his gear. From there it was off to Las Vegas where we checked in to a luxurious 2 bedroom condo in the Waldorf Astoria Residences. Kerry had met a new friend a couple of weeks ago who had offered the use of his place in Vegas from 5/20 through 5/28.
After checking in it was off to Harry Reid airport to pick up his wife Danielle who was flying in from Puerto Vallarta for the week and would be staying at the Waldorf while we were off on other adventures. We enjoyed the Waldorf for the day, went out for all you can eat sushi, and then picked up another adventure buddy, Chris Hardwick, at the airport. Chris owns a Land Cruiser that he keeps in South Africa, and last summer Kerry and Chris had spent a month driving around the south and west of Africa in that vehicle.
Next it was off to the Mirage Hotel for the 8:30 performance of the Beatles Love show. Our deeply discounted front row seats had been secured by a mutual friend, the supremely talented Holland Lohse. Holland has logged over 4500 shows performing just about every acrobatic role in that venerable Cirque du Soleil show. Afterwards, Holland and his performing partner Sienna Martinez treated us to an extensive tour of the inner workings of a Cirque show.
We got in late, and then were up early as we wanted to get to St. George, UT, by about 7 am. Our first stop was at friend Kerry Sherman’s house. Kerry S. runs outdoor excursions and was lending us ropes and other gear that would be used for the canyoneering that was on the agenda for the next several days. We also met up with another one of Kerry W’s new friends, Jenny, who he had met just a couple of days before at a wedding in Texas.
Speaking of that wedding! The celebrants were Mike Foncannon and Kiera Britton. Mike is one of Kerry’s facilitators for his Full Tilt events, and Kiera is an actor. They were married a few days before in Texas and had driven up to Utah so that Kerry could take them on a canyoneering adventure. Once we were geared up we met them in Zion Canyon and they were off on the shuttle with Kerry, Chris, and Jenny to attack Behunin slot canyon. It was a very challenging choice for a pair (actually trio, including Jenny) of rookie canyon runners. While it is not a very technical canyon, it does have a total of nine rappels, all over 100 feet, culminating in a final 165 foot free drop to the Emerald Pools.
While the canyoneers were off adventuring I took the opportunity to visit one of my favorite road hangouts, River Rock Coffee Roasters in LaVerkin. They have good coffee, great sandwiches, and very nice pizzas in a very lovely location. When I did the Zion 50K ultra marathon in 2018 I spent a good deal of time there and fell in love with it. It was great to be back there. I was pretty sleep deprived already so after the coffee shop I found a shady spot in a park and took a bit of a snooze.
Around 4:30 I headed back to the park to await the canyon crew. In this kind of work there is a lot of waiting around. I had purchased a Garmin Messenger, a small satellite communication device that Kerry was carrying. The problem is that in slot canyons there is usually not enough sky for the communicator to work, so it wasn’t until about 6 pm when they had exited the canyon at the Emerald Pools that Kerry could get a message out. Shortly after 7 they arrived back at the Visitor Center on the shuttle. They arrived in very high spirits, and then Kerry, Chris, Jenny, and I headed back to Saint George to Chez Sherman while Mike and Kiera were off on the next phase of their honeymoon trip.
Three weeks from Saturday I will be doing the Antelope Canyon 55K Ultra Marathon! Just a couple of weeks ago my chances of actually finishing it were looking pretty dim. My always troublesome right foot was doing pretty well mid-December and then as is my wont I pushed too hard too fast and wound up with a couple of very angry tendons in my ankle.
January was a training nightmare. Every time I went out to walk my ankle would heartily protest. It didn’t want to bear any weight, and the articulation would not track properly and caused a lot of pain. Eventually it started to come around, but it would take a mile or so just to get to the point where it was tracking properly. Once on track it would work well, but would too quickly tire and lose alignment.
Last weeks summary
Finally, just two weeks ago it started to feel good again. I could start walking and have a working ankle right from the start. I was able to start putting on more miles at a faster pace, and at the beginning of last week I was on a good track. Then I got sick. I started coughing Wednesday night, felt worse on Thursday, and then spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed. Not good!
My recovery started on Sunday when I was able to get in a 3 mile walk and a 10 mile bike ride. My distance and speed has been increasing steadily this week, and today and yesterday have giving me renewed hope.
Wednesday afternoon I did a 10K walk around the CSULB campus, and each mile was faster than the one before. The first mile pace was 18:43, and each subsequent mile was faster, culminating with a 16:25 sixth mile.
Through Wednesday
Thursday Morning
Today was even better! I had a dentist appointment in Santa Monica at 8 am, so I headed up there at 5 and had time to get in another 10K. This time the first mile was 16:43, and once again each subsequent mile was faster. My sixth mile, walking down Wilshire Blvd from the beach was done in 14:51! There are a lot of stoplights on that stretch of road, so I found myself occasionally trotting along in order to catch the green lights–the first time that I have gone beyond a walk in a long time! I maintained a 16 minute average for the 10K, and I am planning on another 10K excursion this afternoon.
Looking at the results from last years races (55K, 50 mile, and 100 mile) I noticed something a bit strange. There were about 150 starters in the 100 mile race, but only 47 finishers. That seems a rather high attrition rate for a rather flat course, but I think I have found out what the reason is.
First, the 55K and 50 mile races don’t actually get into Antelope Canyon. My race starts in Page, heads over to Horseshoe Bend, follows the rim of the canyon for a couple of miles, cuts across the slick rock to Waterhole slot canyon, then heads back to Page where it finishes with a 10 mile loop encircling the city. The 50 miler does pretty much the same thing.
The 100 mile race starts in Page and heads immediately out to the Antelope slot canyon. It runs up the canyon, returns through the canyon, and then heads over to the Horseshoe Bend and Waterhole slot canyon like the shorter races before heading back up to Page. It then finishes with SIX laps around Page (60 miles). Kind of a boring end.
But wait, there’s more! Antelope Canyon is a very desirable destination, but access is very limited. It is in the Navajo Nation, and in order to tour it reservations and a Navajo guide are required. I am guessing that a lot of folks who sign up for the 100 have no intention of finishing but instead use the race as a way to gain access for some quality time in the canyons and then just blow off that last 60 miles. Maybe next year!
Photo Credit for Featured Image: Erica Li (@sept_pancake) on Unsplash
Captain Univac 