Boyz-R-Us Weekend

After a long cold winter it's time to get out of town. Cathy and I were originally going to do a road trip to the southeast corner of the state to the Comanche Grasslands so I could scope out some antelope hunting areas, but she decided she would rather ski, and I got a last minute invite to Utah. So it was off to the slot canyon country south of Green River to do some desert exploring with old friend Steve Mestdagh, and one of his climbing partners Bob Wood. Pictured at the right is the approach to Cheesebox Canyon. This was the first descent for us in this canyon, and since it was reported to be wet we put on wetsuits under our clothes. This was my first really wet canyon and man was that an education...it was boooone chilling. Next time you get a chance spend time wading and swimming in 40F water, then getting out into 50F air temp weather. Yeah, the sun was out but the canyon is deep and shady, and the 5 MPH breeze blowing up made it hard to get warm. After 6 hours of climbing, chimneying, repelling, and shivering, hypothermia was lurking not far off. Towards the end we were looking for any possible way to avoid the water...often it was the only choice. This type of canyon also holds the grim prospect of jumping into an over-the-head water hole with no possible exit (fondly known as a "keeper"). For that reason one person goes in first to test depth and ensure an escape on the far side while the others remain with a rope ready for emergency extraction. Fun stuff. Anyway that day we beat the reaper, and made it back to the truck to put a dent in our liquor supply.

Next day we decided to explore some country we hadn't seen before, and traveled east from Cheesebox, over into a section of National Forest the sits between Canyonlands, and Lake Powell. This was truely a spectacular area. I didn't know there was actual tall Ponderosa forest in this area plus lots of canyons. Saw a bunch of wild turkeys along the way. Going to have to go back and check that area out some more. For more pic's check out Steve's Flickr site.