Canyoneering in November

It's all about having connections, right? Well, Mike is a handy one to have... mostly because he's so good at securing beneficial connections himself. Don't get me wrong, Mike is much more than a sweet connection, he's one of the best brothers a girl could ask for. It's thanks to Mike, that I was able to go on this awesome canyoneering trip. In the past, Mike has been the TA for the BYUI Canyoneering class, so his connections secured us both a free trip. We headed down Thursday night, right after the Pinewood Derby and got in to camp around 1am. The class had already done a couple canyons that day, but we were able to join them for two the following morning and a third one on Saturday. On Friday, we did Lucky Charms (short and simple, but fun) and then Right Fork of Leprechaun. Leprechaun had an awesome slot section. My hips are still bruised from thinking I could fit through parts without turning sideways. Mike got to see some Allosaurus tracks, but I was already halfway down the rappel when we remember to look for them. However, while Mike was busying himself with Allosaurus tracks, I was meeting Tom Jones in a slot Canyon! Tom Jones as in "Tom's Canyoneering Guide". (He's kind of a Canyoneering celebrity.) Leprechaun was pretty, but I didn't take my camera on that one. Most of my photos come from Constrict Nine, which we did Saturday morning. Constrict Nine is definitely in my top three. It has a 190 foot rappel, and too other really big ones. It was SO fun. The weather was great too. Can you believe I didn't totally freeze?! (at least not any more than I do at work everyday). It did start raining on Friday night, so we (me and the three other girls I was sharing a tarp with) took the massive tarp, folded it over ourselves and burritoed ourselves inside. Part way through the night, I woke up to the wet tarp hitting my face. It had stopped raining outside, but the condensation inside got us just about as wet. I was also way too hot and sufficating, so I clawed my way out of the burrito and slept with my head out the rest of the night. The only time it got really cold was just as we started breaking camp on Saturday. A storm came in and it started to snow pretty heavily. I was so glad we weren't staying that night.

That dark crack way down there was our second rappel. 190 ft.

So Mike is kind of a Rock star on these trips (no pun intended). I think it was enhanced by the fact that this particular canyoneering class was ALL GIRLS, but I'm sure, Mike is usually that popular... probably because Mike can do things that most humans can't... like run up a vertical wall... or run across a vertical wall and leap to the other side of the canyon, scramble over some pointy rocks and come full circle. Actually, it very much reminded me of the days when Mike and I used to leap from the counter across the kitchen to the fridge, pull ourselves up on top, and then walk on the counters around the edge until we were across from the fridge again. Mike, do you still do this to keep in shape?

Don't be deceived. He's just pretending to be exhausted. Mike doesn't get tired.

There was a lot of dried cow poop being flung around. Melissa maybe deserved a little in her hair.