Root Family

Root Family

Jun 16, 2009

Eardley Canyon (lower) June 2009

It's been close to 3 years since I did this trip, but I'm re-vising the blog post because I realized when I first posted it I was in a hurry and only had time to post links to the sets of pictures on flickr. Here is the revised post:

Ever since I had read about Eardley Canyon in the Kelsey guide I had been fascinated with wanting to attempt this canyon. I had never been canyoneering before in my life. I had done some rappelling down some cliff faces in camp, but that was the gist of it. To prepare for this trip I did a lot of reading and studying of pictures and videos on-line to figure out the basics to it. Being that Eardley did not feature any insanely long rappels (i.e. multi-pitch) and some relatively non-keeper potholes, I figured I'd risk it and give it a try. I brought along a few of my brothers and a brother in-law for the trip, all of whom had never done any canyoneering either, so it was looking like a recipe for disaster, but it turned out to be fairly tame (except for the hiking and one of the potholes; story to come).

We headed down to camp at the straight wash area on a Friday afternoon. I'd never been to this area of the reef before, oddly though my first experience to the San Rafael Swell was driving down the road that leads to here, only to stop at the section that drops down to the Tamaracks and turn around (we had met up with some friends who were coming back from there).

Drive out to camp area





Setting up camp

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

Our camp mate

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

After setting up camp, we ran over to Goblin Valley to ding around a bit.

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Goblin Valley heisman pose

Nate, climbing through the cave



Nate, riding the turtle rock

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Billy, enjoying the view

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Jeff, playing "punt the football and we'll head in that direction" game

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My punt



Tyler, trying to kick over the hoodoos



Jeff, trying to kick over the hoodoos. Check out my holder skills (very dramatic)



After Goblin Valley we ran to Hwy 70 to meet up with my brother Russ who had to work that day. I took a few light painting shots of the Hwy while waiting.

06.12.09 I-70 and Hwy 24 Jct

06.12.09 I-70 and Hwy 24 Jct

After meeting up with Russ, we ran back to camp and set up a fire.

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

Messing around with the light

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

06.12.09 Straight Wash Camp

The next morning we got up early and prepared for some major hiking. We headed up straight wash and checked out the petroglyph panel

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Arriving at the mouth of Eardley Canyon, we looked up to see what we would be coming out of.

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

It was after this that we were in for our LONG ascent up the reef face along the right side of the canyon.

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Looking down on the last pool we'll hit (longest rappel)

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Looking back at straight wash

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Zoomed in shot of my truck waiting for us at the trail head

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Making progress - Did I mention how horribly out of shape I was in??

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Looking down at some pools we'll be passing through

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

More progress being made - Did I mention the hike up the reef was LONG?

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Finally at the descent area of the canyon. We took a break for some pictures and lunch

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Above the reef

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Russ, the Karate Kid

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Looking down at the descent into the canyon. It was STEEP and very rugged/loose

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

About half way down. If I recall correctly, it was an 800' descent

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

So grateful to hit canyon bottom, I had to give it a kiss

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Eardley Canyon was pretty wide through here filled with HUGE boulders. It was a lot of rock hoping for quite a while before it narrowed up

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Starting to narrow up

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Our first taste of water

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Time to get wet - There is a section of 10 wader pools to cross through before you hit the technical section

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



More wading







06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Billy, wondering what he was thinking joining us for this trip

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Jeff is liking the trip so far

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Rappel 1 - Probably could have down-climbed this one

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Russ' rap



Nate's rap



Billy's first ever rap



My rap



Rappel 2 - This one was a bit of a Keeper.

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



Prepping to go in

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Russ on Pool 2

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



Nate on pool 2

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Billy on pool 2

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



My rap on pool 2

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



Trying to work my way out of the keeper

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Rappel 3 was a jumper (no rap needed)

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Billy went first - We were kind of mean to him, yelling at him where he needs to go. I think the cold water disoriented him :-)



Russ and Nate went next



Rappel 4 - Jeff went first but was nothing more than a climbers crack to go up to get out (see behind his right shoulder). The rock was so slick that he had a hard time pulling himself out as the pool wall was straight down. I went after him and had to give him a boost to get out, then toss a hand line down for the rest of us to pull ourselves out. I was a bit nervous on this one

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon



Jumping in from the lower spot



Rappel 5



Rappel 6 (last one) into the large pool. This one had a somewhat dead man anchor under the water wrapped around some large rocks. I re-inforced the webbing on this one. Since it was the last rappel and the longest, I went first to test it out. Looking back on this I feel like such a wuss using my 70mx11mm rope. We could have done the 30m down to the first pitch, then slid down the other section. Give us a break as it was our first time :-).

Billy coming down



Nate coming down



Russ on the last pool



Pool 6. I'd imagine this is a nice swimming hole in the dead of summer, but we were still in early June and it was cold

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Russ

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Jeff

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Nate (the nerd)

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Me, with my "I own this place" sign

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Group shot

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

One last look at what we came down

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Last look at pool 6

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

Finally met up with Straight Wash

06.13.09 Eardley Canyon

We slogged the 1+ miles back to the trailhead and we were all beat by this time. I think the trip took around 8 hours to do. We all showered with our solar water bag and hung around the campsite that night, then packed up and headed home the next day. I had toyed with the idea of doing Zero G canyon (aka little Iron wash), but we were so beat by this time I didn't even want to think about it. That will be on another trip.

I have a few regrets from this trip. First, I have to confess that it's something my wife has always wanted to do and I regret not doing this with her first. I'm hoping to get out with her on some canyoneering trips soon. Second, I wished I had worn better shoes/socks. Since we were going to be trudging through dirt and mud I figured I would wear an old pair of socks and some old worn out tennis shoes. I was regretting it by the time we worked our way down into the canyon.

Over-all, I loved the trip and loved the experience and look forward to more trips like this in the future.

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