All those past “adventures” have just been put to shame. I
hiked the Narrows. That alone would qualify as an adventure – I’d never done
that before. But we weren’t going to do this halfway.
Samantha, Don, and Stephanie came down to pick me up before
school, and we wanted to spend a day hiking. Originally, this meant a few hours
going up the narrows in the morning, and then stopping by Weeping Rock and
Emerald pools on the way back. After dinner we would hike to Observation Point
for the sunset. This would have been exhausting and exciting, but I personally
think our major change of plan was much superior.
We got into the river around 10:30 or 11:00 Thursday
morning. Those first few steps were absolutely freezing. We took a group
picture before starting – Michelle came with us and you can see her peeking
through. Then we took some shots from
across the first ford.
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Sam, Michelle, Rissa, Don, Steph |
Not far up the river, it gets probably 4 feet deep. I’d
decided to wear a swimsuit top instead of a shirt and this was the first time I
was glad of that choice. Steph’s purple shirt went super dark when it was wet,
and she had a severe line across her back. All the hikers behind us were
looking at it before they went into the water.
There were lots of families and foreign tourists at first,
but the farther we went, the fewer we saw. Much of the hike was fighting across
the swift river in foot deep water. A foot doesn’t seem like much, but when the
ground is slippery, unstable, and rocky, it is more than enough to make
crossing the current difficult. It was much easier to walk along the shores,
and we were rarely wet above the knees. Sam’s attempt to swim around a big
boulder proved that we couldn’t fight against the current, so we didn’t even
try a “more adventurous” route.
Eventually we arrived at the junction. At that point, the
canyon splits into two: Wall Street and Orderville. Wall Street is a popular
destination for Narrows hikers. If you hiked down from the top of the canyon,
you would come through Wall Street. But we decided Orderville looked more fun
because no one was going that way. So of course, that was the way we went.
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We were very serious about this hike. |
Now, I know of Orderville gulch because many people start on
our property to rappel down the canyon and then go into the Narrows. It was
beautiful, but not long after the first curve, we met a pair of hikers coming
down who told me that not far up was a deep pool with no way up the rocks
beyond. I figured our adventure would be done at that point and we would go
look at Wall Street then go back down.
Apparently “no way up” is a subjective term.
After splashing in the water, that was no
more than five feet at the deepest part, Steph suggested using the floating log
we were playing with as a make-shift ledge to climb to the rocks from. Happily,
Michelle wedged it into a crack and scrambled up. Not much later, we all had
made it to the next level and were happily continuing up the slot canyon.
We climbed probably four more little ledges, all of which
were easier than the first. Around 3 pm we voted once more on whether to
continue. This time we turned around. We knew it wouldn’t take nearly as long
to get back to the base of the canyon, now that the water was helping us along.
In fact, once we were out of Orderville Gulch, we began floating along with
very little effort. We had planned on doing this, but I suddenly realized I
didn’t really know how to deal with my backpack. Luckily I quickly discovered that
my two water bottles did an excellent job keeping it on the surface.
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Up Orderville, right before we turned around. |
After the first little bit, we came to a section of rapids.
Although they aren’t exactly white water, the current rushes through these
rocky sections swift and strong. Samantha continued merrily along and went
straight through the rocks. The rest of us hesitated, and decided to walk
around. At the next rapids patch, we gave into curiosity and joined Sam. The
current was so strong; Don couldn’t even keep his feet under him.
All of us were larger and heavier than Sam, so we had significantly
more trouble going through the rapids. Every rock left a bruise. But it was so
fun, we continued through the rough patches whenever there was enough water to
carry us. Shallow patches forced us to walk, but we would get right back down
when we had a foot of water. I discovered the hazards of the shallow when my
foot caught on a rock, whipping me around in water too fast to stop. I managed
to regain control before I slammed into the boulder I was swiftly approaching.
My feet were the only thing to hit and I steered myself clear.
When we finally arrived at the bottom, we were cold, bruised,
and happy. We had lost the car keys and the ziplock bag with our cameras in it
hadn’t survived the last quarter mile since we’d checked it. Every little
trouble simply made things more exciting. We found Don’s spare key and on later
inspection my SD card at least survived – allowing us to see some of the
pictures!
So, yes, my adventures are definitely worth the attempt at
adding interest to my life. I’m glad to be back at BYU and have such a great
memory to end the summer!