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| Early rising |
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| All outfitted and ready to go |
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| Jen climbing down a narrow chute |
The day started wayyyy too early for me. I had one of those weird nights of not being
able to fall asleep….at all….until about 3:30 and then slept fitfully until
5:30 when Karl got me up for our first big scheduled event of the vacay-----
Canyoneering!!! Ughhh….I had been
looking forward to this the most of all the other things we are doing on this
trip and I felt awful! I thought maybe I
was coming down with something and was considering backing out of the trip.
I am SO glad I didn’t!
After getting everybody up dressed and out the door, with Karl and I
lugging the bags with sunscreen, snacks, camera, and two liters of water for
everyone (that was so heavy!) We headed
down the 10 minute walk to the visitor center where our guide was waiting for
us to drive us out to the location. I
was still in a bit of a queasy fog when I look up at a dilapidated black dusty
van with a 50- something guy with gray dreadlocks waving at us. Oh my!
As I got closer I noticed his friendly smile and calm demeanor, and skin
that had spent way too many years SPF free in the sun, and thought, ok this is
going to be an interesting day. J We hopped into the filthy van and I hoped for
the best. The van had fine sand running
through it’s ventilation system so that when you breathed in the hot, smelly
air, you could taste dirt. Awesome. I struggled to open the vent window in the
back and felt like I wanted to stick my face up to it so that I could resist
the urge to get carsick, LOL.
He was chatting away for the 30 minute drive out to the
Kolob Terrace area where we were going to do this thing, though I couldn’t hear
him because I’m pretty sure we had no muffler on the van. So mostly I just watched him talk. He seemed so relaxed, one flip-flopped foot
on the gas, the other hitched up on the seat, turning to tell us about sediment
and volcanoes as he casually maneuvered the squeaky van on the narrow mountain
roads….. I actually liked this guy. So what if he didn’t wash his van, and maybe
not his hair….he had a way about him that might just get our whole clan to try
this!
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| The first tight squeeze |
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| Vivi gets ready for her first rappel |
Oh yeah, that’s one more
thing. We had two rather unhappy campers
with us who don’t like to hike, thank you very much. Yeah the rock formations were cool. They saw them on the way in, and really
didn’t see the need to break a sweat to get more up close and personal. Haha.
The rules require that we ALL do each challenge or we all turn around
and go home. No man left behind. We get to the first rappel, and he gave us
each a little fear test of coming up to the edge, looking down the forty foot
drop, and then giving him the thumbs up, thumbs down, or middle thumbs
(unsure). I have to say that I was a
little shocked that we were jumping into such a big drop so quickly. My heart did a few extra flutters, but I gave
my thumbs up. Emma and Karl gave two
enthusiastic thumbs up, while Vivi and Ian were unsure….I don’t blame them one
bit. Frankly, I didn’t want a chance to
change my mind so I volunteered to go first.
He patiently gave a little bit of instruction and then I had a go at
it. He continued to guide me and each
of the other family members down one by one and it was such a rush to have done
this!!!! I was so proud to see the kids
fearlessly and maybe a little fearfully, but nonetheless brave make their way
down the drop. I wasn’t sure how on
earth Vivi was going to do, and when I saw her little purple fanny hanging out
over the top, I was proud and terrified!
She was going to do this—alone!!
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| Emma rappelling |
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| Ian rappelling |
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| OMG!!! Here comes Vivi, all by herself! |
Everybody had a blast on this trip! I think our non-hikers forgot they were
working hard, it was so much fun! ------Jen
