What's Andrew up to?: Canyoneering in the Fiery Furnace

We hooked up with a Desert Highlights (http://deserthighlights.com/) canyoneering trip into the Fiery Furnace section of Arches National Park (http://climb-utah.com/Moab/furnace.htm). It was a lot of scrambling, climbing, hiking, and included rappels down 2 cliffs (140 ft and 80 ft)!! The scenery back in there was incredible and it was a good little workout. Our guide Herb knew a ton about the area so it was pretty educational too (e.g. you've got to be super careful about never straying off established trail or else the cryptobiotic soil cover will be damaged. Apparently this section of the park was even closed for a few years in order to contain human destruction (a single footprint may take several years to "heal")). Anyways, check out the pics.

Oh yeah, before heading back to Grand Junction (Habs's flight was on Friday morning), we wanted to take showers after the canyoneering. We got hooked up at the Poison Spider bike shop (that's how into biking this town is!!)

Here's something pretty weak though (well, at least another serious test of adversity/endurance) - we were so tired from be out climbing all day that we almost passed out on the 100 mile drive back to Grand Junction. All I wanted to do was catch a few zzz's once we got there. We got the tent, etc. set up by 11 and hit the hay, but then we awoke to a huge thunderstorm around 1. What's worse is that the storms kept coming in one after the other, so we basically sat it the car watching the lightning all over the place (and the tent getting soaked) until about 4. It finally let up but we had to get up at 6 anyways to head to the airport for the flight. The kicker was that right when we got up another storm came in so I couldn't even pack everything up - I had to leave it there to dry and go back later on to get it (which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's like a 30 min ride off the highway out in the boon docks!!). Loves it...

Pics:

There were tons of little climbs and scrambles up the rocks for the 1st half of the canyoneering trip...

I found a nice little "open book" for my right foot there where I could chill out

Great views at the top!

Who's that tool wearing the garbage can?

Check out this fish ready to gulp down a snacker...

So many nice little places to go wedge yourself into if you're looking for some downtime ;)

By the way, those packs we all had to wear were pretty heavy...I'd say mine was about 20 pounds or so (we all had climbing gear and also had to split the communal ropes and lunch). Of course I demanded to carry the extra water too ;)

Fearless guide making the lunch. I think I might lay off the donuts and go for the veggie wraps for a while...the avocado/cucumber/tomato/humus wrap was actually pretty good. Note to all - no Dr. Peppers or other miscellaneous soda for me for over a month now...feels great. That along with all of the daily exercise is certainly helping me to lose the extra "desk jockey" pounds! On another note, I'm really missing the gym - even with all of the daily exercise, I tend to get a little stiff now and then because I don't have access to weights (fountain of youth!!) I wonder if there'll be a nice non-testosterony gym out in CA...

food + knife + spread - bugs = lunch

Habs getting a little guidance before rappelling down the cliff. 140 foot vertical wall. This experience kind of reminded me of Australia a little bit (I remember thinking how all of the activities were so interactive and that would never fly in the U.S. - e.g. we went snorkeling out on the Great Barrier Reef and the open ocean currents were so strong that you could easily get swept away. The Aussies were like "come on mate, suck it up, get in there, and swim - don't be so doughy! So many other destinations basically won't even let you off the boat without a life jacket (completely yagadocious)...in Aussie we're all out there treading water with whitecaps breaking in our faces while our guide passes around a sea cucumber that she picked up off the bottom 30 feet down...totally sweet!). Anyways, the reason this rappelling kind of reminded of Aussie was because there was basically no practice and minimal instruction. Habs had never rock climbed before, and this was basically a "hey guys, put your stuff on and go for it...by the way, don't let go or else it might hurt!". I'm not trying to allude that it was unsafe or haphazard by any means; On the contrary it was a completely professional, responsible, and thorough operation. It's just that they created an atmosphere of confidence by putting a lot of trust in you...nice!!