Sat 8/13 : Lynn, my hero!

I am more exhausted at this moment in time than I can recall being in a VERY long time. But perhaps I am jumping to the end of the story, so lets start at the beginning. Our first stop of the morning was "Gear Heads", a small outdoor shop in Moab that carries just about EVERYTHING. (Small in size, but they sure pack the merchandise in. REI has nothing on their selection) We picked up the accessory cord and webbing needed to safely enter into technical canyons.

From there, we grabbed breakfast at the Moab diner and headed up to Wall St do get a little climbing in. We should have taken a hint that nobody else was there on a Saturday morning, but figured out the problem mere moments after we stepped out of the car. The south facing wall that is South St was blazing hot, and the rock was painful to even touch. We drove around a bit to look at the amazing scenery, and then decided to try the Ice Cream Parlor, which I had read was in the shade in the morning. (Last time in Moab, Matt and I had tried to find the ice cream parlor, but failed. It turned out that we actually did make it there while we were looking, but failed to identify it.)

We arrived at around 11:30, to see a large group departing, which I believe was a guided tour. We hiked up to the base and found several other climbers preparing to leave. As it turns out, the sun comes over the the top of the cliff around noon, and bakes that wall as well. Thankfully, the very nice climber that was preparing to leave set our rope on his anchors when he was done, letting us climb that route without having to lead it. This both made it easier, and far quicker, so we were both able to climb it before it became too hot.

Since it was still early, we decided to go further down the dirt road that passes the ice cream parlor. I was expecting it to get worse shortly thereafter, but we went quite a long ways before deciding to turn around and see if we could move from the cabin to the house we had rented. (Thats my story. Lynn will tell you that I got nervous about continuing to offroad in my Prius. Either way, we both enjoyed the stares we got from the multiple offroad vehicles we passed going the other way, who had not doubt spent quite a bit to rent those vehicles)
When we got back to town, we were able to get into our rental house, and prepare for the highlight of the day, our dry run of Dragonfly Canyon. We will be guiding the rest of the people on this trip down that canyon tomorrow, and decided that actually having done it before bringing non climbers into it would be beneficial.

I will discuss the canyon in greater detail tomorrow, but I would be remiss if I did not chronicle Lynn's heroic efforts on this trip, especially considering that I titled this blog post after them. In the order they occured, here they are.

1 - I had placed my waterproof camera into a Pelican box so that I could throw it Lynn. I had just filmed him swimming across a keeper pothole, and wanted him to do the same from the other side. Apparently I had not closed the box properly, because as soon as it landed in the water near the other side it immediately filled with water and began to sink into the pool. It would never have been retrieved since the pool was impossible to see through, and deep enough that we did not touch bottom. Lynn immediately jumped in and managed to grab it before it sank very far, for which I am very grateful. (This was all the more impressive as the water was quite cold, and Lynn had not enjoyed his first trip through it very much.

2 - The hike out of the canyon was very long and exhausting, and I was very tired from the days activities. I was not moving very quickly, and Lynn decided to carry my extremely heavy backpack along with his own. (I would love to believe that it was out of sympathy for my suffering, but I know that it was actually just to get me to move faster.)

3 - When we *FINALLY* reached the road, we still had a ways to go back to our car. We had hoped to hitchhike the mile or so up the road, but nobody was stopping. Once again, Lynn proved his mettle by leaving the gear with me and walking to the car himself, and driving it back. (OK, it was another way of speeding things up, but appreciated nonetheless)



When we got back, Vince and Joanna had arrived, and we went out for Mexican food. Shortly after we got back from dinner, George arrived as well, so we are all here now! (Except for Brad, who won't be here till the middle of next week.)