Thu 8/18 : Pleides Canyon

Today was Pleiades Canyon, guided by Desert Highlights. While we did not expect there to be any technical obstacles that we could not overcome in that canyon, I didn't want to attempt on it on our own for several reasons. First, the canyon had flowing water in it, and all of the rappels would be off of waterfalls. Secondly, the water in Pleiades is very cold, and we did not have any of the proper gear for staying warm. The guide service provided us with Dry Suits, fleece jackets and vests, neoprene socks and gloves. It's a good thing we had these, because even with all that on, it was STILL pretty cold. I had thought it was a spring fed canyon, hence the cold water. As it turned out, it was fed by melting snow pack from the Lasal Mountains to the east, making it even colder than spring water would have been.

After spending nearly an hour at the guide service office getting all our gear selected and packed, it was about a 45 minute drive into the mountains (elevation approx 8800 feet) on gravel roads. It was nice to leave the sweltering heat of Moab behind for awhile and get some cooler mountain air, although it contributed both to the cold of the canyon and the difficulty of breathing.

A 45 minute hike through a heavily forested area brought us to the entrance of Pleiades, where we got all of our gear on and began hiking down river into the slot canyon. It was a pretty quick walk before we reached our first rappel. There were seven rappels through the canyon, which remained a narrow slot throughout, and constantly echoed with the roar of running water. Mostly we were able to stay on dry ground, except during the rappels when the water was pouring down over our heads. We all had a great time, but were happy to make it to the top of the final rappel where we finally encountered a small patch of sunlight that we could stand in to warm up.

At the bottom of the final rappel we encountered the final and most unique obstacle of the canyon. A large tree had been washed into the canyon, and formed an angled bridge to the canyon exit. The idea was to straddle the log facing upwards, and inch our way backwards over the chasm below. For safety, we all did this simultaneously so that we could grab the person in front of us if they started to slip.

As is almost always the case with canyons, those who go down must now come up. The hike back to the top was not particularly long, but it was very steep and the thin air had me gasping for breath quite quickly. I have lost count of the number of hikes on this trip that I would choose to describe as a forced death march, but this definitely added another to the total.

When we reached the starting point where we had left our lunches, we encountered another group just about to begin their descent of the canyon. They were minimally dressed in short sleeve wetsuits, and were definitely going to freeze their butts off in the canyon. After lunch, another forced death march brought us back to the van for the return trip to Moab.

Since George was leaving first thing Friday morning and had not yet visited arches, we decided to do a quick trip to the vicinity of double arch, which is an extremely impressive area of the park. Not everybody was overly enthusiastic about the trip, but everybody changed their mind and were happy that they had come when we arrived and they saw how impressive the area was.

Afterwards, George said he would treat us all to dinner for serving as his guides during the week. We drove to a few places that were closed, and eventually wound up at the Moab Brewery. I had eaten here in 2007 and was not impressed with whatever I ate that time, but this time around the food was phenomenal. Everybody loved their meals, and finished with some excellent gelato.