Warning: This post will be long! Lots of pictures and lots of stories! It won't disappoint, I promise.
This weekend was our second trip to the slot canyons with some fantastic people. Brooke and Brandon Major, a lot of their siblings: Tara, Kaylee, Katie, Cody, Brooke's Dad: Rob, other friends of the Major's: Chet, Morgan, Ben, and Zach and I. We had a lively bunch of 12 ready for some adventures down the canyons. Little did we know what kind of adventures were ahead of us...
Our first surprise of the weekend was us getting a flat tire on our truck. Luckily it happened near where we needed to be so Zach and Brandon changed it once we got to camp in the dark.
We got to our destination Thursday night, set up camp, hung out by the fire, and went to bed early to make sure we were well rested for the next day. We had a great night's sleep that night :)
We woke in the morning, ate breakfast, and packed for day. We brought what we would need for lunch, water, repelling gear, and Zach decided to bring his jacket in case it got windy. I remember thinking that was a little crazy because it was supposed to be in the 80's that day, but later would be very thankful he did this!
We drove the trucks to our drop off point and left another at the place where we would exit the canyon, then started our trek down into Larry Canyon! This specific canyon was new to everyone on the trip. But since most of us had been in the slots before, and it was rated the same difficulty as one we had done, we didn't think there should be any problems. Our first repel in was great. Simple, dry, and well lit!
Fairly soon into the slots, water began to appear...this was not a good sign because we were just going to be getting deeper down, so there was bound to be more of it. At first we tried to save our shoes from getting wet so we did a lot of the slots bare foot and shimmying against the walls.
The water wasn't clear blue lovely Hawaiian water. It was FREEZING and really disgusting looking. As we would have to walk through it, us girls would try our best not to imagine what we were stepping on or through. It made our legs feel numb though, which helped when we were then walking barefoot on rocks and sticks :) It was mostly mid calf, but many times up to our knees, sometimes between our knees and hips, and once we had to repel into water that was 4 inches above our bellies! Wow that was freezing let me tell you! This is right after getting out of the deepest water and into the sun.
We eventually decided that saving our feet and having better traction was better than saving our shoes, so we all put back on our shoes to trek through the water. Gotta love wet socks, shoes, and garments while hiking!!
The first maybe mile or so of the slots were where all our repels were supposed to be. It was taking us a lot longer to get through them than was anticipated. And there were a lot more repels than we had planned on. Once we thought it was all done and we were home free, we would come to several more! They were also at difficulty levels that were also not anticipated! One of the scariest ones was into complete darkness. You couldn't see anything as you went down, then had to walk about 30 feet to find some sunlight. I admire all of those who went down first on these repels!! There were some brave people in our group and I definitely was not one of them. Let's just say there were plenty of tears from my end. One repel we couldn't see what was ahead of us because of the way the rocks were positioned. So we through a rock down there for some clues. We heard a low/deep 'thud' into water. It sounded like dropping a rock into a freaking ocean, not a knee deep puddle! Tara went first on and luckily there was a way to avoid landing in the water on that one. Zach went first on the one we had to land in the water and he said he was so nervous as he entered the water not knowing how deep it was going to be! Luckily we never had to swim... just have freezing water well above the hips. This is why I don't have many pictures of the most memorable parts of the slots--I was too worried to get out the camera for a snap shot! Here are some pictures I did get while waiting for my turn to go down on some of the repels.
As the day went on we began to realize how long it was taking us and how quickly the sun was moving across the sky. We really had to hustle. We finally reached the beginning of the end--the last of the repels! These were the biggest ones yet, but in my opinion the best ones. It felt SO good to get out of the narrow slots and into the wider canyons and to know there would be no more walking through water!! This was the first part of it.
Zach and I were some of the first to go down so we had a lot of time to spare as we waited for the rest of the group. We took off our wet socks and shoes and roasted them in a fire that Tara made! That was the best decision ever...
From this point, we had about 2 1/2 miles to hike before we could begin looking for the safest place to hike out. When everyone had just about gotten down the last repel, the sun was really on it's final hour of shining for us and we realized we needed to get going. Those of us who were down started treking the 2 1/2 miles in order to find our exit with the light. We speed walked that entire way. It felt like we were racing the sun! Zach had the map and was leading us and we luckily knew exactly where we were according to it and the general area of where the possible exit should be. By the time we got there, the sun had already set and we used what little light we had to try to find some sort of trail...but failed. At this point we just sat and waited for the rest of the pack to meet up with us and started gathering fire wood.
Luckily there were no problems with getting that last repel rope down and the others had a flashlight to use to get to us in the dark. It felt so good to know we were all together again and everyone was safe! Now it was decision time. The question was if we should try to find an exit and proceed in the dark, or spend the night and try in the morning when we had light. There were many different opinions and I'm sure anyone who knows me could guess which side I was on. I did not even want to think about trying to hike out in the dark when we had no idea what we were looking for, how difficult it would end up being, and having the possibility of someone falling or getting hurt. Luckily the decision was made to stay the night and try in the morning.
None of us brought anything we would need for the night or next day obviously. So we all saved as much food and water for the next day as we had. A lot of the group just had a little water left, but we all had at least some we could share around. We were all so hungry and talked about what kinds of food we would eat when we finally got home. The biggest blessing of all was Tara packing a lighter. Because of her, we were able to have a fire the entire night to keep us somewhat warm. We were all in t-shirts and Zach and I were even in shorts/capris. Some of us still damp from the previous water we were walked through. I don't know what we would have done without a fire. It was the longest most miserable night I think any of us have endured. We all went through little phases of getting some sleep in, and some didn't get any at all. It's kind of hard to sleep on rock, I learned. Zach and I probably got less than 2 hours of sleep, but others were better sleepers and got a little more than that I think.
Rob also luckily had a watch and that was our only source of time for the group. I feel like we would ask him the time and what seemed like hours would pass and we'd ask again---and only like 30 minutes would go by! It went by so slow!! The moon was a good gage of how much longer we had as we watched it go across the sky. Zach and I switched off wearing his jacket through the night as well. I was now so grateful he had packed that!! The stars were huge and beautiful. I've never seen them like that before. I must say I didn't enjoy them as much as I normally would because my mind wouldn't stop worrying. I hate my brain and how it is so easy to find the worst possible outcomes to any situation. I was thinking about if we never found our way out, completely ran out of food or water, and about my family and how they didn't even know exactly where we were located to send help, etc. I was so grateful to be with Zach though. He was so patient with me the entire time and such a comfort to me. I love him so much. Prayers were going constantly in my head and heart that we would all make it home safely.
As soon as light began to touch the sky, we got ready to go. That consisted of eating a few bites of what we had, taking a few sips of water, standing up, and going! Here is a picture of the group in the morning.
Through studying the map, Zach found what he thought would be the easiest and safest way out so we started with that. We also had seen footprints going this way and that was very hopeful to see! We began to climb up the side of a canyon. It was a beautiful view to see the sun start to peak out onto the world.
We got to where we were thinking and found a visible trail just across the canyon that looked very promising! So we hiked down then back up and made our way to the top without any problem! One more fun surprise happened though. We realized the key to the Major's truck was lost, so Brandon and his sister had to hike back to where we slept to look for it. Unfortunately they had no luck in finding it so we would have to break in when we got to that point.
Once on top of our canyon we were able to find another trail that was on the map that would lead us entirely out. It was only maybe 2 miles but felt like forever because we were so anxious to get out. And it was so steep. We climbed a lot of elevation this morning on little sleep and little food and water! It is amazing what our bodies are capable of doing. And also such a blessing all of us had stayed safe so we were able to walk out without any injuries we had to worry about.
When got to the very top and saw our truck--it was such a relief! The best sight in the world! We had made it!!! Tara even ran to the truck haha.
We all loaded in and made our way to the Major's truck to then get back to camp.
On the way we stopped at this look out where we saw that people had repelled in off their car! It was the biggest repel I had even seen and looked so ridiculous having the ropes tied to a freaking car!
Using a hot dog roasting stick, Brandon was able to break into their car with no problems. Luckily Brooke had her key inside and their were no more problems.
We got back to camp by 9:30 am. That made our adventure 24 hours when we had planned it to be about 8 hours. So crazy! Now we have a pretty awesome story to tell, but I definitely don't ever want to repeat it again. I learned that I don't do very well in these situations but also that I picked the best husband for me. Who was able to calm me and hug me and make me feel safe and hopeful when I could find a million reasons not to. I'm thankful for prayer and the spirit and all the little blessings we had during our adventure. So grateful the Lord kept us all safe watched over us.
Moral of this story: DON'T GO HIKING ON FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!!!
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