Bailey Canyon 1/19/09
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:29 pm
This was my second canyoneering experience (the first being Allison Gulch). I was turned onto the idea after Augie's https://eispiraten.com/viewtopic.php?t=1110 TR of the same canyon.
My girlfriend Kaitlin and buddy Josh tagged along for this trip. We started around 1030am and arrived at the foundation just after noon. We had a nice lunch and set off down the canyon.
We used a 60m rope to descend the canyon using both strands. What a mess! It was time-consuming but we opted for the greater friction since this was only our 2nd time out.
The canyon had just a trickle of water flowing through it, with lots of stagnant pools of fly/bee infested water. Everything was either bolted or already anchored with webbing and all the raps had webbing and screwgates in place. On the second rap Josh swung right into the mine on the way down. It wasn't a big deal, just kinda muddy. The longest rappel left our 60m rope with only a couple feet to spare (though it wasn't very spectacular). There were more raps than we originally anticipated, I think we counted 14, not including one which we down-climbed. Maybe we just miscounted.
In any case we arrived at the bottom shortly after 5pm. It was a long but very satisfying day. I especially enjoyed the free rappel towards the end of the canyon. Here are some pics:
The view from the trail
The group: Kaitlin, Me, Josh
The foundation, canyon start
First Rap
Top of the long rappel
Long Rap
Free Rappel
My girlfriend Kaitlin and buddy Josh tagged along for this trip. We started around 1030am and arrived at the foundation just after noon. We had a nice lunch and set off down the canyon.
We used a 60m rope to descend the canyon using both strands. What a mess! It was time-consuming but we opted for the greater friction since this was only our 2nd time out.
The canyon had just a trickle of water flowing through it, with lots of stagnant pools of fly/bee infested water. Everything was either bolted or already anchored with webbing and all the raps had webbing and screwgates in place. On the second rap Josh swung right into the mine on the way down. It wasn't a big deal, just kinda muddy. The longest rappel left our 60m rope with only a couple feet to spare (though it wasn't very spectacular). There were more raps than we originally anticipated, I think we counted 14, not including one which we down-climbed. Maybe we just miscounted.
In any case we arrived at the bottom shortly after 5pm. It was a long but very satisfying day. I especially enjoyed the free rappel towards the end of the canyon. Here are some pics:
The view from the trail
The group: Kaitlin, Me, Josh
The foundation, canyon start
First Rap
Top of the long rappel
Long Rap
Free Rappel