TCF Day 3: More Rain

Saturday morning, we had plans for shenanigans. That was before we woke up to more snow and rain. Well, at least Andy’s tent held up okay. Of course, he fled to his car at the first threat of rain, not really trusting the duct tape repair job to withstand the storm. It rained off and on for probably 6 hours. The wash through camp was flowing, and North Wash was pretty full. Shenanigans was out, and half the group decided to head over to Natural Bridges for some winter hiking. Doug, Paula, Dale and myself stayed back, hoping to go through Blarney with the two Mormon boys (as Melissa called them) who were camped next door. After much deliberation, the boys next door didn’t want to get stuck swimming without wetsuits, so the rest of us headed out.

Not sure what type of flower/plant this is, but it looked cool. (Apparently it is a yucca, thanks for the heads up Mike) All the rain had quite a few plants flowering.

Dale on the first rap into the east fork of Blarney. We didn’t have maps or beta with us, we left them in the car, so we made our best guess at which canyon of Blarney we were dropping into. Once we got back, we realized it was the easier east fork.

The group downclimbing.

Doug gearing up for the second rappel.

Doug trying to stay dry.

The triumphant march back to camp.

Another wet and cold day down, but at least we did a canyon. East Blarney is short and sweet, probably downclimbable for skilled folks. We climbed back up into the west fork until there was a swimmer that was cold and deep. I went in up to my chest, yelped like a girl, and decided it was time to retreat.

The Rangers.

Back at camp, we had some visitors. Apparently word had spread that Ram and Tom had descended on Sandthrax, and two rangers coincidentally showed up within five minutes of each other. One from the NPS at Hite, the other from the BLM out of Richfield. Ram and Tom, being the smoothies that they are, had a nice little chat, gave them the scoop on the rescue from last week, and successfully converted them to into canyoneering advocates.