Trip Report

Personnel:  Stan Wagon, 56, Silverthorne, Colo.
Herb Taylor, 67, Golden, Colo.
Phil Hage, 57, St. Paul, Minnesota
Kim McGranahan, 41, Denver
Mike McGranahan, 41, Denver

Dates: Drive in to Middle Moody Parking and short hike to camp: Saturday April 12, 2008
Short hike out to car at Chimney Rock: Saturday April 19.

Overview: The idea of this trip was to do a variation of the long traverse from Middle Moody trailhead to the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, in such a way that we visited the remote uppermost reaches of Fold and Stevens Canyons. The trick was to rappel into the saddle between the heads of these two canyons. I had a rap point in mind from some fine map study (south of the "G" in Glen Canyon on the Stevens Canyon N quad). But some Google Earth investigation the day before the trip led to a potentially easier spot slightly west of that point. So the plan was to go there first, hopefully get down, take either Fold or Stevens south to the classic Fold campsite to the south, and then finish the trip in a more or less standard way through King Mesa. Thus on Friday we left my vehicle at Chimney Rock.

Sat: The long drive to the Middle Moody parking spot, one of the remotest trail heads in the US. To get to the trail head we used the efficient and helpful shuttle service provided by Mark Saunto of Utah Canyons in Escalante <<http://www.utahcanyons.com>>. There was remnant snow on the road near where we leave the Burr Trail road, so I expected we would find snow high on the Waterpocket Fold. The road was in good shape, except for the last mile which had some deep ruts. I wonder if this last mile is maintained; the rest is. We started down the now-familiar route into and up and out of Middle Moody to the same camp we used two years ago. The pothole we used up there was dry, but we did get some water from the stream requiring a short descent on the other side. Camp was great, and the anticipation level was high. To repeat, this is very remote (though we did have a cell phone which worked from the high ground on the trip). Our main concerns: The forecasted warm weather could increase the snow runoff quickly, making the Escalante crossing difficult; lack of spring rains could mean that the water sources we are counting on are dry. Both fears turned out to be irrelevant. The week was cold, and the Escalante crossing very, very easy; and the potholes were more than adequate for our needs, though lower than expected.

Sun: The climb to the Waterpocket Fold and down to camp in East Moody. We were to repeat the route of two years ago to Snow Camp high on the Wingate of East Moody. But with our experience we could do it a little more efficiently. On the climb to the Waterpocket Fold we found pockets of snow! The group stayed together, so there was no waiting for wanderers, and we made camp about an hour or more earlier than two years ago. Near the end of the day we took a direct route to camp down a slope I remembered spotting two years ago. This had some Class 3, but was not a problem. The funny thing was that it took us right to Snow Camp, but I did not recognize it, thinking we were one valley west. So we walked around and then back. I felt silly about that. We ended up camping in the exact spot of two years ago. The potholes held much much less water than on two prior visits, but were still perfectly adequate. Herb did an afternoon walk to a nearby natural bridge.

Mon: The exciting rappel. We climbed the familiar route to the flat area atop the Fold and wandered SE and S to the ridge which led directly to the current Plan A rap spot. A quick phone check showed us that the cell phone worked at the high points. The ridge was very pleasant Navajo sandstone walking, and we finally descended around noon to the shallow valley leading to the dropoff (Grid Reference 503950 4157400). It certainly looked promising, but there was no way to see where the dropped rope touched ground. I tried the classic time-a-stone method using the 16 time^2 formula for distance and learned that it was going to be near 100 feet. We had a 60-meter (197-foot), 7.7-mm rope, and 200 feet of thin cord for a reepschnur (rope retriever). So we could safely do a 200-meter rappel, but it is of course much safer to use both strands. Herb had a new ATC device with some grooves that added friction, a useful piece of equipment. So we had no choice but to tie the rope to the anchor (a small tree/bush with 20 separate root-strands) through a rap ring so that it was a single drop. I really did not want to unravel the reepschnur, so I was hoping it would work doubled, but we had no way of knowing. Since rapping on a single 7.7-mm rope in a situation that seemed to have some totally free sections is a little dicey, I rigged a small prusik backup, using my old 5 mm prusik line.

I dropped off the edge and could quickly see bottom, where the rope disappeared into the top of a tree. Rapping and moving the prusik was a bit new to me, but it worked fine and after some untangling in the tree top, I moved off to the side and hit bottom. At this point we used the radios for communication, which was critical. The team reset the rope and could quickly tell by the location of the prusik that the rap was about 90 feet. Yay. So they doubled the rope, lowered the packs, and then all rapped down with no difficulty. This was the technical crux of the trip and even though rappelling does not require great skill or strength, it was good to get it done safely and visit a spot that probably no one had ever visited before. Several days later I noted that the prusik sling had burned about halfway through from the faster parts of the rappel. Now on the web I find: "Prusik: Smith and Padgett note that 'If a person is actually able to think to let go of a Prussik, the sling material may disintegrate, allowing the climber to descend even more rapidly than before. In actual usage, the Prusik safety has proven to be troublesome and dangerous.' " I cannot disagree, though for a relatively short rappel is appears to be a reasonable and simple solution.

We found a way around the Kayenta down to the true head of Fold Canyon and quickly found a campsite with good water. Herb and I then walked the right bank for about 90 minutes on the Wingate. After an hour or so we found a low-angle ramp that appeared as if it would have worked too. We could not see the whole thing, but it seemed clear that this was another break in the Navajo cliffs that could be used for descent (GR 503100 4157000). The view down into Fold was great as we saw cottonwoods in leaf down there. But the bad news was that the Wingate on the opposite bank, which we were planning to use to get to the familiar Fold camp, did not look very wide. We certainly could have done it -- this is a described hike in Steve Allen's book -- but it appeared that, with packs, it might be easier to take the Stevens Canyon route to the next pass south into Fold.

Tues: To the familiar Fold camp. We did take the Stevens Canyon route and it went very well as we could just contour on the Kayenta (game trail) from one pass to the other. From the first pass we took a break to examine the area where we had thought we might have rappelled before the Google Earth info. It would have worked but there were several issues: anchors? how to get to the top of the rappel -- that might have required a rappel itself, adding to the commitment level. We reached the Fold Camp (lots of water) at around 2, but as Herb and I headed out for a day hike we were stopped cold by severe winds that just came up. They might have been up to 70 mph and just blasted us with sand. So we just hunkered down behind rocks. The air pressure dropped big, but the sky was blue. After a while we decided to retreat to the upstream side canyon that we used for the final descent into Fold. We managed to cook dinner there and then four of us decided to spend the night there; Herb stayed under the big alcove. Even Herb said this was the strongest winds he had ever seen. Sand everywhere, but if you don't like sand, don't come to this area! At around 8 pm the winds abated and we spent a pleasant night.

Wed: Day-tripping: Finally, on my third visit to this spot, we have a full day to explore in good weather. Herb and I went up the 600-foot Class 3 exit chimney so we could wander the high Navajo to an overlook of Stevens Canyon. The others went upstream in Fold a bit. Herb and I had a fine tour, getting to the last pinnacle overlooking the pass we had taken the day before. The views of Stevens, Fold, and Shofar Canyons were exquisite. This area is like a high island. One surprise was an iron wire we found near a wooden stake at the top of a knoll. We have no idea why that was there or what it was used for. This area is very hard to get too, and surely useless from a mining perspective. On descent we found Kim near the bottom of the long gully. She just had to climb it to the top, which she did.

Thurs: The way out. Now we could take a pretty standard route to the river, but first we had a tough exit out of fold. We used the Moki Step route that we had rappelled two years ago to get in. The first two moves can be done with packs on, but the final exit is a few feet of 5.6 climbing. Pretty easy, but we hauled packs. Actually, Mike got up there first and he soloed up a longer crack route on the left, one that I had looked down two years ago; this had more climbing, but it was straighforward. After this it was a Wingate walk to the Kayenta ledges that would take us down to the river. We had a hard time finding these exposed ledges, but a consultation of the photocopy of the Steve Allen guidebook page I had helped and we were about 100 feet too low. When we found them they were obvious and the traverse was easy. Down to the river for lunch. The river was very low (the flow rate turned out to be about as low as it gets, so the cool weather meant the snow runoff was almost zero) so the crossing trivial. Our route had only a short walk upriver to the sand dune that sits across from the mouth of Prima Donna Canyon. There are other ways out (upstream to Scorpion) but this seemed easiest, so we climbed the dune to the Scorpion Horse Trail and took this around the Kayenta to a spot where Herb thought there might be a spring. He was right: a very small spring allowed us to top off all our containers (everyone could carry 5 liters) and we carried the water up to a superb camp on the Navajo. Somehow I bonked hard on this last part of the day and had no energy for exploring once we got to camp. But camp was great and the weather continued fine. Indeed, it got chilly and our water froze a bit overnight.

Fri: Interesting water features. The walking from here to the head of Fools Canyon was easy. We chose a route here that avoided the drop and climb at Fools, and just went around the head and then to Gates Tank on the map to see what was there. We easily found the large pothole, but it was totally dry. But Mike went a bit farther and was amazed to find a 15-foot deep cylindrical hole. We had never seen anything like it. There was just a bit of water in the bottom, but we needed none. We then went on to King Springs. There was no sign of a spring, but the location did have five or more very good potholes, and perhaps mountain lion tracks leading to them! We tanked up here and then contoured into King Mesa Pass, so familiar from last year. We saw some footsteps here and I was sure they were those of Janet and Dave, to whom I suggested a Bobway trip would be worthwhile. To my surprise given the dry conditions, the potholes just below the pass were in good shape. We continued down a ways to camp by the bottom of a slot that would have lots of water. We were there early and the group went down to explore Sleepy Hollow. They got into it, but were discouraged by the thick brush at the bottom. I explored a small slot to the SE, but then just hung out at camp with my book. We were all a little tired by this point. The weather was getting warm quickly, and mosquitoes were a problem for me. We did set up one tent and Phil spent a pleasant night inside it.

Sat: We headed to the car at Chimney Rock moving quickly. The descent into Coyote was easy. Water was flowing very heavily in Coyote Gulch. The exit route to Chimney Rock, about a mile or less up Coyote, was very pretty, and then we saw some cars parked a half-mile or so north of Chimney Rock. We should have parked there. This leg took only two hours, and we beat the warm weather, and this was quite an easy way to finish the trip. At the tower we saw Dave's car, confirming that Dave and Janet were back in there somewhere.


Errors: 1. I took way too much fuel. We used 4 canisters for 5 people for 7 mights, using a SnowPeak stove, and sometimes the Pocket Rocket. That is 0.91 ounces per person per day.
2. I should have parked the car a half-mile further on the Chimney Rock road.
3. I should have used beefier prusik slings for the prusik-protected rappel; the one I used burned halfway through (though it served the purpose).
4. Even though the terrain was drier than usual, the potholes we expected were all good. I carried water often but should have carried less.

5. And a big error: I now see how the rappel could have been done so that the leader did not have to rap on single strand. First I realized that I could have been belayed from above by the second half of the rope while rapping the first half. Then I realized that we could have tied both ends to the anchor and I could have rapped on the doubled rope until it ran out (which of course it did not in fact). But had it run out, I could have very easily switched to the single strand for the last small part, perhaps tying a prusik on then if it was essential.

Conclusion: These trips require lots of experience and research for faultless navigation and safe travel, and are a lot of hard work. Sure, it feels good to be home and sleeping on a mattress without sand blowing in my face. But the time spent in this remote, harsh, and beautiful terrain in the company of strong and personable companions is memorable and rewarding.