i was there

destination: morning glory arch. arrival: by foot and by rope. heather and i hiked in with the kids on negro bill canyon trail. the guys parked at the top of another trail, hiked through slot canyons, repelled a few cliffs, and met us under the arch. how about that for adventure?!

(quick interjection for a funny story: the tuesday after we got home, i woke up around 4 or so to feed pace, and my right arm started itching. i itched it, but also felt bumps. after i fed him and put him back down, i went to the bathroom to take a look. i had what looked like hives on my arm, on the outside of the crook of the arm. i put on some hydrocortisone and went back to bed. when i woke up, the hives had turned into this small, bumpy rash about the size of a quarter. somewhat itchy, but not bad. i thought i'd just wait and see. it got really itchy that night, and only got worse when i put on more hydrocortisone. so i itched it. i woke up the next morning to more bumps spreading along my arm. i'd had poison ivy before, and this didn't look anything like it. skin things make me nervous, and since this skin thing was spreading, i decided to call the dr. the more i thought about it, the less i wanted to go--"i had worked for dr's for nearly 10 years! all he's going to do is tell me it's something like poison ivy." i thought. so i looked up images of poison ivy online, and they all looked different, and none like my rash. i decided since they were all different from each other, mine very well could be poison ivy. so then i googled "is there poison ivy in moab?" guess what?!--the very first link that came up was to the negro bill canyon trail advising hikers to be careful, that the trail was full of poison ivy! mystery solved. i just put on calamine lotion, and it dried right up.)

heather and i started in the parking lot (the traditional way). when we got out of the car, we noticed a rainbow going across the sky and another rainbow halo around the sun. we were hoping that meant good fortune for our hike, and not something like encountering storms, deadly snakes, or pirates along the way.




we made it to the arch with kids in tow! the rest of my photos from the hike are in the previous post. the hiking backpack was very comfortable, i felt great using it with pace, and he loves it! he falls asleep every time in it.

we couldn't have made more perfect timing. it took us about 2 hours to hike in to the arch, and we sat down wondering if we'd already missed the guys, and if we hadn't, how much longer they'd be, how they were doing, etc. we had walkie-talkies, but when mine was on, david's was off, and when david's was on, mine was off. apparently. we never communicated successfully through the walkies. too bad. we had arrived, i was feeding pace, and about 10 minutes later, we hear someone yodeling. crazy brian. then a rope came off the side of the cliff. here they come!

their hike in, starting at the top and working their way down. courtesy brian's camera for their journey through the rock:

always a good idea to meditate/do yoga while canyoneering...

jake's at the top, throwing a rope down.

here come the descents. this was the final repel down the cliff by the arch where heather and i were waiting. i think it's about 90ft to the ground. right before they guys came down, another group of hikers came in with little kids. they stayed and watched the repelling show, which they thought was awesome! i'm sure it made the guys feel like superstars--the families were taking photos, congratulating them when they made it down, and "ooohhhh-ing" and "aaahhhh-ing" their descents!

brian was first to come down.

then david. i documented the entire thing--he's afraid of heights, so this was pretty monumental...

finally to the free-hang. david let out a few involuntary yelps at this point. i think i would have, too, with my feet dangling 60 ft in the air!

about 10 ft off the ground--you can breathe again!!

yep, that's where you just came from!

"i was there!"

my camera wasn't fast enough to catch jake. he is such a unassuming, softspoken, humble, mellow guy, but you get him on a cliff with gear, and he turns into a super-billy-goat-spiderman-hero. he was completely at home on the cliffs, nimbly hopping over the edge, and then--bam!--he flipped over, and flew down the rope head first. what a show!

he was on the ground before my camera was ready for another photo!

we all ended up hiking out together, squeezed in our car back to the campground, and then the guys went back out to get brian's truck. lunch anyone?