I'm not graceful. I'm terrified of heights. I hate to be cold. Therefore I wanted to rope up and descend into a deep slot canyon only to swim through 50 degree muddy water and repeat. It sounds like I hate myself. But really I feel the best when I do things I'm not comfortable with. Well...afterwards.
In September, I squeezed my curvy body into my "bean pole" sister's wetsuit, stole her husband to be my canyoneering guide and personal photographer and had one of the most exhilarating days of my life. The one mile, deep crack in solid rock called Pinecreek Slot Canyon and is one of hundreds of slots in Utah, and certainly one of the most beautiful. Casey showed Jen and I how to rope in and then waited at the bottom of each descent so that he could laugh at us. Well, he only laughed at me. I have a peculiar style of descending due to my utter terror. Apparently I do strange things to avoid going over a sheer drop off. I put my legs in awkward positions and I scream just a little. But after the rope has me secured and I settle back and let gravity take over, I just kind of close my eyes and try to breathe. When I open them again I am dropping into the most amazing and mind blowing scenery I have ever seen. I am spelunking into a cathedral of red, wavy sandstone which towers a hundred feet above my head. A ribbon of blue sky is seen above. And then I slowly lower myself into a bottomless pool of muddy water, a remnant of the last flash flood. The temperature takes my breath away and I try not to totally submerge. But there is no choice, there is no bottom. I unhook my rope and flounder to the side (as Casey laughs heartily at my wide eyes and my frantic dog paddling). Next Jen descends gracefully, of course. We do this several times. Each drop off gets a little easier for me. Finally the slot opens up and lets us out into a wider, boulder strewn river bed. From this vantage point we are faced with the panorama of Zion's National Park, a spectacular yet humbling scene of absolute beauty. What a wonderful world!
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| Me and Jen geared up |
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| See that body at the very top? That's ME! |
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| rope off |
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| WOW just WOW |
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