We had a great time in southern Utah again this past weekend. We decided to attack Leprechaun’s East canyon. The fortunate ones who were able to make the trip were: Tim (Balls-Out) Willard, Steve (Last-One-To-The-Truck) Marsh, Nick (The Mountain Goat) Willard, Craig (Big Johnson) Gordon, Brandon (Perpetual Motion) Marsh, Drew (I Don’t Wanna Scratch My Pack) Willard, Mike (Stow-and-Go) Crouch, Doug (I’m Just Happy My Wife Let Me Go) Wessemann, and me, Shane (Forgot All My Stuff) Willard.
The Leprechaun canyons are located just outside of Hanksville (yeah, we were THAT close to Powell). I can only speak for my own car, but because of our exceptionally GREAT driver (Mr Stow-and-Go), the time seemed to pass pretty fast. It was still hard to be THAT close to Powell and not be able to take a dip or a wakeboard run.
The most exciting thing about this hike was that this was the first hike we have done since Mr. Balls-Out got his Tim Willard. I mean, it was the first hike Dad was able to go on since having been diagnosed with, treated for, recuperated from, and BEATEN testicular cancer. We are all grateful to have our fearless leader back, for without him, we sit and do nothing. Most importantly, however, we are infinitely grateful to still have my Dad around and healthy. THANK GOD for the miracle of modern medicine!!!!!!!!!
On another note, one of the funniest things about our trip was the fact that all of us WAY OVERPACKED!!! We were all SO scared that we would somehow get ourselves caught in another sticky predicament like we did a year ago the Lower Squeeze. HILARIOUS!!! You’ll notice that we are all dressed up like it’s January.
This canyon was BEAUTIFUL!!! You will see in the pictures that the canyon had a ton of narrows. And they were gorgeous! Just ask rookie, Craig Gordon. He was snapping pictures faster than a high school kid at spring break. There were several rappels, probably around 5 to 7, and there were a couple rapps that were short enough that The Mountain Goat just jumped down or free-climbed. There were a couple areas that required some technical maneuvering and some that required a little jimmy-jangle pack-dangle (Big Johnson’s technique was used NOT used) .
One of the funnest parts of the trip was when we got to the junction of the East and West canyons. Instead of following them both DOWN, some of us decided to climb UP the West canyon for a little while. The canyon was at an angle, probably angled at about 2:00. And it was extremely narrow. Because of the narrowness of, depth of, and angle of the canyon it was nearly pitch black. It was nice to have a headlamp to shed some light. I think we are all convinced that we need to hike the main canyon in the near future.
Lastly, Saturday morning Mr Knot prepared the best breakfast I had had in HOURS. He prepared what he calls “Famous Amos.” It consists of bacon, eggs, potatoes, and cheese all wrapped up in a warm tortilla. We all ate so much of it that we didn’t have to eat much lunch when we stopped that afternoon. Drew ate so much that he almost heaved after hiking up the first mountain. That would have been a GREAT kodak moment.
Enjoy the pics, and thanks to all who made the trip so incredibly enjoyable.
Click on the pictures for a full-size view.
