ADAM HAYDOCK

Orderville Canyon near the Narrows Zion National Park

It was quite difficult to wake up the following day as we were quite tired from going to a wedding to a plane to canyoneering in Zion with little sleep. We decided to change our schedule around and do birch hollow instead of spry canyon as this would be a long but not so difficult day and it will change up the scenery a bit too. We get shuttled up to the east rim and onto the birch hollow wash which started from a dirt road as a small infeeder and opened up considerably. We were passing beautiful pine trees and the cool morning air gave us a nice stroll down to the first 100ft rappel in birch hollow. Birch hollow is a 3AIII canyon based on the canyon rating system

First Rappel into Birch Hollow, The guy on the left did not bring any gear!?!?

 We were pretty high up in elevation as the rock layer gave evidence to our elevation. We found a group of four in front of is and we were able to by pass them as we had no choice but to come out of the narrows on this trip. The trip itself was not going to be strenuous like Behunin but came out to over 12 miles of rappelling and down canyon hiking with some plunge pools and slippery rocks. Every day we were presented with different challenges and today is no exception. We encounter a series of small drops upto 30ft so we set up a double line and pull the rope once we get to the bottom of each consecutive rappel.

Birch Hollow Canyon

 Eventually we come out into a wash and we are surrounded by beautiful pine trees and the top of orderville canyon can be seen.

Birch Hollow more raps await while we look at the top of Orderville Canyon

We walk up to the next rap and find a another deep rappel.

Birch Hollow canyon wash Utah

After dropping this rap we find that if we set up the 200ft rope as a double line, we would have short roped ourselves 6ft off of the ground.

So I told the next group above us to make sure they don't short rope themselves after pulling our single rope down with the pull cord. That was a beautiful drop.

Birch Hollow Canyon Utah

There were a series of 8 to 10 more rappels one after the next as we set the rappel drop and re set until we got to the last two raps.

Birch Hollow Canyon Utah

The canyons were a smooth meandering yellowish white color which was a bit different than the other canyons that we encountered previously.

Birch Hollow Canyon

. That was a lot of fun and a lot of rappelling!! There must have been up to 20 different rappels from 25 to 110ft. depending on where you anchored the rope. 

Birch Hollow Canyon Zion

We packed away out rap tools and started on our long but interesting hike through the 3BIII Orderville canyon and out the narrows. The sun was hot and the canyon walls would open up and close in at times giving way to the sun and shade which allowed us to cool down and heat back up again.

Orderville Canyon Zion National Park

 It must have been in the lower 70s in the canyon but the weather reported temps at 100 degrees in the open desert that day with clear sky's.

Orderville canyon heading towards the narrows Zion Utah

 We encounter two large choke stone boulder we had to rappel down to so we could continue our pursuit for the narrows.
 Furthermore, we wanted to make sure we caught the last trolly which left at 915 from the narrows, plus we didn't have any headlamps.

Orderville Canyon Zion National Park

We moved carefully but swiftly through the scalloped and fluted narrow gorge and as we continued down canyon the walls climbed higher and higher!!!

Orderville Canyon Zion

 It was amazing to see how high the wall got. It must have been almost 1000ft up when we got close to the narrows. I could see where we were on the map as the narrows were around the corner but the confluence was not going to be handed to us. We had to negotiate three plunge pools 

We continued on so we could stay warm as we scrambled around large boulders, waterfalls, and deep sections of the stream that was starting to turn into the river.  It was interesting to realize that we came from a super dry section of this canyon to a very wet and deep section.  I remember passing the water table at one point and noticed the stream turn into a flowing river.

We worked our way through the remaining part of the canyon and passed another restriction along the way which got us wet once again.  Thankfully it was not too cold out and the it is the desert so we were able to start to dry pretty quickly.

We make a turn in a bend and started to hear people talking about how they don't want to continue on due to getting wet and all we could think about is civilization, narrows, and trolly!! WOOHOOO!! we made it to the orderville canyon and the zion narrows confluence.  We had people walking by us going in and out so knowing that, we knew we will be able to catch a trolly that will be able ot take us 6 miles back to our campsite.  nice!!!

I tend to be inclined to avoid the tourists and the tourist locations but the Narrows was in fact an acception to that, along with knowing that they are not going to want to be left behind so we will be able to make it back

The Narrows was a very impressive place and the canyon walls reached high!!! Very High. I don't think I have ever seen canyon walls reach so high before and I was impressed at how large this place was.  There were a good amount of tourists coming in and out of the narrows so it was interesting a nice to see the casual strollers going through.  The amount of water and time it must have took to cut the Narrows must have from the last few ice ages and I keep finding myself fascinated with the artistic hand that water can have when given the right elements and opportunity.  Truly amazing. 

We make it back to the trolly and again treat ourselves with a nice meal and rest for the next days canyoneering event.

BIRCH HOLLOW CANYON : https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157646978494609/

ORDERVILLE CANYON: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157647418797181/

ZION NARROWS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157647375502456/

The morning was windy and a bit cool as it swept a light chill across the surface of our tired bodies while getting ready for the day. I intentionally left my sweater at the campsite to get a bit more chilly before we started our hike up to the west rim trail and down behunin canyon.

4th rappel in behunin canyon

The first rappel consisted of a 100ft drop down a steep slope to a ledge with a tree. We had to catwalk 50ft across this small ledge and clip into the bolts so we would not tumble down the first rap. I tied a pull line to the mainline and blocked the raps with a Biner and a clove hitch through out most of our raps. We rapped down the first drop, pulled the rope and threaded the rope through the next anchor in place. The 2nd rap was about 150ft down a slope and some free hanging sections. For the third rap, we had to clip in before getting off rope because the next 150ft drop was about a 30-45 degree slope than free hanging. This have us a new variation to what a tree hugger is and instantly became intimate with our oxygen bearing friends hanging over the edge.  We pulled the rope and rapped the third rappel into a pothole. The final rap was another 130 ft which brought us to the bottom and the beginning of behunin canyon.

4th Rappel in Behunin Canyon

I was impressed with this as we just dropped over 500ft already on 4 rappels!!! The sun was hot and our piraña's were hot from the heat of the sun and the rope. I tied on a French wrap above my descender with a mariners hitch and cord which worked out fantastically.

Finally at the base of beginning of Behunin Canyon

After we got down we continued down canyon and came up on 80 ft rappels into water and a couple of 100 footers which soaked us from head to toe. It was a good thing,  as it chilled us out a bit but the canyon didn't open up much until the end.
 As we rapped down canyon, the canyon brought us to some amazing gorge views and narrows which was fantastic as we had solitude and a sense that this was for us to enjoy without the tourists.
 We did not see any other canyoneers and no tourists would even be able to come close to where we were until the end where they could watch us on the last rap so we were on our own.

Behunin canyon's Narrow gorge watercourse

8th rappel from the bottom Behunin Canyon

We make it to rap 8 and successfully drop that one until we came to rap 9. This is where we ran into some challenges.

Canyon walls of Behunin Canyon

Rap 9 is infamous for sticking the rope which is where your rope can get stuck  due to various reasons. We decided to rig high on this 150ft drop into the last ledge of behunin and made sure we set the rope right so it wouldn't get stuck but as I started to tug on the rope it locked in place...... and...now,  we now have a stuck rope. It would not move for the life I us.
 

Rigging the final rappel in Behunin Canyon We brought one frog system used in our vertical caving trips so I set that up and ended up ascending the rope to a ledge where I was attempting to negotiate the release of the rope. I could have climbed up with a tibloc and prussiks but I am glad I brought this setup as it made it efficient to climb and it had other contingency uses.

on the last ledge overlooking behunin canyons wash onto the grotto and emerald pools of Zion National Park

Finally I was able to get the rope and release it from the top for the final 160ft rap out into the emerald pools below us.

Adam Haydock Rappelling the last 160ft rappel in Behunin Canyon

The last rap was a 160ft free rappel down to the bottom. We both made it down and pulled the rope out the last anchor. Wow what an amazing experience that was!!! We had some excellent challenges to overcome and we had an absolute blast doing it! That canyon was awesome!!. We were a bit smoked from that canyon so we ended up going out for dinner and got a good nights sleep to get ready for the next days canyon.
 

out of behunin looking towards heaps canyon

 

 

BEHUNIN CANYON : https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157647399804645/

 

 

After we got a ride to the car from pulling pine creek, we headed up to clear creek canyon for a little bit of rest and to enjoy the rest of the days sun. As we drove up to the top we stopped at different pull offs on the road to hike around clear creek canyon.

 

 

 This canyon Does not appear to have a canyon rating system and from what we saw, was a casual stroll up or down the canyon depending on which direction you took. I want to write about this one as it is right off of the road and allows people with or without canyoneering experience to visit a canyon right of route 9. 

We started up the road and headed down meandering past slick rock hoodoo spires and slab rock mounds containing various colors of sandstone and mineral deposits. 

It was beautiful to see how the canyons walls started to narrow and widen as we worked out way down to where we started. 

We got back in the car and drove back down and stopped at a few other pull offs to follow the canyon down a bit more. The walls appeared to rise as we made our way closer to pine creek. There are a lot of side canyons worthy of a hike as well as some technical canyons in remote locations that can be found from following these side canyons within and out of the parks boundaries.

 

 If you have very little time to be in Zion I recommend clear creek canyon as a casual stop to get away from the crowds and enjoy a decent canyon. 

 

CLEAR CREEK CANYON: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157647386294762/

The night before we left for Zion, I had a chain of events that included a pre wedding rehearsal, a sox baseball game after work the following day, than the wedding with a good friend of mine which went into the night and was a lot of fun!   I didn't get a chance to get back home until midnight and we had to wake up at around 5am to catch a cab over to the airport and get on a flight to Las Vegas so we could rent a car and get over to Zion before the sun started to set....phew!!!! I must say,  I don't think I woke up out of a sleep deprived daze for almost a week after the baseball game as every morning we woke up, the clock inched towards 5-6 am. We had to beat the heat with our hikes up the mountains around Zion and more importantly, avoid the potential thunderstorms that could develop in the afternoons creating in welcoming flash floods in the slot canyons we were visiting in Zion. 

After grabbing the rental car, driving, and collecting food and water, we made it to our campground and got some rest before we started our canyoneering vacation journey through some of the best slot canyons in the United States.

Next to our campsite we had some complete yahoo idiots trashing it up while we were attempting to catch some sleep after a long series of days prior to reaching Zion.  After a few turns on the thermarest and finding myself starring into the stars, it was 5 am already and we had to get ready for day one in Zion Utah for a canyoneering trip into Keyhole and Pine Creek Canyons.

Keyhole canyon is rated at a 3BI so it has a technical section to the canyon but it is one of the few "Beginner" canyons that Zion has to offer. We drive up to the trailhead after obtaining our permits and hiked up the slabrock sandstone past the hoodoo spire formation and down into this slot canyon. The entrance is a greyish red canyon that we had to climb down and travel through some water to get to the technical section of the canyon. 

It was early in the morning so the sun did not have a chance to allow the canyon walls illuminate the reds and oranges that some of these canyons are known for but as we moved down canyon we could start to see the sun working its way into the canyons opening. 

We came out to an opening and noticed that the canyon continued into a technical section with bolts located on the wall next to the three drops we proceeded to follow. 

We work our way through the three rappels of this canyon in around 2 hours total which didn't take us too long to get through at all. There was a swim towards the end that out these wetsuits to very  good use!! Once we got though the cold hot dog water, the canyon opened up and we found ourselves near the car and able to walk back with out any troubles at all.  That was a nice introduction canyon with some pretty fluted walls and fun challenges that allowed us to get prepped for the longer days ahead. 

 As we were leaving, we were passing up groups of people but ended up making it to the road by having to B line up a 45 degree slop and meeting some of the other canyoneers at the top.  Our car was also back at the top of the drop and after a few hitch hiking attempts, we were able to get a ride from some local canyoneers.  what an awesome first day we had but we wanted to get some rest and prepare for one hell of a canyon the following day, Behunin canyon.

KEYHOLE CANYON: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157647337389306/

PINE CREEK CANYON: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157646984700390/

 I woke up at around 3 AM to get on the road so we could get down to south Indiana and visit some caves deep in the woods before Cave Capers opened up.  So I am pretty awake and aware of my surroundings as we leave Illinois and drive over the large sky way bridge into Indiana when a cat makes the un successful attempt to dash in front of my car and became what Phil referred to it as "splat-a-cat".. Un believable!!!! I love cats and my two left tires ran directly over it.  I could hear kitty parts tumbling in the back wheel too! I was not happy with that, but after a few hours of driving and watching the sun rise as my radio scanned through the country and religious channels attempting to find some sort of classic rock, I realized to myself that it wasn't me that killed that cat, Darwin Killed that cat. Yup, it was Darwin. Regardless, I was disappointed and as we would later find out, that bad luck followed me with regard to locating caves that weekend until Tony Akers and his led trip came to the rescue.  I finally get to the woods and we ended up tromping through a Puerto rician rain forest of a hike with no luck on finding two cave locations.  Whaa, whaaaaa, whaaaaaaaaaaaa....Oh well not the end of the world.

So after attempting to dry off in the car while driving to capers, we show up right at noon for registration.  Immediately, I see Joe Kinder and Charlie Vetters helping everyone else set up the registration booth.  I got a copy of the guidebook and WOW...I knew they were going to use some of my pictures but they did a fabulous job with the center piece the back cover piece as well as the horizontal and vertical section pictures.  I feel grateful to be able to contribute to a great event.  Now that was a sexy guidebook! Afterwards I drove out to the back shelter and some people were claiming some sections of it. We ended up setting up under the shelter and had a section for WCG.  We didn't know it was reserved for the special guest Koreans or anyone else but we were happy to share it with everyone and didn't try to claim the shelter.  Although we wanted the banner up for the late arrivals showing up we had room for more people. Now I feel bad, soaked, and cave less from the morning.  Phil showed up and we prepared to go to Bordens Pit for some afternoon pitting. After stopping by the registration booth, we set out for Bordens and got to the landowners property mid afternoon.  Now the year before, Danyelle, Kevin, tymme, Chris and I attempted to look for this pit with no luck and now I had two separate way points close together from this year and last year. We get to the woods and grind over and around thorns, dead trees, and had no luck finding Bordens!!! AAAGGHH!! dammit, now that's three for three, do I need to retake a navigation course, and I losing it, going blind, what the...!! 

We salvaged the day with a fantastic dinner and went ahead to choose our attitudes to have a fantastic time with great people that night at capers.

Steve got short roped!! Luckily he is a very experienced vertical caver and was able to change over and ascend out so it was more of a comical experience for him than a real threat but why was he short ropes?. Turns out we were at the wrong pit!!..."I'm never going caving this weekend" is what I thought to myself as Steve came back to the top. This cave was off limits so we continued to search for Borden's and about 1000 ft from this pit, we finally found Borden's pit!! After two years and three searches including a short roped confirmed that we were at the wrong location, we finally made it!! Borden's is a 40-50 ft drop with some passage at the bottom including a couple of breakdown climbs and a small canyon. 

Steve in Borden's Pit

We decide to start making our way out and up the cave so we can go to the next location and cram in a full days worth of caving. It was great to hear stories that tony, Marion, and Simon had of Mexico along with the interesting night that George spent at the bottom of Borden's pit. We ascended Borden's and headed to hells hole. Phil decided to turn back to the festival while Laura, Steve G, Steve S, and I went to the location where we could park and go to hells hole. 

Bordens Pit Indiana

Hells hole is around a 100ft drop in the middle of the woods with two miles of cave that this entrance is connected to. There is a option to make a through trip by rigging another pit in the area but it can be difficult to find that entrance from what I was told.

Steve in Hell's Hole

Furthermore, there is a series of challenging passages including a passage named Satan's sewer. Lots of low muddy chert water crawling which leads to borehole passage. There is a theory that hells hole is connected to king Leo cave but no connection has been made yet. We bounced this pit and while we ascended bill baus and rusty Riley showed up with their party after going through king Leo cave. Afterwards we de rigged and went back to the car.

Hell's Hole

Laura, steve, and steve went back to the festival to catch the guest speaker  and I went to smiths blowing hole cave. Beforehand, We stopped by the landowner of kecks pit but they were not home so we made our way over to the parking spot for smiths blowing hole cave. The map looked interesting as there was a 70ft drop after a crawl with climb downs and water so we were eager to check this one out. We crossed the field and find the sink entrance into this cave. We go in and immediately we encounter the crawl. It didn't seem to long on the map and it actually wasn't that long of a crawl but the cave didn't give up it's main attraction easy. We found ourselves squeezing though the first restriction loaded with camera gear and bulky items.  The passage opened up and it was about to get really tight again so we worked together as a team and we got to the final restriction. This was about a foot in height. Dam, this passage is a tight birth canal. Thank god we didn't wear our vertical gear through it. . Finally we popped out into a 3-4ft ceiling and a small canyon that led us to Farley's well. I look over the ledge and it had a trickling waterfall into a decently sized room below. I found three bolts placed in awkward positions with one pretty rusted. I attempted some configurations to rig Into the bolts and each configuration would be bending the bolt or the Biner in a way that was critically dangerous. I did not have enough webbing for a static equalization so we decided to turn around a exit the cave as we were quite tired and just a party of two in this cave. Thinking back I should have just looped the rope through the hangers and created some equalization but I don't mind going back and spending some time pushing some of the potential leads in that cave.  there must have been some natural anchors but I didnt not see any in the area where the bolts were located.. We head back to the festival around 930 to get a shower to clean off. We cooked dinner and walked around a bit to see everyone relaxing from their caving trips they took. We ended up going back to the shelter to finish off what we had in the cooler and get some sleep for out last day of caving on Sunday. 

Houghton Hole

We get up relatively early Sunday to strike camp and decide if we are going to go to big bat cave in Kentucky or go to houghton hole on the way back to Chicago. We decided to go to houghton hole as it will be a bit closer and it will be good to get some extra pitting time in. 

We leave the campgrounds and say goodbye to our old and new friends at the festival and head over to houghton hole. This was a 40ft drop into a open air room with a adjacent dome room.  We end up hanging out with the land owner and he stayed with us as we rigged and bounced this pit. Their use to be a lot of garbage that had to be cleaned out which happened almost 10 years ago.

Houghton Hole

We had to watch out where we were stepping as there were needles and other sharp objects to avoid. We exit this pit and end up hanging out with the neighbor along with this landowner while they talked about various pits that have opened up on their properties.  We had the opportunity to check out a potential lead that was covered in branches and the landowner said that there use to be a hole in there so he brought his tractor over, picked us up in his tractor and took us over into a place where his enormous black Angus cows roam. There was a sink fenced off with branches covering the entrance. Phil rigs in and drops under the tree line Into a place where he can see karst but no place to continue the push into this feature. Afterward this 2600 pound steer came walking up and we got a chance to pet this "baby" steer! Felt like a rug. After talking with the landowners we got another tour around the property in the tractor to where other pit entrances are but are very small entrances and don't go anywhere according to the landowner. Shortly we left and headed back to Chicago.

Phil pushing a lead

We had a blast at capers this year and I want to thank everyone involved in the organization and planning of this event. I also want to thank everyone who hosted my photography in the capers guidebook which was super awesome and for the led trip we participated on. I realized throughout the night and after I left that I missed a lot of people I have connected with in the past and didn't realize I was talking with people That I didn't put the face to the name with. Well this won't be my last time at capers and I will be there next year.