Chop Rock TR

[Spidey]

Hi everyone this is Spidey, Back from a Chop trip last Friday. Met Jim and his crew going in the next morning. As Jim already said water is very low in the grim section specifically. We had a large group of us being 12 with 6 being their first or second canyon. So we opted for an early start. No one liked it much when I woke them up at 5:30 A.M. until they found out I had over slept what I wanted by about 45 minutes. We were crossing the river at about 6:15 and made the approach in reasonable time. Dropping into the canyon at about 8:45 we then had some food and had people harnes up so as not have to break down again in 15 minutes. The upper section was dispensed with rather quickly and we found ourselves at the riparian ballroom. At this point our young women went around the corner and we stayed and all of us suited up. We then dispensed with the riparian section fairly quickly and found ourselves at the Happy. This is where we spent a good chunk of our day playing and having a wonderful time in the beautiful crystal clear pools. I can't remember a single face without a smile on it. What atruly wonderous place. All to quick though it was over and into the grim. I personally love the grim, but I also knew I was more concerned with the rest of the group enjoying themselves. The grim did take it's toll on my beginners fun meter but never fully drained it. There was alway's just enough to look at and enjoy to keep them going. Then it was over all to quickly at least for me. We lounged at the final pool for probably an hour just ralaxing and soaking up the afternoon sun. We headed out and stayed in our wet suits. Knowing that the river would be high enough to float we didn't want to suit up again. Reaching the Escalante we came upon a woman who had canoed from upstream and told us all the water was coming from the Boulder. That the Escalante was running quite low. She had to drag her canoe much of the way until she reached the confluence. She was nice enough to take a picture of all of us and then off we went. The float down the river was a real treat. Much better than the hike back to fence. We made it back to camp in about 10 1/2 hours. The next morning because of what we had seen of the river we decided not to go for neon and have to worry about fighting it back upstream with people still facing a hike out to the trucks. So we packed up and headed out. Making good time on the way out allowed to take a detour on the way home. We decided to take the girls over to Zero G. I'll get that story out later though. I must give a great big standing ovation to our young women. They performed incredibly well. They were very cogniscent of the training they recieved before hand, they didn't complain, and they kept a pace that allowed us to take our time in the places where you want to take your time. They allowed us the opportunity to give them a great trip. Oh yeah and the smell a lot better than the boys. All in all a spectacular trip!

Spidey

p.s. It was nice to meet you in person Jim even if I didn't put 2 and 2 together until later on that day.

[JDClery]

It sounds like you guys enjoyed the canyon as much as we did. How about the float back to Fence canyon? That was a real treat.

I also figured things out shortly after meeting up when Dan filled us in, it was good to put a face to the name.

Dan and Jane came across the woman with the canoe Sunday on their hike out. She had made a couple trips down to the river for her raft and gear and was getting ready to hike it back to Escalante. Sounds like a lot of work, I believe Jane went ahead and gave her a ride back to town.