With the completion of their
Canyoneering class last July, Eric and Marcy were ready to put their new skills to the test with some of their friends from the
Canyoneering class. So finally they decided to check out Hidden Falls Canyon (also know as Long Canyon) in the Red Rocks National Conservation Area on October 3, 2009. Eric's friends Kirk and Pippa were coming down for the fun, A.J. from class was coming with his friend Ryan, Clark from class was coming, as well as Mark from Eric's work.
The first tragedy of the trip happened October 2, when Marcy informed Eric she was very ill, and would not be able to make it down for the trip. She was very conflicted about what to do, and was willing to try and drive down even though she was sick in hopes she would feel better the next day, but Eric talked her out of it, they would just have to plan another trip soon.
The second complication of the trip happened that evening when Kirk's flight from Oakland to
SLC was delayed, and he missed his connecting flight to
Las Vegas. Pippa had driven down earlier that day, and was
disappointed Kirk did not make it down to meet her. Kirk waited to see if he could get on the last flight to Vegas, but it was full so he had to fly to St George. He arrived in St George just after 11:00 PM, got the last rental car in town, and finally arrived in
Las Vegas around 2:00 in the morning.
Despite these hiccups, we got up at 4:45 to head out for our hike. We had to get all our gear organized in the morning since Kirk came in so late, and made it out to meet A.J., Ryan, Clark and Mark around 6:20. Luckily they waited for us since we hadn't really talked about how to get a hold of each other in case of a delay. We ran into another group doing the same canyon from the local Climbing
Meetup group, and headed up the trail from the back side of the mountain.
The view going up the back side of the mountain was amazing, and it was a nice brisk hike up to a great view of the
Las Vegas valley below. Here is a good shot from half way up the hill of the road below and the valley itself.
The trail into the wash of Hidden Falls Canyon started out with a bunch of rocks, which quickly smoothed out into a flat
slick rock canyon. There was a short rappel to start the canyon as well.
After the first rappel, Eric led a small group off to the next rappel to get things setup while the rest of the group came down. The gully was filled with leaves, and as Eric stepped down a rock step about a foot tall, his foot caught the edge of a hole completely filled and hidden by the leaves. He sprained his ankle pretty bad (level II sprain), and rolled on the ground in agony.
After regaining his composure without crying, Eric tried to walk on his ankle, but it quickly gave way resulting in a new wave of pain. Eric's ankle had no strength. Luckily Bruce from the other group had some duct tape to tape up Eric's ankle, and Ryan was very generous to trade his hiking boots with good ankle support for Eric's Keene sandals. With these preparations, he was able to start limping down the canyon like a lame crab with only three legs (or two arms and a leg in this case).
While the going was slow, the canyon was still a lot of fun. Even though it was a super narrow slot, there were a lot of amazing things to see, and a lot of good scrambling. One of the fun parts was navigating over a really disgusting pool of stagnant water. Even though A.J. almost dipped in, we managed to get past with no casualties.
The final rappel was down the waterfall at the top of the Children's Discovery Trail, so there were about thirty people at the bottom. After finally getting everyone to move out of the way for the rope toss, Pippa made the first decent to a cheering crowd.
Even though the hike took about twice as long as it should have due to the injury, and
Cydnee was very disappointed that Eric came home with a hole in the butt of his pants from all the scooting around, it was a good hike and everyone involved had a good time. And there are plenty of other canyons to explore in the area in the future as well.
Lyndsee Dawn Schroeder arrived to our family on November 4th. We had a scheduled c-section bringing her to us a week before her due date and a day after my birthday. We weren't scheduled to be at the hospital until 3:30 and I spent much of the morning trying to get ready and keep my mind off the fact that I would be cut open later that day and off of food that I wanted very much to eat but couldn't. I got so nervous that I started getting very emotional. Once we were on our way however, the excitement really set in. She was born at 5:25 weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long.
This is Lyndsee right after being born. Not too happy about it.
Lyndsee
I had heard that in Utah hospitals the siblings of babies being born weren't being allowed to visit at the hospital so I was relieved that that wasn't the case here. The kids looked like it was Christmas morning as they came into the room looking for their new present (baby sister). This particular picture may not show it but Reagan was quite excited as well and hasn't shown any issues of jealousy.
All the kids checking out the baby. Will was so stinking cute with his new sister and every bit as nurturing as his sisters towards her. He kept telling me how cute Lyndsee was and he couldn't wait to bring her home.
Will and Lyndsee
Welcome baby girl!
