Three Passes (but we only did two)

This was reputed to be the hardest day of the trip. Our packs were super heavy with the water. The morning was fraught with bushwhacking. (I didn't expect much of that in the desert.) We hiked out of where we had camped and up through a pass.

We went down into a canyon (absolutely beautiful) and up over another. We had to scramble/climb through deep and high crevasses. We had to pass our packs to each other at some points and lowered the packs on webbing at other points.

Well, did we get pushed. Missy spent a few minutes weighing packs to even out the loads. Once we redistributed the weight it was a little better for me but it was still very heavy.

I think the highlight of the day, though, was the rappel. It wasn't a rappel in the traditional sense because the rope wasn't long enough to reach straight down to the next level of rockface. We used the rope to walk down the steep face and we did it without our packs. It was tricky in it's own right because we needed to veer to the left on the way down. It was terrifying but great.

I went down first. Once I was down and in a "dish" in the slickrock. I held the rope at the appropriate angle for the rest of the gang. Missy made it very clear that I'd better hold on because if anyone slipped I'd be pulled with them. I slipped my hand into the knot at the end of the rope and wedged my knee under a curve in the rock to hold me in place in the event that what Missy suggested actually did occur. It was strange. In the time I had to myself while Margaret made her way down, I looked around at the giant rocks and began to cry slightly. It wasn't for any particular reason. Then I began to laugh. That wasn't for any particular reason either. It was just very inspiring looking around at these huge rocks we were travelling over and around.

Everyone got down without any problems. Susan and Dan opted for the advanced version of our descent and carried their packs down. Missy brought down the rest of our packs one at a time. (That was four trips up and down for her.) After all that, she was wiped too.

Then we crossed around the canyon and camped up on the slickrock. It was a great camp sight. We were above the canyon but surrounded by high peaks and passes. It was like our own private canyon.

The moon came up a little later and we were able to see a lot of stars. Missy and Dan pointed out Cassiopeia and I got to see the Milky Way for the first time. But I missed the shooting stars because I was writing this damn journal!

Me / Our Patrol / Our Fearless Leader / On the Way Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 4 / Day 5 Day 6 / Day 7 / Day 8 / Day 9 / Day 10 Things To Remember / Outward Bound / The Anasazi

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