B.O. Canyon - Escalante National Monument - May 2010
Ramoo was doing a prodigious (as usual) May trip, on which I was invited but, c'mon, this is my time to make hay, as in dough, so alas... But it was INSISTED I participate on one particular project, where certain chunks of metal were inserted in backcountry holes, rather unnecessarily, with our job to remove them and patch carefully with epoxy. Yes, dear friends, nothing like a little bolt removal to get ME motivated.
For this Escalante backcountry trek, Eric Godfrey will weigh in to offer a second perspective. We are calling this B.O. Canyon as, it was the first hot day of the trip, and, uh, let's just say, the swimming toward the end was a welcome relief...
This is one of those "SECRET" canyons, so I won't tell you where it is, other than 'Escalante'. Ram had visited it a while ago with Steve Allen, who had mentioned some bolts next to a Ponderosa that were kinda lookin to be removed. Thus, the project.
This was kind of an odd day, as Ram had not really entirely mapped it out, but was working from visual memory, having been there once, a year prior. Odd for us, not having Ram knowing EXACTLY where we were going.
More pools, more swims, more little downclimbs, a slide or two. I was getting cold, so I stopped taking pictures. We got to the end of the canyon where it dropped precipitously into the main side canyon with a 260-foot rap. Three bolts were evident - recent work by the looks of it. There was a wedged log anchor right there, and access to plenty of rocks, should an anchor need to be built. We yanked the bolts and filled the holes with epoxy and sand, then rapped a LONG way to the ground.