B.O. Canyon - Escalante - May 2010 - Eric Godfrey
As far as we knew the canyon was going to be not much more than a hike with a big drop at the end. I set my expectaions low and looked at the day as what would probably be a nice hike to a cool place but we didn't really know how much "canyoneering" we would be doing. (B.O. Canyon)
It was the last day of a 10 day trip for me. The previous days had been fantastic and today's agenda was to drop into a canyon Ram had heard rumors of. The story was that a pair of bolts were sitting near a tree at the end of the canyon but as to what was between where we would drop in and the final drop was pretty unclear.
After hiking for quite a ways we passed slickrock ridges, deep pools, Ponderosa Pine forests, and spectacular views! (B.O. Canyon)
Then we kept hiking... and hiking... and hiking. (B.O. Canyon)
Finally we came to what we agreed was our canyon. Just as I suspected, lots of nice pools, trees, and slickrock but no real canyoneering. We hiked some more until we came to a really nice drop. We could walk around it but the weather was so nice and we brought wetsuits, why not throw them on and have some fun. To add to the fun there was a large pool full of water near the start of the rappel. If a couple people kicked buckets of water down on the rappeller, it simulated the canyon flowing. Sweet! I can get into some splashy water fun!
Simulated class C canyoneering. (B.O. Canyon)
Simulated class C canyoneering. (B.O. Canyon)
Not everyone got the waterfall for the first drop, but everyone (except Matt, who didn't bring a wetsuit and walked around so we didn't have to build an anchor) got to wade the beautiful pool at the bottom. (B.O. Canyon)
After the first drop we came to more drops into big pools. You maybe could do a sketchy traverse around some of these, but we are canyoneers and going down the watercourse is way more fun! (B.O. Canyon)
Continuing... (B.O. Canyon)
A couple roped entry's to pools brought us to an even better way to enter. The slippery slide! Any canyon with a slide gets bumped up my list of favorites. Canyons with multiple slides are even better! Stefanos on rappel. (B.O. Canyon)
Aaron on one of three or four slides. (B.O. Canyon)
Go down... (B.O. Canyon)
After more splashy fun we came to a double pool drop. We messed around with ideas for anchoring like an omnislig around a tree or something of the sort. We ended up just rapping off meat then sending Aaron down without a rope. Naturally he jumped the drops with all sorts of style. (B.O. Canyon)
Jump! (B.O. Canyon)
Jump!! (B.O. Canyon)
Overall view. (B.O. Canyon)
Water lovers were all smiles. (B.O. Canyon)
Water lovers. (B.O. Canyon)
Smile. (B.O. Canyon)
After the long approach and multiple drops to deal with, time was getting late. Luckily we found our way to the final big drop where sure enough there were three bolts backing up the remnants of an old tree. The tree was solidly rooted still and there were tons of rocks for building a cairn anchor so Tom went to work removing the bolts and filling the holes with sand and putty. I helped by giving up some carabiners but the wind was blowing and I was cold so Tom sent me down the rope to take pictures. (B.O. Canyon)
The final drop took you down, down, down a slabby cliff for a ways and then dropped you into a huge alcove. Here is Aaron with a classic shot of the alcove. (B.O. Canyon)
Some river hiking leads to the steep slickrock exit. The sun was starting to get low making for nice cool hiking. (B.O. Canyon)
The views were fantastic! (B.O. Canyon)
After reaching the top, we picked up cars back at the trailhead and headed into town for victory pizza. A fine ending to a great trip! I look forward to many more adventures like this one! (B.O. Canyon)