I went on my first canyoneering trip yesterday through Buhunion Canyon and am still alive!!! I definitely place it up in the top 3 of the scariest/craziest things I have ever done. There was 6 of us that went: 2 of my roommates, Kayla and Amanda, then Desi and Kaiden which are married and work recreation and Eric who works recreation and is the canyoneerer for the Ponderosa. They had all been canyoneering before but it was a first for me so they got some entertainment out of the deal. Eric had to pick up a permit so we could do the canyon because they don’t allow inexperienced people into the canyon for safety reasons. We left the resort at 7am and didn’t get back until 7pm. Okay enough description here are some pictures!
*We inclined 2,000 feet before starting any repels so this is in the middle of the hike up with Kayla…it’s right by Angels Landing.
*More incline!
*Starting to get into the canyon which had some interesting spots to get through!
*Our first repel which was scary since it was my first one but it was only about 75 feet and by the end of the canyon it seemed simple!
*There was nothing more comforting than to know that you are dangling 200 feet off of the ground being supported by a teeny tree!
*2nd repel.
*3rd repel
*Hands starting to get blisters!
*On one of the repels we had to drop into water which we couldn’t touch and swim to the other side so they made a zip line for our bags and shoes and we went repelling barefoot into water that looked oh so clean haha!
*This was a pretty scary repel…Amanda (girl with the helmet) is standing on the very edge there is nothing but a drop off and something about a bolt and chain in a rock just doesn’t quiet make me feel too safe!
*View before repel.
*Okay so I guess it’s time for an embarrassing story…on about our 5th repel there was a “sink hole of death” as everyone called it. They called it this because it was a deep hole with no where to grab and water deep enough that you couldn’t see the bottom (meaning if you got stuck in there alone there would be no way of getting out). Anyways we had to maneuver our way around it so we didn’t lose our footing and fall in. Well it came my turn and my rope was on double friction which means it doesn’t feed through too fast…I couldn’t get it to feed through fast enough and ended up dangling with one foot in and one foot out of the “sink hole of death”. I hurried and tried to get my other foot out when the sand on rock made me lose my footing and yup you guessed it I ended up in the “sink hole of death”. No one could see me so we ended up just yelling back and forth and me trying to get out. I had to have them lower me to the water to where I could lay upside down and shimmy my way up why Desi pulled on the rope. It took about a half hour and now they all have an embarrassing story to tell and they won’t let me forget about it!
*The whole group from left to right is Kaiden (Desi’s husband), Eric, Desi, Amanda, Kayla, and Me.
*Waiting our turn to repel.
*We had 8 repels total and this was our last one. It was 156 feet and you had to dangle most of it. The only hard part about this is you are in control of going down which means your right hand is the brake hand and your left hand is extra support. By the end my hands had blisters all over them because it was my first time and I was still figuring out how to work everything and ended up just getting quite the rope burn but the view was soo worth it!
*By the end my hand had several blisters and my legs a few bumps and bruises but it was a blast and we were all alive! I also had to take off my ring and put it in my camera case because it was getting scratched up and the rope would heat it up to where it burned so if you ever go repelling don’t wear rings!!
This is the end of our journey and we ended up by Emerald Pools. It was about 5pm by this time and we were all ready for some food and went to Kanab to eat! I definitely want to do a canyon again but will for sure wait a few days til I gain my courage back :)
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