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Show Wet e Wild Zion National By Steve Law ‘ walk along like a dog with its tail between its legs, my hat pulled low against the rain. [ am following my friend Amy Shumway up Zion National Park's Rim Trail. Her 1 Narness rappelling Her carabiner like a cowbell. We we re is da clangs off tO onto her against her a SLOW 1 Duttpack. eight ring Start hiki ng buddies Jason Sherman { ] CITY Norton woke up and rain ¢ hey figured the trip was off and went back to bed. In other words, when their lazy bones woke up at six and saw rain it was the excuse they needed to crawl back into bed. The rest of us waited at Zion’s Grotto Campground for them to show up. After waiting for half an hour we drove to the ranger station and called them. They were surprised to hear that we were already at the park. “We'll be there by nine,” Jerry promised. They finally showed up at 10. We didn’t hit the trail until 10:15, three hours of daylight burned up. Our plan was to take the West Rim Trail to the head of Behunin Canyon, a slot canyon requiring seven rappels that comes out near Emerald Pools. If we wanted to finish before dark we'd have to haul butt. HOMEWARES Now Accepting Furniture, Rugs, Linens and Tableware WY 1994 South 1100 East in Salt Lake City 801/487 4668 1998 IMPROVE YOUR LOOKS, HEALTH AND POPULARITY. ask if he’s all right. He nods, giving us permission to laugh. Soon. too lose my footing and go for a short, thrilling ride. thinned out the crowd. We encounter only six other people on the trail the entire day. “There’s nothing like a little rain to separate the talkers from the doers,” Jerry says sibilities. Jerry tells us we have about five hours of rappelling ahead So we go. The rain doesn't let up. We hike past spontaneous waterfalls shooting over cliff edges, running down their faces. The cliffs rise several hundred feet above us. We look to watch the waterfalls and get a face full of rain. The best part is the rain has look over the edge, discuss the pos- of us, if all goes well. haughtily. the doers from the sleeper-inners,” : Canyon. Around us, the rain slicked cliff faces Spontaneous waterfalls make reflect the dim light of the gray skies, the highlights of which looked like snow. We had to look close and even then we werent sure if it was snow or reflection. It wasn't until the skies grew dimmer and the snow-like reflections faded that we were sure. It keeps raining but we are undaunted. After all, a rainy day in Zion is better than a “sunny” day in the cubicle. Amy seems especially excited. “Oh, hey!” she yells. “Look at those clouds.” She points. An armada of mist and clouds roll down the valley attracted to the mountains. But the valley closes as south rim meets north rim. The clouds bottleneck, pile up, roll over each other like a drowning man pulling himself up onto anything buoyant, until they finally manage to climb over the wall. “This is so cool! Amy yells and her words echo back to us, “... so cool, ...ool!” I pull my cap down lower and Amy and Shauna pull their hoods over their heads rain turns to hail. “Hail in Zion,” I say. “It's almost ironic.” I don’t think anyone QUIT SMOKING. American Heart Association But we have only three and a half hours of daylight left. We are already pretty cold. My hand I counter. We walk up Walter's Wiggles and onto a ridge that overlooks the west side of Zion when © 1992, American Heart Association 12 ¢ FEBRUARY cially slick over gray lichen stains. # Jerry loses a step and slides on his butt 10 feet into a pile of leaves. We We begin hiking in the bottom ofa very narrow canyon. The cliffs rise high on either side, pressing. I now feel like I’m being leafnapped. After about 10 minutes of hiking a waterfall spouts into the slot. We begin wading. At first it’s only ankle deep but it’s not long before we're in up to knees. It takes us about a half hour to reach the site of the first rappel. The icy water is flowing in the same slot we need to rappel down. We all rate ANG A I PAGE through this canyon before. There is no longer a trail to follow. We walk along wet, downsloping sandstone which brings new meaning to the term slickrock. It’s espe- “There's nothing like a little rain to sepa- HOME eer Park in Winter Our other concern, was that it was raining and slot canyons can be death traps when it’s raining. We checked with a ranger before going out and told him our intentions. He told us that Behunin drains only a small area and that it was very unlikely to be hit with a flash flood, even if the rain stayed steady. He asked if we had wet ; . We shook our heads - no. “Then youre biggest concern will be hypothermia.” So we outside and weigh the options. “I say we go for it,” says Amy.“ “We can hike to the head of Behunin and if it looks too risky we can turn back. If we get rained out at least we've spent the day hiking in Zion.” “And besides,“ adds Shauna, “I’ve taken too many painkillers to not go.” gets it. Ever joyous, apparently, Amy starts singing. “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the trail is so delightful...” “But since we've so far to go,“ I add after thinking for a few seconds, “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” The trail drops, then ascends, passes cramps up just tying my shoe. We decide that we would be rappelling into hypothermia country. We decide to turn back and live to rapfor a chilling hike on Zion’s West Rim Trail. pel another day. Now that we're already soaked, we decide to get soaked to the fullest. through a grove of pine and aspen. A few On the hike back we run through waterfalls, gold leaves still cling to anorexic branches do Tai Chi on top of the West Rim Trail with their fingers crossed. The damp air is ridge, basically just a bunch of dancing lightpungent with the scent of wet and decay. It ing rods. smells like old carrots in a dark cellar. Basically, there are two types of winter Leaning trees grunt, moss growing over hikers. The waterfall runners and the cocoa knots look like hairy moles. It’s the feeling of sippers. Now, I’m not saying that sipping a haunted forest. cocoa is bad, I’m just saying the most Apparently Amy feels it too. “Be on the impressive thing you've done all day shouldlookout for flying witches,” she says. n't be that you drank some cocoa. The trail is thickly covered with leaves of When hiking Zion in winter be prepared brown, gold, and brilliant red. So red that to be flexible. It could be raining, or the trails they beg closer investigation. I twirl one by may be covered in six inches of snow. Just the stem between my thumb and index fin- make the most of the situation. We started ger. The leaf is wet, a burnt cherry color with with the intention of rappelling down an purple venals that look like varicose veins. awesome slot canyon. It’s like driving eight The edges at its tip are also purple. hours to Disneyland only find rides are shut I’m not usually the type to get all gaga down. Big Deal! You just go next door to over a stupid leaf but this is a remarkable Wet and Wild specimen. The perfect coda to remember the We get back to our cars and drive to some trip by. I put it between the pages of my hot springs about a half hour outside of notebook to keep until I can tape it to my Zion, near the town of Hurricane. We “oh, wall at home. Like so many girl scouts before oh, oh” our way into the hot water. We set me, I am now a leafnapper. the Coleman stove on the edge of the hot An hour and a half after leaving the springs and warm up some water for cocoa. warmth of our cars we reach the head of It was a perfect day. Amy slips into the Behunin Canyon. We start in. We follow hot water up to her chin and describes it all Jerry since he’s the only one of us who's been simply with a big sigh.@ PHOTO: STEVE LAW |
