10/13/2003

After sleeping soundly through the night we woke early to enjoy our first full day backpacking. The early part wasn’t deliberate, but being on the top of the west rim of Clover Canyon, we were the recipients of a beautiful but early sunrise. Leaving the climbing gear behind (with just backpacking gear our packs were under 20lbs and were so light as to almost be unnoticeable) we hiked to see Pothole Arch and Turret Arch and Delicate Arch and North Arch and South Arch and Broken Arch and Another Arch and Yet Another Damn Arch. The park is just filled with those things. All very impressive, but honestly a bit redundant after a full day.

We returned to the car for water -- not much to be had in the park, and what water there is must be left for the non-human animals -- and decided to drive to Klondike Bluffs at the western edge of the park. This is a fantastically beautiful area and surprisingly uncrowded. We hiked the Tower Arch trail in gusting winds until the realization hit us that it was again time to tie into a rope and climb.

Climbing is allowed everywhere in the park except on the arches themselves. We chose to climb Owl Rock (5.8+) because it is one of the park’s classic climbs, and known for being composed of sandstone slightly more solid than the loose stuff which comprises most of the rock in the park.

Owl Rock itself looks exactly like an owl. You can really see where the name comes from. Take one look at the pillar and you exclaim, “My God! That looks exactly like a penis! Ummm... I mean an owl. A penis shaped owl.” Whatever, phallic vs. owllic was irrelevant to us, we needed to climb. The 110’ tower is climbed with a long pitch to a solid belay, then a second pitch makes a short scramble to the summit. We sat on the summit of our final climb of the trip and enjoyed our last PBJ tortilla while looking out at a landscape just littered with owl shaped rock formations. Downclimbing to the first belay, and then a single 60m rappel, and we were back on flat ground. I actually got to do most of the climb again on toprope. One nut had become fixed and neither of us could get it out. We tried whacking the nut tool with small rocks found on the climb, but they just crumbled to dust. At the base of the climb I found a more solid rock and climbed back up to free the nut. One good thump and out it came. This reminded me of the slide hammer nut tool I had invented a year earlier but never got around to building. Someday.

Owl Rock is very close to the road, so we had attracted a bunch of curious tourists. We posed for a few photos, then packed away our climbing gear for the last time. Grabbing our blissfully light packs, we hiked down the familiar pipeline trail to revisit our private section of the park.

Another night followed much like the previous. Stunning sunset, wonderful dinner, brilliant stars, floodlight moon, hot chocolate and sleep. This was the coldest night of the trip, with temperatures getting right around freezing. I woke in the middle of the night feeling chilled in my 40F Western Mountaineering Highlite (a wonderful sleeping bag that weighs only 16oz. and keeps even the coldest sleepers comfy down to its rating and below). Even Lauren was slightly chilly in her new 15F bag. So I poked my arms out of the bag and lit the stove which was sitting right by my head. A few minutes later we were both quite comfortable snuggling with our fresh hot water bottles. Ahh!!

Next Day