Halls Creek!

Helen is a great friend that will forever keep me adventuring... I hope! The latest adventure she planned was a backpacking trip to Halls Creek near Capitol Reef. The Halls Creek portion of the trip began after completing Cassidy Arch.  Heather and her kids headed off home while the rest of us continued on to meet up with 2 of my brothers and their kids. We camped near the trailhead.

On May 29th, Heather, Kaden, Luke, Alexandra, and the Cronin's, minus McKinley, went canyoneering.  We had a backpacking trip planned for that weekend to do Halls Creek Narrows but decided to go down a day early so we could hit Cassidy Arch beforehand!  Brilliant idea yes?!

 

This would be Ebony's first time going canyoneering.

Thankfully we ended up getting to the first rappel before a whole slew of other groups!  We set up the first rappel, let the one group with only 4 people go ahead of us, then down we went.

This is one of our favorite canyons to do because it's a half day, minimal approach and exit, with fun rappels.

The next morning we got up and headed over to the trailhead to begin our 3 day backpacking trip!  The day started out pretty warm but ended up getting windy and cool with a storm coming in.  Thankfully the storm never hit us but we benefited from it!

There were 16 in our group!  We quickly decided to have a count-off so everyone had a number.  That way, every time we stopped for a rest we could make sure everyone was accounted for.

 

Kaden ended up coming with us instead of returning home with Heather.  He and Sam (Angela's nephew) had a fun time together.  The youngest in the group was 7 years old (Violet) and she did awesome!

I was miserable with a horrible cold coming on.  I wasn't feeling so good on this day (I may have even found myself wishing I'd stayed at home a couple of times! gasp) but thankfully the following days were much better.  Keep on keepin on!

We took breaks about every mile if there was ample shade for everyone to hide under.  The heat of the day was getting so some.  Thankfully the wind and clouds kicked up around 1pm.

We were able to find a large enough area for everyone to camp together that was about 100 yards away from the main trail.

There was even a good supply of water nearby for us to filter! Backpacking in southern Utah is a completely different sport than in Idaho. You have to plot out your water sources and plan accordingly. And hope and pray that they'll still be present when you go. Helen and I were looking into a trip in Idaho and she started getting nervous because the springs weren't marked on the map. I pointed out the river that flowed nearby the trail. LOL. Completely different.

The kids entertained themselves that evening by digging a hole. ha!

The next morning we all headed into the Narrows.  We left all our gear at our campsite and took only day snacks, water, and a water filter.  Thank goodness for that water filter!  The hike was only supposed to be 4.5 miles but my GPS clocked us at 11.8 miles!!  We had to filter water for everyone midway through.

There was one 40 ft section near the very end of the narrows where we had to swim.  That was quite refreshing!  Helen ended up loosing her sunglasses tho when she went to help Seth.  He was panicking because he couldn't swim very well so being the hero she is, she had to swim to him, where he promptly climbed on her back and pushed her under.  She had one arm up over her head to keep her day pack out of the water so she had to swim with one arm and get him back to where we started, which thankfully was only a few feet away.  I took her day pack and then, using her boy scout aquatic director training, she remembered the water rescue techniques and was able to swim him across the deep part by holding him against her side with his back on her hip and swimming sidestroke. Yay Helen!

The following morning we woke up at 4am, packed up and were headed back to the cars by 5am.  We wanted to beat the heat of the day. And we did!

The last mile of the trip had some steep switchbacks.  I hiked with Ebony and was so proud of her. I hiked with some interspersed breaks and she only asked to stop twice. I held a stick on one end, and she on the other, and she climbed up that mountain right behind me!