Headed out to Escalante with by buddies Scott and Conrad for a couple of classic canyons in the area. Neon is famous for its final rap through a hanging arch and into an alcove known as the Golden Cathedral. It is quite the geological marvel. Really a one of a kind spectacle. Choprock is another great canyon, albeit with a long approach, but is mostly infamous for the time that two canyoners got trapped in a pothole and died from hypothermia. The trip and the canyons were fantastic, but overshadowed somewhat by a side story involving a girl and a couple dogs. I’m not a great storyteller, so long story short, a girl had taken her parent’s two labs down to the Escalante River where we had set up a base camp. It’s not a short hike. It’s quite long and all downhill, meaning to get out it’s all uphill, and on sand. We came across the girl after Neon and she was crying because her dogs would not make the trip back up to the car because they were tired/hot, but most importantly the pads of their paws were badly scraped from the sand and sandstone rock. So the girl and the dogs had to do an unplanned camp with us overnight. At some point Rick Green, a local canyoneering legend, came down to our camping spot as he was on some trip of his own and agreed that the girl had to hike out, leave the dogs tied up, and contact someone to come help. If I recall correctly, we babysat the dogs for another night and they were just whimpering for most of the night. Rick ended up assisting the next day by duct taping the dog pad’s and helping them get out because the parents of the girl (who she had called and had drove out there) were not going to be much help. I’m probably missing some parts of that story, but you get the gist. Anyway…cool canyons.
