East Bluejohn Canyon Sept 21, 2017

I did a solo run through East Bluejohn last Thursday (21st 2017), and it was awesome.. The deepest water encountered was close to neck deep (I am 6’1″). I had the canyon entirely to myself until about 3pm..

I did the first rappel (that many people bypass to the right) and snapped some great photos of the huge log leaning up in the dryfall, and recommend others do the same… Most route descriptions I read recommend “skipping the first rap and avoid squeezing up near the top,” however, I didn’t find the squeezing up top to be much worse than down around mid-canyon, and doing the first rap using a natural anchor up top was fun… The descriptions I used all said the second rap is bolted, which is still true, and a knotted, webbing hand-line now hangs from the bolt down into the pothole below, but it also has a fairly new looking rap ring on the wall as well (same hanger).. I used the hand line which seemed fine until the last few feet which have been hanging in the water. For obvious reasons, that webbing feels a little “stretchy” and maybe a little sketchy..

No major rockfalls or blockages besides a couple of logs that you must duck under while wading in knee to thigh high water. I ran into some people during late afternoon who said that the middle fork of Bluejohn has had a large rockfall pile up that is causing “larger than usual pools of water” in that fork of Bluejohn.

I camped at the “Motel 6” and did some night photog there. Also had the Motel 6 to myself the night before.. I had beautiful clear blue skies the entire time out there and my trip could not have been much better…

The slog out of the desert was fairly heinous, as it was somewhat hot that day. Luckily, I was able to grab a ride from the canyoneers I ran into at the end of the day, which saved me several miles of road slogging after the desert death march out lol.

In hindsight, it may have not been the best canyon for a noob to do alone, but I had a blast and had good beta, Gaia gps worked really well for that canyon also.. THANK YOU to Circle Of Friends/Climb Utah for the KMZ files etc!