We descended the East Fork of Leprechaun with a party of 5 on St Patrick’s day 2006. One member of our party had extensive mountaineering and climbing experience. The other 4 had zero to moderate climbing experience. We were all ready for an adventure and in good physical condition. This would be our first true canyoneering trip, and I don’t think we had any idea how addictive it would prove to be.
That morning, we woke to gray skies and a 40% chance of rain. This was our only day to descend the canyon before having to return to work. We had spent the first half of the week floating the upper San Juan and now we were almost out of time in S Utah (one of my favorite places on earth). We had studied the East Fork and read guidebooks and websites for weeks before the trip and we really wanted to do the East Fork. We talked to a climber whose party consisted of some experienced canyoneers who weren’t concerned by the weather and were going forward with their planned Middle Fork and East Fork descents that day. That made us feel a lot better.
We started hiking around 11 AM. A couple members of our party used a piece of webbing to assist them on the very first scramble right near the North Wash camping area. This scramble was the most challenging part of the approach hike. As we hiked and looked down on the East Fork of Leprechaun we all commented on how plain the canyon looked from above. The hike took us almost 2 hours because we were going slowly to make sure we took the best route up the slickrock.
We arrived at the start of the East Fork, verified our GPS waypoints, and looked up at the clouds. The sky was still gray and cloudy as we stood looking down R1. Since North Wash has a fairly small drainage area and other experienced canyoneers weren’t concerned about the weather, we decided to do it. For about 30 minutes, we evaluated the anchor for R1. There was no webbing left behind, but it didn’t seem like we could pull the rope without using webbing. The possibility of downclimbing it wasn’t very appealing, so we hooked up webbing and a rope.
When the first person went down, he yelled enthusiastically about how awesome it was down there, and we all started getting really excited to go into the canyon. For some of us, this was the first time we had ever rappelled. R1 went smoothly for everyone. We moved further into the canyon. Emotions ran high as we scraped through the narrows. We gazed around in wonder and euphoria. We looked warily up at the gray sky. The adrenaline flowed as we downclimbed, stemmed and chimneyed as quickly as we could. We took turns going first down the technical stuff, and we discovered how different it feels to go first rather than follow someone else. We loved the feeling of being totally self sufficient and not knowing what was around the next corner. We rushed to descend the canyon before the weather turned on us. We would have loved to linger and enjoy the canyon but it just felt safer to keep on moving.
We soon arrived at R2. It was another easy one. There was webbing and a rappel ring already in place. Somewhere between R2 and R3 we encountered a completely dry pot hole which we easily climbed into and then out of. We were glad it wasn’t full of water; it might have been a full swim. R3 was more challenging than R1 or R2, but still no biggie. There was webbing and a rappel ring in place. R3 has a wee bit of an overhang, but no one had any trouble.
Right after R3 there’s a downclimb which is a little exciting because you can’t see the bottom of it when you start climbing and you’re very confined while downclimbing. Everyone completed it without any trouble but we agreed the last few minutes (R3 and the last downclimb) were the most challenging sections of the East Fork. Shortly after the last downclimb, the East Fork intersects dramatically with the Middle Fork. To the left of the intersection the canyon opens up to a wash with easy hiking back to the road and then a short road stroll back to North Wash camp. I think we were actually in the canyon only a little over 2 hours.
An hour after we finished, emotions and adrenaline were still gushing through us, making it somewhat difficult to drive or even think clearly. We stumbled around the convenience store in Hanksville, unable to decide on breakfast supplies for the next day. The guy behind the counter watched us curiously as we wandered back and forth in the store. That day we came to understand the euphoria that makes canyoneering so addictive. Maybe we will have to quit our jobs to allow for more canyoneering time.
Pictures at http://groups.msn.com/ErikLisa/eastforkleprechauncanyon.msnw
scott c.
Lisa,
Thanks for posting the report. I love reading about first canyon experiences. I will never forget my first canyon. From the pictures, it looks like a bunch of kids on a play ground. Welcome to the adult play ground.
Scott Card
Lisa Jennings lisaj@uidaho.edu> wrote: We descended the East Fork of Leprechaun with a party of 5 on St Patrick’s day 2006. One member of our party had extensive mountaineering and climbing experience. The other 4 had zero to moderate climbing experience. We were all ready for an adventure and in good physical condition. This would be our first true canyoneering trip, and I don’t think we had any idea how addictive it would prove to be.
That morning, we woke to gray skies and a 40% chance of rain. This was our only day to descend the canyon before having to return to work. We had spent the first half of the week floating the upper San Juan and now we were almost out of time in S Utah (one of my favorite places on earth). We had studied the East Fork and read guidebooks and websites for weeks before the trip and we really wanted to do the East Fork. We talked to a climber whose party consisted of some experienced canyoneers who weren’t concerned by the weather and were going forward with their planned Middle Fork and East Fork descents that day. That made us feel a lot better.
We started hiking around 11 AM. A couple members of our party used a piece of webbing to assist them on the very first scramble right near the North Wash camping area. This scramble was the most challenging part of the approach hike. As we hiked and looked down on the East Fork of Leprechaun we all commented on how plain the canyon looked from above. The hike took us almost 2 hours because we were going slowly to make sure we took the best route up the slickrock.
We arrived at the start of the East Fork, verified our GPS waypoints, and looked up at the clouds. The sky was still gray and cloudy as we stood looking down R1. Since North Wash has a fairly small drainage area and other experienced canyoneers weren’t concerned about the weather, we decided to do it. For about 30 minutes, we evaluated the anchor for R1. There was no webbing left behind, but it didn’t seem like we could pull the rope without using webbing. The possibility of downclimbing it wasn’t very appealing, so we hooked up webbing and a rope.
When the first person went down, he yelled enthusiastically about how awesome it was down there, and we all started getting really excited to go into the canyon. For some of us, this was the first time we had ever rappelled. R1 went smoothly for everyone. We moved further into the canyon. Emotions ran high as we scraped through the narrows. We gazed around in wonder and euphoria. We looked warily up at the gray sky. The adrenaline flowed as we downclimbed, stemmed and chimneyed as quickly as we could. We took turns going first down the technical stuff, and we discovered how different it feels to go first rather than follow someone else. We loved the feeling of being totally self sufficient and not knowing what was around the next corner. We rushed to descend the canyon before the weather turned on us. We would have loved to linger and enjoy the canyon but it just felt safer to keep on moving.
We soon arrived at R2. It was another easy one. There was webbing and a rappel ring already in place. Somewhere between R2 and R3 we encountered a completely dry pot hole which we easily climbed into and then out of. We were glad it wasn’t full of water; it might have been a full swim. R3 was more challenging than R1 or R2, but still no biggie. There was webbing and a rappel ring in place. R3 has a wee bit of an overhang, but no one had any trouble.
Right after R3 there’s a downclimb which is a little exciting because you can’t see the bottom of it when you start climbing and you’re very confined while downclimbing. Everyone completed it without any trouble but we agreed the last few minutes (R3 and the last downclimb) were the most challenging sections of the East Fork. Shortly after the last downclimb, the East Fork intersects dramatically with the Middle Fork. To the left of the intersection the canyon opens up to a wash with easy hiking back to the road and then a short road stroll back to North Wash camp. I think we were actually in the canyon only a little over 2 hours.
An hour after we finished, emotions and adrenaline were still gushing through us, making it somewhat difficult to drive or even think clearly. We stumbled around the convenience store in Hanksville, unable to decide on breakfast supplies for the next day. The guy behind the counter watched us curiously as we wandered back and forth in the store. That day we came to understand the euphoria that makes canyoneering so addictive. Maybe we will have to quit our jobs to allow for more canyoneering time.
Pictures at http://groups.msn.com/ErikLisa/eastforkleprechauncanyon.msnw
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— In Yahoo Canyons Group, Lisa Jennings wrote: That day we came to > understand the euphoria that makes canyoneering so addictive. Maybe we will > have to quit our jobs to allow for more canyoneering time. > Pictures at http://groups.msn.com/ErikLisa/eastforkleprechauncanyon.msnw
Ahhhhh, brand new passion and enthusiam. That made my day. Thanx for sharing the report. Keep us up to date on future adventures. Thanx Lisa Ram