TRIP – Kolob Creek Rookie

Hello all! My name is Chris Sherwin. I’m new to the site (about two weeks) and I thought I would attempt to contribute something.

I’m hoping to offer a fresh perspective for totally beginner canyoneers here as I am an advanced beginner or low intermediate canyoneer myself. Most trip reports seem to be written by people who have WAY more experience than myself. I get to Zion once or twice a year. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. My experience is fairly minimal. I took a rock climbing class before my first route, which was Pine Creek. I have led or perhaps I should say, I have never followed every route that I have ever been on. Not that it’s cool. It’s unnerving to know that people are relying on you, (yourself included) and you aren’t 100% certain about what’s ahead, but I guess that’s what make it so “fun”. Over the last few years I’ve hit Spry, Mystery, Telephone to Behunin, Fat Man’s Misery, Echo and maybe one or two others. All were dry. So I wanted to do Kolob Creek as the next step. I hope the following trip report can bring you back to a time when a fully bolted route was still exciting for you! Or at least entertain you.

After totally missing the entrance to Kolob Creek last year, after a six hour search for the entrance, (We think we found goose creek instead) and hitchhiking back to camp in the back of a loaded honda with a dog on our lap, followed by another hitch with the local sherrif, who stopped by a meth lap in Rockville, to do some investigating…

We decided to give it another shot.

Friday –

I’m at work, on my computer looking at RED splotches all over Zion on the weather. It’s POURING rain down there. Not good – but Kolob Creek is dam controlled right? Then again how much other drainage makes it in there?

Saturday AM – We got our permit at 8:30 and left the visitor center by 9:00. Should be plenty of time right? I really needed the sleep after a long week at work. I think alot of people underestimate the need to be well rested before such trips. We’re doing the two day version of the trip, and this is my first overnighter. We brought two cars, and left one at the visitor center.

Headed to the creek. We looked at the flow on the bridge where it says Kolob Creek. I have no idea if this is 3 cfs. 5 cfs? 8 cfs? It’s way more than a trickle. Last year Tom’s guide said, “if it’s more than a trickle, you’re out of luck.” This year it gives a value in cubic feet per second. Water district said they would not be releasing any water. We drove to the dam to check. No release, but maybe an inch of water coming over the spillway. I’m thinking, “how many cfs is that?” I’m doing the math in my head…I just saw the virgin running at 100 cfs, the people who died here 10 years ago or so were at 29 cfs, that was descibed as water flowing 20 feet wide, four inches deep. I just saw water 10 feet wide flowing 1 inch deep over the spillway. I’m guessing it’s running at 4 cfs??? Bottom line – I need to look at the water physically and determine – can I get through this? I answer yes…I think. We decided to go for it.

We left the west rim trailhead at about 11 am. Note for Tom… The logging road is growing in quickly. Perhaps in the description it should be noted that after about 10 minutes of descending the road, when the road turns down and right – you continue through a faint trail in the grass, cross a creek (the spring?) and continue about two hundred feet up and right to the much more prominent logging road where the descent begins. When we were briefly scrambling up to the logging road, I didn’t think we could possibly still be on a logging road, but we were I guess. It was just that weathered.

We continued down to the creek and put on our drysuits. I wore a base layer of poly pro pants, thick fleece pants, a poly pro top and a windblock fleece top under my drysuit. I get cold pretty easily. I planned on sleeping in these clothes with a jacket instead of a sleeping bag to save space – BAD IDEA. More later.

This is my favorite canyon of all time. It is beautiful. The water is clear and cold, yet I’m very comfortable in my drysuit, I’m floating on my back in pools and looking up at the walls. This is AWESOME!!! We have plenty of time. We took 60 pictures maybe. My partner thinks this is a lot of water. It’s noticeable, but manageable. I never bothered to teather my pack, beacuse I was handling the load just fine…until near the end of the tech section when I was over hanging for a second. The pack weight pulled me on to my back whilee rappelling, and I couldn’t get upright again. I got some real good face shots of h2o because of it, and also continued sideways down the rest of the rappel. Considering the heavy pack, and the over hang. I should have teathered the pack.

Final rappel in the technical section – Comparing my pictures to the ones on Tom’s site, I’m going to say we had twice as much water as those photos, maybe more. The final rappel wasn’t difficult, but it was an awakening. Water falling on you at from 20 feet is fun. 60 feet also fun. When water stays together and falls over 100 feet onto your head, you will want a helmet. It was like being in a very bad hailstrom for the last 75 feet. But it was really cool!

Kolob Creek was fun, real fun. But it kicked my ass. We finished the tech section at 6:30. We knew we had wasted tons of time. But really, we were having a great time. We weren’t sure if we would make it to campground # 6 in the narrows, or if we would just have to stay in Kolob Creek. No biggie either way. So now we’re walking down the drainage, and a sharp rock pokes my right foot. The BOTTOM of my right foot. The sole of my shoe has peeled off comletely. I have duct tape, but I don’t think it will last long. We’re a bit rushed at this point, so I rally with minimal foot protection. It’s 8:30 now, we haven’t hit the MIA exit, nor the two rappels that the descrition mentions. We haven’t taken off the drysuits because we are trying to make time. We have two options. Continue with headlamps, or camp on a teeny “beach” which has a nice escape climb in case of a flood. I take off my drysuit. My camping clothes are soaked in sweat. We’re not supposed to make a fire, but I had to try to dry the clothes. No luck there. We cleaned up our fire very well and left no trace of embers. A Maytag dryer would be nice right now. We have a couple backpackers pantry dinners, and I even hauled along a 22 oz can of Sapporo beer. Do not ever bring a can of Sapporo with you. You will need a 40 pound rock to crush it. Although in a pinch, you could probably fashion a heavy duty tool out of it.

Time to sleep. Not. I have a therma rest – good call. I’ve held my clothes over fire, I’ve run in place. They’re wet, and will stay that way. 2 AM – I get back into my drysuit. It’s wet from sweat. 3 AM – Still cold. I get out of the drysuit and poach my friend’s 10 year old super thin and shiny emergency blanket. It takes 30 minutes to unfold it without ripping it, but the activity keeps me warm. 3:30 AM – The blanket works and I fall asleep!!! 9 AM – Drysuits on again. The route guide says we have two more swims, and two rappels. Somehow, by the grace of God, I brought my TEVAs for a night a camp. I shoved the rest of my shoe into the sandal and used it as a sole/toe protection. The sandals saved me. Toe protection was nice, but the arch support was key. The two hours I spent without a sole, were brutal on my right achilles.

We pass the MIA exit, and give it little consideration. We’ve heard the bottom of Kolob is beautiful. It is. But you rarely see it when you are looking at your feet the whole time! Tom’s guide says we have two swims left. We actually had about fifteen. My friend thinks this is a lot of water. I agree. The rains from two days ago had left a ton of water in here. The going is slow because we can’t really see where our feet are going. At the end, there are supposed to be scuzzy pools. But the water is crystal clear. Noonish – The end of Kolob Creek must be soon. How slow are we? We pull off the drysuits and eat. There are occasions where I see a corner and think it’s the narrows – but no. 3:10 we finally arrive at the narrows. An NPS map says six hours to the temple of sinawava. We travel fast, but yesterday it was flowing 100 cfs. Was it flowing more now? With the heavy packs, how slow would we be?

My partner wondered if we would make it out tonight. I had told my wife I would call as soon as we exited. Note to people with worrying loved ones… NEVER give them an optimistic exit time.

I have no room in my dry bag in my 37 pound pack for clothing storage. Since I no longer need the clothing, it can get wet, no big deal. Wrong. Everytime I swim, the pack gains 20 pounds or more as it slowly drains, and the wet clothing remains heavy. Any minor things packed in ziplock bags are soaked. Use more drybags next time dumbass.

I used a walking stick in Kolob Creek and the narrows. It saved me, although I put so much pressure on it, it made my wrist sore. Still, it was such a good stick, I named it. “Cain” In the narrows it picked up a cousin, “Abel.”

The narrows at 100 cfs is a little difficult to negotiate. Add a waterlogged pack, fatigue and a crappy nights sleep, and it becomes less fun. Narrows = 4.5 hours of ankle rolling and slogging. It’s a neat place, but after falling a few times, and having trouble getting up, I’m ready for pavement. We exited at 8 pm. Left to pick up the other car at 9. Back to the bottom of the Kolob terrace road at 11 pm. My friend calls work and says he’ll come in on Tuesday. I head for Taco Bell at the TA stop in Parowan. It’s Closed. I get to Provo Canyon en route to Heber. It’s closed. So I drove over Cascade Springs. Took a shower and got to bed at 4:30 am. I’m hammered. But the technical section was WAY worth the effort.

Special thanks to Tom, Bo and many others who have given people like myself the information and confidence to experience such incredible places. Chris “Pepe” Sherwin