Lunatic Fringe: Phoenix Canyons

Right after Christmas I was lucky enough to get out to do some canyons in the Phoenix area with my dad, Merritt, Christian, and my dad's friend Rich. We drove out to the Superstition Mountains, which are only a couple of hours away from my house, and did three canyons.

The first day we hit El Capitan and Parker and the second day we did Salome Jug, which is one of the best canyons in that area. This was my first experience with enough water at a low enough temperature to require a wetsuit, and I was extremely hesitant. In fact, up until the day before I was considering not going, but Merritt and Dad talked me into it, and I'm glad they did. I'm also glad Dad found me a 7mm wetsuit on Craigslist at the last minute. Very glad.

El Capitan, our first canyon, was dry and beautiful. On the hike out I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my ankle, and looked down to see a five inch chunk of cholla attached to the bottom of my leg. I tried to knock it off with a rock, but it wouldn't budge. I yelled for Christian, who came running to help. He tried to pry it off with two small rocks, but couldn't get enough leverage, and had to get two larger rocks and brace himself well before pulling very hard to get that nasty, prickly cactus off of my leg. It was sore for a couple of days.

Parker, our second canyon, had some water, so we strapped our wetsuits on our packs before we set out. The water turned out to be below thirty degrees, and any rocks sticking up had ice on them. Brrrrr... The canyon was great and the suits kept us warm enough, as there wasn't much swimming and plenty of hiking in between. We spent that evening eating charred cake that tasted like used matches and watching a movie in the car.

When we woke up everything that wasn't in the car (wetsuits, shoes, socks, clothing from the day before) was frozen. Solid. Brrrr... We met Rich at the trail to Salome Jug, where we hiked a mile or so before putting on our wetsuits in the warm sun amongst cacti and jackrabbits.

Rich, who had done the canyon several times, said the water was running high and fast. That water was also below freezing. And we had a lot of swimming. And it was cold. Very, very cold. It was a gorgeous canyon and the trip was amazing, but by the time we got out of the last of three 100+ yard swims without direct sunlight my feet and hands were colder that they have ever been in my life. We had a two mile hike of switchbacks up to our car, and although Rich assured us that we could stay at the bottom and take off our suits and we would warm up in the sun, Merritt and I decided to truck up the hill in full gear (hoods, gloves, neoprene socks and all), and hope to quickly generate enough body heat to thaw our extremities. Worked like a charm.

It was an awesome trip and, like childbirth, the pain and misery are quickly forgotten and I would do it again in a heartbeat.