[SUBW-A] Trip Report: Canyoning 7 Sept 2002

[Mitchell Isaacs]

The party: Dave Noble (Bad Dave), Dave Forbes, Mitchell Isaacs

We got off to a fairly late start as Bad Dave woke me up in my car as he & =
Dave arrived at the North Richmond bakery at 9:30am. We were cycling out =
to our canyon, so with sorting out our bikes & gear, and the drive out to =
the start of our ride, we didn't end up leaving the car until almost noon.

After a quick ride along the fire trail, we were near our intended canyon. =
The Daves (both of whom brought their digital video cameras along) =
insisted I ride up and back down the last hill so they could get some =
footage, from multiple angles. We stashed our bikes, and after a Bad Dave =
5 mins (15 mins real time) we were in our canyon. The canyon was dark and =
very narrow, with some narrow abseils, and we had to squirm our way =
through some of the narrower parts. The going was very slow as the =
techno-phile Daves spent about 30mins videoing for each 5mins of going =
through the canyon. Just when it seemed as if they were done, and packing =
up to move along, Bad Dave would then pull out his new digital still =
camera, just in case his 5 hours of video footage didn't turn out.

We continued through the canyon, and finally emerged after an interesting =
slide down a couple of logs. The bottom of a nearby canyon beckoned, and =
we had a look at the bottom section of this magnificent canyon until our =
way was blocked by a waterfall. After climbing out via a nearby creek, we =
had a very interesting walk back to the bikes, passing through a very =
primordial feeling swamp.

We got back to the bikes, and decided to ride out even further to a =
lookout that the Daves knew, and arrived there shortly before sunset. The =
ride back was mostly in the dark, and one party member (who will remain =
nameless) had to ride back without his shorts, as they had disintegrated =
on the climb out. None of the hoardes of tourists seemed to mind though.

We arrived back at the car early in the evening, with only one minor =
mechanical problem suffered by Bad Dave on his ride back (his cleat =
twisted).

A good days spring canyoning with perfect weather.