The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Nina came to visit for my birthday! The only other time she's been to Utah was when she was a kid and her parents took her to Bryce and Zion, so it was really fun to see everything through her eyes. I've started taking so many of the views for granted. I took Friday off work, and our first stop was Mesa Arch at Canyonlands. We stopped at a few other viewpoints, then went to Sweet Cravings for lunch because I wanted that jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwich. Next up was Arches, where we stopped at all the usual viewpoints: Park Avenue Balanced Rock Double Arch Landscape Arch I did not take Nina to see Delicate Arch. I'm a terrible tour guide! After dinner at the Brewery, we headed over to our Air BnB in Hanksville, where we met up with Ashley and Amy. The next morning, we headed out to East Leprechaun. The approach seemed so long (we didn't approach it from Sandthrax like the last time I'd done it). We finally got to the start of the canyon and

Yes, I realize it is May and I'm still writing about stuff that happened in February. I know it seems like, what's the point? But my blog is really just for me, and I like to document canyons and hikes for future reference. So... cross country skiing! We were supposed to do Fiery Furnace that weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we made the best of it. We got the nicest Air BnB in Idaho. It was an apartment over someone's garage, and the lady acted like our mom, greeting us with freshly baked brownies and checking road conditions for us. Brian had a ski pass, so he went skiing in Jackson Hole. Amy and Chase and I set out to ski to Jenny Lake at Grand Teton National Park. I had never done this before and wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I LOVED it! There was this moment where I was behind Chase and gaining on him and told him to look out, and Amy yelled, "Oh my God, Erin has found her sport!" The only issue we had was that we were skiing i

Amy and I thought we were being so smart. Winter canyoneering requires extra caution, but we thought we’d planned for all the variables- there was no water in the canyon, and we picked a canyon where you did all the climbing on the approach. So, if there was snow, we’d be able to just turn around and find something else to do that day.  Things were off to a good start. There were two sections that were a little tricky for us. (Neither of us are talented climbers), but we got through them with teamwork, and with me using Amy’s leg as a handline. (This was very efficient, by the way!) We dropped into the “canyon,” which wasn’t really much of a canyon at all, just a series of drops leading down to Park Avenue. There was no anchor for the first rappel, so I pulled out some webbing and we built one. No big deal.  After that drop, Amy pulled the rope while I looked for the anchor for the next rappel. Ummm... where were the bolts? There were supposed to be two to the left of a boulder. Well,