Maidenwater | Good Day Jim | Leprechaun (Left Fork) | September 2016

Trip Report

Brad, Emily, Brent and I (Andy) drove in from the front range, leaving in the morning from Brad and Emily’s now abandoned home in Denver. Jorge, Jan, Nukka and Darwin drove from Hot Sulphur leaving a lot earlier since they were driving the camper and toy trailer. Cristina drove from Phoenix all by herself.

In true Canyon tradition, Jorge and Jan got a flat tire on their trailer on the way up. Four years in a row now?

Cristina was stopped a couple hours before camp due to a flash flood blocking her way. That sort of thing probably isn’t uncommon in the desert.

After meeting up at the turn off for Bullfrog Marina, near the Trachyte Creek area of Utah, we all headed to search out a campsite near the base of the Mt. Hillers and the Maidenwater canyon. I had done some searching on maps and decided on a BLM road that would put us at the head of Maidenwater – the canyon to be explored the following day.

I lead in my 4Runner, Brent following in his Crosstrek and my father in his 2500 with the camper and his toy hauler. The first 1/4 was easy as pie. We soon hit some pretty rough terrain. I checked with the group and we decided to keep on going. I drove a bit ahead to check out the rest of the road and Brad, Emily and I decided it wasn’t worth trying to get my dad up there in his truck so we stopped, got out and whistled to Brent who was below directing my father. We signaled not to come. However, Brent wasn’t wearing his glasses and thought we were giving him the go ahead and he kept directing my father up the rough terrain. Long story short we spent the next 30 minutes clearing the road and filling in holes so my dad could back down the road. He drove like a champ.

After a couple other failed attempts to find a BLM camp site we all liked, we headed to Star Springs Ranch Campground at the base of the Henry Mountains. After 11 years of visiting Utah and meeting for our annual canyon trip this was out first time camping in an actual campground. Aside from having neighbors who often cried, we enjoyed having a large picnic table, a very clean pit toilet and nice (oak?) trees for shade.

Maidenwater

The first morning we loaded up and headed to the Maidenwater trailhead around 8. After looking at the map we decided not to follow the recommended trailhead and went for the rough BLM road that would take us to the top of the canyon. The recommended trailhead would have been faster however we ended up not needing to do any up hikes (lazy) and instead had a 45 minute 4×4 road to reach the top. Jan and Jorge had instructions to take their Razr to find our car at some point in the day and bring out car back down to the highway for us to pick up with Brent’s car after we exited at the end of canyon. Turns out, the upper road from Star Springs was washed out 3 miles east (2 miles west of where we parked) and it took them until 4pm to find a new route to get my car. In the end my mom drove my 4runner back down to the highway, following my tracks over the rough spots on that trail.

The canyon was awesome! A few areas of wading but was mostly dry with a good amount of down climbing and partner assist problems. A think we ended up only rappelling a couple of times. And we saw a little garter snake mid canyon! We ended the canyon by walking through the man made tunnel where they filled in the canyon for the highway that leads to Bullfrog Marina. Our resident explosive expert, Brad, had some nice bits of information to provide as he guided us through the tunnel. From there it was an easy 3 minute hike out to the road and a quick walk back to the car. One of the easiest hikes out yet. Beta for the canyon was 5 to 6 hours and we did it in about 7.

Good Day Jim

The next day we left camp again around the same time and headed to the Ticaboo desert south of Ticaboo and draining into Lake Powell. After a 45 minute 4×4 drive we ended up reaching the trailhead which sits above both Good Day Jim and Hard Day Harvey, the canyon we originally decided on doing. After taking so long to get there and flying the drone around we decided to go for what was considered the shorter canyon according to our beta, climb-utah.com. 6-7 hours for GDJ and 7-8 for HDH.

We set off for GDJ (sans Emily who sustained a hand injury the day before and decided to spend the day with my parents and the dogs) around 10. We loved GDJ! We soon found out that the area must have received some recent rain because we had a fair amount of wading and a few swimmers throughout the canyon. We enjoyed this plus all of the great technical down climbing and partner assisting to be had in the canyon. We found ourselves saying to one another how much we were loving the canyon throughout the day. And since both GDJ and HDH both drain into Lake Powell we were super stoked to end up there and do some actual swimming! Well, after working our way through, and at a reasonable pace (in our eyes) we reach the out hike at 6:30pm (8.5 hours after starting) and decided Lake Powell would have to be visited another day. The start out was a straight up class 3 with a couple class 4 areas that rose a good 300-400ft from the floor of the canyon. It didn’t take long to gain elevation and get some great views of the setting sun hitting the rocks to the south of the lake. After about an hour we reach the “top” which was sort of a false summit because we still had some distance to go, both up and down, before reaching the desert sand and brush. We got to the car at 9. Camp at 10 – waiting for us was a few worried campers (another canyon tradition).

Leprechaun Left Fork

I think we didn’t get out of camp until 9:15 but we knew we didn’t have as far of a drive as the trailhead for Leprechaun sits about 100 ft. from highway 95, just a couple miles south of the Bullfrog turnoff in the North Wash area of Utah. A quick gathering of gear and we were off hiking around 10am. The hike up to the start of the canyon took about 2 hours but was much more enjoyable with fresh legs and a nice breeze.

I had done one of the forks of Leprechaun with my friend Cow a few years back and wasn’t sure if it was the left fork until we were actually in left fork. It was not. Left fork was a very nice surprise as it consisted of a good amount down climbing and partner assisting in a very twisty-turny and narrow (but not too narrow) canyon. We loved it! It was fun to have Emily back with us and to know that we didn’t have a long exit hike out and could pace ourselves if we needed to. We actually did need to because there was a group ahead of us that kept us waiting a couple of times. No biggie, though.

Our last rappel dropped us into a final little down climb section and then spit us out into a subway section of lower Leprechaun, just after all the forks met. From there is was canyon floor walking back to the car. When we arrived, Jorge and Jan we waiting for us at the trailhead. A little more droning and we were off to camp. Beta for the canyon was 4-5 hours and we did it under 7.

All in all this was one of the best trips as all 3 canyons were a lot of fun. I really liked Star Springs Campground and would be happy to stay there again. We have a handful more canyons to explore in the area and this area provides a great starting point for them all. Trail, Hard Day Harvey and Trachyotomy are probably next on the list.

Maidenwater 9/4/16

Good Day Jim 9/5/16

 

Leprechaun Left Fork 9/6/16