Mystery Canyon with Deb

Yesterday Deb & I decided at the last minute to do Mystery Canyon.  I am getting ready to travel to BC, Canada to do some mountaineering and climbing and thought that a good hike with a backpack would be a good idea to prepare my body for the steep approaches in the mountains.  It was just the two of us as we drove over to Zion on a sunny Saturday in August.  My ranger friend Andrew met us at the EOC and he had my permit ready and gave us a shuttle up to the Weeping Rock trailhead and dropped us off.  Usually we drive or shuttle up to the east side of Zion and hike a short mile over to the head of Mystery Canyon.  This day we decided to hike up the Observation Point Trail and gain access to the canyon without the shuttle.  This took us 2 1/2 hours and several thousand feet of vertical gain to accomplish.  A good workout!  Deb did really well on this part of the day.  It had rained considerably the day before so we encountered slippery and muddy conditions as we dropped into Mystery Canyon.  This made the first descent into the canyon rather tedious and unfriendly.  Soon we arrived at the first rap and the fun began.  Only did we see another person as we bumped into and passed two other canyoneers at the Mystery Springs rap.  The final rap into the Narrows was fun.  Gops of people watched us drop down the falls.  We were astounded at the number of hikers in the Narrows that Saturday afternoon.  The line to get back onto the shuttle bus numbered around 3-4 hundred people!  We decided to hike down to the next shuttle stop (Big Bend....about 1 1/2 mile down canyon) in order to bypass the line and get on the packed shuttle (good idea in the end).  A dinner stop at Oscars then followed and a slow tourist drive back to St. George as we talked about all the things going on in our lives and our children's lives.  It sure was nice to just hang out with Deb all day.  She sure has come a long way since the first day I took her rappelling and down a canyon.  Now she has become a competent and fun canyoneering partner.  She may not know it but I think she is ready for some bigger and more challenging canyons!