Wednesday evening found me driving my husband's sweet truck down the canyon towing our cub trailer. I had packed it haphazardly throughout the day and then managed to hook it up (in the pour rain and wind) with only one short phone call for advice. But as I zipped along I was pretty proud for managing my first towing experience so well. Then I realized I had to park the beast. I certainly wouldn't fit in the underground garage and after three attempts at parallel parking, I have decided that backing up the trailer is a a magical power still out of my reach. So I parked a block away and hurried over to the restaurant to meet my Ragnar family. SO excited to see them. We talked our way through a long dinner and waited for more friends to drift in (including my smoking hot husband). After dinner I promptly relinquished the keys and left husband in charge of our mini-beast.
The drive down was mostly uneventful, catching up with husband who had been gone for the previous week, a longtime friend that had joined for his first Ragnar and a Ragnar family member who had flown in Florida to spend his 30th birthday with us. We made it to Springville long past any reasonable check in and every campsite was full. We drove in search of BLM land and ended up exploring a rather sketchy, rambling road that wound up a steep incline of rock and finally dropped us at a trailhead parking lot. We declared it perfect and slept.
for a few hours at least.
We woke up early and drove back to Springville, meeting one more Ragnar family member at the Zion Adventure Company. The 5 of us had extended our run-cation weekend to include a day of canyoneering in Mystery Springs. We picked up our gear, trying on wetsuits and reorganizing vehicles. After a short drive up the mountain (following rather vague directions and second guessing our arrival), we finally piled out of the car and set out on the trail. Unlike Pine Creek Canyon (with a short, maybe 50 yard approach), we had an easy 2 mile hike through the trees, admiring the views and talking up our adventure. My husband and his best friend took the lead. They are both experienced climbers, I have some experience and our two ragnar friends were newbies. Husband warned he wouldn't usually take an inexperienced climber on this canyon but knowing these guys, we were confident it would be a great experience.
After the two mile hike in, we came to a spectacular view point overlooking the canyon. I thought we had simply stopped to admire. But then husband pointed out a gap between the brush and subsequent downhill trail of mostly loose rock that I assumed must be a game trail or something as there's no way humans have regularly impacted it. My mistake.
And so the adventure began. The next two-ish miles were a blast with a lot of scrambling, rock jumping, teasing, sliding and such to get down the drastic incline. At one point we heard a loud, abrupt booming through the canyon. I wondered if it had been a rockfall. But soon we stumbled into a newly fallen, massive tree whose roots had finally given up and released the canyon wall, sending branches in every direction. Glad we hadn't found it sooner.
It took us awhile before we reached the first of nine rappels. But we shrugged it off, finding a safe path off to the side to down climb instead. In fact, we only found it necessary to rappel six of the nine descents. So much fun. We had a quick review, husband checked our gear and lead the way. It came back quick for me and it was fun and easy. Of our two new guys, one was a little hesitant but warmed quickly, the other took it immediately. The canyons were gorgeous and challenging with lots of loose rock and plenty of places were we slid and slipped.
Shortly after lunch we found the much anticipated lucky #8. One friend and I immediately slipped into our wetsuits while the other decided to brave it without, only seeing a little water at the bottom of our 140 foot rappel. Husband led the way, demonstrating the approach across an intimidating cliff wall. Halfway down, he stopped on a ledge, realizing the water was deeper than we thought and announced we would be swimming after all (everyone else then donned their wetsuits too). I was fourth down this beautiful cliff, so thrilling and icy cold at the bottom.
One of my personal favorites came soon after. We had to down climb into another pool of water with some fun twisting and slipping into the picture-perfect span of water below.
And lastly, we conquered the "hero rappel" of 140 feet down a waterfall into the Narrows with several tourists watching and taking pictures as we went. It was slippery for sure but what a thrill. As our birthday boy descended we broke out into a large chorus singing "Happy Birthday", even joined by some of the spectating tourists. Then we hiked through the bottom half of the Narrows, out to the shuttles and rode down to the visitor center back to our truck, laughing and teasing and reveling in our experience.
That night we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that I would highly recommend but I can't remember the name of it. Burgers and Mexican food fed us well and I loved the overhead heating units. We crashed in a nearby campground, sprawling out in the trailer for the night.
We started very early the next morning, quickly closing the trailer up and relocating to the Ragnar camp within Zion Ponderosa. We spent the morning setting up camping, rounding up the rest of our 8 man team and making breakfast. The threatening clouds lingered but it was mostly pleasant as we checked in, loving the usual energy and fun of Ragnar. I loved my captain's gift and have grown very attached to the greatest water bottle ever designed (I've been on the search for a long time) and the intro video was a great alternative to the safety briefing we had all experienced at the traditional races.
We geared up, gathered at the start and sent out our first runner. yayyyyyy!!!! I lingered around the main camp, checking out booths and renting shoes from the Solomans Shoe tent, eager to save my lightweight road shoes from the rocks and roughness of trail running. We sent out of second runner and headed back to our team camp to linger and lounge. Husband was busy puttering, organizing the climbing gear from the day before and making sure we were set up for the weekend. He was our official quartermaster. Instead of running, he spent all his time taking care of our team, cooking and working around the camp. I don't think he sat still for even two minutes the whole weekend.
My first run was the "yellow loop" and by then it was raining on and off. So I shed layers as I ran. The first mile was easy and then abruptly turned into hiking and continued to alternate and challenge for a total of 4 miles. Up on top of a ridge, the wind came on strong but the view was breathtaking and I basked in a euphoric freedom. And snowflakes. yes definitely snowflakes as the rain was starting to freeze. Luckily that was brief.
The intermittent rain became more stubborn and aggressive. Our team finished it's first legs, rewarded with husband's dutch oven chicken, potatoes and cobbler. Runner 1 set out for his second leg, well prepared for rain and came back covered in mud and limping on a sprained ankle. Runner 2 came in worse and was met with the news: a weather hold was in effect until morning. (so glad we had the trailer. tent city was swimming in mud and muck by morning.)
So we slept. Husband and I went to the exchange tent early in the morning for an update. The weather hold was technically being lifted but even as we talked to the director himself, we could feel their reluctance. The red trail had entire sections that had been washed out. And the green trail was so steep and muddy that it was now near impassable. So they left it up to the teams to decide and sent us back to camp with our medals.
For us, runners 1 and 2 were both injured enough that they would not be able to run again. Others shrugged it off, ready to be out of the mud. I was definitely bummed to cut my run short, I wanted the mileage and adrenaline but wasn't willing to risk injury. In the end, only one of our runners set out again, doing the recommended yellow loop which was in the best shape (but was the only loop I had already finished).
So we finished breakfast, feasted on s'mores, packed up camp, declared it the most expensive/fun 5k ever and went home.
Don't worry Ragnar, you can't scare me off, I'll be back.
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