Monday, February 16, 2015

In Which Nancy Proves (again) that She's Kickawesome

Three day weekends are the best. We always enjoy them. On the last one we went and hiked up at Badger Springs, and today we went down to Tucson and did a couple canyons. They're right next to each other, and we were able to combine them in a bit of a loop, with easier navigation than I'd anticipated, which is never something to complain about. We went with our friend Sarah and had an awesome time. The first canyon we did was called La Milagrosa Canyon. One thing to note about these two canyons was that the main redeeming factor that they had when I was choosing them was that they were supposed to be completely dry. For whatever reason, it didn't turn out that way. Maybe Tucson has had rain recently. Phoenix certainly hasn't. Anyway, both of the canyons had a fair amount of flowing water in them. But, in the end, that made them much cooler, and a lot prettier, because they probably would have been kind of lame otherwise. Anyway, La Milagrosa was a short hike from where we parked, and lucky for those of us who didn't feel like getting wet, we were able to find ways to bypass both of the rappels, which would have been very much in the watercourse. It was actually a pretty warm day, but of course, clouds covered the sun the minute we got to the canyon. Here are some pictures from La Milagrosa Canyon:

On the way to the canyon.

Still hiking to the canyon. Tucson in the background.


At the top of the narrows of La Milagrosa. As I said, the water was a surprise.




Probably one of the coolest grottoes I've seen in a while.

So I took a selfie with it.

Climbing around one of the rappels.


Sarah said she looked like our awkward daughter.

Then this happened.



The second canyon was called Agua Caliente. That means "hot water" in Spanish. I'm going to go ahead and say that that as a huge lie. That water certainly wasn't warm. I know, because I went into it. It took a bit of a climb to get out of La Milagrosa and up the trail to the top of Agua Caliente, but it was worth it. Agua Caliente was beautiful, and did I mention that I got to jump? There was a sweet pool with about a 20 foot cliff above it, and I climbed down, swam out to check the depth, and then climbed back up (much easier than climbing down) and then JUMPED! It was awesome. I thought about doing it again, but elected against it, because as I previously stated, "Agua Caliente" is a boldfaced lie. It was still awesome. Here are pictures from that canyon, which actually had a mandatory rappel in it. Sarah and Nancy managed to stay mostly dry by some tricky boulder hopping. We were glad the canyon had a rappel, because it really added some legitimacy to this canyoneering outing, but for me, the jump made the whole trip worth it. Anyway, as I said, here are the pictures:

Gained the top of the ridge! It was a bit of a climb there for a few minutes.




The bottom of La Milagrosa Canyon


Climbing out of the water after checking the depth.

About to jump!



Sarah going down the rappel.

Nancy going down the rappel. 

Working our way down the canyon.








Sarah posing with some graffiti. I'm not a fan of canyon (or city, really) graffiti, but at least they made it cool.


Oh, and also Nancy did all of this business six months pregnant! That's pretty impressive, I have to say. Then it was off to In-N-Out for lunch and back up to Phoenix. It was a good trip with some awesome sights and some fun downclimbs and did I mention that I got to jump? We're doing awesome otherwise. The baby is doing great and we're looking forward to welcoming him here in about three more months!That's all I've got to say at the moment. This is Captain Danger out.

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