North Canyon Hike–Day 2 PM

In the afternoon of Day 2, we had another opportunity for a hike. This time we were hiking up North Canyon. Matt spent a bit of time describing this hike, which he said would be a good bench mark for discussing the difficulty of future hikes. I paid attention! Matt noted that this hike should take about 2 hours and would have several steep sections with one area that would be particularly rocky and steep.

He was right about the rocky and steep part! This picture, taken by Becky, shows just what we were climbing over…..If you look closely, (and, as always, you can click on a picture to expand it), that’s Fred and I up front, holding hands. Fred is always really good about helping me over the rocks.

On this hike, Fred and I hiked up front, trying to keep pace with Matt, who was hiking quite fast (or so it seemed to us!) I did not take many pictures on the trail, as I really had to keep moving to keep up, and rocky ground like this is tricky footing and I had to really stay focused.

Once we had hiked UP – we leveled out in this beautiful little canyon.

 

North Canyon was typical of the side canyons that we would hike on this trip.

A climb up would lead to an area with with rocks carved by a stream…..with maybe a pool…..

Like a gem hidden within the canyon walls…….

We all stopped for a rest as we enjoyed the beauty of the canyon……..Then we headed back down.

The hike up north Canyon did turn out to be a pretty good benchmark for other hikes. We now had a point of reference for what is ‘steep’ and what is ‘rocky’ (actually, boulder climbing). Steep trail that is on good surface (no boulders) Matt would refer to as “flat” – go figure……..We had an idea of the expected hiking pace – fast, though we always had a guide who would follow the back of the group as a ‘sweeper’.

I found it challenging to stay up with Matt’s pace and the boulder climbing required a ‘hand up’ on almost every other step (Short legs do not help with this!).  Other’s had trouble, too. Becky notes in her blog (Kinexxions) that the pace was a bit much for her knees to handle, so she did not complete this hike. Pricilla, also was having trouble. The day was hot and she was getting overheated. How we had handled this hike would factor into future hikes as the trip progressed.