Out of Egypt August 23-24

We hiked down from Egypt Bench into the Escalante and camped near the mouth of Choprock Canyon. The plan was to leave at first light the next morning for a highly committing 14 hour adventure through 3.4 miles of beautiful and dangerous slot. It would be the hardest canyon I have done (with genuine risk) if we weren't jolted to consciousness by light rain and dark clouds at 3:30AM, less than a couple hours before our scheduled start. Unwilling to become a statistic, I took it as a hint to try something else that day. After sleeping in, I explored Lower Choprock a bit, going as far as the last rappel out of the slot canyon. We then decided to do the short technical version of Neon Canyon, which we had both done last year. We managed to downclimb or avoid all the rappels except the last one, saving a lot of time. Some fun short swims and the infamous Golden Cathedral rappel are the highlights. We wasted some time by trying to traverse a ledge in the Golden Cathedral. We then headed down canyon to check out Ringtail slot, which was loads of fun. Way better than I thought it would be. Short (couple hundred meters), but fantastic with narrow flooded corridors, dark stretches, deep wades, tricky climbs and potholes. The highlight was a keeper pothole (one that is not readily escaped and easy to get stuck in without cleverness or skill) with deep water and muddy edges. Ryan hoisted me onto his shoulders to where I could get a grip on a slippery muddy handhold and pull myself out. I laid across the lip of the pothole, anchoring my feet as best I could and pulled Ryan up until he could help himself out. We then returned to our packs and hiked back to Egypt. Despite a good day of activities, the weather held and it was a shame we didn't get to do Choprock Canyon. Someday I will return.