Escalante day 6

Day 6 March 16th Wednesday.

I wrote this small passage before I started climbing in case a whacked my head on a fall during it: Sketchy pourover in Fools Canyon. Going to lower pack, then make a rappel and downclimb. Hopefully won't break anything.
8:36 PM (found a voice recorder with a clock in it in my pack).The maneuver on the waterfall/pourover was sweet. Someone had left webbing there from a previous climb so that helped. I anchored myself so when the backpack dropped over the orange ledge, it wouldn't take me with it. Then I let my little baby over the roll, and waited until line stopped feeding through the carabiner belay. Then I gave myself some slack to see how well it went. I peered over the edge to see my pack lying perfectly on the dry side of the creek, just centimeters from where where it lay.

Then I undid the anchor from me, and started downclimbing and running the doubled 1/16" orange cord through the carabiner as a makeshift rappel. I was doing great on the small 1/2" shelves, and then right at the smooth bulge where there were no footholds, the rappel wrap of line popped out of the wire gated 'biner. "Damn" I said aloud, and thought "I'm in a tight spot". with one hand's fingers I rewrapped the belay in seconds and made quick deliberate steps down to the pack. As I revelled in the exciting move and glad I learned to climb, I realized my spool of cord was now bobbing in the pool below the waterfall. Huh. Lucky for me it notched on itself and came out without unspooling itself. I remember thinking: glad I don't have to try and climb up this, or haul my pack up this!

I just assumed there would be a gradual exit at the end of Fools Canyon, like an exit ramp, like the entrance to Coyote Canyon where I began the trip. Unfortunately, I have to do this all over again, because the end of Fools Canyon is a 100 foot cliff with a wide crack in it that I could shimmy up, but there is a 20 foot smooth beginning that I had no chance of protecting with the gear I had. Also, I didn't know what would be on the top of that cliff. Possibly another pourover, or another cliff that I couldn't climb.

So, although I thought I would feel like crying and feel defeated, I bolted back downstream, exploring every side canyon to see if it might offer an escape. None did. I made it about 2 miles down. I will bust out the rest of Fools and then back to the dreaded Escalante. I worry about that because it is cold, harsh, and not easy to walk along. It was exhausting to get here, now I have to do it in 2-3 days. Preferrably two but I don't know if my body can handle a long entire day in El Esca.

Last night I  had a dream about naked old ladies, and one was with a naked old man. It had something to do with charity. Better sleep.