Bike, Boat, Rope

The scenery is going to get a lot better

 Last Friday I got head-start on the weekend by getting out of work at noon and meeting ArcFlash for an adventure. I wasn't planning on leaving early or even going with AF but I had all the gear with me at work ready to go, it turns out he had all the gear too. When I knew it would be a short day,I got a hold of AF and informed him of my plan for the afternoon. By 12:30pm we were eating fish tacos at Sea Salt near Minnehaha Falls poised to start our adventure.

On our way

Had to use the full suspension bike since my back is all jacked up for some reason

This creek appears to be in the wild, cars can be heard from any spot along the waterway, but it's still one of my favorite annual paddles.  

  My plan for the day was to ride from work in Mahogany Town, 7-8 miles to Minnehaha Falls for lunch. From there we would follow the bike path up river along Minnehaha Creek to the south end of Lake Harriet. Inflating the packrafts and lashing down the bikes for a 90 minute paddle back towards the falls would be the first challenge of the day. There is a little park with a put-in just south of the lake I have used many times. It's a good place to start for an exciting ride down river to the falls, with  lots of twists and turns, small rapids, and low bridges.

The creek was low so the little rapids weren't as much fun as they could be

AF informed me a clove hitch is a monitored knot just before I got on it ,   Huh ? The one that looks tight is the one I'm hanging off of, the other is just a short whip attached to a small diameter cord. The webbing and the quick-link are the cost of the rap, meaning they are left behind . About  6 $

AF is about to lower his bike. It's approximately 50' to the bottom based on the slack left in my 60 ' pull cord

  Part two of the adventure had us packing up the boats near the falls and riding about five miles to a pit/drainage and a rappel. Keep in mind none of this is necessary but lots of fun just the same and requires a little imagination on why we are doing it. A road or trail can get you just about anywhere in the city with ease.  I don't really like doing things that are easy or safe. I like doing difficult and dangerous things safely.So we just have to pretend there are no roads where we are going and make our own routes.

We're trying to keep his nice new Krampus .... New!

 

AF  taking a shower so I can get a good pic, Thanks Man 

 The rappel was super fun. There was water flowing into the pit which made it a little more exciting. I was also trying out some new gear and techniques. First, I had a mini, four-bar rack for the rappel on a single line. These are familiar to vertical cavers but not to climbers so I had some difficulty figuring out how to use it properly. The people at REI and Midwest Mountaineering had no idea what it even was. I bought it used so it had no instruction manual and no one on the internet posted any good pics of how to lace the rope through it, attach it to the harness, and use it properly. I practiced in my basement the night before and was confident it would work the next day. Second, I wanted to use a single line with a pull cord, this saves on weight and allows one to rap the full length of the rope. Again this is something no one at REI or Midwest knows how to set up. I was quite disgusted at their bullshit answers and lack of knowledge. This is a common technique for canyoneers but there are no good pics of how to do it just right. I practiced that in the basement the night before as well. It boils down to a clove hitch fastened to the spine of a carabiner and  positioned so it cannot be pulled through a quick-link attached to webbing anchors at the top of the drop. It sounds simple, and it is, but when you are going to trust your life on the end of it, it has to work.      The rack and the single rope/pull cord worked awesome !

All Wet 

Exit

Recognize this bridge ?

 After wrapping up the ropes and getting them back on the bike it was time for another short ride and one more quick trip in the raft. We put-in on the Mississippi, crossed a channel on the upstream side of Pike Island to the Minnesota River and took out near the Sibley House. AF and I bid farewell as I headed toward Eagan to join my family for a "last day of school" party and he toward St Paul for another round of packrafting with a mutual friend.

The sun makes it's first appearance in weeks and we are in the shade near the Sibley House

P.S. This is the second installment of "Minnesota Canyoneering". I have named this one "Lor's Pit" for the close proximity to the mythical creature's lair that I invented last fall. This is a popular area for ice climbers and they have their own name for it but mine is a summer, non-ice route so I'm giving it my own name. And just in case you might recognize this spot in a recent post from another local blogger, I have known about it for years and am no way a copycat. In fact I rapped it last fall but didn't find a need to post anything about it.