Mid-Week Mini Adventure

As the title suggests the following is a report on a mid-week mini adventure. It took place on a Wednesday with my #1 adventuring partner in crime ArcFlash. It was a continuation of rappelling various areas around the twin cities in order to fulfill a small portion of my desire to go canyoneering without the 20 hour drive. Although it was a short outing, it was a lot of fun and included one of my favorite raps so far.

Hey there's a rope, I wonder where it goes

Don't be fooled there are a shit load of mosquitoes down there

 .

some day this tree will fall out of there and make it nice

 I got off of work a couple hours before AF so I went ahead and set up the first rappel of the night. This was more of a gratuitous rap in the fact that it leads nowhere and is not part of any kind of contrived route I could think of. Simply, it was there and I wanted to descend it on a rope. The pit/gully consisted of loose wet limestone that gave way to sandstone toward the bottom. In the middle of the entire thing is a dead Elm tree that is defying gravity by the tips of it's branches and a large clump of dirt clinging to the root ball. It's roughly 70 feet, top to bottom, and I have given it's name as "Nightmare on Elm Tree". Getting around the tree was not so much a problem as the falling clumps of loose rock and dirt. I was thankful I had a helmet, as a large mass of it landed on my head and left shouder.

65-70 feet

This thing works awesome

 About an hour after my set up and first rap I met AF at my van to begin the night's adventure. A short ride on the fat-bikes and we were perched atop the cliff getting suited up to do the rap. AF went first since I had already done it. I followed and took the chance to play around with the rappelling rack. Within thirty minutes we were back at the top pulling the rope and setting off for the fun part of the night.

Where r we anyway ?     P.S. don't tell if you know :)

First of four small water falls

Oh, nothin' to do

 Back on the bikes, we rolled to a secret location to find a small creek hidden from any view one might make from car, foot or bike. Near the road the entire thing is covered as it passes underneath, making any passerby oblivious to it's existence. We made short work of getting through the snarled mess of overgrowth and were soon riding the bikes in the creek bed, hence the reason for going FAT.    

I wished these were deeper, it was hot and I wanted to swim

Black Floyd's look good in this light right here at the edge of a waterfall.  

 The water was cool and clean, and just what we needed on a hot humid night. It wasn't long before the crux revealed itself as a large opening in the trees, the creek simply falling away as we were now looking down on top of the canopy below. The 60-70 rappel broken into two tiers was just before us flowing with water. AF went first as I lowered the bikes. I went first on the second part of the rap since I was already attached to the rope, It was awesome! Getting over the lip of the sharp overhang was a little tricky, but free hanging in the full steam of water was simply amazing and invigorating.

That's my bike, I didn't want it getting wet . I think it's bad for it

AF getting doused 

heck yeah

 Once I was down, AF lowered the bikes and got his chance to hang in the waterfall. We both could have done this rap several times each but we wanted to keep moving and scout out some other spots I had in mind. Back on bikes......exiting. As we rode through the brush, branches, and overgrowth disaster struck in the form of a severed derailer hanger on AF's Mukluk, caused by a small twig. This is not the first, or second, (maybe third) time for this horse-shit design to snap at the worst possible time. AF had another hanger back at his van, but that was miles away and would set us back enough that we took it as a sign to call it a night. We rigged up a tow rope, and I pulled him back to the vehicles. Despite the equipment failure I had a really awesome night. The water fall was so fun, it did, and would have, overshadowed anything else we might encounter the rest of the night. I also made it home for an excellent dinner(warmed up)and got to hang out with the boys before they went to bed.         P.S. don't ever call me a weekend warrior  
        D Rider........Out

I like it muddy and swampy