Left Fork, Leprechaun Canyon, November 4, 2001

Ms Scotter kept insisting that her Irish heritage would eventually produce a visit from the elusive Leprechaun, for which the canyon is named. Sunday we headed up to find the actual Left Fork, and in the woods below the canyon mouth - what do we see!

A magical occurance in the desert!

 

We hiked up the canyon back to our lunch spot, then up the buttress to the rim. Working our way up, this time we dropped into the head of the Left Fork. Here you can see the Left Fork work it's way down to the Main Fork.

Descending slickrock to the first rappel in Left Fork.

Steve Lewis rapping into the Left Fork slot. This rappel is somewhat of a problem. The anchor is a deadman buried about 10' back from the edge. The edge is quite sharp, and the rock extremely soft. We had a great deal of problem pulling the rope, and the edge is cut up with some rather deep grooves, from the rope being pulled. Three strategies are suggested:   1. Extend the anchor 10' to the edge. Unfortunately, these would leave an unsightly piece of webbing in the canyon.   2. Macrame the webbing on the anchor. This could work well, especially if the last person down carefully places the ropes.   3. Downclimb. The last person could downclimb the chimney, with a spot from below. The descent is probably only 5.8, with the hardest spot near the bottom.

Alicia and Tom briefly enjoying the sun. We descended the canyon. It was good. A couple short rappels off natural anchors and bollards. In one section, we avoided a messy drop by climbing left out of the canyon and climbing back into the canyon 100' downcanyon. This is a beautiful canyon (but the light was not amenable to good photographs).

Near Leprechaun Junction...