Before sacking out we had decided on making The Narrows the focus of our Wednesday. I had set my travel alarm for 8am and wasn't too happy when it started chirping. Mike was still snoring as I headed for the bathroom, being the first to discover the guy at the front desk wasn't kidding about the power going off. I used my Mini-Mag to see to brush my teeth. Mike was soon hip to the news and showering by flashlight a few minutes later.
As I gathered my stuff together for a day of slogging, Mike moved to the balcony office to have an actual phone conversation with the HR department. The real world had finally arrived for Mike. Well, arriving in less than two weeks, anyway. We headed off to town to find breakfast in a place with lights.
We thought the power outage was going to be confined to just the hotel. However, the utility pole in need of maintenance was actually feeding the whole town. We had to drive up to the Pioneer Lodge to find a coffee shop that had a generator. It turned out to be a great find. Knowing we had a day full of slogging ahead of us, we took our time to have a big breakfast( secretly hoping the river water would warm up a bit). I was quite impressed with the coffee. I've had a few better cups, but it's the best house coffee, by cup or the pot, I've ever had, no question!
We finished our meal and then walked a few doors down to the Zion Adventure Co. to rent some canyoneering shoes. I have done The Narrows before and discovered there are two ways NOT to do the hike; barefoot, or with a pair of shoes you plan to throw away. Either way, you're slogging slowly or you're trashing your feet, probably both. We opted to spent $17 each for some support and traction. Mike also liked the walking stick.
We were running a little late getting there and caught a bit of "schooling" from the staffer there, but the briefing was helpful and we got on our way feeling our rental gear would help us make up some lost time. It was a bit cloudy(who needs about sunshine in a narrow canyon?) and the chance of rain was slight. We were going to have a sloggy day! We drove up to the Visitor Center and hustled to the canyon tram. The jaunt down the Riverwalk went quickly and we were soon taking advantage of a few flat boulders to swap footwear.
The neoprene booties were easy to put on but the shoes were a bit more of a struggle. It must have been my big feet...
You definitely need a stick! One comes with the rental shoes, you can bring you own, or you can hope there's one your size at the start. We were already good to go so...
we were off into The Narrows. It looks like it should be pretty easy, but keep in mind those rocks under the water are not any different than the ones you see on the dry shore. Well, actually there is a difference or two, you can't see them and sometimes they are covered with silt and VERY slippery! The canyoneering shoes made a big difference that I noticed as soon as I got in the water. In addition to being warm, they had a really good grip. Defintely rent the shoes!