Last week I finally had my first Canyoneering guiding gig for 360 Adventures since May due to an Achilles injury I've been nursing for the last few months. Two families who didn't know each other, three kids ages 7, 9, and 13, and three adults. Plus we were taking them through Christopher Creek.
Christopher Creek is not that difficult to descend, but it can be difficult to guide depending on the group you have. Luckily we had two guides, myself and Chuck Chapman. 5 rappels plus threatening skies throughout the day would make us earn our pay today! I've never worked with Chuck before, but I've talked with him a few times and he seemed like a pretty stand up guy. By the end of the day, I would be able to call him a friend.
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The access to the canyon is right in the middle of the current widening project on Hwy 260 that ADOT has going on just East of Payson. We played nice with the contractor, but being that we are permitted by Tonto National Forest to commercially guide this canyon, they let us play through and we figured everything would work out. Little did we know, but this would probably be the last time we could legally access and exit the canyon until the project is complete.
From the very beginning we could tell this was going to be a fun group, they wanted to jump anything and everything we would let them. No one freaked on the rappels, and they said it was one of the best trips of their life!
After getting home late that night and catching up on the daily dose of Facebook, I headed over to Drunk Cyclist for a little cycling news and humor and saw the following headline:
"My Life is Better Than Your Vacation"
After a day that had a 4am wake-up, getting home at 9pm with personal gear still to clean, and realizing that I probably only made about $10 an hour today, I just smiled and had another IPA.
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