At the beginning of October, four friends and I went canyoneering for the day with 360 Adventures (www.360) in Hog Canyon, Tonto National Forest, Sierra Ancha Mountains, near Lake Roosevelt and the town of Globe, Arizona.
“Canyoneering is a technical adventure sport of traveling down steep and narrow canyons using a variety of techniques that may include hiking, scrambling, boulder hopping, rock climbing, jumping, wading, swimming, sometimes packrafting and always rappelling — often over waterfalls.”
Since the water is too cold in October (read: hypothermia), we opted for the dry slot canyon, rated 3A-1. Two hours outside of Phoenix, you lose the traffic and and enter into an incredible red quartzite landscape. Slot canyons are created by the wear of water rushing through sandstone and limestone; in this case, watershed from the mountains finding its way over the dry desert and down to Lake Roosevelt. A slot canyon is much deeper than it is wide. At times, you can only fit one person at a time through it, and then it will bust open wide into incredible natural amphitheatres.
You must be very careful before entering a slot canyon and check the weather. If it’s raining even 40 km away, you could be the victim of a deadly flash flood.
Luckily, we had two amazing guides, the lead being Matt Kalina. Our trip was around 4.5 hours, 2 miles, and had an accumulated elevation of 1,100 feet. None of it was particularly physically taxing but the rappels are a sure shot of endorphins and get the heart beating quickly. The first is the biggest rush.
Rappels:
Rap 1: 22 feet. Anchor: Juniper tree on canyon left.
Rap 2: 80 feet. Anchor: Ponderosa Pine tree to the left. (90 ft from where we anchored). This one is a bit more intimidating as you cannot see the bottom.
Rap 3: 25 feet. Anchor: Two bolts on the right.
Rap 4: 30 feet. Anchor: Tree on the left.
Climbs:
Climb 1: 5.2-class climb of about 20 feet from top belay from two bolts.
Climb 2: 5.3-class climb of about 30 feet from top belay from two bolts.
Yeah, we did it! 
After canyoneering, we stopped in the “ghost town” of Superior. This was once a vibrant copper mining town of 23,000 which now has only 1,200. Many of the stores were boarded and the rest of the town was like walking back in time 50 years. The coolest shops were a refurbished antiques store and soda parlour. It’s worth a visit if you are passing through…
TREDSUP 