It started with a bus ride from Provo to Green River, where we had lunch. The trip was pretty rowdy, with lots of Adrenalin. I don't even remember who I sat next to on that trip. I was already having second thoughts. Upon arriving in Green River, we found that there was going to be a three to four delay to the rest of our trip. Our back-up truck was late.
We had been given instructions to buy a canned drink during our stop there. After drinking it, we were to cut off the top with our trusty boy scout pocket knife and smooth out the edge. The container would be our drinking glass/mess kit for the next 28 days. As for eating utinsels, it was up to us to create them for ourselves, out on the trail. Cottonwood made good spoons, we were told.
Another instruction was to "tank up" on water. We were told to drink as many cans of water as we could without throwing up. At that point we were to drink one more. I think I drank about six. There was a little visiting and a lot of resting until the back-up truck arrived. We were on our way again!
We left Green River and headed south on Hwy #24, towards Lake Powell. About halfway to Hanksville, we slowed down and made a left off the highway and onto a dirt road. During the hours of the drive, the water proceeded to make it's way through our bodies. Try riding along a bumpy, dirt road. Bouncing up and down on a full bladder. We were miles and miles from anywhere.
In class, we had been given "trap setting" instructions. How to take care of bodily eliminations. Now we got to apply our knowledge! They stopped the bus - "Girls to the right, boys to the left." We dashed off into the limited bushes and were grateful! The boys got a bad deal. Their side of the road went uphill, so there was no getting out of sight. One ran as far as he could before relieving himself. Unfortunately, he was perfectly silhouetted against the sky!
Finally we reached a nondescript spot and the bus stopped. It was twilight. Our delay in Green River had cost us daylight walking time. We would have to make the hike down into the canyon in the dark.
This was our first sunset on the trail.
In the deepening twilight, we milled around. Waiting. We unloaded our gear. All of it stayed there on the ground for the back-up truck to pick up later. It would be transported to our first base camp site. All we were allowed to bring with us was our "possible" bag, our aluminum can and the clothes on our backs. Period. We then "tanked up" on the water they had brought for us and started our hike.
When the full moon came up, we started out. Heading down a dirt road, crossing over the desert, climbing over rocks and various things was an adventure. We had to make it to the canyon edge and then negotiate the wild horse trail to the canyon floor. One of the leaders, Lynn, kept saying "Follow me." Being a Carole King fan, it automatically prompted me to sing:
"Where you lead, I will follow. Anywhere that you want me to. If you need me to be with you, I will follow where you lead."She told me to save my energy, that I was going to need it. It was my version of "whistling in the dark." Lynn wasn't lying either.
The path was steep in places and I was glad it was dark. I couldn't be afraid of heights if I couldn't see the bottom or where I was. It really WAS a scary thing to do, but we just handled each obstacle as it came and we helped each other through it. Good ice breaker. Once we made it down to the canyon floor, we then had to hike through the canyon to the spring where we would be spending the night. We learned it was called Horseshoe Canyon.
We arrived at the spring between 3AM and 4AM, so the hike took us about six hours. To make camp, we needed to build fires. We couldn't use matches. It was flint and steel or nothing. With the fires blazing away, we could now lay ourselves down on the bare sand, in the same clothes we had worn all day (and WOULD be wearing until we reached base camp) and try to sleep. It was surprisingly easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment