They started the day early (though not as early as they had hoped) and hopeful. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, they still had water ...
James and Camille were also hopeful and excited for the hike.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Kristina said.
Camille said, "Yeah! It's not gonna be very hard!"
"There's no way we'll ever get lost!" Kurt declared.
After a while the group left the sanctuary of the trees and found themselves on some slick rock.
Kurt and James did not have bikes, but that did not stop them from mountain biking...
Monty Python style.
As the day wore on, and the sun rose higher, the group soon lost sight of their trail markers, or cairns. These helpful piles of rocks were no where to be seen. Kurt pulled out his topographic map and GPS and he and James tried to figure out where the heck they were going.
They soon figured out a way ... not the way, as they found out soon. They dropped into a slot canyon... a very dark slot canyon with lots of stagnant, cold water.
They tried to be optimistic but kept thinking of how creepy the water was, and whatever happened to the father/child duo whose foot marks they kept seeing in the mud. You see, they soon realized this was not the right way.
"Umm... I'm creeped out. Let's get out of here," Camille insisted. Kristina agreed. Soon the men did too (after they were made to see logic). They found a shallow section in the slot canyon and climbed out.
"Hmmm, we now have to go a mile to the west, and the best way is climb directly over this mountain," Kurt said as he consulted his GPS and map. Kristina groaned as she looked up the steep climb and thought of her asthma.
The group decided to eat lunch first and it during this time that they discovered that they only had one water bottle left of water. Kurt had brought a water filter along because he knew they were going to reach water eventually, but now they didn't know how long until they found water and it was hot.
They started climbing ... and soon stopped for Kristina to catch her breath. They climbed again ... and again stopped after about 20 feet for Kristina to catch her breath. Camille got worried.
"We need to call the rangers or something," she said fearfully but James and Kurt reminded her that they were out of cell phone coverage.
The group reached the top safely (if slowly). They made it down the mountain, to where they thought the trail was. They were still lost.
Kurt and James couldn't agree.
Kristina and Camille were losing their patience. (Kristina really was mad, despite the smile on her face...)
Meanwhile, they were hot and only allowed one gulp of water per hour. After a while Kurt and James agreed they only had a short distance of .17 miles to go till they reached the trail. Unfortunately, this short distance was through bushes, trees, and cacti. Many scrapes were gained that day.
"I wish I had a machete," Kristina thought glumly as she scrambled through yet another bush. But after 30 minutes of bush-whacking, lo' and behold... the trail! They followed the trail down, down the mountain, Kristina growing ever thirsty and even panicky.
"I can't do it! I need water!"
"It's ok, babe, you can make it," Kurt tried to say reassuringly.
Finally...
Water! Beautiful, blessed, wet water!!
No pictures were taken of the water because the group was so excited to see it that they immediately purified and drank 2 bottles of water each, refilled, and went on their way.
From here on out things were much better. They dropped into the right slot canyon. They scrambled down rocks, swam through freezing cold pools, and belayed down waterfalls. One swim was particularly hairy.
I think James was smiling because he was too cold to do anything else. It was a narrow, 40 foot swim. And everyone was already cold.
Even though the narrowness made Kristina claustrophobic and that combined with the cold made her asthma act up, everyone made it safely.
Soon they began to see beautiful sights.
Oooooo.
Ahhhhhh. (Kurt and James shed their shirts so they could warm up.)
Over the river, and through the woods, they traveled. Kristina had an infected cold sore and her new hiking shoes were making some beastly rub spots on her feet, but she pounded the ibuprofen and pounded the dirt. They even saw dinosaur tracks! Cool! Couldn't take pictures though because, due to their extensive time spent lost, they were losing daylight fast and needed to hurry on.
"There's a 400 foot climb we can take to get to our cars faster," Kurt said as he consulted GPS and map again.
"Sweet!" Everyone thought. Though they had ended up enjoying the rest of the hike, they were ready to get back to the cars.
Unfortunately, they didn't get to the 400 foot climb until twilight had come. Light was fading and they now had to climb almost completely vertically to get to their cars. Kurt to the rescue again! He had a headlamp, and as holder of the headlamp he was second in line, lighting the way. The group said a prayer (they had said many that day already) and started their climb. After 30 minutes they were at the top at only half a mile from their car. They wound their way through the forest, found the road, and hoorayed and hooped and hollared. Only a mile to their car and it was on pavement! When they finally reached their car, they had been hiking for 12 hours.
The end.
