Bird droppings

Hey, I vlogged about my experiences in Zion this year:

I mean, it's almost 40ºC out here!

And well..
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This weekend was a bit... intense.

Friday, I went on a very short hike with nodesignation, the_local_echo, and auntysarah over at Russian Ridge open space preserve to do a sunset picnic. We found a nice place in the tall grasses, sat down, and watched the sun set behind the horizon, which may or may not have been ocean, we're not entirely certain.

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Our last hike for the trip was Monday's hike down Pine Creek Canyon. This was effectively the "end-level" boss of the entire trip, as it was the most technically challenging route of all of the routes we had done up to this point. And in terms of physical difficulty, it was right up there with The Subway and Angel's Landing.( Read more... )

With how intense and brutal Mystery Canyon was, we decided to take today easy and just do a quick 3 hour canyon called Keyhole Canyon. There really wasn't much to talk about with this canyon. It was a quick, but beautiful canyon.( Read more... )

Today we did one of the more famous of the Zion hikes: The subway. 9 and a half miles, with 4 rappels, and a 400 foot ascent at the end. Really intense. It's 2300 hours, and I just got in moments ago.

I need to be up early to stand in line for a license to do Mystery Canyon, which is going to be an awesome hike we're going to do in a few days. Because of that, I don't have time to get my pictures for the day together and posted. I'll work on it tomorrow, since we're taking the day off.

The hike was absolutely incredible. We started by walking around in a desert forest. Absolutely bizarre. One of the most unique places I've ever been to. To a quick glance, it looked like we were hiking in a snow field filled with pine trees. But then you realize that it is really hot out and the "snow" field was actually the white rock of the mountain. It was bizarre and beautiful.

Swimming with my gear was really interesting, especially in the cold cold water. I had a moment where I had to take my pack off and push it ahead of me while swimming, because I was too wide to fit through the gaps in the canyon water. Now THAT was interesting. It's a bit panicky to be trying to go from swimming in 7+ ft. deep water to scooting yourself onto a narrow rock that's submerged about 3 feet below the surface, between two narrow canyon walls, and then jumping into the next pool that was 7+ ft. deep while making sure to keep your pack above water. Fun and intense!

This was the longest hike I've ever done, and the hardest. I don't think we brought enough water for the trip, 22 liters for 6 people, because we all ran out before the end. parmonster and I were nearly passing out from dehydration as we made the 400 foot ascent out of the canyon. We had to stop every five feet just to breathe and wait for the dizziness, nausea, etc. to go away. Even auntysarah started to get dehydrated near the top of the ascent.

But we all made it out safely, enjoyed ourselves immensely, and got back to the hotel supremely exhausted. As I said, tomorrow is an all rest day. And then things happen this weekend.

I've been thinking a lot about my mother, the meaning of life, death, and mortality while I've been out there. I might post about that more once I've done more processing. Or maybe not.

See you tomorrow or so!

Oh! I also wanted to say: I really want to do this again... SOON. With my more usual crew of viesti, chirik, lilyth_lindorie and others that would be interested in coming. It's a REALLY intense hike, but they would absolutely adore it, once they worked up the courage to keep going. :)

( Click here for pictures! )