My good buddy, Derek Sharp and I decided to go on a hike a few weeks ago. I had homework to do so it was supposed to be a short hike, maybe a couple hours...little did I know, anything that could go wrong, would go wrong that day! First off, we got to Green canyon to park and there were hundred and hundreds of SHEEP milling around! My theory now is that the sheep were a bad omen, which we clearly ignored.
I'm sorry, but I love this paw print from Koda trying to jump on my legs. Also, notice that I'm rockin' an awesome pair of chacos!
Shortly up the trail, I started not feeling well too, which made the hike all the more fun. Oh well. Despite the discomfort, the trip up was beautiful. I took a ton of pictures of wildflowers that were blooming everywhere!
Once we got to the top, we suddenly attacked by a swarm of flesh eating mosquitos! I think our rush to get away from them clouded our judgment, because we decided to hike down the other side of the mountain into Logan canyon for a bit to see if we could connect up with the wind caves. The thing is, Green canyon is fairly shaded....Logan canyon is not. It was 97 degrees that day...the hottest day of the year to date. In case you were wondering, two bottles of water for two people and three dogs is not enough. We hiked down for about a half hour, thinking that around each corner or switchback, surely we would see the wind caves. We had to have been close! Alas, the heat and the time became such that we had no choice but to turn around and go back to the top. As you can see, we were not happy about it.
I had no idea how hard that would be! It took us over an hour to get back up! Water ran out just as we started up again and it was sweltering. If it hadn't been for Derek's patience and the power of prayer, there is no way I would have survived. Between the climb, the heat, and the lack of water, my body was shutting down. I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Honestly, I don't know if I've ever been in a more life-threatening position. It was a definite reminder that while hiking is fun, it can be dangerous and that it's important to respect nature and prepare for it!
Mercifully, we made it back up to the top of the mountain, where I was ready to collapse. Two seconds sitting down though, and the savage mosquitos were attacking worse than before, so we just decided to keep going....down, thankfully. Once back on the other side of the mountain, we were mostly back in the shade and going down, so I wasn't nearly as scared, but it was another hour or so hiking down before we got water. I didn't care about anything on the way down. I didn't care about the pretty wildflowers, the beautiful view, and I was trying not to care about the giant blisters that were forming on my feet because I decided to wear my chacos on a hike for the first time. Of course, we had to fight our way through a herd of sheep again, and then walk another mile or so after the trail ended before the water fountain. This poor camper guy was trying to wash out a basin or something and we came up to the fountain and seriously gorged ourselves on water for at least 10 minutes. The dogs collapsed in the run off water. I have never been more grateful to be done with a hike in my life...and I'm pretty sure that even includes the time I spent 12 hours on Mt. Timp!
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