Zion National Park - Canyon Madness

This was an all-out adventure with three incredibly tough and hardcore hikers. Mind-blowing views were enjoyed, extreme weather swings and frigid waters were endured.  We logged 60 miles in Zion's canyons, mountains, and rivers over six days - managing to hit all Zion’s highlights in one epic trip.

Peter (Fiber One, aka Pathfinder, aka Towpath), Alison (Cover Girl), Jake (The Red Fox), and I met at BWI airport at sunrise Wednesday morning for the long flight to Vegas. We flew directly over the Grand Canyon but unfortunately were on the wrong side of the plane to see it. We did have a good view of Hoover Dam. Once on the ground we picked up two rental SUVs then gorged ourselves on an absurdly oversized lunch at the Hash House a Go Go. Slightly sick to our stomachs we rolled up I-15 at high speed leaving Vegas in the dust.

We made the 3 hour drive to Zion in a little over 2 hours, stopping only for provisions at Walmart (including about 30 gallons of water). Entering the park, we encountered a guy selling his annual National Parks pass for cheap - only to discover they aren't transferable. But with a bit of larceny Alison bluffed her way passed the gate. After picking up our back country permit at the Visitor Center, we left one car behind as a shuttle and continued through the park to the East Rim Trailhead. Knowing the only water source would be dry our packs were loaded down with 5 or more liters of water.

East Rim to Observation Point

We climbed slowly but steadily on surprisingly sandy trails surrounded by towering white and red sandstone mountains. The incredible vistas faded into a clear starry sky as we switched on our headlamps. We passed Stave Springs at mile 6 and started looking for a place to camp. Peter found some open ground and we gladly ended our day around 9pm MT. After putting up our shelters we rehydrated our meals, foregoing a campfire (sadly fires are not permitted in the Zion backcountry). We bedded down to avoid the gusting desert winds. Temps were in the mid-40’s but dipped even lower when the wind picked up.

The next morning we awoke to the amazing Zion landscape we had missed hiking through the night. Continuing our trek Northeast on the East Rim trail, we began descending a winding route through the canyon. The trail was well worn, becoming rocky as the landscape changed and we left the scattered forests behind. Often we traveled over bare rock where the path was marked only by cairns. Eventually the ascent to Observation point began. The temperature climbed into the 80's as we tackled the switchbacks. We encountered other hikers making the much shorter day hike up from the Weeping Rock Trailhead, and gleaned some valuable intel for our other hikes. Alison and I reached the top a few minutes behind Jake and Peter, where we were greeted by an awesome view of the canyon floor - and by fearless chipmunks attempting to score a meal. We took a lunch and photo break while looking down on the valley below, and Angels Landing (the next days destination) to the west.

We retraced our steps down from Observation point as even more day hikers arrived, and descended to the intersection with Weeping Rock Trail. Hanging a right, we entered a narrow slot canyon and found a still pool of water were we took another photo and video break before moving on. We passed on stopping at the Emerald Pools as this lower section of trail became lousy with touristy folk and instead set a fast pace down

the steep switchbacks to the trailhead, ending our hike at around 16 miles. After a much needed restroom break we hopped on the free canyon shuttle back to the car stashed at the visitor center.

With our first hike behind us, Peter and I retrieved the other rental while Alison and Jake refilled our water jugs. Again leaving one car behind for the next day's return shuttle, we headed south in the other rental out of the park to Springdale. Stopping for lunch and milkshakes at a place called Blondies', Peter once again amazed us with the size of his appetite.

Despising any campgrounds populated with RVs, I elected to avoid the crowded valley sites. So with the light getting low, we blazed a trail southwest then turned north onto the curvy Kolob Reservoir road towards Lava Point. Our luck held and there was still a site open at the free primitive campground there. We made camp as dusk settled in and the temperature plummeted. Tonight we enjoyed a roaring fire with dinner before turning in.


West Rim to Angels Landing

We rose well before dawn and hit the trail around 5:30. Picking up Barney’s Trail right from the campground, we descended quickly to a gravelly road and headed East towards the West Rim Trailhead. Hiking by headlamp for over an hour, the sun finally rose giving us the most incredible views yet of Zion. We stopped often for photos of the landscape that seemed like it was pulled right from a desktop wallpaper - too beautiful to be real.

The trail dipped, rose, and weaved through ever changing scenery. We even saw some Fall colors in the tree leaves here for the first time in the park. We took a slight shortcut via the Telephone Canyon Trail in the hopes of beating the massive throngs of tourist other hikers had told us to expect. Once it connected back with the West Rim Trail we descended on solid rock switchbacks, finding a dead deer that must have fallen from high above. Next came the climb to connect to The Grotto Trail which would get us to Angels Landing.

At the intersection were some pit toilets, and numerous day hikers milling about. Some people elected to leave their packs here for the climb, but we deemed that far too easy and began the climb immediately after putting away our hiking poles. The route followed a series of chains and rails along a single-file knife edge that climbed ever upward. Often we needed to haul ourselves up by the chains or scramble up rippled rock faces. Occasionally we stopped to allow hikers descending to go by, and we passed many people that needed breaks before they could continue up. Just when it seemed the climb would never end, the path leveled off and we were at the top! Peter ran into a friend here of all places and chatted while Alison, Jake and I had a snack and enjoyed the most impressive view yet. More chipmunks extorted tolls from everyone they could.

The climb down proved not as difficult as we feared, and we blazed a trail down the Grotto Trail. Many times during the steep descent we passed people taking breaks, and wondered how they would make it to the top before nightfall. We finished out our 18 mile day at a chilly trail-side river pool. Jake and Peter enjoyed a brief swim while Alison and I were content to cool our feet.

Another shuttle ride got us back to our car, and we again over-indulged on some food at Blondie’s before picking up some gear for the Narrows hike at Zion Adventures. Peter, ever prudent and convinced we were in for Frozen Hell went for a full dry suit and canyoneering boots. Alison and Jake went for dry-pants and neoprene socks to go with their Keens. I decided the dry pants made me look fat so I left them behind in favor of my hiking shorts and neoprene socks to go with my Merrel’s.

We rolled back to Lava Point Campground for the night to pack our gear, have dinner and enjoy a fire before gladly passing out for the night.

The Narrows


Leaving camp at 5am, we drove back to Zion Adventures to rendezvous with our shuttle and driver John who proved to be quite a character and font of information. After an entertaining high speed drive and many stories he dropped us off at Chamberlain’s Ranch, whose gracious owners allow hikers access to the top of the Narrows via their property. The air was quite chilly, close to freezing even though the sun was up by now. A couple dozen people in total were dropped off, while they lined up for the bathroom we hit the trail. There was a quick stream crossing during which I nearly face planted in the mud, then a couple miles of walking on gravel roads and dirt trails to the Virgin River. Before the first crossing we changed out of our cold weather layers and got ready to get wet.

For 10 miles we alternated between slogging through cold water, crossing streams and walking on short trails. The river was usually ankle deep but sometimes close to waist deep. We all had a chill in our bones until a couple hours later when the sun finally touched the canyon floor. Stopping for a quick snack in a sunny spot, Jake ditched the dry pants which were killing his ankles and would finish the rest of the hike in his shorts.

When we hit the first major tributary Big Bend, we had a quick stop to filter some water (we had been warned repeatedly not to drink from the Virgin River until this point). We arrived at our reserved campsite #9 around 2pm and shed our wet clothes. Peter pitched his Trailstar (the only shelter we brought along) and lounged around camp.

As luck would have it Site #9 was 5 star, the best of the campsites we saw. No fires are permitted in the Narrows, though it was obvious the site had seen many. I won’t confirm or deny that we had a glorious campfire that night - but there were massive piles of driftwood..and we had loads of time to kill! Jake and I cowboy camped while Alison and Peter enjoyed the extra warmth under the Trailstar.

With just 6 miles to go, we took our time breaking camp hitting the river once more just before 9am. The part of the trail was more enjoyable, challenging, and wetter than the previous day. We spend a lot of time dodging large pools and wading through deep water. The canyon became much more narrow, especially at the section dubbed “Wall Street” that had no high ground, just slick rock rising straight up on both sides. We started to encounter more and more hikers as we made our way south. We skipped the detour up Orderville Canyon as it was totally jammed with people, and plowed through to the end. Once out of the river we set a better than 4 mph pace, happy to stretch our legs at last on the way to the shuttle stop. The other shuttle riders seemed to avoid us as long as possible - we had a certain aroma at this point (except for Alison who took a river bath at camp).

A tip from Driver John led us to Oscar’s for lunch where we surpassed all previous gluttony - collectively wiping out salads, mexican food, burgers and and biggest brownie sundae in all history. In preparation for the hiking the Subway the next day, we hit a gear store where Peter picked up some new water shedding trail shoes to replace the toe chewing canyoneers. We decided to pass on the advice of everyone to use wetsuits for the Subway as it didn’t fit with our Hardcore Mode approach to Zion. We headed back to Lava Point Campground for our last night in the park.


The Subway

Everyone we had talked too said it would take 8.5 to 12 hours to complete the Subway, so we broke camp pre-dawn once again so we’d have plenty of time to get it done. With one car already left at the Left Fork Trailhead the night before, we jammed all our gear in our Jeep and left Lava Point behind for the last time. We arrived at the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead nervous about soon being in cold water with the air temps close to freezing.

We finished the section of Wildcat Cat Canyon Trail with a fast pace, trying to get warmed up. Following the rest of the trail to the Subway proved a challenge and took the entire teams efforts to navigate in the dark. We lost the trail repeatedly but finally found our way to the water. A steep rock scramble down brought us to our first rappel as we had daylight finally arrive and put away our headlamps.

We took our time getting our ropes and ‘biners in order, and made it to the bottom without incident. Soon we were all soaking wet and shivering as we clambered up and boulders and through incredibly tight slots, landing in pools that were over our heads and so cold it knocked the breath out of your lungs. It was brutal and hard to endure, but we stuck together and made it through with team effort. After the third and final rappel, we entered the iconic portion of the Subway. Still shivering, we got off a few pictures and then set a fast pace out to warm up. I was never so glad to see the sun! Elated, we hiked even faster - running for a while until the chill passed. We waded through a few more pools, and even found a school of rainbow trout. Mostly the trail stayed out of the water at this point. We ran into people hiking up the canyon who were surprised to see us coming down so early in the day.

We pressed on without stopping until the Subway exit was in sight, and attacked the extremely steep 1 mile climb in the blazing sun. We finished in tight formation just as a ranger happened to arrive at the Trailhead. She took some photos for us, then we piled in the car to go retrieve our other rental. We had finished the Subway in under 7 hours! Impressive considering we had started in the dark and were canyoneering noobs.

On the way back to Vegas, and starving once again, we stopped at a blatant tourist trap that turned out to be surprisingly good. Stuffed once more with pizza and burgers, we left Zion behind, having accomplished everything we set out to do. Befitting the perfect timing of everything else on this trip, we finished just one day ahead of the government shutdown!

Ultra Light Backpackin' Tips, by Mike Clelland

This is good read if you are new to "Ultra-light" backpacking. It even has some helpful nuggets for experienced backpackers. While the writing is a little "cutesy", it probably makes the world of backpacking gear and spreadsheets palatable to the masses! The 153 tips inside are a valuable resource. I already figured I was an obsessive gear trimmer, but after reading this book I realized there were people even crazier than me. If you have never thought about trimming down your load, you absolutely should read this book. It will open your eyes, and get you thinking. Trust me, a lighter pack is a good thing. You will hike farther, and be in better shape when you get to the end.  End the suffering!  Get it here.

Teton's Adventure Part 2

With our assault on Death Canyon halted just a few hundred feet from the summit of it's western bowl, we had retreated back to Jackson Hole just ahead of a nasty storm.  While a cold rain beat down, we refueled with pizza and considered our next move.

I was looking over the park maps when I remembered something about a Tram close by that went up into the mountains.  I had scoffed at the very idea when reading about it before but now saw a way we could complete nearly all of our initially planned hike with some modifications.  Peter and Dylan agreed it was a good idea, especially since our legs were already crushed from the previous two days of climbing.  We would at least maximize our time in the backcountry in the limited time we had.  After getting off the tram, we would use connectors trails to get to Granite Canyon, hike all the way through it then turn south to get back to Teton Village.

Peter scored us some Tram tickets from Teton Village to the top of Rendezvous Mountain.  We spent the rest of the night attempted to dry out all our sodden filthy clothing and gear by hanging it from every conceivable (and some inconceivable) surface in the hotel room.  The rest of the night was spent doing laundry and re-sorting gear for the next two days.

The next morning, the weather broke, and we were greeted with bright and clear, if chilly morning.  We downed a continental breakfast then loaded back up in our rental van and sped off for Teton Village.  Shockingly we were able to park for free (after some discussion with the tram staff that we would be leaving our car and not returning on the tram - and no were weren't crazy, and we weren't going to die by camping out on top of Rendezvous Mt.).

Rendevous Mt. Peak

We boarded the tram with various tourists and skiers.  Some people just ride up the tram to go to the breakfast diner at the top.  It was a cool ride, with plenty of views.  We were rapidly whisked to over 10,000 feet in minutes.  It was definitely cheating, but it also sure beat climbing.      
          


The snow wasn't terrible deep on top, and hard enough that we forego using our snow shoes for the time being.  We passed several cross country skiers gliding over the snow.  By the end of the day we would all be wishing for some skis ourselves, but the snowshoeing wasn't bad at all.  The first descent was pretty steep as we walked, slid, and and glisaded rapidly to the bottom of the bowl.  The trail of course was no where to be seen but we had a general course to follow.  Once at the bottom we had to climb back up the other side and over into rolling downhill terrain.

We had a slippery and treacherous climb up out of the canyon, the morning sun had melted the top layer just enough to make going tough.  Though naturally now it retreated behind the clouds, and we watched as another storm front approached.  For the moment it was just north of us, no doubt hammering Death Canyon again.

There would be plenty of sliding and falling for the next few miles and we wound our way downhill and around trees.We were completely alone already and had been for a couple of hours.  Without a trail to follow we used a rough bearing and the terrain to navigate, and Peter's GPS to stay somewhere close to our intended path.  We also had plenty of opportunities to practice our glisading techniques as we rocketed down the slope whenever a clear path opened up through the pines.

We took a quick break once reaching the bottom to eat our Great Harvest sandwiches standing up.  Then crossed over the stream and started a gentle climb that felt agonizing for some reason.  I blamed it on the rapid ascent to high altitude without a chance to acclimate to the cold thin air.  Or it could have been all the pizza from the previous night.  Under the fresh few inches of snow there was a semi-hard crust so we still got by without having to use our snowshoes.

At this point we turned north and left the open spaces behind.  As we descended further we were surrounded by trees again.  We followed some rabbit or other small animal tracks deeper into the woods.

We had to contend with several water crossings to hook up with the Granite Canyon trail. After slogging for a while we finally got back on track with the help of the GPS.  We also had a break from the snow and made good time on the trail which was mostly clear of snow.  It was nice to finally be able to just walk to enjoy the scenery without having to pick out a path.

Soon we entered the camping zone of Granite Canyon, with a couple of hours of daylight left.  We refilled our water bottles then found an amazingly clear of snow five star campsite, complete with tree stump tables, seats and a large bear box.  For the first time this trip we setup our tent on clear flat dirt instead of snow.  We also setup the tarp to give us more cover in the almost certain event that is snowed during the night.

It was cold but we were sheltered from the wind, and we set about making chow and hot beverages.  Night fall comes fast in the mountains, and we looked forward to being bunked down before dark. The bear box was a great luxury as well and saved us the time of finding a suitable tree to hang our food from while also keeping everything dry.  This was actually a group site, normally reserved for 6+ people.  Lucky for us there wasn't much competition (except maybe with the bears).

All that was left was to bunk down for our last night in the wilderness as we at last shed our frozen wet boots, gaiters and pants and crawled into our bags.

          

The next morning the site was transformed.  Before the sun was even up there was a fresh 4 inches of snow to enjoy.  As usual I was the first up with an aching back and bladder, and got some water boiling for breakfast.  Shortly after the light snowfall became a blizzard which would continue throughout the day.  When the guys were up we ate everything we had left and then hastily packed up our bags under the limited protection of the tarp.  Then we were off!

The canyon was a complete white out, and the snow filled air whipped our faces as we marched east and down out of Granite Canyon.  We were quickly becoming soaked and frozen, but the view was amazing.  The trail was fairly easy to follow luckily even as it become more buried by the minute.           

Without the need for snow shoes the hiking was fast and furious.  We had to constantly whack at trees that hung low over the trail, laden down with snow.  A quick slap with a hiking pole and they would spring out of the way as they dumped their load of the white stuff.  We repeated the process, alternating the lead for the next few hours.          

We reached the Granite Canyon Trailhead, but disappointingly still had a couple more hours of uphill slogging in the worsening storm to get back to Teton village.  But eventually we popped out of the woods, soaked and frozen to the bone and made our way back to the van.  Soon we were defiling yet another hotel room with filthy packs and clothes. 

This was definitely one of my favorite western adventures.  The difficulty of going off season made it even more memorable.  It was easily the most remote adventure I had ever been on.  On both halves of the hike, after a couple hours in we never saw another soul.  It was amazing to have the total solitude and quiet of the woods to ourselves for a couple of days.  Learning to deal with travelling in heavy and deep snow was a bonus challenge, and I can't wait to put my new skills to work again on the next frozen adventure.

Yellow Belt Test

This past Sunday I went for my Krav Maga Yellow Belt Test along with 15 other Level 1 students from the Owings Mills and Columbia Krav MD schools.  This was my first attempt at a belt test for any discipline, and from talking with students of multiple martial arts disciplines, it is supposedly the most difficult by comparison.  More than just testing your technique and physical fitness, it is about testing your mental toughness.  In order to test you require approximately 5 months of training or 30+ classes.  You also have to pass a pretest and get instructor permission.

The test was 5 hours long.  Broken down into a one hour warm-up and workshop to loosen up and get rid of the pretest stress followed by 4 hour of nonstop grinding.  There were a lot of fellow Columbia students there.  It was the first time a lot of us had come up to the Owings Mills school.  We killed the few minutes before test time comparing stories about how brutal the testing process was.  I had spent the past 4 days resting up and hydrating, hydrating, hydrating.  I just hoped it would be enough.  I was most worried about being able to maintain the necessary level of intensity and focus throughout the test.  I knew I could push through the pain but was much less sure of keeping the techniques anything close to clean and correct.

Once the testing started, it was game on.  It's hard to compare it to anything.  Maybe a triathlon, but that's not quite right.  Unless you spend the entire race sprinting while people jump you.  Basically the instructors wear you down with a combination of pushups, situps, squats, etc until you can barely move your arms or legs.  THEN you get to demonstrate your combatives, punches and kicks.  Luckily, you get a short break holding a pad for your sparing partner - if getting punched and kicked relentlessly is your idea of a rest. I was glad to at least be paired with a guy I knew from Columbia and had sparred with in the past.  Being of similar heights and builds, it at least made it a little easier.

After going through the various Level One combatives - straight punches, palm strikes, elbows, hammer-fists, front kicks to the groin, front kicks to a vertical target, and round kicks (I struggled most with these) - we moved onto to defense techniques.  This was simple a matter of willing our burned up limbs to deflect or block various upper body blows.  Next up was wrist releases, choke defenses, and headlock defense.  By this point my sparring partner and I were pretty toasted, and had to dig for everything left to get it done.  The windows of the testing room were completely fogged up and it felt like fighting in a sauna.  One student had to take a quick break to throw up in the bathroom before getting right back to it.

Finally we were passed all the standup fighting and just had the last hurdle to complete, ground combat.  In Krav Level One there are three kicks from the ground, the round-house, front kick, and side kick.  We ending up only doing the round kick (the most difficult of the three) and lots of getting up and going right into combatives.  And of course we had the popular drill of being circled by our partner while keeping yourself curled in a ball and foot pointed towards your attacker.  This was actually the hardest part for me, as by this point my traps and levator scapula were locked rigid and I struggled to keep my head up.  When the bell rang I dropped my head, arms and legs gratefully to the ground.  It wasn't quite over yet though.

We had one last challenge to get through, the caterpillar crawl.  We lined up on the mirrors in plank postion (basically the top of doing a pushup) and held it.  The first student all the way to the left dropped down and crawled though the tunnel of bodies all the way to the end, then back to plank.  It seems easy, but the simple task of holding your body upright at this point took a monumental force of will.  We repeated this process person by person until we had circled all the way around the room and got back to were we started.  Finally we heard the magic words "One line!" and the test was over.

We were saved from several days of agony waiting for test results as everyone had passed.  There was much applause and handshaking (with shaking hands).  It was very surreal to have it done and over after all the buildup.  It was also completely awesome.

Operation Mountain Fury (aka - The Laurel Fork Adventure)

In November of 2010 I was invited to join the FDEF on their annual winter hike.  I never miss a chance to go on an outdoor adventure so I quickly accepted, despite the certainty of bone-chilling cold.

FDEF (as it came to be known) are all friends of my college roomate Jakes, most of them cross country and marathon runners.  So hiking with them is always a killer workout.  For this trip the group would be 8 including me.  The last time I went with them was to Capital Reef National Park in Utah.  THAT was a truly epic trip I will never forget.

This trip, while different, would be no less epic.

This trip would take us into the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia for 3 days of hiking and 2 nights camping in the backcountry.  We set out from the Fox Den oustide of D.C., and after a couple of GPS misdirects, a road closure, and a requisite stop at Cracker Barrel, we arrived at the Laurel Fork Trail Head about 5 hours later.  We took about 30 minutes doing a last minute gear check, leaving behind some extra stuff.  The weather was gorgeous, and a little warm.  This led me to (regrettably) leave behind my heavy Carhatt winter coat to lighten my pack. Sometime while pulling all the packs out of my Forester, one of the packs snagged on the roof cargo light switch, flipping it to 'ON' - which we would find out later.

Already burning day light, we set a brisk pace to get to the first planned camping zone for the night.  We crush piles of leaves as we went, having to watch our footing for ankle twisting rocks and also to keep from sliding.  The day was terribly sunny, and we weren't afforded any great views - but nonetheless it was invigorating just being hiking in the wood again. After reaching some camping signs at the bottom of the valley - and with light fading - we had a quick debate on which way to go, but quickly deciding to press on the mail trail a bit further where we shortly found a great campsite with fire pit ready to go.

There was plenty of flat, if rock, ground to setup our tents.  And we had a stream just feet away for easy water filling.  The site was about as ideal as you could get, except for being the lowest point in the valley.  I didn't think about it at the time but no realize this is a really bad idea in winter camping as all the cold air drops at night and sits at the lowest altitude.  But even as the sun dropped we still felt great, and with a roaring bonfire soon going we had no worries.  Several hours after pitch black settled in, we could see another group of hikers descending from the way we came.

This is when we got the bad news that a silver Subaru had it's dome light on back at the trailhead.  Groaning, I prepared to make a fast run back up the mountain.  Jake offered to go with, but in the end I decided not to bother.  The battery was still new, and I had a power pack in my car.  As a backup Jake also had jumper cables in this trunk.  I was confident we could get the Batmobile going again with little fuss. The second group of hikers made do with what little ground was still open just up the hill from us and made camp in total darkness.  We finished dinner and had camp-fire talk for a few hours more, then all turned in.

The night was bitterly cold, and that is an understatement.  I quickly realized how ill-equipped I was for winter camping in the mountains.  I had the hood draw strings of my +40 summer down bag pulled so tight barely a straw hole was left to breath through.  Without even any winter base layers, I slept in just my boxer briefs.  I cursed myself for leaving the extra winter clothes and heavy coat back at the car.  There was nothing for it, so I simply endured and slept little.  With the first rays of light I popped out of my tent and quickly rebuilt the fire to warm my frozen bones.

It wasn't long before the other guys stirred and we took care of the breakfast.  Most had been pretty chilled to the bones as well and the fire was a welcome relief.  Soon enough the temperature rose. We shed layers as we broke camp.  Our neighbors were ready to head out at the same time.  We doused the fire, then headed towards the stream crossing.  The hiking was easy and flat as we loosely followed the stream.  Still taking our time, we lost sight of the other hikers on the winding trail.

At one point we heard a large animal startle in the foliage to our left.  It plowed deeper into the brush and we never did get a glimpse of it so it could have been anything.  From the noise it made we suspected it was a bear.  Not far from that point, we had our wettest water crossing.  Great care was needed as the crystal clear mountain water was strong even though not more then a few feet deep.

Next started a gradual climb back up.  We had some steep scrambles to deal with, and the trail was hard to follow.  We fought for purchase in the loose soil, and moved from tree to tree.  Eventually the trail smoothed out and we walked in the clear sun for a while.  We found another campsite with a fire ring, and decided to stop for lunch and some photo ops.  With plenty more daylight, we pressed on.  We encountered the group that camped by us last night coming back down the trail towards us.  They said they had missed there turn around point, never intending to do the entire loop like we were.

  Now they had a very long grueling climb to make it all the way back to the parking lot.  They gave us a heads up on spotting the difficult to see trail turn.  We nearly missed it anyway, as it was unmarked and looked like a nothing side trail.  The climbing got steeper, following the stream back to it's source for a while.  We passed many beaver dams along the way which we stopped to check out.  The size of the logs they could cut through was impressive.  My legs weren't toast at this point, so I grabbed up a beaver cut hiking stick that was just the right size.

The trail become almost impossible to follow, overgrown with pine trees and brush, but we made it up to the gravel road that would quickly get us to our next camping target.  My light hiking shoes were worn out at this point, and a constant dull ache had me lagging behind the rest of the troop.  We passed by a few car campers setup next to the road, but never saw anyone.  We had to make another quick decent down from the road which was a great reprieve for all of us.  But I hated it knowing it meant a long burning climb out of the valley in the morning.

We descended until we came to a perfect open area just above a stream.  This wasn't a ready made site, so we went through some prep work.  Dragging stones together for a fire ring and clearing some spaces for our tents.  I piled a massive stack of leaves under my tent spot to give me some protection from the frozen ground.  The weather was great now, but from last nights experience I knew it would be freezing.  I slept little better though.  The final climb out was as brutal as I feared.  Falling behind my cross country and triathlon companions I had to quickly lose my warm layers as I was immediately drenched with sweat.

The trail was a little better today, but still tough to follow in spots.  Once it leveled out we cruised out of the woods.  Exhausted and sore from my heavy back, I couldn't be happier to drop it on the ground next to my Forester.  A quick jump start later courtesy of Jake's Acura and we were on the road.  Before hitting the highway we stopped at Fox Den's Pizza, were we made the mistake of ordering four extra large pizzas.  Not knowing they were each the size of a table.  But we were all starving, and we ate like wanton gluttons.  An eating contest soon broke out, but I abstained as I was ready to curl up on the floor and sleep.  The drive back to civilization was anticlimatic but I couldn't wait for a comfortable and warm good nights sleep!  This trip would be the inspiration for my ultra-light epiphany, and the last time I would drag around a 60 pound pack.

Check out gear reviews and info at www.willsgear.com