Summer Backpacking 2006

Around last summer I was contacted by a longtime friend of mine that he wanted me to come along on a backpacking trip that him and his dad were planning. I was to go over to his house every Sunday for around an hour and plan out the activities, supplies needed, and also to simply hang out and joke around. In the end the entire group consisted of me, two of my best friends, my friends dad, and my friends sister. 1

Having a fairly large and detailed map in front of us, we got to pick what routes we would like to take and read up on them to see what was expected on the trail. Since three of us were teenage males, we felt we could take the world on and we all felt we were quite the stuff. None of us had ever really been a backpacking trip before and indeed I had loaded up on the gear fairly recently in hopes that this kind of occasion would crop up. Looking through the map, we found a fairly nasty looking trail that went over large mountains, through deep rivers, and over large expanses of land. A quick look in a backpacking manual stated that only experts should try this trail and it was labeled as extremely difficult. As we each gave each other a large triumphant grin we decided that this was indeed the trail to show off to each other how manly we were.2

Several weeks later, followed by a fairly long car ride, we lifted our 30 pound packs onto our backs and began the long journey. It started off with me thinking lowly of the people I had heard complaining about how hard a backpacking trip was, and I figured myself to be in extremely good shape and that I wouldn't even feel the tiny weight between my shoulder blades. After around two hours, and playing with various straps on my pack trying to adjust the weight to different parts of my muscles that weren't already sore, I decided that perhaps these people had been right.3

My muscles had already been sore from sleeping on a gravel lot the night of due to us driving to slow, mainly from David throwing away his retainer at a Subway miles down the road and us having to go all the way back and dig through various garbage, but after eight hours of backpacking through various wilderness I was simply dying. It didn't help that we were all out of water, and with all of us being thirsty and tired we simply wanted to find a spot to set up camp for the night and rest.4

An additional two hours of backpacking still brought no sign of water, till in the distance we heard the faint gurgling of a river. Being super excited and stoked we all quickened the pace and found the river surrounded by lush forest and a beautiful spot to camp, 30 feet below us with unscaleable cliffs. We looked around for an easy spot down but there simply wasn't any nearby. David being David decided that he would get us out of this predicament, and holding onto a tree he started sliding across a steep ledge to try and ease his way down. 5

It seemed however that fate wasn't on his side and he started sliding uncontrollably downward at an increasing speed at which point he fell the last six feet and managed to land and then fall into a pile of sand. He had solved how to get down there, just none of us wanted to try it. After listening to his cries of pain and seeing blood dripping from his hands where he had torn them open on the sheetrock, we all decided it was in our best interests to try and find another way down. After another 30 minutes of looking around, we found a fairly easy path to get down and we started to set up camp for the night.6

The second day didn't start off any better. My friend David had a bowel obstruction shortly before coming on the trip, and so was taking some special "poop" pills. As we backpacked away from our brown streaked, toilet papered camp, we had to stop continuously for him to answer natures call. Again, and again, and again, and again. After we stopped for at least the 10th time, we decided he'd be able to catch up at his own pace.7

He finally did catch up due to us being forced to wait at an extremely nasty spot where the path turned into a deep slot canyon with at least ten feet of water in spots. A quick thing to note about this scenario is that I am afraid of water and can't swim at all, and the water had to be around 40 degrees. With a quick and creative idea, we inflated our air pads and floated the backpacks across to our members that awaited on the other side. As more and more things went across I expressed this concern of me being unable to swim and was carted across like a backpack on a lime green blow up raft.8

Being nervous on the depth of the water, and the grins and nudges that David and his dad exchanged between themselves and quick motions with their hands, I was only to glad when I could touch bottom and quickly slid off before their plans could reach fruitation. Then we continued within this water having to keep holding onto these makeshift rafts to guide our packs across, since no one wanted to sleep in a sopping wet sleeping bag all night in a soaking tent.9

Throughout this day we continuously walked waist deep through the freezing waters and continually had to warm ourselves up. When we climbed out of the water, it was to meet long reeds which wouldn't break; they'd simply bend and snap back. Since most of us were wearing shorts for the water, only my friend Max had devised a clever scheme of long pants and shirt which he rolled up and that dried extremely quick. We had some fairly nasty marks on our lower extremities caused from us bushwhacking through this terrain. Upon climbing into the freezing water, it made us acutely aware of every last cut upon our legs.10

Coming into a nice campsite for our 2nd night, I managed to run afoul of a cactus that I felt had been placed upon this Earth merely to stab my leg while passing. So once the tents were set up and dried(no ones perfect), I decided that vengeance would be mine and grabbing one of the walking sticks, aimed a nice swing at the opposing plant and watched it go flying. At this point I had a curious revelation, and that with my hunger made me question if this plant was edible.11

Upon asking David's dad, who seemed to be the only experienced backpacker in the group, he stated that they were in fact edible, but that I'd have to pluck every last quill by hand in order to not be seriously injured. Deciding that this wasn't worth eating the plant I whacked a few into the fire we had started and watched as the quills sizzled and burned off the cactus. Now having a lazy solution in my head, I speared the cactus that stabbed me on a stick and put it in the fire to cook until all the quills were burnt off.12

Gloating on my original idea, I then sliced it open and took a few bites, though I only managed to get a few chews in before figuring out that cactus quills seem to grow both outside of the cactus, and inside. I tried to sleep that night with quills on my tongue, in my hands, and somehow they managed to get into my sleeping bag as well. Upon waking up the next morning though I felt I was far better off than I had been the night before and was ready to begin the last day of our journey.13

After helping David roll up his sleeping bag since his hands were still heavily bandaged, we then began along the Escalante trail on the final leg of our journey. After crossing the river repeatedly throughout a large chunk of the day, we then happened to start seeing landmarks and sites that were becoming more and more familiar to us as we continued walking. Getting more and more excited about being able to return home and being able to change into different clothes and actually take a clean HOT shower, our pace sped up. After around six more hours of backpacking, we finally reached the car.14

We all walked quite weirdly for a week after the trip, we all had various cuts and bruises, we all had extremely stiff and sore backs, though luckily they basically went numb on the 3rd day. We all had various kinds of hardships we had to deal with on the trail on varying degrees, and I know that not one of us said in their minds, "Gee I sure wish this had been a few days longer", and to this day I still feel it was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do within my life.15

But yet despite the various trials we had, it's those trials that I look at when I think about our backpacking trip. I don't really remember the hours upon hours of walking through forests, I don't really remember the chats we had as we set up camp and prepared for sleep, the main things that stick out in my mind were the hard parts on that journey, and the way I felt as I managed to overcome each and every single one. And while some of us suffered more than others, I can't help but want to go on another one and I wait impatiently for this summer to come around so that the next one can be planned.16

Not only did my views of my friends change on this trip, but also my main views on life and what happen. No one remembers the boring and monotonous parts of their life, they remember the trials they had, and hard parts they experienced. The walking was basically living life without a challenge, fording the river various times, swimming in freezing cold water, climbing up steep mountains,(and indeed falling down a few) and perhaps even taking a bite out of a damn cactus, is what we will take from life and what it has to offer us.17

Hours of walking through terrain that hardly changes and wanting to forget the pain within your back will usually give you time to think and review some of your goals and how you live life, and being able to have your friends go through the exact same thing can't help but bring you closer together, no matter how hard they actually make the journey become. And while I may have been dreading the trials as I saw them coming, I can't help but think of myself as a better person for being able to look back and remember myself overcoming them all.18