Greetings! This is Annie and I’m writing from HMI’s snow covered campus in Leadville. Trek did a 14 day backpacking loop through the Dark, Youngs, and Lean-To canyons in Utah. It rained the first few days, which made the river an unfortunate color of red/brown (we called it the Chocolate River), but we had beautiful weather for most of the rest of our trip.
We slept out under the incredible stars and the Milky Way at night, seeing Starlink and a ton of constellations and shooting stars. During the day, we hiked between 2 and 6 miles, carrying our packs with 12 day food rations in them. We all took turns wearing Syd’s beat up tutu on our Leader of the Day rotations (I think it may need to be retired now!). We learned all about canyon navigation as we climbed up cliff bands, went down drainages, bouldered a little (channeling Rock), and did some small river crossings to get past large rocks, cliffs, and water features that we couldn’t just walk through. We had a layover day every 3 days, where we slept in, explored the area on day hikes, and played a lot of cards. A lot. We even swam a couple days when there was enough sun and warmth! Once in the river (no longer chocolate colored at this point) and once in a pool at the base of a waterfall!
Unfortunately, we also crossed paths with a couple of bogs, where our choices were to take our chances in the poison ivy infested vegetation, or wade thigh-deep in mud and water. We chanted “bog it” a lot that day as a play on words of the Bop It game we brought, which was also the only other voice we encountered during the entire expedition. We got really close as a small group (just Liv, Henry, and me as students and Ruby and Syd as instructors). Every night after our evening meeting, we chatted about random topics, ranging from the morality of shoplifting to family dynamics and childhood anecdotes as we stared at the night sky. We hiked out of the canyons on Halloween and traded our secret spookster gifts we purchased from our last Walmart adventure. Gifts ranged from candy to stuffed animals and one peculiar looking owl in suspenders that we named Quincy.
From the canyons, we traveled to Moab, where we reunited with Rock and traded stories from the 2 weeks we were apart. We were not able to run a technical slot canyon because of all the rain, but did explore Arches National Park in Moab. It felt like quite the family road trip! We showered for the first time in 2.5 weeks and did some much needed laundry, and then we hit the streets and enjoyed some town time! We got quesadillas in the Moab Food Park and enjoyed some hot drinks from cafes as we popped in and out of shops, picking up some small souvenirs on the way. We certainly enjoyed the luxuries of base camping life after over 2 weeks of the backcountry, and took advantage of our access to fresh foods and fancy meals, including pesto chicken calzones, avocado toast with eggs, and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.
Now we are back at the HMI campus, grateful for some indoor living (and heat! It’s been snowy and chilly here) as we prepare to depart for our next adventure in a couple days: Patagonia!
