I think I can, I think I can...

Two years ago I went on my first extreme hiking/rappelling excursion with Jeff and his crew to Zion National Park in Southern Utah. We did 2 days of 8-10 hour climbs/rappels each day, and I really had a great time! I have always had a little fear of heights, but I got over it real quck when I had to rappel over 100 feet into a huge bowl with tourists and water below, and canyon walls surrounding me.

We weren't able to make the trip last summer, but everyone found time this year. Since Jeff and I live 45 minutes from Zion Nat'l Park, everyone just drove down from SLC and is staying here with us. Jeff's brother Ryan and his wife Jen came, another brother Doug, and brother-in-law Cory.

So yesterday we did Spry Canyon (one of Zion's "technical" canyons). Before the bulk of us drove up though, Jeff and Ryan had already headed up at 3:00 a.m. to wait in line for a permit for the hike they all wanted to do today (Mystery Canyon). They got it! Yay! Anyway, we started our hike into Spry around 8:30 Friday morning and it was tough from the get-go. It began in a wide, sandy wash that took us about 15 minutes (about half a mile), then we had to climb several hundred feet up a "slickrock watercourse". That was the hardest part of the whole day for me. It was the steepest climb I've ever done, and it was on this smooth sandstone type rock, so it was pretty much just using your calf muscles and loads of endurance (I must have forgotten to bring those things with me yesterday!). Anyhow, I had just done the cleansing stage of this healthy eating plan I'm on...and Thursday was my first day with all the food groups reintroduced, so on Friday I guess I just didn't have the energy and fuel my muscles needed. Jeff is the one who is typically the leader of the pack and is always in the front, but he stayed in the back with me, encouraged me, checked on me, kept making me stop to breathe and drink water, and eventually he took my pack so that I could make it up to the top.

After the climb, we began our descent through a dry riverbed surrounded by the high, colorful walls of the canyon. The first rappel was 165 feet if that gives you an idea of how huge the rappels were on this trip. Anyway, about 115 rappels later, we got to the bottom where we bouldered our way down to a pool of water (this is also the end of the Pine Creek trail too). What a sweet reward it was, about 9 hours after we began, to jump into that nice cool, clean water!! It was at least 105 outside, so we were ready for that perfect ending.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. It was so awesome to be able to enjoy God's creations up close and personal. I also really enjoyed being able to get to know the Baumann/Christensen family better!

Today the five of them are up again doing Mystery Canyon. It's supposed to be one of the hardest, yet one of the most beautiful trips in the park, so I can't wait to hear their stories! I wish I could have gone, but I couldn't handle the idea of leaving Mason with a babysitter for a second day. Plus, yesterday WORE ME OUT!