As a bit of background, I did a ton of backpacking as a kid, with my step-dad always taking charge of the planning and mapping of the trip's itinerary. With the wife now expressing interest in the activity, I am now finding out what it was my step-dad was doing all those years! Under normal circumstances, I would have my Eagle Scout buddy Branden and his wife Jennifer help plan the trip...but considering they were in the middle of job interviews, selling their house, searching for a new one, and moving from Washington D.C. to the Bay Area the week before the trip, they didn't exactly have spare time. Which meant...
I was on my own...gulp.
So as you can imagine, by the time the trip came around, I was equal parts excited and nervous, just hoping that I hadn't forgotten some obvious permit, rental car or equipment detail that would derail our trip. And for those of you that know how OCD I am, you can imagine how many times I called the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, double-checked the hotel reservation, and made sure we had every conceivable box checked. I will say thought, despite being very busy, Branden took the time to share his "Master Packing Spreadsheet" online, so we were able to see who would be bringing what. This was a huge help...almost. More on that a bit later.
The other interesting part of this trip was that Branden and Jenn had big plans to go hike the entire John Muir Trail in August (about 2.5-3 week trip). Because of that, they had a lot of stuff they wanted to test out, including tents, chairs, sanitary wipes, and most importantly, food. They wanted to know what meals were worth bringing and which should stay home. But these two aren't your average backpackers. They have their own food dehydrator, so instead of purchasing pre-packaged meals at REI, they cooked all our meals, dehydrated them and packed them, so we could be their personal taste-testers in Zion. Oh wait, did I tell you that they were moving across the country the week leading up to the trip?! #dedicatedbackpackers
Meet Branden & Jenn, the stud backpackers
So, despite my nerves, Julie and I took off Friday afternoon and flew to Las Vegas, where we then rented a car and drove the 2.5 hours to our hotel in Springdale, Utah. Along the way we stopped at a local Big 5 so we could get propane (since it's a big-time "no-no" to fly with butane and/or propane tanks on airplane). Remember this sentence, it might become an issue later. After a quick dinner stop, we headed to our hotel in Zion.
Now, due to their crazy new schedule, Branden and Jenn weren't going to arrive in Utah until about 1:00-1:30am. So Julie and I figured we would check in, get our packs ready for the morning launch, fall asleep, and then begrudgingly open one eye as our friends popped in well past our bedtime. We checked into the hotel and were given our room number, so we made the trek up the stairs with our packs, and started looking for our room. A younger couple obviously on their way back from the pool walked in front of us, and as we came to our assigned room, the shirtless guy in front of me puts his room key in my door and it opens! Wait, what the hell? Apparently our slightly tired and awkward hotel front desk attendant gave us the wrong room keys. Now my question is - what if we had showed up 15 seconds later? Those two would have been undressing from their wet bathing suits in their room, and we would have walked right in to see all their glory! Opportunity missed.
After we got our correct room keys, we settled in and it wasn't long before Julie passed out. Soon after, Branden called to let me know they had landed in Vegas and had just got their rental car. And apparently Jenn is one bad-ass negotiator, cuz somehow she ended up with a Jeep Wrangler for $60...total. As she said..."PRICELINE NEGOTIATOR!"
This is how you get a Jeep for $60
Anyway, since I was ready to go to sleep, Branden and I talked briefly about the game-plan for the next morning, including what time we were waking up, how we needed to spread some of the weight across our four backpacks, and how long it would take to get our permits. During that conversation, Branden casually said, "And since you brought the JetBoil stove and bought propane, we'll carry the food." And then this happened...
Me - "Uhhh...I'm bringing the stove? Our master spreadsheet says you're bringing it."
Branden - "You're joking right?"
Me - "No, I'm dead serious. I do not have a stove. The spreadsheet said you're bringing it."
Branden - "Uh, no it doesn't. You were supposed to bring it."
Me (voice escalating) - "NO. I printed it out and am looking at it right now and it says you were going to bring it."
Branden (not quite convinced) - "You were buying the propane so I figured you were...wait, hold on...crap."
Me - (silence)
After a bit of ranting, self-loathing, slow realizations that no camping store is open at 11:30pm, and ill-fated discussions about living off of granola bars for 3 days, we then realized that WalMart is open 24/7 and sells camping stoves. So instead of coming straight to the hotel, Branden and Jenn made the unenviable late-night trip to pick up a stove.
At midnight.
At WalMart.
Now those are some great friends.
Branden not happy about the midnight WalMart run.
The tired couple finally arrived at the hotel (with stove) around 2:30am. They put down their bags, used the restroom, grunted in my general direction, and passed out. No words necessary - we had a big trip ahead, and within minutes of being in Utah, we had already had to make a late night stove run.
If this was any indication of how a Marc-planned backpacking trip was going to proceed, we were all screwed. With that daunting thought in mind, we all held our collective breath as we turned off the lights and went to sleep. I stared at the ceiling, filled with anxiety about messing this trip up for everyone, and just hoped that my over-the-top paranoia-planning method was thorough enough to get us by. Would it?
Stay tuned for the next post, where we get the permits, hit the trail, and have serious doubts about the National Park's definition of "flowing water sources"...
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