Summer of Epic Proportions trip #2 - Hiking Green River
It's been a while readers. Guess what though? I am freakin amazing!... and somehow still alive...
I was helping my friend Dennis the other day make some calls on Monday, and it soon got too late to make any more. I don't know about you, but I think around 10:00 pm, I have to call it quits because I feel bad calling people who are not expecting calls from a random person...
Well, as luck would have it, we started to chat. He asked if I could make the final few calls on Tuesday. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off of work, so I was delighted to put in a helping hand. Lo and Behold, it was just my luck that I told him that because after a few moments of thinking, he said, "Well, do you want to go on a hike with us tomorrow?"
Woot!
Of course I want to go on a hike! What kind of silly question is that? So he had to make sure there was room in the car, so he called our friend Sarah to see if that was cool.
IT SURE WAS!
Sarah called me instantly and in more or less these words said, "We're leaving in about 20 minutes... [(thinking)... what? It's 11:00 PM] and it's going to be a 7 hour hike with repelling. Do you have any gear?"
"No," Morgan replies
"That's okay, we can send it up and down the ropes. [(thinking)... Let's see, the last time I went repelling... 12 years ago...] Do you have any good clothes that are quick drying?"
"No."
"That's okay. I think it's not going to be too bad if you just bring some shorts."
"... shorts eh?..."
"Do you have a camel back for carrying water?"
"... No."
"No worries. I might have one. Make sure to bring some good food for hiking because it's going to be a long one. Online it said 7 hours, but we're thinking about 5 or 6."
"hmmm... I'll have to stop by the store..."
At this point Morgan started to doubt his ability and preparation for said trip. Although somehow Sarah convinced me and I found myself at Albertsons packing my cart with granola bars. As I was packing, I wasn't exactly sure what to bring so I grabbed some plasticy pants that I use for sleeping every once and a while. They're kinda like warm-up pants, b
ut totally cheap and crappy. My guess? 50 cent sale at Old Navy kind of quality. Although my dollar flip flops are still holding together. "Thanks Old Navy!" [Cheesy smile and thumbs up as seen in photo]
Sarah and Nathan quickly show up and I load my very improvised-last-minute gear (bag with granola bars) in the car. I had forgotten by this point to think about where we were going to go hiking. One of those last-minute details that seemed to slip my mind as I scrounged the isles of Albertsons. I asked where we were headed.
Sarah replies, "Well, to tell you the truth, we need to go pick up Dennis in P-town (~45 minutes away) because he's still doing a job out there."
??
"He's doing some carpet cleaning of a house, and might need some help."
Here's the lucky thing. I worked as a carpet cleaner for a long time with my dad's company, so it was pretty easy for me to get back into the swing of things. Although here is the major problem with it. Boy is it hard on the body! It uses a lot of arm strength which I sadly have lost from my carpet cleaning days. I got right on a machine and started the hardest part of professional carpet cleaning... stairs.
Clean stairs, clean second floor and 4 hours later, we were done. I know what you're thinking...
Phonecall: 11:00 pm
Picked up: 11:30 pm
P-Town: 12:30 am
Carpet Cleaning: 4:30 am
You are correct, and give yourself a gold star for aweome math skills... base 60, carry the 2... We loaded up Dennis's car and returned the equipment thus leaving P-town by about 5:00am. I proceeded to ask the question again of where exactly the hike was thinking mostly about how much sleep I was going to get after working my arms for quite a while and then going on the 7 hour hike.
"It's just outside of Green River."
"Green River? How far is that?"
The next part of the story is a little painful in memory and may have been permanantly blocked in my memory... Let me just show you the picture...
Point A: P-town
Point B: Green River
Distance: 140 miles
Time (with construction): ~3 hours
Now here's a little reference for you. You might be thinking, "Where is Green River exactly? What landmarks or big cities are near it?"
As you can see... Nothing. Unless you count Crecent Junction, which litteraly is just two highways converging with nothing there. Salina is 70 miles away...
Back to the good stuff. Let's see here:
Carpet cleaning: 4:30 + 3 hours... carry the 12... oh yeah. 7:30 am
I don't sleep in a car too well either...
We arrived and luckly the group that had slept [there] the night before was just leaving. They were about 10 minutes ahead of us, but they could hear Sarah's poor car being demolished my the dirt and motly tire-eating rocks which seemed to find delight in slamming themselves against the undercarrage of the car. Fun!
We didn't want to keep them waiting any longer than they already had waited for us, so we packed up our stuff and started to head out. Sadly, due to lack of sleep and food, Sarah was feeling pretty sick to her stomach. She said that if she went with us, she would be good for the first 2 hours or so, but she knows her body well enough that she would get REALLY sick. After much deliberation and trying to convince her to "tough it out," Sarah made her decision to stay with the car and sleep. She gave us her equipment and food and mothery concern, and Dennis, Nathan and I started down the first hill (and back up the second)
And thus the Hike begins...
[Next time on IisMojo... can he survive the towering cliffs and shear cliff wall drops? Stay tuned for the next installment of IisMojo]
