All of us Gals, our Bishop and Counselor Brother Ward!
My Bishop and his AMAZING wife, who came on this adventure and survived! 
These are hazardous rocks if your not careful! Don't believe me, read below!
Hanging out in the tent, before going to the waterfalls to swim
My huge backpack!!!
Ending the two mile hike completely up a mountain with my pack! Those muscles were tired!My story...
I got time off work to go into the wilderness and become one with nature! I originally thought that we were going to pull up, set up camp and then go on a hike. I was completely wrong! This turned into a high adventure backpacking trip! I originally packed my regular backpack and Brother Ward was trying to help me attach my sleeping bag and then offered me a real hiking backpack. I changed everything out, we took pictures as a group and we were on our way.
Some of you may be aware that my stomach is a bit touchy and about half way down the mountain my stomach started to REALLY bother me! I tried to ignore it and after awhile, I knew something had to be done. So luckily I was one of the people in the front, I walked quickly and separated a bit from the group, and I wandered down a hill a little and hid myself and relieved my stomach. This was a big relief! I instantly felt a lot better (If this is too much information, I am sorry; I just figured you might want to get the whole picture of my experience).
After about another thirty minutes, my stomach was again acting up terribly and fortunately we had arrived in camp. I quickly set down my pack and found the outhouse that had a toilet, but was basically a hole. There were ants crawling everywhere and spider webs all over the walls. I kept trying to keep the toilet paper on the seat so I could sit and the wind kept making it fall off. I came up with a plan to keep it on and it worked. …. Finally! So then we set up camp and decided to go swimming. So I put my swimsuit on and my shoes, because I found out we would be hiking about thirty minutes to get to the waterfalls.
The beginning was not that bad, Brother Ward was guiding us and it was then we realized we were missing many of the people. So he went back to check on them and told us to follow the stream and just keep going and eventually we would see it.
So I went somewhat ahead of some of them and was trying to carefully walk over the rocks and at one point to catch my balance I grabbed this plant. It had sticker like things on it and got lodged into my palm. I carefully got it all off and instructed the girls behind me not to go down where I was at. As I was trying to go back up, I lost my footing and trying not to fall into the plant again, I positioned away from it and ended up hitting my ankle hard against a rock on my bone. Tears filled my eyes and the pain stung until I was able to look down and see the extent of the damage. My ankle was swelling and bleeding, some of the skin had come off. The girls assisted me in getting up the hill and we continued on up to the waterholes. The whole time, I was limping and sniffling over my injury! We finally got there and we basically had to go rock climbing to reach these water holes. It was quite the challenge with an injury.
Finally I was able to put my foot into the freezing water and it burned! I only lasted so long and climbed up onto a big rock and observed the other girls diving into a large hole with the waterfall off to the side coming from the water hole where I was at. Eventually we decided it was time to go and Brother Ward said, “Okay we have two options, we can come back the way we came or we can hike up this hill and get back to the trail we came up on. We all opted for the hill, which turned into a mountain! My ankle got wrapped and we went on our way. It was literally straight up a mountain and it was painful on a bad ankle! Finally we got back to the trail and headed back to camp. Dinner was really good! I don’t know when the last time pasta tasted as good as it did that night. I then slept in the tent for awhile. After a time, I joined everyone and due to the exhausting day everyone decided it was time to go to bed. I proceeded to spray myself down with bug spray to the point that Brother Ward jokingly said, “You smell good!”
The next morning, I woke up to ash covering my sleeping bag and body from the trees above the tent. I also had several bug bites on my back, face and arms. Not to mention large bruises on my arms (Makes me wonder what they put in those bug sprays!). We quickly packed up everything, I ate a little beef jerky and an orange and Rita and I decided to leave early after the Bishop and a few others had already left. We wanted a head start. That was one of the best decisions we made! The hike up was so much worse than the day before.
It was straight up for a good mile at the end. I was unsure how I was going to do it, but I did it! Sister Kinney said up the trial when we caught up to them that she was surprised at how well I was doing. Puzzled I asked, “Why?” She said, “Well you’re such a girly girl, I did not know if you could handle all this!” I laughed and in all fairness, I did wear makeup the day before! Luckily I proved myself to be strong and able to handle such a mountain. Would I do it again, probably not, someone would really have to convince me! But, I am glad I did it and I am proud of my moment of triumph when I saw the end of the hike and chugged my cold Gatorade that was waiting for me. This was my trip and after taking a long shower I did spend all of that Saturday, lying in bed and only getting up to go to the store to get food, Benadryl, anti-itch cream and three movie rentals. Yes it felt good to be home!
I got time off work to go into the wilderness and become one with nature! I originally thought that we were going to pull up, set up camp and then go on a hike. I was completely wrong! This turned into a high adventure backpacking trip! I originally packed my regular backpack and Brother Ward was trying to help me attach my sleeping bag and then offered me a real hiking backpack. I changed everything out, we took pictures as a group and we were on our way.
Some of you may be aware that my stomach is a bit touchy and about half way down the mountain my stomach started to REALLY bother me! I tried to ignore it and after awhile, I knew something had to be done. So luckily I was one of the people in the front, I walked quickly and separated a bit from the group, and I wandered down a hill a little and hid myself and relieved my stomach. This was a big relief! I instantly felt a lot better (If this is too much information, I am sorry; I just figured you might want to get the whole picture of my experience).
After about another thirty minutes, my stomach was again acting up terribly and fortunately we had arrived in camp. I quickly set down my pack and found the outhouse that had a toilet, but was basically a hole. There were ants crawling everywhere and spider webs all over the walls. I kept trying to keep the toilet paper on the seat so I could sit and the wind kept making it fall off. I came up with a plan to keep it on and it worked. …. Finally! So then we set up camp and decided to go swimming. So I put my swimsuit on and my shoes, because I found out we would be hiking about thirty minutes to get to the waterfalls.
The beginning was not that bad, Brother Ward was guiding us and it was then we realized we were missing many of the people. So he went back to check on them and told us to follow the stream and just keep going and eventually we would see it.
So I went somewhat ahead of some of them and was trying to carefully walk over the rocks and at one point to catch my balance I grabbed this plant. It had sticker like things on it and got lodged into my palm. I carefully got it all off and instructed the girls behind me not to go down where I was at. As I was trying to go back up, I lost my footing and trying not to fall into the plant again, I positioned away from it and ended up hitting my ankle hard against a rock on my bone. Tears filled my eyes and the pain stung until I was able to look down and see the extent of the damage. My ankle was swelling and bleeding, some of the skin had come off. The girls assisted me in getting up the hill and we continued on up to the waterholes. The whole time, I was limping and sniffling over my injury! We finally got there and we basically had to go rock climbing to reach these water holes. It was quite the challenge with an injury.
Finally I was able to put my foot into the freezing water and it burned! I only lasted so long and climbed up onto a big rock and observed the other girls diving into a large hole with the waterfall off to the side coming from the water hole where I was at. Eventually we decided it was time to go and Brother Ward said, “Okay we have two options, we can come back the way we came or we can hike up this hill and get back to the trail we came up on. We all opted for the hill, which turned into a mountain! My ankle got wrapped and we went on our way. It was literally straight up a mountain and it was painful on a bad ankle! Finally we got back to the trail and headed back to camp. Dinner was really good! I don’t know when the last time pasta tasted as good as it did that night. I then slept in the tent for awhile. After a time, I joined everyone and due to the exhausting day everyone decided it was time to go to bed. I proceeded to spray myself down with bug spray to the point that Brother Ward jokingly said, “You smell good!”
The next morning, I woke up to ash covering my sleeping bag and body from the trees above the tent. I also had several bug bites on my back, face and arms. Not to mention large bruises on my arms (Makes me wonder what they put in those bug sprays!). We quickly packed up everything, I ate a little beef jerky and an orange and Rita and I decided to leave early after the Bishop and a few others had already left. We wanted a head start. That was one of the best decisions we made! The hike up was so much worse than the day before.
It was straight up for a good mile at the end. I was unsure how I was going to do it, but I did it! Sister Kinney said up the trial when we caught up to them that she was surprised at how well I was doing. Puzzled I asked, “Why?” She said, “Well you’re such a girly girl, I did not know if you could handle all this!” I laughed and in all fairness, I did wear makeup the day before! Luckily I proved myself to be strong and able to handle such a mountain. Would I do it again, probably not, someone would really have to convince me! But, I am glad I did it and I am proud of my moment of triumph when I saw the end of the hike and chugged my cold Gatorade that was waiting for me. This was my trip and after taking a long shower I did spend all of that Saturday, lying in bed and only getting up to go to the store to get food, Benadryl, anti-itch cream and three movie rentals. Yes it felt good to be home!
8 comments:
Miss Em, you really are such a good sport! I too have a weak stomach so I can only imagine what that was like. I would have been crying and wanting to go home! I've never actually slept in a tent. I've slept in cars while camping, but never a tent. Oh and a backpack? Forget about it! Ha ha. Good job for sticking it out, but next time, stay home and chill with me instead =).
Oh my goodness Em! You made me laugh at so many parts of this post! I like the beginning how you told us you wanted to go "become one with nature"! It sounds like you did just that! I also like how you called the trail "trial" in that last paragraph! What an appropriate thing to call an all up-hill hike! Good for you for sticking with it! I haven't been camping since girls camp back in YW! And you are like a magnet to those mosquitos! Poor thing! I bet you're glad that's behind you!
You're funny. I'm not a camping person either. You were such a trooper though! =)
What a crazy camping adventure! I am sure you can look back on it and laugh now, thats what is important! I too am not a camping person. I prefer a hotel with clean sheets, running hot water, and room service! Haha.
What a crazy camping adventure! I am sure you can look back on it and laugh now, thats what is important! I too am not a camping person. I prefer a hotel with clean sheets, running hot water, and room service! Haha.
So glad you survived!! You're a trooper, girl!
It looks like the Relief Society had a good turn out in numbers. I am sorry to hear you had such a tough time, but am glad that you had a chance to experience a bit of “roughing it.” I Promise you learn from each of your trips and they get better every time. I think you would be pleasantly surprised and impressed with yourself after taking a few more tries with a little more careful planning and preparation. I promise the phrase “The great outdoors” is not an oxymoron.
Its really funny to hear you talk about Bishop Kinney and his wife. I've known them my whole life. Tell him I said hello, will you? I'm glad the camping trip was fun.
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