I Confess My Lack of Personal Responsibility in Utah

In this email I'm going to admit to violating a basic tenet of the CHS Way on my trip to Utah and in retrospect I feel like a total heel for doing it. The overarching tenet is "We bring personal responsibility to the group." I am admitting here and now to what I did on the Utah trip in the hopes that others might learn from it. I admit to: treating my hike leader (in this case my friend who was organizing the trip) as a tour guide whose personal mission was to make sure I had a good time. There, I've said it! 

How did I do this? By not finding out a single scrap of information about our hikes or our backpack trip beforehand. Heck I didn't even  buy a damn map of the area or look at a single hiking book that described the trips even when I had them sitting in front of me! Instead I followed my friend around like a sheep expecting her to tell me all about the trips and what challenges I might expect. As you might remember from my last posting--this plan turned out kindly of poorly for my feet. It also meant that we when we got the trailhead for our backpack trip, I didn't have a friggin' clue as to which direction our trail was supposed to go from the trailhead. If you haven't hiked in the desert before, I can tell you that washes sometime look like trails and the terrain all looks a lot alike. 

So needless to say, we headed off in the wrong direction and spent about an hour trying to figure out what we were doing. I wasn't any help in the trail navigation because I was the only one in the group that hadn't read any trail beta. When we finally got back to where our car was parked to regroup, I was feeling pretty sheepish and admitted to my friend that I was guilty of treating her as my tour guide and resolved to behave differently. I still didn't have a damn map of the area, but I did pay attention the route for the rest of the trip and made sure we were on a trail on our travels through the desert. 

Oh sure I have lots of great excuses as to why I behaved this way--I was really busy at work before the trip and had been dealing with a lot of stress beforehand, blah, blah, blah. But none of it counts for a hill of beans. I should have been more prepared. I should've bought a map of the areas we were going to beforehand and I should've read the trail descriptions so I could provide meaningful input to the group's decisions on where to go. 

So this is my advice to you: be an active participant on all of your hikes. Don't be guilty of treating a hike leader or a friend (if you're going on a private trip) as a tour guide, expecting them to know everything about the trail and destination. Bring a map and read up on the trail before you go so that you can provide meaningful input on navigation or route finding should the need arise. Plus it's just really nice to know about where you're going should adverse circumstances arise (I'm sure you would never plan to get lost would you?).  

So be sure to bring this up next time you're with me on a hike. I deserve it. But I won't be behaving that way again in the future, you can count on it.

Anticipating conditions

I've been out of town for awhile, going on a hiking and backpacking trip in Utah with some CHS girl friends. We had a great time and saw some pretty amazing sights. And I spent some of my time doing some research for a return trip with Matt. And of course, I had a few experiences which should provide some good subject matter for this blog. I'll relate them over the next couple of weeks.  

I like to think of myself as pretty experienced hiker and backpacker. I try to anticipate things that can go wrong and mitigate them in advance. For this trip, we were going to be spending some time walking through water and sand, so I bought a pair of non-Gortex trail runners to wear for the trip. The idea was that they would easily rid themselves of water and dry out quicker--especially in all of that dry desert air. I made sure to break them in on several outings in the weeks prior to the trip. Plus a also brought along a pair of lightweight shoes I could wear to cross the rivers in. The idea being that I would change into these when we crossed the river, then would change back into my trail runners for the hiking part.  

On our first hike trip, we crossed the Escalante River about ten times going to and from a place called the Golden Cathedral. It was an awesome place to visit--well worth the trip. However we ended up crossing the river so many times that I abandoned my idea to change back into my trail runners and instead opted to keep on my water shoes for the multiple crossings there and back. I also discovered that not only does water get into your shoes, but sand as well, creating a wet gritty environment around my feet. Once I put my trail runners back on, I also discovered that sand got into my shoes pretty easily--creating a nice gritty environment.  

It was this way for five days in a row as we day-hiked two days and then went on a backpack trip into Coyote Gulch for two nights. On our second day, guess what I developed between my big toe and the next toe on my left foot? You guessed it, a big, raw blister. Water weakens the skin's toughness and the grit worked away on the tender skin between my toes. There was really nothing I could do but grin and bear it if I wanted to go out on the trips. Taping it helped somewhat, but the wet environment would eventually destroy the adhesion of the bandage and then the lovely sand would come on it to scour it out some more.  

The only real solution was to stop hiking, so after our backpack trip, I decided that I shouldn't do any more hiking and just wear flip flops so the blister could start to heal. At that point we were  heading to Capitol Reef National Park. I made the most of though, dropping my friends off at a trailhead and then checking out some cool sites I could drive to. Later I picked my friends up at a different trailhead. I also got a lot of reading done and basically enjoyed some time by myself--which I enjoy greatly. 

What did I learn? It probably would have been better to either wear some sort of water socks that would keep the grit out from around my feet. Or I should have been a little better about getting the sand out of my shoes each and every time I emerged from the water. Proactive taping before the river crossings might have been helpful too.  

Moral of the story--make sure you understand all of the conditions involved in your trip and how it might affect you. I was a bit lazy on this part--not quite catching on to the fact that we would not only be crossing water, but dealing with a lot of sand as well. The friend who planned the trip mentioned this beforehand, but I kind of forgot about it or didn't think it was important. Now I know better! 

How do you apply this on your CHS trips? The Ten Essentials provide you with a good start--making sure that you have items with you to help with both warm and sunny or cold and wet conditions. But think about other things that you can bring to improve your experience and mitigate unpleasant conditions. Would an umbrella keep the rain or sun off of you? Would some extra water or food make your day better? How about an extra pair of dry socks or shirt to change into at lunch? Would some chemical hand warmers make that cold, wet day a little better? Think about these things as you pack for your day hikes. 

Hope to see you on the trail soon!