Spring Break 2015: Day 3 (Bryce Canyon NP)

On Monday I woke up at 5:50am without my alarm, which is good because my watch alarm never went off (I'm not sure why it did not work, but it randomly worked and didn't work throughout the trip). We had a quick breakfast of yoghurt, granola and bagels.

We were in the cars to drive to Bryce Canyon National Park at 7:15am. I drove for the 75 minute drive to the park's visitor center. I was mesmerized and surprised by the snow around Bryce, although it makes sense since Bryce is at a higher elevation than out camp.

We stopped at the visitor's center, where I was shocked to find that most trails were closed (or required gear we did not have, like snowshoes). I had never even thought that trails might be closed due to snow when I was planning our Bryce Canyon National Park hikes! With all the plans becoming useless due to the closed trails, we got two trail suggestions from a ranger and went with those.

Before lunch, we hiked from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point on the Rim trail, then hiked down into the canyon before taking the 'two bridges' Navajo trail back to sunset point. This hike was relatively easy, and surprisingly not icy or snowy in most sections. The last climb out of the canyon did leave me out of breath.

After the hike we ate a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly tacos before heading to the visitor's center again to buy souvenirs and watch the park video. The video was informative as would be expected, although it did tell us that Bryce Canyon National Park is more of a plateau than a canyon.

After finishing up at the visitor's center, we drove to sunrise point to begin a 3 mile hike on the Tower Bridge trail. This trail was much more difficult than the morning trail, mainly due to deeper snow on most of the trail, some of which had become slushy. I was really enjoying my new waterproof boots on this hike. We rested for 30-45 minutes near the tower bridge before turning back. The hike back was much rougher than the way down, due to the elevation gain, deep snow, and slippery surfaces. I was pretty tired by the time we reached the Rim trail again.

The snow in Bryce was beautiful, and everyone seemed up for taking the scenic drive to a variety of the scenic overlooks. We drove about 20 miles to Rainbow Point, as I had read that it is best to drive all the way to the last viewpoint (Rainbow Point) and then stop at viewpoints on the way back. Apparently participants in Tommy/Cole's car really wanted to get back to camp though, so we did not stop at any other viewpoints. The drive was pretty, but it seemed somewhat pointless without stopping at more viewpoints. I do not see what the hurry to get back to camp was - we'll have plenty of time at camp after volunteering tomorrow. Let's enjoy the amazing views while we are here! And if they were hungry or tired, they could snack or sleep in the car. I'm not sure that wanting to go back to camp instead of enjoying the viewpoints was a group decision - I think there were just a few particularly vocal and insistent participants.  As guides, we really failed this trip at making a plan and vocalizing it, or making multiple plans and letting the entire group vote on what they prefer.  Communication was a big issue this trip.

Emily had a pretty bad migraine, so I kept driving. It was not a terribly driving intensive day, and the snow in Bryce was beautiful, so I really did not mind driving all day.

We had a chicken, vegetables, and rice stir fry for dinner. Emily and Tommy manned the grill, I cut up most of the vegetables, and Cole manned the fire. It ended up being a really good meal with perfect proportions. I cleaned up the dinner, did dishes using our three bucket method, and then retired to our tent. Once in the tent, I blogged for a short time before falling asleep.

Beautiful sunrise at Ponderosa Grove Campground (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

 Snowy Bryce Canyon National Park

Our pre-lunch hike into the canyon

Snowy Bryce Canyon National Park

Our group hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park

 On the trail in Bryce Canyon National Park

 Snowy forest inside the canyon

 One of the 'Hike the Hoodoos' medallions we found (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

Part of our afternoon hike entered a wilderness area

Lots of snow on the trail for our afternoon hike

Bryce is so pretty with snow!

The Tower Bridge

China Wall

Me with snowy Bryce Canyon National Park

 Driving on the scenic drive in Bryce Canyon National Park

Spring Break 2015: Day 2

We woke around 7am, ate breakfast at the La Quinta, and were on the road by 8:15am. We saw some hot air balloons in the sky as we were packing up the cars.

Emily started out driving. The scenery was certainly more beautiful today! I drove the second half of the morning to Tuba City, AZ, where we stopped for a late lunch at McDonalds / Subway. This drive on 2-lane highways though rural Indian reservations let me see a different way of life that I had not previously seen in the USA. I can see why life on reservations can be difficult. It was shocking to see what would be generally considered to be favelas/slums/etc. in other countries in our own country (and not in the big cities where I would expect them, but out in the rural countryside).  As our car discussed how poor Arizona education is, I could not help but think that online learning and curriculum should really be able to drastically improve education if bureaucracy would allow it.  There seemed to be a disproportionate amount of 'no drinking and driving' signs in this area as well.  All in all, it was a sobering drive with lots of time to think.

After lunch Emily drove 1.5 hours to Lake Powell. We walked on the bridge over the Glen Canyon dam, visited the visitor's center (where a nice ranger gave us an overview of the area on a big, carved stereofoam map), and then we hiked 1.5 miles round trip to the Horseshoe Bend Overlook. The hike was much easier than we anticipated, and the trail and viewpoint were pretty crowded. But it was worth it! The view was great!  It is interesting that you have to pay an access fee for almost everything else in the area, but not for the Horseshoe Bend hike and overlook.  We also noted some people having what had to be a very expensive picnic dinner outing at the bottom of the canyon (we suppose they came up in boats from Lee's Ferry) as well as some pit toilets in the canyon (which I suppose are safe enough since the dam controls the river level).

After the short hike, Emily drove about an hour to our camp site near Kanab. We quickly set up camp at site 1 in the Ponderosa Grove NRA camp ground and started preparing our mango, black beans, and mandarin orange tacos. The meal seemed well received, and just the right size.

Emily and I retired to our tent shortly after dinner was cleaned up, as we were planning to wake up at 5:50am.

Hot air balloon from the La Quinta parking lot in Albuquerque

Big sky, as the road seemingly continues forever

Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam

The last part of the trail to Horseshoe Bend

At Horseshoe Bend

 Iconic Horseshoe Bend picture - you can see the picnic party and the pit toilet at the tip of the horseshoe

Our group at Horseshoe Bend (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

 Lots of people made their way out to the Horseshoe Bend viewpoint

 Toby by our kitchen at Ponderosa Grove Campground (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

Spring Break 2015: Day 1

This morning we met at 6am, but Darren was running late so we did not hit the road until 6:45am. Emily drove the first half before lunch and I drove the second half before we stopped at Freebird's in Lubbock, TX. Freebirds was the perfect lunch! I even got free chips and queso since they did not have any queso ready when I ordered.

Emily drove after lunch until about 100 miles outside of Albuquerque, NM. We had some great conversations during the drive, although the rest of our car slept during the vast majority of our drive.

We ate dinner at an authentic New Mexican restaurant recommended by Ellie. I had a cheese and onion enchilada with red chili sauce, papas, rice, and a sopaipilla. It was all really good, and they divided our check based on what we ordered with no complaints.

After dinner we drove 10 miles to the La Quinta in western Albuquerque for the night. I split a room with Emily, Kathleen, and Elizabeth. We all opted to go to bed early, and were in bed with the lights out by 8:15am.

Note for future trips: Say in the trip description that showers might not be available for much of the trip. Some people seemed a bit concerned that we might not shower again until Friday night.

Below are scenes from our drive between Austin, TX and Albuquerque, NM.  Sorry for all the bug splats!

Backpacking Lost Maples

This weekend I guided an UT Outdoor Recreation backpacking trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area with Ellie.  Since my trip the previous weekend had been cancelled, this was my first trip as 'lead guide' - although it did not really feel this way since Ellie and I essentially split the role.

I started communicating with my assigned guides for the trip - Ellie and Morgan - about a week before our departure date.  Morgan ended up not guiding the trip since our participant numbers were low (just 8 for a trip that could take at most 12) and she was stressed due to upcoming tests.  So it ended up being just Ellie and I.  We led the pre-trip meeting on Wednesday, where we met the 8 participants and handed out gear.  Our eight participants were an interesting mix where no one really knew each other before starting.

I planned a menu of my favorite backpacking meals, and then completed a food buy on Thursday from 11am to 1pm, and then repackaged and labelled food for the trip on Thursday afternoon.  I met with Ellie back at the Outdoor Center around 2pm on Friday to pull gear for the trip and make our 10 piles of group gear (one for each person on the trip).  Our participants began arriving at 3:30pm and we departed shortly after 4pm.

The drive to Lost Maples State Natural Area was slow due to Friday afternoon traffic.  We had dinner at Whataburger in Fredericksburg and then made the remainder of our drive to Lost Maples in the dark.  My car enjoyed Above & Beyond and Tritonal podcasts during the drive. :)

Once we arrived at Lost Maples, Ellie and I were unable to find any self-registration envelopes, so we wrote notes on pieces of paper promising to come check-in and pay on Sunday afternoon and left them on our windshields.  Then we drove to the western parking lot (which surprisingly only had one car in it), unloaded, and then took the West trail 1.95 miles to Primitive Campsite E.

Once at Primitive Campsite E we selected a nice site and Ellie and I gave a demo on how to set up a tent.  Then the participants set up the other three tents.  Ellie and I shared our tent with the one female participant, so we all settled our sleeping pads and sleeping bags into our tent.  Once everyone was settled in, Ellie and I discussed our plans for Saturday with the group, and then we all sat in a circle around a lit up orange Nalgene and told various jokes and stories.  Around 10:30pm a relatively large and loud Boy Scout troup rolled into our campsite, but luckily they set up camp reasonably far from us.

Around 11pm, I walked back to the pit toilet 0.26 miles away.  On the way back, I stopped in the middle of the trail and turned off my light.  The stars were amazing.  I took a deep breath and realized that it is moments like this that always draw me back to backpacking and guiding despite the stress and physical demands of some of our trips.  It really put me in a relaxed mindset for the rest of the weekend.

I slept relatively well on Friday night, even dreaming about the Boy Scouts waking up early with a trumpet call.  Luckily this did not actually happen, and I awoke to my alarm at 7am.  Ellie and I got dressed and started cooking our hash browns and sausages breakfast.  We brought 2 sausage sticks and 1.5 bags of hash browns - in hindsight, 2 bags of hash browns would have been a better amount.  But I do not think anyone was hungry at the end of breakfast.

We had camp packed up by 9am, and then did some circle + story stretches.  After stretching, we hiked 1.03 miles through Mystic Canyon to the turn-off for the West Loop trail.  I opted to stay with the backpacks while the rest of the group went on the 2.37 mile loop trail.  Darren left me his folding chair, so I got to relax in peace for about an hour.  I saw a few other groups hiking on the trail, but I spent most of the time studying the various birds flying overhead.  Once they finished the loop trail, then we had just 1.11 miles to our lunch stop at Primitive Campsite C.  We arrive for lunch shortly after noon.

Lunch consisted of tortillas, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, and apricots.  We also should have had honey with lunch, but no one got it out.  Around 1:15pm we continued onward towards Primitive Campsite A.  The first 0.35 miles were a rough, steep, uphill climb.  But then the next 1.37 miles were flat and downhill.  We stopped for some scenic overlooks and generally enjoyed the scenery during this hike.  Once at camp, Ellie, Elizabeth and I set up our tent and then we all sat together and played cards until 5:30pm when we all walked back up hill to watch the sunset from a scenic overlook.  The first scenic overlook we tried actually could not see the sunset, but the second one actually yielded a great view of the sunset.  This was another peaceful, rewarding 'this is why I backpack/guide' moment.

After sunset, we walked back to camp and Ellie and I cooked the pasta, carrots, celery, chicken, and spices meal.  It turned out really well, and was the perfect amount for our group!  After dinner we chatted for a while, but we were all pretty ready to retire around 9:30pm.  I put my backpack under the vestibule in my tent since it contained all the trash for the weekend and the Sunday breakfast food, but did not think to tell everyone else to do the same thing since the forecast predicted the potential for rain.

I slept really well Saturday night, and was very well rested Sunday morning.  I awoke at 7am despite my alarm not being set to go off until 7:30am.  I enjoyed just laying in my sleeping bag for those 30 minutes.  However, the periodic dripping I heard on the tent implied that it was either slightly raining or had rained over night.  A look outside showed that it had not rained, but it was gently misting.  Hence, I put my rain gear on before getting out of the tent.

I heated water for an oatmeal breakfast while Ellie and Darren went to filter another 8 litres of water.  We all ate, and then took down our tents and packed up camp.  We had just a short 1.3 miles back to the main parking lot, and then another 0.15 miles to our cars.

We loaded up, and then stopped at the visitor's center.  I got to buy a new state parks pass using the trip card since my park pass had expired in December.  This is one of the few perks of being a volunteer adventure trip guide with RecSports, and I'm very happy to have a state parks pass again! :)

Then we took a scenic drive to Stonehenge II in Ingram, TX where we ate lunch shortly after noon.  We had pitas, lettuce, hummus, peppers, olives, avocados, Pringles and Oreos.  Again, I think the amount of food was just right!  We then drove about 40 minutes to Dairy Queen in Fredericksburg, and then home to Austin.  We arrived back on campus around 3:40pm.

Once back at the Outdoor Center, we unpacked the bags, hung the wet tents, disinfected the sleeping pads, hung and disinfected the sleeping bags, cleaned the dishes, and put back the various other supplies.  Once all the participants left, Ellie and I reviewed the trip evaluations, finished cleaning up, and returned the cars.

For my first 'lead guide' trip, I think everything went very well.  The post-trip evaluations were very positive, with the only negative comment being that we should have taught more about how to backpack on your own.  This is a common comment - among both participants and guides - but the truth is that our program is ran more as a guide service than as a teaching program.  However, if someone asks me to teach them skills or involve them in cooking/filtering/navigation processes, I'm happy to.

Some particular post-trip thoughts:

• I planned the meals well - both in terms of meals that people liked and in terms of proportions.  I was also happy with the very limited amount of trash I had to carry around - I also did a good job repackaging food in the Outdoor Center before the trip.
• Ellie and I communicated well, and worked well together.  Really no complaints.  She is cool to work with, and we created a good, relaxed vibe for the trip.
• Ellie and I also did a good job of communicating with the participants.  I think they likely had a good idea about our plans and schedule throughout the trip.
• I personally had no knee pain during the trip.  I did wear my IT band, which does seem to make a big difference.
• We did not need the first aid kit at all during our trip.  No pain medicines, mole skin, ect were needed!
• I would not change anything about the trip except I would have worn long-sleeves and/or sunscreen on Saturday and I should have asked the participants to put their backpacks under their vestibules on Saturday night since the chance of rain was high.

On the hill overlooking the lake

The lake and our lunch spot

Darren's collage from our Sunday morning hike

 Just four bags of trash!  That's great trash management! :)

Wilderness First Responder

I just finished an intense 9-day/80 hour wilderness first responder course through NOLS WMI.  It was hosted by UT RecSports in Gregory gym, so Manuel, Hannah, Ellie, Sebastian, Brad, and I assisted some with the day-to-day running of the course in addition to taking the course.

The course prepared us to handle medical situations in the back-country for extended periods of time (while an evacuation is being prepared), as well as how to decide when an evacuation is necessary, when it should be rapid, and how to communicate our findings and needs regarding the injured patient to front-country 911 operators.

We learned about the patient assessment system, which provides a guide for us to follow which assessing the patient.  And then we practiced applying it in many scenarios as we learned about various medical issues and illnesses that might occur while leading a trip in the back-country.  Prevention was a recurrent theme during the class - it's always easier to prevent an injury or illness.  Along these lines, we learned about how to encourage good camp hygiene (wash hands and pots adequately, isolate illness) and personal care (dry socks, foot checks).

I'm going to completely rebuild my personal first aid kit - especially for international trips. In both Turkey and Peru I suffered non-trivial injuries to a foot and hand, respectively. In both cases, caring for the wounds required multiple trips to pharmacies where it was difficult to convey the types of supplies we wanted (and these supplies were sub-standard, in both cases). Hence, I plan to stock my first aid kit with at least sterile gauze, conforming gauze bandages, occlusive semi-permeable dressings, 1" athletic tape, an irrigation syringe, wound closure strips, Tincture of Benzoin, moleskin, gloves, and two triangular bandages (and certainly more items for some trips).

Spring 2015 Adventure Trip Staff Assignments

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was in guide school canoeing in Big Bend's backcountry and now I'm mid-way through a NOLS wilderness first responder course and assigned to lead guide some UT RecSports trips this spring!

For Spring 2015, I've been assigned to:

• 2/14-2/16: Camping/Caving Colorado River at Colorado Bend State Park with Andrea and Joseph.  I've been meaning to go camping and hiking at Colorado Bend State Park, so this trip should be fun.  I'm also excited about it being my first trip as lead guide!
•  2/20-2/22: Hill Country Backpacking at Lost Maples State Natural Area with Ellie and Morgan.  I guided this exact trip in the Fall, but I'm excited to go back and get more experience lead guiding.
•  3/14-3/21: Alternative Spring Break to Mission:Wolf with Emily and Tommy.  I'm the third guide on this trip, and I instinctively have some reservations about an animal sanctuary that allows humans to have contact with wolves, but I'm excited about being part of another alternative spring break trip and I'm trying to go into Mission:Wolf with an open mind.  I'm specifically excited about getting to do some hiking on national forest lands, improving my leadership and guiding skills, and just getting away from everything for a week.
• 5/20-5/24: Backpacking South Rim at Big Bend National Park with Brad and Andrea.  I did this hike as a very gruelling day hike, so I'm really excited to do it as a backpacking trip where we can have really low mileage every day and have much more time to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  It will also be my first extended trip as lead guide!

2014 Recap

Wow! 2014 was a great year of growing through adventure.

Guide school was the reason this blog began, and it really was a transformative experience.  From the skills I learned, to the people I met, to just the experience of it all.  It's hard to put into words the power or affect that guide school had on me.  There's something about being away from civilization.  Of looking all around you from a high point and seeing no building and no one that was not part of your group.  Of facing fears head on, and overcoming them.  Of learning to be more upfront and honest about your fears and abilities.  Of realizing you can do things you previously did not believe you could do.  Of learning when to consider the needs of others over your own (and when not to).  Of learning how to mitigate and diffuse group conflict.  Of seriously considering our impact on the places we visit, and learning how to minimize it.

But guide school was just the beginning.  You really take skills from the classroom into real life as you start to actually guide trips.  I was lucky enough to have Emily as lead guide on my first trip guiding, and amazingly it was to Lee's Ferry and the Grand Canyon as part of an alternative Spring Break.  What a first trip!  But I feel like you learn a lot on your first trip, and I certainly did.  My other overnight trip in Spring 2014 was to South Llano State Park with Jakub as lead guide.  Jakub is seriously the most 'giving' of our guides, and it was a pleasure to work with him and learn from him.

I was originally only assigned two trips for the Fall 2014 semester.  This really saddened me, but I was luck enough to pick up two additional trips that I really wanted when other guides backed out of guiding them.  I ended up guiding all of the backpacking trips ran in the Fall, and really honed my backpacking skills and grew tremendously as a guide.

In recap, 2014 saw:

• 9 posts about the second half of guide school (January)
• 9 posts about the alternative Spring Break trip to the Grand Canyon (March)
• 14 posts about my Europe trip (September/October)
• 4 posts about Fall 2014 backpacking trips (October/November/December)
• 12 other posts

I'm excited to see what new adventures 2015 will bring!