Life Lessons

This has been a difficult post for me to put together... and to be honest, at the moment I'm not even sure what I want this post to be... But brooding about what I want to say has gotten me nowhere for 3 days, so perhaps the only thing left to do is write. 

Last week at this time I was laying on slate and gazing up at droplets of molten silver that seemed to want to drip from the night sky. I was so exhausted that I would have sworn I'd never be able to move again. My feet were swollen, there was blisters in between my toes, we had hiked downhill and over streams for 10 miles with 45 lbs on our backs, but Logan and I had made it to Wate's Pond, or at least we thought we had... 

Earlier that day, we had arrived at the trail head of Woodenshoe Canyon and had eagerly set off on our first backpacking trip of the season, my first backpacking trip ever... Woodenshoe canyon was (as seen below) not what I had pictured a desert canyon of Southern Utah to look like, we hiked through stream and wetlands, snow at the top, and pine forests at the bottom... and along the side were a scattered selection of Native American ruins just begging to be explored...

The pond we camped at was floored with shale, or some flat, layered stone, that created an awesome little waterfall above a fabulous pool of clear water... for the most part, it was too dark to make night time pictures that used any landmarks such as trees or mountains, and I was too exhausted to wait long enough for star tracks, but I had enough energy to gaze up at them all... I'm convinced now that there is not actually any empty space in our sky at all, and that you could pick any spot on the sky that there seemed to be nothing in, and if you could travel that way, you'd find that it wasn't empty at all, but filled with more suns than the milky way, they were simply too far away for us to see from Earth.... It is an awe inspiring experience to look up and Know that God created every single one of those stars... every planet in each system, and everything on each of those planets... and then to come back to little old earth and realize that that same God who created all of that, knows me. Alex Mageno, from Springville, Utah... and that as i'd soon find, He not only knew me, but watched out for me and guided me.  

Our next day of hiking brought with it many disappointments, beginning with the realization that we had actually camped 2 miles before Wates Pond, putting us behind schedule and shaking our confidence in our map reading abilities... Leaving Woodenshoe canyon later that day, and entering Dark Canyon we realized why there was warnings about being able to bring enough water for an entire day... there was nothing in that bed, there was no trees to shade us from the blistering heat, nothing but skeletons, rocks, and sand... It also become increasingly clear why "map reading skills required" and "for advanced backpackers" was pasted on every trail guide we came across... there many side canyons, some that were key, some that weren't, some that weren't canyons at all... We hiked trough 4 miles before we got to Dark Canyon, 5 miles along a dusty wash-bed, a half mile up the wrong canyon where we realized we were lost and our map was not good enough to make us found, not in this canyon... and then another 6 miles before the sun set and we crawled into bed, lost, tired, depressed, and hanging on to one last hope that the morning sun would shine light on where we were... Even knowing that we could only be somewhere on this small map, and that there was no way we would run out of water, or starve for many days, I crawled into my sleeping bag feeling more hopeless than I had ever felt in my life... looking back I can't quite understand why it seemed we were in such dire straights and why death seemed to tug at the zipper of the tent, but to a tired mind that had been wrong all day, things seemed pretty hopeless... Some people say its easier to be close to God when things are hard, and easy to forget when things are easy.  I'd say that it is the other way around, with cheerful optimism I had gazed at the stars and reflected about God the night before. Now, when it seemed hopeless and I felt deserted it was hard to pray, but pray I did, that we could know where we were, and have the energy we needed in the morning...  and after a restless nights sleep I did figure it out, and we were right!  Things looked completely different that morning, we started hiking at 7:20, after getting up at 6.  There was only an undertone of last nights doubt as we set off on what we wanted to be our last day of hiking. We ended up being only 1.5 miles from Rig Canyon, our goal for the second day, and when we found that corral and road we could have jumped with joy!

I wish that I had taken more photographs that last day, as it was probably my favorite of the 3 days... but I know that is easier said from my armchair than it was with 40 lbs on my back and still miles of hiking left to do...  Since I don't have any pictures I guess I'll have to describe it... Peavine Canyon, the last of the three canyons on our hike, had its trail-head back up where we had parked making it the last leg of our hike. (not counting the miserable three miles of dirt road between the two trail-heads...)   We started up Peavine after lunch, full of hope that we would actually make it out of here alive, in just 8 short miles... Walking into Peavine Canyon was like walking into Middle Earth. The forest was thick and dense, and the pines seemed to be so old that they whispered to one another, just waking up after a long winter. On the north slopes that the trail lead us through there was knee deep snow, and the rest of the trail criss-crossed the river a countless number of times.  During one these crossings we were bearing down on the ford as two incredible Coyotes were wandering down river.  We met up with each other less than 20 ft apart.   To see such powerful creatures in the wild, so close to us, was an amazing experience.  So was reaching the top of the canyon and once again dropping our packs in desperation with still four miles to go... only to find that we had miscalculated and only had one mile left to the trail-head!  finally a miscalculation that worked in our favor! Although in hindsight, if i would have known it was only a five miles canyon I would have stopped and taken more pictures...  We made it in the end, almost 50 miles, in a little bit less than 2.5 days, which is an amazing feat in and of itself. But more amazing that being able to say "I did that!" is being able to share the lessons I learned out there. Such as how things are never really as bleak as they seem in the moment and a rash decision in times like that might be your last decision. I gained new perspectives on what really matters in life, Eileen and my family are the ones I wanted to see the most, while I haven't even opened the facebook games I was so fond of before I left.