Images to Come
Sometimes it’s not all kids stories
No sometimes its just hard work to keep on track.
After a month of travel you get tired. It’s not the normal fatigue of work but a totally different sort of tiredness. Newness of everything, the constant adaptation to life. If we were travelling in our own country I think it’s a bit less evident but even then it happens. Culture shock normally sets in about day five when the excitement of “travel” gives way to I just want something familiar. Starbucks, Macdonalds familiar things to eat somehow end up on the menu despite telling ourselves that we would eat healthily.
Every decision taken is examined for sanity and sometimes we get things wrong. A week out from Memorial Day and happily ensconced between Bryce and Zion for a week I realised we had a problem. It wasn’t a big problem but I couldn’t find any camp sites that were free to accept a tent camp. Our plan from here had been to move onto Moab and then head south down to Navajo after completing Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonland and some of the lesser known state parks. But as the search escalated it was simply not going to happen that way. We could have taken a risk and gone night to night hoping to get a camp ground for more than one day.
Instead we changed plans. We still wanted to head to arches and the compromise was Green River State park. This was a little campsite on the banks of the green river and surrounded by golf courses. It was a nice place under shaded cottonwood trees. There for a couple days then into Colorado where there were not as many “full” signs on the campsites.
We did as the new plan indicated, drove to Arches for dawn, then a couple of early morning walks when BAM exhaustion hit. The sort of tiredness that cannot be ignored, not drinking coke or eating would fix and we had an hour to drive to get back to camp. Usually it hits us one at a time but this was a joint effort, iKaruS with a migraine and me so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. We had been burning ourselves out, keeping to a pace of at least two longer walks every three days and while this meant our fitness was improving exponentially it had the side effect of leaving us now exhausted and with a highway to get us home. With the interstate just ahead I pulled off the road. There was no way I was getting on that interstate heading at 80 miles and hour and barely able to keep my eyes open. Energy charged enough we made it back to camp. The next day we went onto our second Memorial Day camp. (You can read about the Arches in a Letter to E)
It was called ‘The Camp” and the idea was great. It only opened for events and hence wasn’t booked out. It only had 30 sites total and supposedly had facilities and someone watching the place during the day. It was also first in best dressed site! We booked in from Thursday till Monday. The whole of Memorial Day weekend and the event it was open for was Juco of junction baseball championships. We figured we’d see a lot of families overflowing from the baseball championships.
So we arrived nice and early on Thursday to find he site open and no one around. So we knocked on the door of the only dwelling and a young man finally answered. He explained he worked nights and was sleeping. So we chose a site and set up camp. It was a nicely shaded camp and soon we discovered that we were sharing with the mosses. Again this didn’t bother us too much (we learned later that citronella attracts bears btw!) But this was mostly in the city so no bears.
The site had so much potential. Seriously its a great idea but the portapotties had no paper, we discovered on the second day the dwelling had two toilets at the back that flushed! (Also no paper). The bins were all over flowing I guess from the previous weekend?
It was a shame because I really wanted it to be good - hey we gave up showers for a couple days to be there. It was also oddly empty. The first night we were all alone until about 930 when a guy drove up and set up his camp nearby, then followed by another couple. They both were gone the next morning. A group of backpacker type came on the last night with their VW van and hammocks that was about the most life we saw.
That of course didn’t stop us and we explored the town and decided to not force ourselves to do too much, just a museum and then the Highland distillery tour followed by a movie to get out of the heat. It was climbing back to 100 degrees again.
On the second day we decided to go for a walk and to make it the practice walk for our big hike. It wasn’t the best moves we made. We loaded out backpacks with water as weights, carrying around 15 kg each. The walk itself was only meant to be 7 km but was had a descent larger than the one at Keet Seel so we figured it would be a good trial. It didn’t help I was in a bad mood. One of those inexplicable moods where little things get to me. iKaruS cleaning his camera as the heat climbed (didn’t he know we needed to hit the trail early!) and we hadn’t made it to the trail head yet for one. I knew I was snappy and a bit worried about the upcoming hike. Sure we’d done lots of walking but this was with packs, uh uh, right that changes it!
Not only that but it seemed so very very steep. But we had to prove ourselves so we headed to Colorado National Monument and finally got to the trail head and parked the car. The trail wound steeply down and I sulked loudly. Ok not really loudly but you know that kind of loud that’s almost quiet. Well anyway it was not my finest moment. So we headed down and down and down. Then we hit the bottom of the trail. By about now the exercise was clearing my mind and I was letting go of any annoyance. Word to the wise go for a walk if you are feeling grumpy it helps a lot.
We were headed to Independence Point not up it just to the base. But as we kept going I realised we were just getting more and more tired and the scenery really wasn’t getting that interesting. Ok so lets face it had this been our first park it would have been spectacular but after walking in cedar breaks, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce and Arches we had been spoilt. The cliffs here were interesting, the kissing couple kinda cool but really it was another valley with cliffs and we were wearing weights. Did I mention it was hot? When we started down the track a father daughter pair on an adventure also started down the track. We leaped frog a couple times before they passed us as we sat getting our breath back. Shortly after they leaped frogged us we passed them turning back. It’s too hot they said.
I agreed but we kept going a bit longer. About the three and a half mile mark I called it. We were no longer grumpy with each other now it was just a struggle with that fatigue that had plagued us. “If the path goes down again we are headed back” I told iKaruS. It’s not that I don’t mind going up and down usually but it was ALL up on the way back. The path turned a corner and then went down. So we turned back. I think iKaruS was a bit disappointed but another hour and half later and he was in pain and struggling. I knew things were not good because he usually flies past me on the uphills but today he slowed down, each step becoming more laboured. Usually its me stopping to catch my breath. Worse there was a lady who literally ran past us, pack free this was her regular run and I think had we not been wearing pack we too would have easily completed the walk. As it was we struggled to the top.
Travel isn’t always easy and being together 24/7 isn’t either. It can be hard to really find you own pace and style but in the end it really is worth it.
- Log in to post comments
