First Things First

This weekend I enjoyed a few things that I had never done before. Namely, I had never been down to Zion National Park (note: pronounced Zion. Not ZionS or Zi-on.) I was amazed at how many foreigners there were. I heard more English in Europe than I heard in Zion. Brian and I went down just for 2 1/2 days, but we were able to do the Narrows and Subway, which are the things I wanted to do. We had intended to to Subway first, but the weather in the morning was a little sketchy, so we waited that out and were able to do the Narrows instead that day.

Other firsts:
Rappelling: We did Subway from top to bottom. Not that you couldn't do this one without rappelling, as many people that day did, but it was so much easier with ropes, and much less risk of breaking an ankle. Things I'm all in favor of.

Hitchhiking: We only had one car, so we needed a ride to the top of the trail. It was much easier than expected. It was early in the morning, but it took less than a minute, a guy stopped and we hopped in the back of his truck. Unfortunately dude man doesn't cap his tank that he carries diesel fuel in, so everything was oily and every time he took a turn gas splashed everywhere. You'd think that with as expensive as that stuff is, you'd be a little more careful with it. So we had gas all over. Let me tell you, we smelled awesome by the end of the day. A nice coating of fuel, sweat, and stagnant water smell.

Realizing how sharp cactus are: We were climbing down into the gully and I used my hand to lower myself down. I didn't realize that where I stuck my right hand there was a broken off cactus piece. It was camouflaged in dirt. It was one of those furry ones, so got to pick out about 30 pieces of cactus out of my hand.

Look how bitty I look in the Narrows!


In case you were wondering, I am aware of how ridiculous I look in a bandanna. However, I look even more ridiculous when my head is peeling for 2 weeks and it looks like I have the worst dandruff. Bandanna wins.