Zion Gal

Here we are showing off some of our retirement gifts from the fifth-grade team: hiking survival gear. 

Thank you, Karen, Franki, Christine and Emma!

We spent the better part of the week with our pals, the Betts, in Zion. What was going to be an overnight backpacking trip ended being two nights because we decided not to take the chance on the government shutting down and not being allowed to hike and waiting to start on Tuesday. Instead we got the permit for Monday, put ourselves into high gear--gathered up our packs, bought new stuff (JetBoil stove: highly recommended! Cheapo fold up ThermaRest sleeping pads---pretty bumpy for princess-types who feel every lump.), arranged a shuttle to Lava Point and took off on the West Rim Trail. We saw a total of two other hikers, and because the government DID shut down, absolutely no one else was at the Angel's Landing saddle, Scout Lookout. There were no cars on the road, no shuttle: we almost had the park to ourselves.  It was heaven!

We hiked roughly five miles each day--a perfect pace for us. The first night we were pretty cold and between the shivering and the chorus of coyotes we realized this would qualify as a true adventure. A regular Karl Lagerberg "slept like a baby" night (slept for an hour, cried for an hour) that was good to see the end of with a mug of hot chocolate in the morning.

After Jay's two hour marathon to filter water, we celebrate with a cup of "Jay's Exclusive" hot chocolate. The JetBoil stove heated the water in seconds. Maybe we should have just boiled the water?

There is almost nowhere I would rather be, though, than in Zion. It is my brier patch, my imprinted landscape, my holy place. I love the air, the sandstone, the river, the cottonwoods, the sky, the clouds. If I could I would lie right down and hug the ground--and without the press of crowds, it was almost as I remembered it from childhood. Our canyon. Our wading pools with polliwogs and watercress and swinging bridges and picnic tables. Our tunnel where we could pull into every alcove and peer down at the rocks and chipmunks who were just learning to be beggars or up at the cliffs of white streaked with red and honk our car's horn the entire mile.

The West Rim is spectacular, the complete package. Forest, grassy meadow, chiseled trails (thank you CCC and the Great Depression's government for NOT shutting down but improving the country while providing jobs), springs, vistas,  cliffs, rock cairns on slick rock, canyons to shout and hear your echo, wildflower's fragrance, breeze, sunshine......ecstasy.

If I don't die at age 90 falling off a cliff in Zion, here's a good place to scatter my ashes when I do.

 Another fabulous time in Zion. May they never end for us!