Back to Zion

Seven years ago--SEVEN!--I took six months off my freelance job and backpacked through dozens of national parks of the American West. On that list was Zion National Park, in southern Utah.

While I was on that trip, I rearranged my schedule so that I ended up vising the Colorado Plateau at the very end, when the area was well into winter. During my short stay in Bryce Canyon, virtually next-door to Zion, the daytime temperature was in the teens, and snow had closed many of the hiking trails.
As I wrote on this blog at the time about southern Utah:

I'm trying not to have regrets over the way this trip fell into place, but if I'd had more time, I'd have spent it here.

 "Someday," I thought to myself.

Well, I'm about to turn 40, and I decided that I wanted to do something to celebrate. So I'm heading back to Zion, to cover the biggest park that I missed on that first trip. I'll be there from May 12 to May 18 (I couldn't book it for my actual birthday, as summer fills up quickly).

My original plan was to do the Trans-Zion Trek, a 4- to 5-day wilderness trip that travels the entire width of the park from west to east. Unfortunately, that plan got scuttled near the last minute, because it turns out that they're closing and repairing the only road that brings visitors to the westernmost trail head for exactly the month of May, when my birthday is. So instead, I'm starting at the second-westernmost trailhead, and spending an extra night at a back-country campsite just outside the main valley. So I'll be in the wilderness for the same amount of time, but for the first couple of days, I'll be doing out-and-back day hikes from a base camp, rather than trekking from one point to the next.

I sort-of-ish wish I could say I did the whole Trans-Zion Trek, but for real, I want to: 1. Be there, 2. Be away from crowds, 3. Go where I want, and 4. Still be 39 years old, and this trip still accomplishes all those things.

After several solo jaunts since that long-ago trip, I (obviously) am not spending an entire year obsessing about gearing up and logistics and all. However, I might have over-corrected, as I recently realized that I'm about two weeks away from departure, and I'm only now starting to cook and dehydrate foods and figure out which camping gear needs upgrading/replacement. Luckily, I did obsess enough to actually book all my reservations in time.

In case y'all desperately need me to go on about equipment:

1. Seven years ago, I bought a bunch of Darn Tough hiking socks. I liked them so much that I turned them into my daily-use socks when I got home from the trip. I'm going to use them--the exact same physical socks!--to hike on this trip, too. Darn Tough, indeed. Shout out to VT.
2. The trail-running sneakers I eventually settled on held up for over 400 miles. I bought another version of the same model, and I don't even plan on bringing my boots on this desert jaunt.
3. This was the coffee maker I settled on (cup is not included). I clipped off the little chicken-feet that suspend it above the cup. When I make a coffee, I set the mesh diaphragm directly in the mug and let it steep for maybe 1 minute. I refer to it, like a royal title, as the World's Smallest Coffeemaker. Like the socks, it's so effective that I have it in daily use. 
4. I'm going to need a new water-carrying system, as the Nalgene bottles were always a little weird and heavy. 
5. Does anyone know where my poop shovel went? Where would I have misplaced a poop shovel? Who would take a poop shovel? I think it's with the Island Gear. I'll probably just get a new one.
6. I really should be glad that I'm not doing the Trans-Zion Trek, as one thing I also haven't thought much about is getting in shape, and it's been a loooooong winter (shoveling and snowboarding notwithstanding). Better to go on day hikes that I can cut short than to have to cover miles to make the next camp.

Another new development that has arrived since my first trip is that I've started seriously painting, and have done a number of pieces from photos from that first Western trip. So while I hope to update this blog with lots of photos when I get back, I also plan on gathering material for new desert landscapes.