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| I still have nightmares. The plan: To take 10 college students in a 15 passenger van across the country to Arizona for a backpacking adventure in the Grand Canyon. What actually happened: Took 10 smelly people in a 15 passenger van with 11 open seats for a long 34-hour straight-drive across the country for a backpacking adventure none of us will forget for a very, very long time. Read on to see why... |
| "G r a n d " C a n y o n |
| At the QT before we started- the group: Chris at the bottom (cute shirt), from l to r: Tiffany, Morgan, me (take it easy on the hair comments), Bobby, Adam, and on the top: Ashley, Kelly, and Gore. |
| Bobby (aka "Hooter") keepin' it crunk in the van! |
| Clean Chris made sure we all "claimed it." |
| "Helllloo" Tiffany made the best pictures. I was so pumped that she could come with us - she was from the old school and goes to Tech now. She fit in with all of us great! |
| Adam takes one for the team, under the seats to sleep! |
| Ashley asleep in the best spot - on top of the luggage! |
| After eating a bunch of junk & driving 30 hrs, we all got a little nuts! The last 4 hrs we were wired to the gills and just laughed at everything. |
| A N D T H E N . . . |
| This is a group pic of us all clean. Right here, we were told that we did not get a backcountry pass to camp at the Colorado, and that we should come back early the next day and get on the waiting list. This is also the place that we decided to risk it and go in anyway. |
| Near the beginning, we were stopping and taking pictures everystep. It was very very beautiful! |
| The gang hiking. |
| The packed out van |
| Katie & Chris at Mather's Point before going down. |
| Keep in mind, we are backpacking with 25-60 pound packs on our backs. We were planning on camping at the bottom, at the Colorado River, so we were packing clothes, sleeping bags, food & some with tents. We thought this was going to be a 7 mile hike down (which was ok for one day - we were just doing down). Then, we found out it was 9.3 to the River. We still were ok with that, we were just ready for some swimming in the River b/c we were sooo hot! When we found out we didn't get the passes, we decided to try to go in anyway. That probably wasn't smart since there were 10 of us. It was beautiful going down, I was already running out of film. God created such an awesome wonder. Man, we thought we were set - all new gear, light sleeping bags, dehydrated food, the whole 9 yards. We later found out that no matter what, we just are not in control. What memories... read on to find out more... |
| the snow on the mountains (granite), Chris' spiritual gift, getting lost in ALABAMA, singing happy birthday 2x, acting like 3rd graders in the hotel, "I'm a Survivor", Brooks' shortcut, Guff, those who are puinee? sp?, going to the bathroom on the trail, mules, their crap, frying like a freakin' egg, and sore bodies |