A couple of weeks ago, my son – Arjun, and I took a trip to Capitol Reef in Utah to celebrate his 18th birthday. The teenage species doesn’t seem to express themselves with words, so it was a treat to see Arjun in action on the trail.
Joining us were my friends, Bob and Jordan Kauffman, and Paul Smith who is a past participant in our No Barriers Warriors expeditions. Paul was injured in Iraq by an IED and suffered significant injuries to his legs and hand. So it impresses the heck out of me that he still gets after it, always up for a suffer-fest when I come calling.
On our first day, thrashing through desert scrub, scrambling up sandstone ridges, and bumbling through hot canyon boulder-fields, the heat went over 90 degrees. We all ran out of water two hours from camp and Paul was in serious pain. Compounding the struggle was the fact it was Paul’s “Alive Day,” the anniversary of his injury.
Throughout the long day, Arjun stuck right behind Paul, spotting him on the climbing sections and offering up regular encouragement. When we stumbled into camp, parched and weary, Arjun helped Paul set up his tent and he gave Arjun a big hug, thanked him, and told me what a great son I had. I’ll take the credit! I was a very proud dad.
When we got back Arjun shared some photos and wrote up a great blog – check it out:
Canyoneering With My Dad
Recently, I completed a six-day trip backpacking and canyoneering through the Capitol Reef National Park in Utah with my dad, Erik, his two friends Paul Smith and Bob Kauffman, and Bob’s daughter, Jordan. Capitol Reef is a beautiful area with amazing natural features that have been carved over time with streams of water and glaciers. Amazing to think that glaciers once covered this vast desert and to feel pieces of time on the monolithic sandstone structures that dominate the area.
The trip was guided by Steve Howe, who has been living in the area for quite some time and knows the ins and outs of Capitol Reef. He runs Red Rock Adventure Guides with his wife, and with their knowledge, they lead amazing trips. The first day we met him, we went canyoneering. Our route was a lollipop shape and after hiking uphill for a good couple hours we rappelled into a canyon. The canyon was around five feet wide, and we rappelled seven times with the greatest rappel being a 90-footer with a lip that you had to hop over in the middle.
Canyoneering is interesting, to say the least as anchors are made out of anything really that you can find. Sometimes it will be wrapped around a tree or other times the anchor will just be dug into the sand, but what matters is being able to safely reach the exit of the canyon. It is a lot harder trying to climb out then it is to rappel down!
Our first day of backpacking was difficult. We hiked in 90-degree weather and ultimately the day ended being nine hours of hiking. While our pace was great and we stopped plenty of times in the shade, most of us ran out of water at least an hour before camp. We were all relieved when we finally arrived at sunset. We had a nice storm during the night that cooled everything off for us.
Our second day was shorter than our first, but it was much more exciting. The clouds from the night lingered, and as we hiked, a large storm brewed in front of us and eventually dumped over us. Our group was pelted with marble-sized hail and rain soaked us as we fled for shelter. As I was sitting in the shelter, I got completely covered with sand, and it was about this time we noticed that the eyelets of my dad’s shoelaces had completely torn through! It wasn’t a huge problem for him though, and we were able to make it through the rest of the day.
Our third and final day was easier than our first and a little more challenging than our second. Steve showed us the remains of what was once a desert Bighorn sheep. He explained to us that the Bighorn had peacefully passed away under a nearby tree because it had gotten too old. On our trip, we only encountered one live Bighorn sheep, and it ran away immediately upon seeing us. On our third day, we encountered water that we had to wade through. There were three sections of water, and it was all fresh from the recent storms.
Eventually, we got to the end of our trip, and we were able to see the “Golden Throne,” a monolith of a structure that is fat and wide. It was amazing to be able to imagine the time and energy that was needed to shape the canyons at Capitol Reef.
