North Trip Hike

Today was the second hike of the trip. Just like the first one in the desert, we were told that EVERYTHING will get wet again. There was much more water on this hike and it required a fair amount of swimming. It did not take long before we encountered water and thus I spent most of the 6 hours on the hike in soaking wet running shoes and socks. I did bring my camera on this hike and stored it inside 6 ziplock bags. Thankfully the camera was the only thing that did not get wet.

Our first destination on the hike was a pool with a large waterfall. We were able to go for a quick swim or climb up on the rocks and jump off the cliff into the water. The first jump was from about 20 feet up and I had just enough time to scream ‘holy cr’ before hitting the water. It was scary as heck, but a hell of a lot of fun once it was over and done with. That prompted me to jump again, but this time from about 30 feet in the air. This time I was able to scream ‘holy crap. AAAAAAAAAAH’ in the air before I hit the water.

Me ready to jump!

We continued our hike until we reached what you see in the picture below. At this point I packaged the camera up and put it away. I then put on my repelling harness and made sure everything was inside my backpack and my shoes were tied tight. I threw my backpack into the first pool of water and jumped in after it. I then threw the bag a second time and jumped again into the bottom pool of water. I then had to swim across the pool in order to repel down to who knows where. The repel was a bit scary because I was not able to grip onto the rock face as my shoes were soaking wet, and the waterfall kept the rocks slick. I made it down to the bottom and released myself from the ropes into a third pool of water.

The repelling started where the guy in orange is standing

After a short swim, another jump and a walk through another pool of water (as seen in the picture below) I made it to the end of the first part of the hike and time for lunch. We waited and hung out on the rocks for everyone else to catch up. I was hungry, but I had to wait for my lunch buddy to catch up. What is a lunch buddy? Before we started the hike everyone got a lunch which consisted of a schnitzel sandwich, piece of fruit, drink and a plastic bag. We were instructed to buddy up because we needed to double bag our sandwiches so they would not get wet. So 2 people would put their sandwiches together and double bag them. I was waiting about 45 minutes for Jon to bring me my sandwich – and just like everything else, the sandwich got wet and was a little bit soggy. It was somewhat gross, but it was the only food available, and we still had about 3 more hours of hiking ahead of us.

End of the first part of repelling and jumping

After more hiking, and just enough time in the sun for most of my clothing to dry, it was time for more swimming. From the picture below, we were able to climb down to the first pool of water, and then swim across to where we would be repelling. The second picture was taken after the repel and a long swim. Again, we waited here for most of the people to catch up. I took off my shoes and socks so they could dry in the sun, and went for a nice swim, which included jumping off of more cliffs.
By the time we started hiking again, my shoes and socks were relatively dry. This was the end the water aspect of the hike. From here on the hike was dry – or so I thought. While trying to cross a stream, my foot slipped on the rock and got completely submerged in the water, so I had to continue the hike with one dry foot and one foot soaking wet. Just my luck. After a long walk through what seemed to be a jungle, we got to the Stairmaster 440 – 440 steps leading us out of the canyon. After that intense climb we still had another 45 minute walk an even terrain back to the bus.

On the bus back to the camp site we were surprised and told that instead of camping for a second night we would be staying in a hotel!!!! This was arguably one of the best moments of the trip. After a nice shower and a buffet meal I felt like a million bucks!