I never thought that it was possible to spend SO MUCH money yet live so simply. We spent the past three nights in Moab, UT – the Mecca of outdoor sports – forgoing showers, electricity, running water, and toilets in order to take advantage of the area’s resources. After a few short stops in Bryce NP, we pulled up to Moab’s Adventure Center to find out our options – rock climbing, canyoneering, kayaking, rafting, skydiving, and off-roading. It ALL sounded intriguing, but we had decisions to make considering our scanty wallets and time constraints. Kris (our scavenger secretary) had pre-booked a river trip on the Colorado River for the 28th, and after some realistic calculations we figured we could finagle ONE more adventure...There wasn’t much to discuss – we unanimously decided to go ahead with our original plan to rent a few quads and romp the canyons. We could pay out of our butts and rent for a half day (5 hours) or pay out of our butts plus $20 and keep em for an entire 24 hours. We went with the latter, and undoubtedly got our moneys worth. (You’d be proud, Momma ☺) We spent a solid 12 HOURS riding an upwards of 80 miles through desert trails, over sand dunes and up the sides of mountains. The whole experience was ideal. I was due for a little alone time, and although we were riding together, it was a great time to refuel, refresh and reflect…and it didn’t hurt that we were surrounded by some of the most beautiful views.
We spent that evening and the previous at a primitive campsite in the backwoods with nothing but a fire ring. I’m sure you could imagine the stench emanating from our bodies after two days in 100+ degree weather without showers and the film of dirt on every inch of us after 12 hours of riding through the desert…sooo we finally sucked it up and PAID for a campsite so we could wash up. It was either that or pay 5 bucks for a shower at the Shell station. The boys are famous for dropping 5-10 bucks on showers, but us little ladies like to rough it every so often…either that or we’re just crazy cheap. Maybe a combination of the two.
MOJITOS, SKUNKS & BATS
That night we enjoyed a three-hour dinner at Eddie McStiff’s – a local restaurant that was advertising $6 mojitos. Tric had just endured a solid week of “sobriety” and after a forty and a Gatorade/Parrot Bay concoction back at the campground, she excitedly asked our waitress, “How are the mojitos?!” With equal excitement, she answered, “DELICIOUS!”….. “I actually had one when I got to work ☺” We started to wonder if ONE was an understatement when tables came and went as we waited for our food. In the meantime, Kyle was running back to the campground to grab his ID because the mojito deal was just too good to be true. Upon his return we had a very deep philosophical discussion about our generations’ superior kids’ television in comparison to todays’. Nothing holds a candle to Guts, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Legend of the Hidden Temple, Doug, The Wild Thornberrys, David the Knomb, Hey Arnold, Rugrats, and Figure It Out. On account of our late food, our waitress comped us 10% of the bill which according to Tric made her $6 mojito $3. I smiled and kindly informed her that 10% off of $6 was 60 cents making her mojito $5.40. That’s ALMOST $3. Good attempt, T.
We walked back to the campground around 11:30pm and decided to use the restroom before we made our way back to the cheaper tent sites that were a solid 5-minute walk from the bathroom. We assumed the boys had finished up before us, so we began the walk back. We actually made it back despite the fact that we had to go down a stairwell and over a bridge in sheer darkness, but we DID end up taking a baby detour when we saw a skunk scurry across our path. We busted our butts back to the campsite and took refuge in the tent. Two nights before, we had a similar run in with some wildlife. As I led the way to our primitive campsite that was nestled under a huge Lion King-looking tree, across another creek, I spotted a pair of eyes in the tall grass. After the reading the Moab guide that day and seeing MOUNTAIN LIONS and BOBCATS listed in the local mammals, I held up and asked everyone else if they saw what I saw. Tric assured us that she saw the same thing and it was just a bat, and we all kind of shoved each other forward, shimmying like a four-person unit until we broke loose and hussled towards the tent.
MAN OVERBOARD!
We woke up around 6:30 this morning in order to give us enough time to get the Durango to a shop before our rafting adventure. Oh yeah, about that…We cracked our left roter somewhere along the way. I didn’t hear it till we were hauling our four ATVs back and forth from the shop to the trailhead, but Billy says it started before that. I guess he would know best since Tric and I have driven a total of 18 hours this entire trip. It would be the Durango’s 4th trip to the shop in our 35-day adventure. I guess that’s what happens when you drive 8,000 miles in a month.
It was 7:32am and we were supposed to meet for rafting at 7:45am meaning we’d have to run about a mile and a half in 13 minutes. Totally doable…but I’m kind of over timed runs, so we called the rafting company and they scooped us up just in time. We got on the mint green school bus with about 25 other people which included 3 of the most outrageous/chill people I’ve ever met in my 23 years walking this earth – Collin, Danny and Brian. Collin was a Massachusetts-native who skipped around the U.S. for a few years till he started his rafting gig about 5 years ago. He takes a 3-month vacay in South America every summer and while in Moab, he lives out his 70’s van. Tric and I smiled at eachother as I nudged her to turn around to find him brushing his teeth from he back of the raft and he couldn’t wait to get in the water to get his “bath.” He still rocked an old school flip phone and probably lives one of the most fulfilling lives. A Renaissance-man – he does it all: kayaks past alligators in Costa Rica; hikes the entire Appalachian Trail in six and a half months; and plans to base jump any chance he gets. I’m sure he’s chockfull of stories, but we didn’t want to pry too much.
Unfortunately, Danny (a Noah-from-the-Notebook look-alike), lead the other paddle boat so we didn’t get too much dirt on him, but from our 30-second conversation on the bus, he grew up about an hour from my birthplace in Jersey and his brother used to work for a pencil factory until it went under and now he works as a clown, making balloon hats and puppies. Brian rowed the oar raft, and laughed uncontrollably at just about anything he said. His laugh is like that of an evil pirate and we referred to his raft as the evil pirate ship the entire time.
We started out “party boat-style” with all three boats tied together, and the trip started out smooth. We only hit a few baby rapids before we stopped for lunch, got our safety talk, separated the boats, and headed for the class fours. After each major rapid we would paddle our way to a safety eddy which were sometimes difficult to get into considering the strong current. The guides had bets going…for every eddy their raft DIDN’T make it into, they owed a the others a 30-pack. As we approached each rapid, Collin would give us our plan of attack and then communicate our paddle strokes as we were fighting through. As we approached “The Doom Room,” he went into very detailed instruction and explained that if we didn’t execute it properly, we could easily fall in or get the boat stuck in the relentless swirling waters. He told us of one time where he had abandon ship and hike out of there because once you’re in there, there really isn’t much sense trying to get out. It’s virtually impossible. If you’re lucky, there is a little area where you can pull yourself out of the water and onto dry land. I knew that this would be a pretty scary one, and that it was, but we did exactly what was asked it made it through with smiles and laughter. We pulled off to an eddy to watch the other two come through. The oar boat came crashing through and kept everybody aboard, but the other paddleboat wasn’t so lucky. We saw five people get thrown from the boat and get sucked under. We saw at least a few pop up out of the water only to get thrashed around on the rocks and plummeted by their raft. I sat there in disbelief; it all seemed pretty unreal. The raft got out of the water tornado and came rushing towards us with three people floating pretty close behind. We were relieved to see them safely pulled into the raft, but as the guides communicated with hand signals through the loud rushing waters, they held up two fingers and screamed out, “TWO! THERE’s TWO IN THE ROOM!” My heart was in my stomach and I immediately did the only thing I felt like I COULD do at that point – pray. Our guide instructed the boys to tie us to a rock, and ran up the mountainside to hike over and around to where the two people were last seen. We stared up river in an eerie silence trying to decipher whether the other two were out of the water. Finally Brian came down in the oar boat to tell us they had both made it out of the water and they were hiking their way back around to us. We clapped and cheered. The relief and emotion that ran through me was overwhelming, and my eyes welled up with tears. I kept thinking if that was Tric, Billy or Kyle, I don’t even know what I would do. Ugh, it still makes my stomach turn. I just THANK GOD that we’re all sitting in this Durango right now on our way to our next stop – Lake George, CO – to see Uncle Myron, Aunt Janine and Whit! ☺ & hopefully Sethy & Jeffy!!
Much love,
A. Hendricks
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