Back in 2008 I went on this awesome backpacking trip that I kept telling Adam about as soon as I met him. Finally I was able to take him for our 5 year anniversary.
Or he was able to take me really.
Most people would probably go to a hotel or on a cruise.
Nope not us. Backpacking is our kind of adventure.
This post is kinda crazy because I actually started it while
we were down at Havasupai. I hope it makes sense.
Friday night we had to stop in at rei to get a few last minute things and we had to exchange an air mattress they shipped us that had a hole. Good thing Adam checked. Saturday we spent the day road tripping it up. We do have a few pieces of advice for anyone who is doing this trip... Whatever bloggers said peach springs has everything you need... Apparently has no idea what needs are. Stop in Kingman for food and gas. We drove to peach springs only to find out all they have is a hotel and restaurant. There is a tiny store but it closed at 3:00pm. So we didn't get to check it out. We did get to back track a bit but luckily we got some extra water. Which we desperately needed. Even if we had to pay extra. Made for an adventure. Another tip is to buy lots and lots of water at a grocery store. We stopped at the speedway exit at Vegas and got a huge jug of water. I wish we would have bought more water there. Or just had it already that probably would have been best.
Expensive gas station water. We left a few bottles in the car for when we made it out.
We slept in our car at the trail head. Here I am saying good bye to the babies for a few days.
Oh and sorry for the quality of the pictures. We took our nice camera but forgot to charge it... oops.
About to hike 10 miles with our backpacks on.
We made it down in record time. I wore my byu shorts. Aren't the cutest but definitely comfy. They came in handy while looking for a spot to camp. A lady stopped us and said that further down camp there were some heavy party people. "I don't know what they are smoking but wow. I noticed your byu shorts and thought you would like to know".
I love that we had wrist bands obviously people were trying to stay without paying. That was a cool surprise. haha
We also got to go to church. We had a misunderstanding about the time change and thought we had a 1/2 hour to get there but really we had a hour and a half. We ran probably a mile (after already hiking 10 miles) and were so tired and luckily we asked a local for the time. We laughed as we hear 9:45 and not 10:45. Which was the time we thought it was. We got to spend an hour talking to a lovely couple from michigan. They told us of their love of backpacking and the adventures they had been on. I hope we meet up again with them tomorrow. The church meeting was packed! I was disappointed in the dress of some of the hikers. Some only wore swimsuits. I myself was not in Sunday best nor a skirt for that matter. But both of us tried to look presentable as we went. We met Lynda and Annamae. They were so sweet to us and told us to come back again to Supai. Lynda told us about a fresh spring that we could drink from. I won't tell you where it is. You have to get to know people. The speakers who spoke in church had to be helicoptered in. How cool is that? I wonder how many other wards that happens.
After church we found this sweet spot to swim. I called it the natural swimming pool. This is actually Navajo Falls
Swimming at the famous Havasupai Falls. The picture to the right is going to Mooney falls.
Today we did the hike down to beaver falls. Getting to mooney falls is quite intense. And to be honest I almost chickened out. Adam was so sweet and patient with me. He didn't even complain when I said I didn't want to go. A youth group passed us on my way in and I told Adam that if everyone from the youth group did I to would go. They did it so we went. Thank goodness it was absolutely beautiful. A few pointers is that there is more than one way to beaver falls once you get to mooney. If you hang to the left of the river (as you face down the canyon) then you are probably on the right path. We choose a 5 mile way. And on the way back were shown the 2.5 mile way. Oops. Either way it was great.
I did make a crazy fashion statement while I was there. A one piece swim suit. Yup. I wish you could have seen The looks I got. All the bikini babes looked at me like I was crazy. Boys gave me confused looks. (Do young girls even own those anymore?) I even caught one rolling her eyes. I don't have anything against different swimsuits in fact my main suit back home is a tankini. I just wanted to see what people would think of a one piece and it was lighter. I did hiking in it and I had zero problems. In fact held the girls down a heck of a lot better than most the other swimsuits I saw there. No one said anything but I wish I could have read minds. It was an interesting social experiment.
beaver falls. (google pictures of all these beautiful places to get a better idea of what they look like)
This guy loved hanging around our camp site I had to get a picture of him.
We also moved camp after some bombarding campers tried to move in the area. And succeded. Here is our new camp which we are secluded and have an awesome view of the river
lots of crosswords to keep us busy.
4:30am Tuesday packed up camp and headed out. We ended up meeting up with our friends from Michigan and got to hike out with them. Adam had a goal to make it out at less time than 4 hours and 7 minutes. We made it in 4 hours and 2 minutes. Haha. That included our breaks.i had imagine dragons "I'm on top of the world" stuck in my head so I started singing it the last 1/2 mile. It felt amazing to accomplish backpacking our stuff in and out. No helicopters or mules. Just us and our stuff.
At the trail head happy to be done!
We got to hike out with our friends Eric and Lynn from Michigan. Thanks for the good times!
