The day before I took the little kids on our Idaho/Utah trip, Dave and the boys left on their backpacking trip with the High Adventure Scouts. Dave and Nathan were the only 2 adult leaders, although two of the boys were over 18 and leaving for their missions right after the trip. I was blown away at how much preparation went into this trip! Between getting the permits months in advance and planning out each day to gathering gear, doing shakedown hikes and organizing all the food, this was a major undertaking. It kept Dave and Nathan really busy! They are amazing, and they love these boys. This is the whole group except Brady, who met them at the church.
They drove up Monday morning and ate really well for the first day (since they were car camping that first night and were able to pack lots of food). Getting there early gave them time to acclimate to the high altitude before setting off. Their first 2 days were intense - long and steep! We're talking a 7,500 feet elevation gain!!
I am so grateful to Spencer for taking all these great pictures! It was hard to choose my favorites, so I'm posting a ton.
The first day, all clean and eager. This was Dave and Spencer's 2nd backpacking trip, and they learned a lot last time. They packed lighter this time around, and everyone had good backpacks.
As I mentioned, the first two days were brutal. In fact, most people hike this the other way around (gradually up for the first few days and then steep down), but that direction was full and they were only able to get permits going the harder direction. Some veterans in the ward were really scared about them going that way, but it worked out fine. In fact, they said they're glad they went this way.
There was lots of green towards the bottom, but of course that disappeared as they got above the treeline.
Chilling at the top of a waterfall.
This was Tyler's first big backpacking trip, and he was the youngest boy there. He did awesome!
This was also their cousin Jacob's first big backpacking trip.
This was near the last stretch of the first day, about thirteen miles of switchbacks and stairs.
They look exhausted!
More pumping water.
That's some blue water!
Getting up to Glenn Pass was the hardest part of the trip!
They added Gatorade powder to the snow at the top to make slushies. Luckily there wasn't too much snow because it's sometimes closed to hikers. Actually, they really lucked out with the weather! It was much warmer than their 50 miler, and it didn't rain nearly as much.
Upper Rae Lake
I bet that was some chilly water!
They took the first half of Wednesday off for a rest day,
They woke up early one day and caught 22 rainbow trout! That was a nice addition to breakfast, since they ate instant oatmeal every day.
Spencer's side note- "This kinda gross over and under cooked morsel of fish was the most flavorful, bountiful feast I've ever had the pleasure of partaking of."
Super legit suspension bridge days away from a road. Construction must have been interesting to watch.
They cooked under this tarp the one time it rained.
Paradise Valley
Tyler suffered some plantar fasciitis. Note the dirt tan line.
They had extra time the last evening to play in the river. At one point a bear and her cub meandered right by them but didn't care about them one bit. Speaking of bears, they ran into tons of them over the week, but none of the bears ever acknowledged them. The next day they got to the van, ate snacks, and had dinner at a pizza buffet.
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