As we prepare our packs at the car, the clouds are slowly thickening. We've never tied our crashpads to our backpacks before, so we meet our first challenge. We mess around with multiple bungi cords trying to get a good system going that will hold together and after a few minutes of fidgeting, we're ready to put the packs on. OMG - my pack is SO heavy, Garrett has to help me get it on. Starting at 13,000 feet, we head down the basin. I feel like I'm going to buckle and fall down at any moment. Why does my pack have to be so heavy? Oh yeah - those 4 beers :) Garrett keeps checking out the clouds, "its going to rain any minute now, we've got to get down" - Ugh, so much stress and I can't go any faster - I blame it on the beer. Garrett takes the beers, things go a little (just a little) bit easier. By this point, we've gone probably less than half a mile and down about 300 feet in elevation. We are getting nowhere! Luckily, the rain has held out thus far. We head down the business...slowly but surely and without falling and a tiny bit faster than the first half mile. Another quarter mile and 400 feet down, I tell myself we're about half way. Thank goodness! And then the rain hits. We get pelted and have to stop to put on rain gear. Oh no! Hiking on rocks only gets more difficult when they are wet - just great! Luckily, the hard rain lasts for less than 10 minutes. Although everything is wet and slick, at least its not still raining and making it more miserable. We make our way down, its less steep, but now its more about finding the path of least resistance. We find our way to the tunnel, but with crashpads on, we can't fit through it, Garrett goes up and around, but looks like he has a hard time getting down the other side. I try to get through, but now know how Sponge Bob Square Pants feels - I take the pack off and pull it through, it gets stuck a few times, but I get it through - it was a relief to have it off my back for a few minutes. I put the pack back on and we were on our way again, stepping from stone to stone over the running creek, things were going well and a rainbow appeared! It was just beautiful and we were at the first set of boulders!
ALMOST THERE! YESSSSS We pushed on and finally arrived at the point of destination. Garrett collected wood for the fire so we could attempt to dry out and I set up the tent. We make a pretty good team :) We made it and we made it safely and we were ready for a good nights sleep and a day of climbing the next day!
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As we prepare our packs at the car, the clouds are slowly thickening. We've never tied our crashpads to our backpacks before, so we meet our first challenge. We mess around with multiple bungi cords trying to get a good system going that will hold together and after a few minutes of fidgeting, we're ready to put the packs on. OMG - my pack is SO heavy, Garrett has to help me get it on. Starting at 13,000 feet, we head down the basin. I feel like I'm going to buckle and fall down at any moment. Why does my pack have to be so heavy? Oh yeah - those 4 beers :) Garrett keeps checking out the clouds, "its going to rain any minute now, we've got to get down" - Ugh, so much stress and I can't go any faster - I blame it on the beer. Garrett takes the beers, things go a little (just a little) bit easier. By this point, we've gone probably less than half a mile and down about 300 feet in elevation. We are getting nowhere! Luckily, the rain has held out thus far. We head down the business...slowly but surely and without falling and a tiny bit faster than the first half mile. Another quarter mile and 400 feet down, I tell myself we're about half way. Thank goodness! And then the rain hits. We get pelted and have to stop to put on rain gear. Oh no! Hiking on rocks only gets more difficult when they are wet - just great! Luckily, the hard rain lasts for less than 10 minutes. Although everything is wet and slick, at least its not still raining and making it more miserable. We make our way down, its less steep, but now its more about finding the path of least resistance. We find our way to the tunnel, but with crashpads on, we can't fit through it, Garrett goes up and around, but looks like he has a hard time getting down the other side. I try to get through, but now know how Sponge Bob Square Pants feels - I take the pack off and pull it through, it gets stuck a few times, but I get it through - it was a relief to have it off my back for a few minutes. I put the pack back on and we were on our way again, stepping from stone to stone over the running creek, things were going well and a rainbow appeared! It was just beautiful and we were at the first set of boulders! 
ALMOST THERE! YESSSSS We pushed on and finally arrived at the point of destination. Garrett collected wood for the fire so we could attempt to dry out and I set up the tent. We make a pretty good team :) We made it and we made it safely and we were ready for a good nights sleep and a day of climbing the next day!
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