This is the End

We are currently making the drive back to Denver after 10 busy days traveling from park to park. Willys been jamming out while driving, Michaels been sleeping, and I've been incredibly bored, so to pass the time, I'm writing our final blog post.

All together we visited 8 national parks: Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, and Mesa Verde. The past couple days were a whirlwind trying to squeeze in every park we could. But starting from where I left you last post, after Big Sky, we headed to Salt Lake City where we visited the original Mormon Temple. Well we weren't allowed inside the temple, but we did get an awesome tour of the grounds by two sister missionaries. The buildings were beautiful and one included the largest organ in North America.

We dropped off Morgan at the airport the next morning, and from then on out, it was just the three men and hours upon hours of pure, unadulterated manliness. We partook in such common man pastimes as hunting and foraging, lifting heavy things, making beef jerky, growing and then talking about our chest and facial hair, etc. We headed to Zion Natl Park where we met up with our friends David, Sharp, and Trav. We spent the most time in Zion (2 1/2 days) doing some backcountry hiking in the southwest desert as well hiking their two most popular trails, Angels Landing and the Narrows. According to William, Natl Geographic had ranked the Narrows at #5 on a list of the top 100 attractions in the US, and it did not disappoint. The trail was a 20 ft wide river splitting between 1000 ft tall red rock canyon walls on both sides. It had rained heavily the previous two days, so the water was muddy and chest high (chin high for Michael) at some  points, which was a blast. We stood in the aisle on the bus back from the trail, and I remember telling Michael that I felt like passing out, and next thing I know I wake up lying on my back in the bus aisle , and the first thing I see is Michael grinning from ear to ear. Everyone, except Michael and William, freaked out in the bus, and someone hit the emergency stop button. As it turns out, a 1/2 liter of water isn't enough for a 6 hr hike. Who knew?

After Zion, we realized we wanted to see 4 more parks but only had 2 days, so we spent no more than a few hours in each park and just hit the highlights. We got the jist of each park, but I would've loved to have had time to hike in Bryce Canyon or Canyonlands. Well...maybe someday. 

Tonight we're gonna have dinner with Sam and Marcia, and then spend the night at Skippys place in Denver. From there, Michael and William will make the long drive back to Atlanta. I, on the other hand, will be heading to Napa Valley where I'll pretend to know something about wine and not fool anyone. Thanks for tuning into the blog all summer. We don't do these things for the fame. We do them for people like you, so thanks again. See yall in a few days.

Sorry for the wait

We did it! Hooray! On our 33rd trail day, we finished the CT. So we had planned to finish in 34 days with a 20 mile and 10 mile day to top it off. But on our last day, Michael and Morgan, while in the rear, would not stop talking about Wendy's for the first 13 miles. And then they heard from a fellow hiker that Durango had a Wendy's. Surprise! So by lunch they were adamant that we do a 30 mile day and get Wendy's in town. Morgan almost cried when Willy and I said we'd do it...and then almost again when we got to Wendy's that night. We had to calm her down before going in so she wouldn't freak out the local Durangans (or whatever you call them). And then she didn't even order a frosty...waste of energy. The end of the trail was so anticlimactic that I barely celebrated (and was too tired too anyways). No tape to cross. No summit to finish on. Just a parking lot full of people oblivious to the fact that people actually hiked the whole trail. One dude in the lot asked me how far back the trail went. I told him "to Denver" and he just looked really confused. It was priceless.

Anyways we got our much deserved free beer at Carvers, met up with our friends Skippy and Jolly, and then started the hitch hike back to Denver. It took six different rides over a day and a half plus a night spent camping on the side of the highway before we got to Colorado Springs. We met some awesome people hitch hiking and are very grateful for their hospitality! Rides from fellow CT hiker Tony and from Uncle John got us to our car in Boulder, and then we headed north. 

First to Grand Teton National Park for a day. Then to Yellowstone for a day. Yellowstone by the way was hilarious. You just drove right up to all the attractions rather than walk the 30 miles or so between them like we'd been doing for the last month. It felt weird and so American. We also picked up a hitch hiker Bryan, a UC Santa Cruz student conducting an independent study wile traveling the US, and he spent the day with us in Yellowstone. We taught him everything he'd ever need to know about the South for his study...like the legend of Bear Bryant, the joys of fried chicken, our love for Colonel Sanders, the greatness that is Garth Brooks, the thrill of taking our Ford F150s down red dirt roads, etc. And we perfectly timed the Old Faithful eruption. We pulled up in the parking lot right as it started and ran over to it just in the nick of time.

Then we left beautiful Wyoming and headed to just as beautiful Montana to spend a couple days at Elkhorn Ranch in Big Sky with Morgan's friend (and now all of our friend) Nicole. Thanks to Elkhorn Ranch for being such great hosts!

From here, we'll head to Utah where we'll drop Morgan off at the airport and then head to Bryce and Zion National Parks before heading back to Denver. Sorry for the long post. Enjoy the photos. Till next time.

cloud 9

Here are the many faces of Adam Erwood:

Here are some less handsome people and great views: