From 14,414 ft

Greetings from Mt Massive. Im probably the highest person in the lower 48 states right now. We all made it up here!

Mt Elbert Folly

Well that was interesting. We attempted to climb Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado, but me and Tim turned around about .25 mile from the top. We are waiting at tree line for mark and jordan. They kept going when we turned back. Not sure if they made it to the top though. We turned back because of the weather and slight exhaustion.

Colorado

Hello from Aspen. We arrived here yesterday where we slept in a USFS day use parking lot in the car. We then woke up at sunrise and finished sleeping in the Buttermilk ski report parking lot. After that we hung around Aspen for a few hours, and then headed to the Mt Elbert trailidad to camp so we can climb it tomorrow.

Pictures!

Thanks to the internet here at the Best Western we now have some pictures for you. I uploaded all of my Grand Canyon Pictures, but none of them have captions or what not so you have no idea whats going on, so I will not upload any more pictures till we get home, that way you can find out what's going on.

Timothy on the hand uploaded all of his photos so we have a link to that too.

Grand Canyon (Kyle)
Grand Canyon II (Kyle)
Grand Canyon III (Kyle)

When the trip is done I will add captions to those pictures.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow we leave our nice hotel to go whitewater rafting and on Saturday we head to Colorado.

Return From The Arctic

Just returned from Arctic Camp 1 where we camped in 3+ feet of snow, chased marmots, and Jordan & Mark sledded down the mountain on ponchos. We are now headed back into Jackson to eat and find a hotel. Expect more pictures tonight.

Jackson Hole

We are now in Jackson Hole, WY. We took our first shower in a week, ate awesome burgers, and are headed to buy some groceries.

Who Says You Cant Make Snow Angels In May?

We are now in grand teton np. But our route is once again blocked by snow. We are heading to Jackson for showers, food, and to decide what to do now. But it hasnt been all bad with the snow, yesterday in Yellowstone we stopped and played in the snow drifts and Jordan even made a snow angel. Should have some pictures in a few days hopefully.

Changes In Yellowstone

Fwd: From: amazingracer@gmail.com
Had to change plans in yellowstone because of snowfall. We are now doing the black canyon trail.

Zion in Review

Most of our updates have been short blurbs about traveling to places. Sorry we do not have provid in depth details. Its mainly due to time restraints. But today I have our Zion trip in review. Because we are traveling to Yellowstone right now and well it takes 10 hrs to get there, so we have time to kill.

We are currently in Utah but when this message has been posted we will have crossed into Idaho, right.....NOW!

At Zion we hiked the Emarld Pools Trails. The pools were more like algae filled backyard ponds than emarld colored pools. But where very cool none the less.

We then hiked Angels Landing, where we gain 1200+ ft in elevation in 2 miles. Thanks to numerous switchbacks and something called Walter's Wiggles. Walters Wiggles are a set of about 15 switchbacks 20 feet long straight up a wall. Once you get to the top of the Wiggles your only have way done with the fun. You reach Scouts Lookout where you face the last .5 mile to Angels Landing. This trail is steep and has parts where you hike 5 feet away from a 1200 foot drop down to the Virgin River. The trail is actually really fun thanks to the chain hand rails and the views are amazing!

Next we hiked the West Rim trail. This trail is 13 miles and we turned it into a overnight backpacking trip. The trail was really nice and scenic. The trail starts at near 8,000 feet and drops to 4,700 feet. You actually have to hike down Walters Wiggles and the Angels Landing trail to finish the trip. The trip was fun and very memorable because Jordan almost burnt down the forest. At our campsite he wanted some Ramen noodles so he pulled out his stove and fired it up. A few minutes after this, (I am sitting in front of the stove) I noticed flames shooting out at the connection between the stove and gas can. I yell Holy Crap and run away up the hill abput 200ft abehind a bush. The other three have no idea what Im talking about until the stove flares up. They scramble for water and Jordan kicked the stove into the grass where the grass caught on fire but was extinguished with water. But soon we ran out of water the stove was still falring. Some yelled put it in the dirt so some one picked the stove up and threw it in the dirt and they all stood there looking at and I yell " Throw Dirt on it! Throw dirt on it!", so Jordan grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it on the stoe and tada it was out. We sat back and retold the story from all perspectives, it was funny.

Wednesday we hiked a dry creek bed called Clear Creek, because the Narrows was closed. The creekbed was cool because it had narrow sections at times filled with water and only 5-6 feet wide. It was really cool.

Today we left and are on our way so thats Zion in review!

West Rim and Being Stranded

Mark and I are currently in a internet cafe in Springdale while Jordan and Tim go get the car. What happened was, is we parked the car at Lava Point yesterday(and a ride waiting for us here in town), so we can do our short little overnight on the West Rim Trail. Anyways it stormed bad and we were a little late in arriving back into Zion and Springdale, so our ride ahd already gone home(far away), so we all stuck outside the park(we can only get back in for free in the car). So we have been here in town since about 3:30pm but we finally found a ride around 5, but we had to wait till 830. and Tim and Jordan are on the way now.

Pictures to come.

Also I turned off the feature where you ahd to be a registered user to make comments so comment away!

New Pictures

Thanks to the Desert Pearl Inn for their Wifi.

There are some new pictures on the first album back on Facebook. There is a 60 picture capacity so not all the pictures are on there. This will probably be the last picture upload on the trip due to the hassle involved in dividng the photos.

Enjoy!
http://gsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003515&l=6b6d7&id=105100662

Today we went to Angel's Landing in Zion. It was quite a hike. We gained 1,200 feet in 2 miles. Tomorrow we are leaving for our overnight trip in Zion on the West Rim Trail.

At Zion

We finally made it into Zion today. We have a campsite till Thursday. Wahoo!
This place is awesome. Its pretty much the bottom of a canyon and has lots of trails and such. Sorry I cant post any pictures because Im using my phone as a dial-up modem.
We found a coffee shop in town with winternet so we try to get our pictures up here in the next few days.

At Zion (Phone)

Done grand canyon. Outside zion camping because it was full in the park. Will move in tomorrow and day gild also.

Almost There...

With a little less than 500 miles to go we are almost there, thankfully. We are currently sitting outside a Howard Johnson in New Mexico using their internet.

Here are some pictures of when we left Newnan. We have more pictures, but dont have time to upload them.

Enjoy!

Departure Pictures

And We Are Off...

11:00am EDT We left Base Camp 1(aka Mark's House) in Newnan.
Made some stops in town and then we hit the road. Ran into some traffic leaving Georgia but it has been easy going since then. Tim is currently driving, but I am up next for driving in about 20 minutes when we enter Mississippi.

We are currently in the middle of nowhere in Northwest Alabama.
About 2 hours from Memphis where we are stopping for dinner at the Rendevous.

(Previous post was sent via email from my phone as a test.)

And we are off

Been on the road about 3 hours now. Between birmingham and tupelo. Big update tonight.

2 Days...

Well for me and Tim at least.

Anyways here are the finalized trip plans.

To the left you see our route out there and how we will get back. A more detailed map can be obtained by contacting me.

Fairly simple straight forward Interstate driving. Rougly 5,100 miles and 77 hours of driving.

This is the finalized itinerary for our trip. We used up our buffer days as rest days. However this thing is subject to change because stuff can change in a month.

Below the calender you will find our route for backpacking Yellowstone. It is not a very hard route but it is supposed to have some backcountry thermal attractions. It is 27 miles long but can be changed to 21 by going on the other side of the lake.

Food and Snow

I did forget to mention somethings for gear:

Pots/Pans for Camping: ?
Pot (no not that kind, the metal kind) for Backpacking Boiling: ?
Bear Bag: ? (We can A. hang our packs or B. Collectively throw everything into one big bag.)

I think I may be able to get a pot or pan or both from my mom. Tim do you still have your perculator turned boling water pot?

As far as food goes, we can just grocery shop out there.

As far as individual gear bring what you want, but remember to bring rain gear and cold weather gear. We should face spring like conditions at the Grand Canyon for sure, but everywhere else we may show up in Winter or Spring. Jordan checked the weather and said the Tetons are supposed to get snow this week and we will be there in 3 weeks so I doubt much will change.

Oh yeah and a personal dry bag wouldnt be too bad of an idea either.

Also concerning backpacking food, we will make a stop at the Salt Lake City REI to purchase some freeze dried goodness (Save 10% when you buy 10). And to see what the recommend concerning bear bags and packs.

Group Gear List

Here is the stuff we are going to need or already have for the trip:
- Backpacking Tent 1: Mark
- Backpacking Tent 2: Tim
- Backpacking Stove 1: Mark
- Backpacking Stove 2: Tim (via John W.)
- Water Filter 1: Mark
- Water Filter 2: Tim (via John W.)
- Camping Tent: Tim
- Camping Stove: Kyle
- Camping Lantern: Kyle
- Camping Cooler(s): Kyle, Mark, or Tim (depending on number of coolers needed)
- Tarps: Kyle
- Rope: Everyone (Bear Rope and Tarp Rope)
- Navigation Aids: Kyle
- Xterra: Tim
- Comedic Relief: Mark
- Twine for the World's largest Ball of Twine: Everyone

Are we forgetting anything?

7 Days...

Today means there are 7 days till Kyle and Tim depart to Newnan to start our adventure. The real adventure with the entire team is 8 days away though.
This is our itinerary, it is complete except for the Colorado section. When Mark gets those details posted the itinerary will be complete.