national park road trip. week 1.

It's been 7 days since this adventure started. One wild week full of outlandish experiences (most of them considerably enjoyable). Let me tell you about it.

Wendy (my Czech friend who was introduced to me via Couchsurfing) decided to join me on my 6 week National Park road trip (well she will only actually be with me for 3 of the 6) after my brother Patric decided to buy a new car instead of gallivanting across the country with me. Boo on you Buddo (he will be joining me for the last week though).

So Wendy and I set out Monday morning after having shoved our entire lives into the trunk and backseat of my car.

First stop, Las Vegas.

We arrived early afternoon and proceeded to sweat profusely for the entire 200 yard journey from the car to the check in line at the Luxor. Of course I had to bring every one of my bags in because everything I needed for the night was scattered throughout my luggage. Which meant lugging about 200 pounds of shit in the 100+ degree heat. Maybe one of the less enjoyable experiences of the trip.

After taking a short nap in our less than air-conditioned hotel room, we headed out to catch a Cirque du Soleil show at Treasure Island.

Wendy wanted to walk there (instead of taking the free tram from our hotel). In case some of you haven't been to Vegas, the distance from the Luxor to Treasure Island isn't really all that great, but when you're wearing clearance rack sandals that are one size too small and it's over a 100 degrees outside, the tram is most definitely the better option. We got to Treasure Island with just enough time to grab a bite to eat before we had to head into the theater.

The show was two hours of absolute mind-blowing human acrobatics…with a completely nonsensical storyline. There was a 300 pound baby involved, as well as some weird pot-bellied gymnasts, and a massive inflatable snail with creepy blink-winking eyes. I always think it's funny how they try to create some abstract semblance of a plot that is negatively cohesive and ultimately distracting. All Cirque shows do it. I've been to three now and they all make no sense. Why can't people just come out and do cool shit? Why does there have to be this over-arching ludicrous attempt at a storyline? It just pulls from the experience I think. That's just my two cents.

From the Cirque show I had every aspiration to hit up the Pai Gao table, but then I hit a wall and it was time for bed. Wendy went and played some roulette for 2 hours and broke even so we'll call the whole Vegas extravaganza a success. Aside from the overnight sweating due to the lack of a working air-conditioner.

From Vegas we drove to Zion National Park. We arrived around 3:30 and quickly set up camp:

From the campsite we took the free shuttle to the trailhead for Angel's Landing. For those of you who haven't heard of it, you should google it. It's one of the more famous hikes in Zion simply due to its treachery. You climb to about 1,400 feet above the canyon floor and you do that via chains and rock steps.

We were just able to finish the hike before the sun set. We caught another shuttle to the Zion Lodge for a nice dinner outside before we headed back to camp.

Another less than enjoyable experience involved the incessant flapping of my tent for the first 2 hours I was trying to sleep that night. One of my tent stakes had come out and I was too lazy to hammer it back in, so I left it. The wind blew my tent relentlessly until I got my lazy ass up to hammer the stake back in (I was half naked standing outside my tent at 12:30 in the morning hammering a tent stake in with my makeshift tool, that being a flat rock that we ended up stealing from the park for future situations involving the necessity of a hammer). I was only half naked because it was roughly 105 degrees throughout the night. And my cocoon of a tent wasn't helping the situation. 

The next morning I felt like death due to a total lack of sleep, but the adventure must continue. 

And continue it did. Starting with an accidental quickly moving fire across the tabletop at our campsite.  I was just trying to make Wendy some tea and then the whole table was ablaze. Don't worry, we were able to put it out before there were any casualties.

After the near heart attack of almost catching Zion on fire, we decided to hike as far up The Narrows as we could before we needed to get started on our drive to Bryce Canyon. We probably did about 8 miles round trip. The hike was incredible. Full of slipping and swimming and rock scrambly goodness. The most unenjoyable experience of all happened when I got overly confident and slipped on a rock, crashing into the face of the mountain and crushing my camera in the process. Luckily I purchased the insurance for the little point and shoot I just picked up at Best Buy about 4 days prior to the accident. 

Always buy the insurance people. All I had to do was walk into Best Buy (the next one I happened upon was in Salt Lake City) and they did an in-store exchange and sent me on my way.

Here are some pictures I was able to get of The Narrows before the unfortunate accident.

We didn't end up getting out of Zion until about 3 in the afternoon, which left us little time to enjoy Bryce Canyon before we had to head to Sun Valley, Idaho. We arrived at the park around 6:30 or so and had time to set up camp, buy some wood, and soak up the 17 mile scenic drive. My camera was broken at this point so I was only able to take a few shitty iPhone pictures. Wendy is going to share hers with me when she isn't falling asleep across the table. This week has been full to say the least.

After our short jaunt at Bryce Canyon we hit the road for Sun Valley. We broke up the 10 hour drive with a pit stop in Salt Lake City where I was able to exchange my camera, spend a short amount of time with an old friend (my girl Angie from the coffee shop we used to work at has recently relocated from San Francisco to Salt Lake on a whim), and a jaunt around Temple Square for some photos of the historical buildings in the town center.

We arrived in Sun Valley just in time for dinner with my good friend Ali and her mom. Ali's parents have recently purchased a magical house, which they will move to when they retire, but for now it is their vacation home. They have their own pond, and yes, they even have a teepee! The house was beautiful and we were fortunate enough to get to spend a night there. I think that was the best night of sleep we've had thus far.

The next morning we got up to hike to Pioneer Cabin…an 8 1/2 mile hike up to 9,400 feet. It took us about 4 hours and then we had to jet to Missoula.

I wanted to get to Missoula two nights before the marathon so we had some time to chill out before the race. This turned out to be a good decision because we got the opportunity to float the Clark Fork River with our couchsurfing hosts on Saturday.

We drank a little too much beer prior to race day…but we'll just call it a bout of carb-loading.

Sunday morning marked another state off the list. The course was absolutely gorgeous and everyone and their mom had sprinklers in the yard for our enjoyment. I finished before it got too hot, not because of my lightning speed, but because it just didn't get that hot until about 11am. Here are some commemorative photos of the experience:

This was Wendy's first half marathon. And she's hooked. She's already asked me if there are any races near Santa Barbara for when she gets back from our trip. Perhaps next time she comes to the states, she'll be ready to do a full with me…or perhaps when I get to Europe next summer I'll be able to cross another continent off the list. In case you didn't know, that's the next goal after the states are complete. 

Yes, there's a marathon in Antarctica. And yes, I'm crazy. I know. We've established that.

Moving on. 

Let's talk a little bit more about the Missoula Marathon. The scenery was clearly the highlight. Followed closely by the neighborly hospitality. Coming in close third though was the baked roadkill. Ok, that was clearly a joke. But a serious matter nonetheless. I found myself dodging unidentifiable animal carcasses a few times throughout the race. Carcasses that had become one with their demise steamrolled into the asphalt. Too much?

Let's talk about the FREE race photos at the post-race party. Never have a I ever finished a marathon and had a photo taken of me…and THEN PRINTED OUT AND HANDED TO ME 30 SECONDS LATER! Way to go Missoula. Blew my mind on that one. Made a lasting impression on Wendy as well. Wendy's highlight was queuing for the toilet. Mainly because all the people she had overtaken would overtake her. And then she could beat them for the second time after finally making it to the toilet. The only downside, she spent most of the race "thinking about shit," in her words. I got a good laugh out of that one. 

After the race we took a nice nap and then headed out to find some dinner. From there we had some celebratory drinks with our new Couchsurfing host for the evening. We like to spread ourselves around a bit…moreso we don't want to overstay our welcome. And there are just too many cool people to meet.

That marks the end of a week folks. This should have been posted on Monday, but alas, our days are jam-packed with adventure and there's not often wifi in the mountains we land upon at night. Sorry bout it.

If you send me your address, I will send you a postcard. Just do it.