this summer was the first summer in 20 years that my family didn't make it to lake powell. it's a long story as to why. basically we are trying to figure out how to accommodate nursing moms, lots of babies, and more adult work schedules. we always go with the same two other families. and now that the kids are having kids, it's getting complicated.
in place of powell, my dad planned a camping trip to the uintas on horseback. both my parents were born and raised in idaho. my dad in bear lake. my mom in soda springs. i grew up going to idaho every year when i was little. i have really fond memories of that state. i blame my exposure to my grandparent's ranch for the constant internal tug-a-war inside me between a life in the city or a life in the country.
my cousin tyler, a true and living cowboy from randolph, utah, (also the nicest human you'll ever meet) took on the challenge to take all 14 of us to the tree line of the uintas. he knew it would be a lot to handle so he invited his sweet father-in-law, perry, to come with us. tyler, his wife bridgett, and perry spent weeks preparing for the trip. they gathered 16 horses, their saddles, dutch ovens, saddle bags, and storage gear so we could have an incredible trip, which we did.
there was quite a bit of work to do to get the food ready. especially when we had to minimize. tyler saw the gallon of olive oil, cartons of fresh salsa and chobani yogurts, costco size bags of m&ms, trail mix and other goodies and started laughing. he informed us all that "all you need is a tent and warm clothes. anything after that is extra. we can kill our food if have to." we realized we may have gone a little overboard and started sorting through all the food until we had the basics. my mom was really proud to have squeezed in her fresh salsa though!
once everything was packed, we were ready to hop on the horses and head up the mountain.
it took us about 2.5 hours to make it to our final destination. there were 16 horses in all. 4 pack horses and 12 that we rode single and double. horses are one of my favorite animals but i am actually sort of petrified of them. they are so powerful! i was scared the entire way up. me and my oldest sister, courtney, doubled up on the horse, lucky. i don't think she will ever forget my face smushed into her back while i wrapped my arms around her stomach as tight as i could. i felt like the chubby goonies character, chunk.
all the hard work was worth it when we reached the top. we set up camp next to everman lake just below the tree line on the mountain. what a gorgeous place it was!
after exploring our new home, we built the fire, ate our yummy tin foil dinners and then crashed. some of us went to our tents by 8 o' clock! we were exhausted.
here is where the trip starts becoming memorable... that night was one of the worst nights for everyone. rain, hail, and sleet poured on us all night. the weather was constantly changing, it was absolutely freezing and the horses were whinnying. finally, early in the morning, daron and i woke up to our tent smushed up against our faces. dazed and confused, daron started punching the side of tent off us and we suddenly realized our tent was caving in on us because of
SNOW!
we woke up to a true winter wonderland...
our entire day pretty much looked like this...
we were so close to the fire, many of us ended up melting our shoes, socks, and gloves. the snow wasn't the hard part. the unpreparedness for the snow was the hard part. courtney's family had no gloves with them and few had hats and only sweatshirts. most of us had running shoes that had holes in them causing our shoes and socks to be sopping wet all day. panchos were our only water resistant gear we had and hardly any one had a coat. there weren't tarps under our tents. daron and i woke up to the clothes in our bag soaked thanks to condensation. the weather forecast had predicted a little rain, but no snow! we couldn't help but laugh at our situation. freezing our buns off in 6 in' of snow with clothes to protect from us from a light rain.
^the best idea ever.
get boiling water in metal bottles,
put a sock around it and put them inside your coat,
or hold it in your hands.
my mom's personal favorite was putting it in her sleeping bag at night
by her so, very cold toes!
^this was my brother-in-law jeremy until about noon.
yelling commands from his tiny peep hole
^check out some of these smiles?!
we were still happy to there,
together as family,
in the middle of nowhere.
^the charlie brown trees were my favoite!
i wanted to chop one down and take it home with me.
of course, christmas was on the mind...
until i would remember it was august!!!!!
^i have never appreciated men so much in my life...
^me and daron's tent!
around noon, an amazing thing happened...
the sun came out!
it was glorious.
when it finally peeked through the clouds,
we all started cheering.
it felt so. warm.
^drying our soaking wet clothes
^cowboy tyler and perry didn't even have a tent!
they were completely exposed to the elements.
that night, me and daron bunked up with bj and ellery
and we forced them into a tent.
crazy cowboys...
^when the sun wasn't saying hello,
rain and hail were on repeat
^beautiful, little forget-me-not flowers were everywhere.
we kept cheering for the sun to come out so they could open
and just maybe so we could be warm again, too...
not pictured on this day was our horse ride in the snow to jordan lake. we figured we weren't going to be in the mountains with horses any time soon so we better make the most of it.
the next day was much better. the ground was sloshy but the sun was out and we were warm again. the night had been much better too so we all were better rested.
^finally!
we spotted a forget-me-not starting to open.
we took one last horse ride through the meadows before we made our way home later that afternoon.
^tyler showed us what a true coybow looks like riding.
it was seriously impressive.
^my horse, lucky.
he was the best.
we made it home in about half the time. the pack horses had much less to carry and we were all more familiar with the trail and the horses. (i wasn't scared!) it was sad unsaddling the horses and saying goodbye.
lucky for us, tyler offered to take us on an adventure next summer too! like i said, the nicest guy ever.
What a unique and GORGEOUS trip! This is something I want to do.
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