the trip that kept back and forthing continued to do so throughout. At first mike and i were talking about coming to zion to traverse the park from west to east. After a little bit, john and gena were going to join us, then a few weeks before the scheduled departure, leah was added to the roster. 10 days before, the party grew again, Jamie and lacy were adjusting somethings so they could join as well.
there was talk about going to the grand canyon and doing a double crossing instead of the zion. that would work, though many of us were anxious to see zion for the first time, a double crossing would prove to be an excellent way to spend the day, and logistically easier.
we all met up the weekend before our departure for Leadville Running Company's first annual reindeer run. all were in good spirits and looking forward to the coming week and our trip. after the run we met up for happy hour and to go over the logistics. We would all meet up in leadville and depart at 7pm.
The day before our departure, mike learned his hip pain was due to a labral tear in his hip, he was out. after some logistical adjustments, it was decided to head to zion and proceed with the traverse. Leah, Sirius and I would meet Jamie and Lacy in minturn on Tuesday night and we'd head out from there.
We got to Zion early Wednesday morning, set up camp, and got some much appreciated rest. Lacy, Sirius, and I woke somewhat early, and decided to wander around and check out the area. When we returned, Leah and Jamie were up, we made a meager fire waited for the sun to come out (it didn't make it on wednesday), and then started prepping things for a couple supply drops and logistics.
We dropped Jamie's truck off at the east entrance, and stopped by the grocery store to pick up some last minute treats for our supply drops.
We dropped the first bag at the bottom of angels landing a short stretch from the zion lodge, the second bag of treats at the hop valley trail head, and proceeded towards lava point for our third set of supplies. After some slipping and sliding, we chose the cautious approach and skipped the 1.8 mile drive through unplowed roads to the lava point drop location. This would mean we'd have aid at mile 13 and mile 38.
By this point we were all pretty tired and ready for food and sleep. We opted to get a hotel and have a good nights sleep and a good meal before starting on the adventure. After a little discussion and review, we opted to have mexican for dinner, and decided on a local restaurant: Lupita's.
We had no idea what a treat we were in for. We were greeted by a small mexican gift shop with all sorts of random articles. Somehow nobody thought to document any of this, i think we were just overwhelmed with the state of the restaurant. We sat down and ordered.
When the waitress came with our food, everybody was pleased and we all began eating immediately. Everything was super tastey. definitely worth visiting if you are in the cedar city area and like good mexican food.
next stop hotel. we migrated the necessary items into the hotel, packs, sleeping bags and pads, and whatever supplies we would be trekking across the park with. Sirius and i headed out for out evening walk. It was snowing, fortune was on our side, a nice warm hotel for roughly the same price to pitch our tents amongst the myriad of people that leave their homes to go camping in an undersized overcrowded tract of land on the side of the I-15.
shortly before 5 the alarms starting going off. time to get moving. a final once over of our gear, final choices of attire, which was pretty lightweight as the morning turned out to be slightly warmer than the previous day. a pleasant surprise. We transfer everything back to the truck and head to the trailhead.
Sirius would stay in the car at Lee's pass for the day while we made our push for the east park entrance and Jamie's truck.
If you are interested in the day's adventures, check out part 2:
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