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Wed, 16 Apr 2008
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions
About 7 weeks ago, I decided to take the kids backpacking in Bullet Canyon in Southeastern Utah. Shantell called these past 7 weeks as the countdown to Hell. I didn't really give Shantell an option, which is a decision that I am still paying for. You see, Shantell's idea of camping is staying at a 1 star hotel and not in a tent. :o) During the past 7 weeks I have been putting our gear in order, making some homemade gear, dehydrating various foods, and searching grocery store shelves for food that only required water to make them. I got the idea to go to Bullet Canyon from a hiking book, Utah's Incredible Backcountry Trails, that buddy Jonathan Owens had purchased. I liked the idea of hiking into this canyon so we could see the ruins of the prehistoric Anasazi Indians. Bullet Canyon houses two of the most popular ruins in the area. These ruins are called the "Jail House" and "Perfect Kiva".
We started the trip at 5:00am on the 13th. We arrived at the trail head around 12:00pm. We were planning on hiking to the intersection of Bullet Canyon and Grand Gulch, about 8 miles, the first day. It seemed like a lofty goal at the time, so only time would tell if we were going to be able to make it or not. The kids and Shantell's backpacks were pretty light weight. Amanda and Tyler were only carrying a change of clothes, their sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. Shantell was carrying the same, except she was carrying Brielle's stuff as well. I packed in my stuff as well as all the food, the tent, and the cooking equipment. My pack weighed in at 58 pounds. Heavy you say? I say it wasn't as heavy as it would seem. Amanda used my old external frame backpack. She liked it a lot better then the internal frame backpack that I bought her last year. 
The trail was pretty easy at the beginning. The trail pretty much followed the dry creek bed that ran down the middle of the canyon. 
Along the way we saw a watch tower that the Indians had built. It wasn't built by any ruins, so I have no clue as to what it was used to watch. The closed ruin was at least 4 miles away. 
There were several rest stops, and pack adjustments along the way. We also saw countless lizards out sunning themselves. 
The trail came to a staircase waterfall that was pretty cool. 
Since the trail mostly followed the river bed, we stuck to it. Unfortunately that was our downfall. The trail was not maintained is several locations and was only visible by poorly maintained trail markers. There was one point were we should have followed the trail markers, which would have taken us on a trail above the river bed, but instead followed the river bed. The river bed trail took us a lot of work and energy to get through. Fortunately we found the right trail on the way back, so we completely avoided this part of the trail on the way out. 
It was about this time that T-Y started to lag, so I added his pack to mine. Whats another 10-15 pounds when you are already carrying 58. After 40 minutes or so of hiking over and around the boulders in the river bed, the trail was flattened out. It was a good thing too, as everyone was pretty much exhausted. We found a decent spot that would allow us to pitch our tents close together and that was close to a water source. (I probably filtered nearly 5 gallons of water each day we were there.) So much for accomplishing the goal of hiking 8 miles in the first day. 
The kids immediately set out exploring the campsite. It seems that they all found a burst of energy immediately after we decided to set up camp. 
Shantell didn't sleep very well. It was partly because she wasn't able to move around in her sleeping bag because of the integration of the sleeping pad in the sleeping bag. It was also partly due to the fact that Bre-Bre had to get up and pee multiple times. It would have been nice if she had gotten up the first time she pee'd rather then after. She wet the bed. Good thing that I brought along an extra sleeping bag.
On Monday we set out on a day hike to see the Jailhouse and Perfect Kiva. Bre-Bre wasn't too happy about having to walk to them. She wanted to stay at camp or be carried. She soon changed her mind after we ignored her cries and left her in camp. She actually followed us out of camp, so she was never actually left alone at camp. We hiked for about 35 minutes and decided to break for lunch. 
I set off by myself to find the ruins. I was hoping to find the ruins rather quickly and then return to the group. I was hoping that the news that I found them would energize the group. By the time I got back to the group, they had nearly caught up to me. Much to my dismay, Shantell had taken Bre-Bre back to camp. It was disheartening to hear, mostly because we had eaten lunch 20 minutes from the ruins. Both ruins were located high in the cliffs, so it took a bit a scrambling and hiking to get to them. It was well worth the hike. Here are some pictures of the perfect kiva 
Pictures of the Jailhouse ruin. 
All in all it was a fantastic trip. I enjoyed every bit of it, even the complaining. Shantell put a good game face on, but I know that she really didn't have too much of a good time. I don't think that she will be up to backpacking ever again. She thinks that it is to much work. I on the other hand love to get into the back country. I think she would rather car camp in the future, or as my dad calls it "Comfort Camping". 
Drop me an email if anyone that has read this would like to go backpacking with me.
:: Posted by brb on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:16 pm
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