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April 04, 2012

Day 61, 17th October 2011. Zion National Park

My alarm went off at 7.45am this morning, and I did not want to get up at all. The other group were getting ready to go on their way to Vegas and we were not... I had to get up eventually and kept moaning on about how upset I was that we wasn't going to Vegas today too.
They were going to do a hike this morning and then going to Vegas in the afternoon, and we were just going to do a hike and stay at camp for the evening. Pointless. Anyway, I got up and got ready to go out. The place we were hiking to was 'Angels Landing' and it was meant to be one of the most strenuous hikes that you can do. It was meant to be worth is, with amazing views, but I was just not in the mood at all for strenuous activity.


At 9am we got the shuttle bus to the place where the trail started and we got there and started hikinh at about 9.30am, the whole group were doing the hike together. Gary knew how much I was not in the mood to do this, and how tired I was, and I asked him not to leave me, and to help me do it so I would not get left behind.

This is where the day went even more downhill.

The hike was really tough. Really tough. It was so steep uphill. Basically after 15 minutes I was struggling and asked Gary if he would slow down a little because we were at the front. He kept walking quicker and quicker until I couldn't even see him, and I even kept shouting for him to wait for me but he didn't. The whole group passed me and I was doing it totally on my own. 











After about half an hour I reached this massive set of steep switchbacks. It was literally the hardest thing ever, my legs hurt so bad. As I was nearing the top Gary tried to come down and help me because the whole group was waiting at the top. I shouted at him and said I wanted him to go away and I didn't want his help. Of course I did really because I was hurting so much, but I was so angry at him I didn't even want to look at him.


When I reached the top of the switchbacks, Mark patronisingly said to me that I'd done well. I just ignored him because the only other option was pushing him off the edge because I was so angry. The rest of the group started walking up the next bit but I had to sit down for a while because I needed a break. I went a bit crazy at Gary, screaming and shouting at him for leaving me. I have to say that this was the day that we had our biggest argument we have ever had. ever. He was asking me to walk up the next bit with him saying he would walk with me but I was so mad at him that I told him to go and do it by himself.

He went off and about 10 minutes later when I felt rested enough I went to start walking. Well, it was impossible. There was no trail, it was literally rock climbing, holding onto chains. I have no photos but I found some links so you can check out how dangerous it is.

Youtube video It's snowing here, and it was sunny when we went, but it shows how unsafe it is

Ok so I think you will get my point by now, it was steep, and really dangerous. I lasted about 5 minutes before I slipped and fell and gave up and went back down. I was really upset and crying at this point. Gary should have refused to go without me when he saw how dangerous it was. I spent the next hour laying on the floor crying to myself. I can laugh now at how over dramatic I was being, but at the time I felt like the world was ending. (I think it was totally some sort of pre-wedding jitters getting to me in some unknown way, because I hadn't felt any unsure feelings about the wedding, and I think this is how any nerves I was having came out). The only thing that made me feel better were these little chipmunks that were running around, one of them even came up to me. It made me feel like Snow White, I really felt like they were comforting me. (ok, they probably weren't, but it made me feel better haha)


Finally, over an hour later, Gary returned. I am not joking when I say that right then we had the biggest argument we have ever had in our lives. Looking back on it now it is really, really funny. I was screaming and shouting at him for about 30 minutes on the top of a mountain, loads of people were staring and I was hysterically crying at one point LOL. Anyway, we made up, and thankfully then everything was fine. Me and Gary went up the rest of the mountain together and all was good. As we started going up I felt more and more glad that I hadn't done it by myself, it was so difficult, and took about half an hour to get up there, even moving quite fast. I also shouted at Gary a little bit more, saying that I can't believe he'd done it on his own as it was so unsafe.

View from the top








Took some photos and then started to go back down.





On the way down we talked a lot about how silly our argument was, and it was soon completely forgotten about. I think I was just feeling nervous about the whole getting married in secret thing and my anxiousness just came out as anger directed at Gary... BUT he shouldn't have left me and I will never stop reminding him of that...lol




By the time we got down it was early afternoon, so we got the bus back to camp, and stopped to get a ice cream on the way. When we got to camp we did some laundry and sat around by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. It was nice to have some time to relax, and then I had a shower, washed my hair and painted my nails ready for Vegas. Although I was majorly upset that the other group got an extra day there, it was nice to have some time to prepare and make myself pretty ready for the next few days, and just relax a little.

The evening around camp was really boring, the group was expecting me and Gary not to be talking to each other after witnessing our argument, so we had great fun flaunting our happiness, haha. After dinner me and Kirsty were on washing up, and we were glad that it was the last time we were ever going to have to do it. We went to bed quite early, as we had convinced the group that we should leave at 7am so we could make the most of our time in Vegas. I didn't sleep that well though because I was SO EXCITED, I felt like I was going to Disney tomorrow!

1 comment:

  1. Gary shouldn't have left you. You guys are supposed to be a team and if it was truly that unsafe, then you should've had a "buddy system" in place so that no one got left behind. I'm glad you made up though. Before you mentioned the Snow White thing, that's what I was picturing since she was also on the floor crying in the forest when all the little animals came to help her. lol

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