A 16th Birthday

Kolob Canyon

My eyes flutter open. There's a multitude of color surrounding me, sounds swimming through the air, smells inching around, yet all I can think about is cold. I'm cold, extremely so. I hear the cracking of branches as someone steps around our light blue tent. I look up at the netting, and decide that I'll only get up if I start moving. So I sit up, confused for a moment, unable to find Annie. The space next to me is vacant, only the gray bottom of the tent staring at me. I look down at my feet, and there she is, rolled up in a ball. I move around in my sleeping bag, regretting taking this 25 year old turquoise layer that retains zero heat. Finally, enough glucose is broken down, enough electrons are passed down the electron transport chain, and enough ATP is produced for my muscles to contract and for me to get out of the tent. I trip on my way out, barely catching myself from falling on a prickly cactus which had gotten me the night before. Stepping into my untied hiking boots, I look up at the empty sky, nothing but a sun overtaking the horizon. I glance back into the tent, catching sight of my orange backpack, laying sprawled next to the edge, "18 miles" I think "18 more miles and we're done."

Birthday Breakfast

After a day of walking in deep sand under the blazing sun that Southern Utah provides, I was beat, and we still had one more day to go. As we trudged onto the plateau that would carry us to Zion (well, I wish it had carried us, rather, we had to walk through back aches, blisters, and lack of water), I was over joyous that we had hitchhiked the day before and avoided 3 extra miles of pure ascent. After eating a hearty breakfast of first oatmeal and then dry-freezed beef macaroni stew, we had filtered enough water to provide a couple of liters per person, which, we would find out that by the end of the day, would not suffice and lead to the dehydration of all of us.

We marched on, this day significantly easier than the last. But as we reached Zion and the descent onto Scout's Overlook began, my legs began to pound. The steep downhill overlapping my extreme fear of getting a migraine due to the lack of water made the last two hours treacherous, but when we finally reached Zion Lodge, life was bliss. We were done.

I ate a cheeseburger. Never has a cheeseburger for $6.75 tasted so good. But walking from the cafe back onto our position on the lawn, I couldn't help but laugh at how poorly Konrad and I were walking. The three of us, me, Annie, and Konrad, were far ahead of the group, and upon arriving at the lodge, we had chucked down our heavy backpacks and laid down in the grass. We looked like a bunch of crazy transient teenagers who walked like old men, all we needed was a guitar.

Marching on under the Southern Sun.

So the day, like all others, came to an end. My final feast for the evening was a Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino from Chevron with a cupcake. And, I'm not gonna lie right now, all of this combined to make one of the most memorable birthdays ever. It wasn't "happy" throughout the 24 hours that it persisted, but it was fun, it was crazy, it was... a 16th birthday.