While we were in Havasupai it was very warm at night. I am thankful to our friends who suggested taking sheets to sleep with instead of sleeping bags. The last night Ryan didn't even use his sheet it was so warm. That saved us some weight in our backpacks for more important things like more peach cobbler ingredients :)
We set our alarm for 2 am AGAIN...!! By the time we got our bedding and a few other odds and ends packed up...and stopped for a drink at the spring, we ended up leaving the campgrounds at ~3:30am.
Hunter set us a goal to make it to the trailhead by 8:30 am. We thought that was a pretty achievable goal...we only needed to hike 2 miles per hour....SO we set out.
We hiked the two miles into the village and stopped at the last point to get water. We refilled a couple of water bottles(our water bladders in our packs were still full) and Ryan filled an extra bladder to add to his pack in case we needed it. Then we set out again.....still in the dark.
The hike out was great!!
Jake and Hunter taking a break on the trail.
On the trail with a mouthful of granola bar and my 'rapper' hand going on.
One day at camp Ryan asked Jake to take a picture of the two of us. Jake kept taking picture after picture for awhile(seriously probably 15-20 pictures). SO after awhile I told him to stop and put the camera down. I was moving my hand as I was telling him this and he was still taking pictures. When we were looking the pictures later he kept going back and forth between two and told me I looked like a rapper with my hand movements. So when Ryan was taking a picture of me on the trail, he told me to show him my rapper hands....haha.
AND....my SPF 70 sunscreen worked so well....I might be even more pale after this trip than before!! Also, once I changed into my swimsuit and running clothes when we got to camp....I pretty much didn't change again until we to back to the trailhead.
Me and Ryan. I brushed my hair on Saturday and not again until we got home Tuesday afternoon....can you tell? I don't think Ryan brushed his hair the entire trip either.
AND.....we made it!! Check out all of those bags we packed out!! haha...just kidding. Those are peoples packs waiting to be packed down by the mules.
We ended up making it out just before 7:30am....so we crushed our goal of 8:30 by an hour!! Since we started hiking out so early in the morning, we were in the shade the entire time. We also had a nice little breeze most of the time. I wish I would have taken a picture of the switchbacks on the way up. They looked quite intimidating, but they were not bad at all!!
I had so many favorite things about this trip!! Everything was SO beautiful, but my favorite thing was who I got to share the experience with. Also....probably my favorite thing was just listening to our boys talking and enjoying each others company!! They talked to each other and to us SO much. In fact the last night, while they were sleeping on the ground they were talking, making up stories and laughing so much....Ryan finally had to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep. During the hike in and out they talked, laughed, made up songs....it really was SO great!!
The boys did SO great on the hike they both carried in their own packs...packed full!! In fact, Jake wanted more weight(for some additional strength training :)), so he carried my pack on the front of him of a couple miles on the hike in. Ryan's pack was pretty heavy on the way out with all of the extra water he packed out(at least 1 gallon, maybe 2) just in case we would need it. We didn't end up needing the extra water....thanks to the shade and the breeze. At least he only had to carry the extra weight 8 miles and not 10, since we waited until we got to the village to fill up the extra water.
This was an AMAZING trip and I can't wait to do it again and bring our other boys with us.
A little gear info. My husband has the BEST backpacking gear!! He loves to backpack and buys good gear....so that he can enjoy it even more :)
**These are the hammocks we bought and loved!! They had others that were cheaper, but heavier. When you are packing all of your supplies in, every ounce counts :) We LOVE REI. They are expensive, but we have found everything that we buy there to be great quality and their customer service is AWESOME!! They don't pay me to say that. REI has no idea who I am, even though we spend too much money there every year :) When we got to our campsite at Havasupai, we found a tiny hole in one of the hammocks that we bought. We used it for the two nights we were there because we needed to. We stopped at REI in Flagstaff on our way home to see if we could exchange it. They said of course. No questions! We told them that we used it the two nights we were down there and she said that was fine and exchanged it for a new one.
Two of our favorite backpacking meals are: Mountain House Breakfast Skillet with tortillas and Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy
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