June 25, 2018
It was great to get your first letter last week. Nice to know you're alive and having a good MTC experience. It's hard, right? I'm glad you are being thrown into the deep end of the pool because it's a good way to learn a lot of things really fast. You're going to be great.
We were kinda worried when we didn't get a letter from you in like 9 days and then I went backpacking in Escalante and right when I was passing through Boulder, UT I received a text message from mom saying your letter had arrived but I didn't have any cell data where I was so I didn't get to read your letter for a few days when I got back to civilization.
I created a backpacking schedule that Chance and Javi have to go on with me but I gave them both the opportunity to opt out of one hike. Javi opted out of the longest hike - Mt Timpanogos - and Chance opted out of the FIRST hike which was Escalante. I think that pretty well describes how each of them thinks - Javi wants to get rid of the most pain and Chance just wants to get rid of whatever is next and worry about the future later.
So I go to Escalante with Steve DuBose, Danielle Warren, and Javi and we actually got a campsite at Calf Creek Falls! I thought it would be impossible. Our site was 20 feet from a sweet swimming hole in the river and we had lots of trees for hammocking. Thursday night we hiked to the Falls and everyone - even Javi - did well. I was planning to have a campfire and then go to bed but Steve + Danielle decided they wanted to hike Peekaboo Gulch at night instead of Friday morning. They thought it would be fun to do the hike when the temperature is lower plus they wanted to do it under moon and stars. So we left the campsite at 10:30pm, got to the trailhead at midnight, hiked until 3am, and then drove back to the campground. I didn't get to sleep until 5am. We had an amazing time though. When you and I hiked that area (at night too!) we definitely didn't do it right. We walked down dry fork but never actually went into peekaboo gulch or spooky gulch. Someday I have to show you the real thing because it is amazing.
So I slept for 4 hours and then we started a two day, 20 mile hike through Death Hollow and the Escalante River from Boulder airport to the Highway 12 bridge. Javi went really slow though so on Friday we only did 7 miles. We thought we had 13 miles more to do on Saturday but the trail was actually 24 miles so we had 17 left to do and Javi could only manage 10 miles. So when the sun went down on Saturday we still had about 7 miles to go but we decided to camp overnight as a safety precaution instead of trying to hike all the way via headlamp. But that decision wasn't without consequences like a) I was scheduled to give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting and missed it, b) Javier was scheduled to give a 3 minute talk in Sacrament meeting and missed it, c) it was Jade's farewell and we missed it (but Maddy and Chance went to it), and d) mom was expecting us home Saturday night and got freaked out so she called search and rescue.
When we got to highway 12 bridge around 1:30pm on Sunday I was met by the county sheriff who said "you're the guy we've been looking for". Not a good feeling! You never want to be the guy the sheriff is looking for! I don't think mom would have called the sheriff by herself but apparently Brent Hall announced to the whole ward over the pulpit that Dave + Javi went backpacking, didn't come home when they said they would, and were missing. That's when all the ward members started coming up to mom and telling her she had to call search and rescue immediately. What a mess!
Anyway, we had an amazing time and Death Hollow is now one of my favorite Escalante hikes. It's actually a ton like Coyote Gulch - about the same distance, walking in a river, except on this trip we would find a cool 8 foot to 11 foot swimming hole every 1/2 mile or so and we stopped frequently to swim. Being with Javi, Steve, and Danielle was super fun and I can't wait to go back and hike it again. I'll post some pics for you.
Keep working hard and don't get overwhelmed. It's going to be rough for a while but you'll get through this. You might suck at Spanish right now but think about in a year from now it will feel like your 1st language.
Love ya,
Dad
We were kinda worried when we didn't get a letter from you in like 9 days and then I went backpacking in Escalante and right when I was passing through Boulder, UT I received a text message from mom saying your letter had arrived but I didn't have any cell data where I was so I didn't get to read your letter for a few days when I got back to civilization.
I created a backpacking schedule that Chance and Javi have to go on with me but I gave them both the opportunity to opt out of one hike. Javi opted out of the longest hike - Mt Timpanogos - and Chance opted out of the FIRST hike which was Escalante. I think that pretty well describes how each of them thinks - Javi wants to get rid of the most pain and Chance just wants to get rid of whatever is next and worry about the future later.
So I go to Escalante with Steve DuBose, Danielle Warren, and Javi and we actually got a campsite at Calf Creek Falls! I thought it would be impossible. Our site was 20 feet from a sweet swimming hole in the river and we had lots of trees for hammocking. Thursday night we hiked to the Falls and everyone - even Javi - did well. I was planning to have a campfire and then go to bed but Steve + Danielle decided they wanted to hike Peekaboo Gulch at night instead of Friday morning. They thought it would be fun to do the hike when the temperature is lower plus they wanted to do it under moon and stars. So we left the campsite at 10:30pm, got to the trailhead at midnight, hiked until 3am, and then drove back to the campground. I didn't get to sleep until 5am. We had an amazing time though. When you and I hiked that area (at night too!) we definitely didn't do it right. We walked down dry fork but never actually went into peekaboo gulch or spooky gulch. Someday I have to show you the real thing because it is amazing.
So I slept for 4 hours and then we started a two day, 20 mile hike through Death Hollow and the Escalante River from Boulder airport to the Highway 12 bridge. Javi went really slow though so on Friday we only did 7 miles. We thought we had 13 miles more to do on Saturday but the trail was actually 24 miles so we had 17 left to do and Javi could only manage 10 miles. So when the sun went down on Saturday we still had about 7 miles to go but we decided to camp overnight as a safety precaution instead of trying to hike all the way via headlamp. But that decision wasn't without consequences like a) I was scheduled to give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting and missed it, b) Javier was scheduled to give a 3 minute talk in Sacrament meeting and missed it, c) it was Jade's farewell and we missed it (but Maddy and Chance went to it), and d) mom was expecting us home Saturday night and got freaked out so she called search and rescue.
When we got to highway 12 bridge around 1:30pm on Sunday I was met by the county sheriff who said "you're the guy we've been looking for". Not a good feeling! You never want to be the guy the sheriff is looking for! I don't think mom would have called the sheriff by herself but apparently Brent Hall announced to the whole ward over the pulpit that Dave + Javi went backpacking, didn't come home when they said they would, and were missing. That's when all the ward members started coming up to mom and telling her she had to call search and rescue immediately. What a mess!
Anyway, we had an amazing time and Death Hollow is now one of my favorite Escalante hikes. It's actually a ton like Coyote Gulch - about the same distance, walking in a river, except on this trip we would find a cool 8 foot to 11 foot swimming hole every 1/2 mile or so and we stopped frequently to swim. Being with Javi, Steve, and Danielle was super fun and I can't wait to go back and hike it again. I'll post some pics for you.
Keep working hard and don't get overwhelmed. It's going to be rough for a while but you'll get through this. You might suck at Spanish right now but think about in a year from now it will feel like your 1st language.
Love ya,
Dad
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