King's Peak

Wah! Long post + pictures courtesy of an awesome friend at the end.
I have been so busy with art and living it's been great/overwhelming. I can't even remember what I wanted to write. Last weekend I did King's Peak with some great friends. I am grateful for my Pops who has a bunch of cool camping stuff that he always lets me use. Seriously it's so great!  So the trip started off with packing the car the night before.  Our driver misplaced some of his gear and pulled an all nighter only to drive the whole way the next morning.  I was up till 3 watching the stars with a friend in the bed of his his good old Mayflower. And I realized I just need time. And I need time to let myself fully heal but I also realized that I am ok.  I'm ok. And I've never been more ok in my life and it's such a great way to feel. And I'm still making plans and I'm still looking ahead and doing things I want to do with people I love doing them with and life rolls on and boy is it grand.
So anyway. 1 friend: all nighter 2 friend: slept in a sleeping bag on the floor 3 friend: DTR with boy late into the night Me: Watched the stars till 2 or 3 in the morning and looked at the color of the moon.  So 5 am! rolls around and no one wakes up and our poor friend is knocking outside the door for awhile. But we get on our way. Us girls sleep the whole way to the trail head except for breakfast of course while our champ of a friend pounds a NOS on no sleep. Poor kid.
Note to self. Google maps continues to fail on long trips it seems.  Turn right at Lone Tree Wyoming to get to the Henry's Fork Trailhead. Also if you see a sign in the rear view that no one else seemed to see it's not a bad idea to back up for 2 seconds to see what it said because it could save you a lot of driving :)
I can honestly say that I have never complained more or hiked slower on a trip in my life but I can also say that I absolutely loved it and I can't wait to go back.  REMEMBER: SUNSCREEN, bugspray with 100% deet, and don't forget a water filter the day you summit the peak.  Haha we forgot 2 of those things. let's say that sleeping on a burn kinda hurts and you're more likely to burn if you're dehydrated. We had absolutely beautiful weather. Clear skies 2 days and a bit of cloud cover on the hike out. We got super lucky.
King's Peak is amazing. That valley is beautiful.  We took all day to do the summit. Literally all day. But it was gorgeous and I absolutely loved talking with my friends that whole time and enjoying the outdoors.  We had set out about 6 for the summit and got back about the same time 12 hours later. I promise it does not take that long to do it by any means. Honestly it should take about a 1/3-1/2 of that time for any average human. We hiked slow enough for the Grand Canyon to form again but we were battling with some dehydration for sure and the elevation=lack of oxygen=your muscles want you to not move.  Also the fact that we were pretty much all dehydrated especially our #1 adventurer friend who had food poisoning then an all nighter the day before I think played into it a bit. And the day was beautiful and clear and we decided if we had all day to do it...then dangit we'd take all day. Thank heavens for water filters, Jet boils, and Mountain House cheesecake. It seems to make life better...and so does another unexpected cheesecake that somehow ended up in my pack the next day.
Hiking out was great. I tried to pack the heavier things closest to my back on my hips and noticed that it made the pack out quite a bit easier.
I noticed a substantial difference after I returned home from that trip as well. I was so grateful for life! I had had time to be away from electronics and the hustle and bustle of the city. I had time to discuss life with 2 great friends! I say 2 because our good friend, the only boy with us often chose to keep out of our discussions because we talked so much.  After the trip he did say that often boys just try to think of something that isn't stupid to say but by the time they think of something we have already moved onto the next topic so that's why he was quiet or hike far ahead or behind us for a lot of it. He also said that guys don't usually brush their teeth or wear deodorant on campouts so he thought that was the cleanest he'd ever been on a campout haha funny huh?....but I had time to just enjoy the outdoors for what it was and to have quiet, peaceful time to enjoy so much simplicity and it seriously made me so much happier. Of course I realized that when something came up that threatened to disturb this new found peace and joy inside of me my first instinct was to run back to the mountains and camp but frankly running to the mountains isn't going to make problems down here disappear and I soon realized that I needed to find a balance of dealing with life and responsibility and making time to escape whenever I could.
So here are some things I learned from this campout:
1. Drink water ( if you forget your filter you might be ok filling up in the spring on the hike up to the summit....like pretty far up on the mountain. Ty didn't get sick doing that but it's not the best idea. But moving water is always going to be slightly safer than stagnant water) Just don;'t forget your filter and then you don't have to worry about parasites or dehydration.
2. Use sunscreen
3. Use bug spray with 100% Deet
4. Pasta Primavera is an Excellent choice of Mountain House
5. Buying Mountain Houses at Costco saves you money
6. Jet boils rule! Get the fuel cans that fit in the jet boil...it makes it easier for packing
7. You can use a garbage bag to put over your pack in case it rains...or just get a dry bag
8. Pack your day pack the night before summiting so you don't forget anything if you're tired
9. Those little tuna meal kit/can things are great, just pack out the garbage...they're the tuna fish that comes in the blue package?
10. Backpackers Pantry makes a better cheesecake then Mountain House I'd say
11. Quakers oatmeal is excellent for breakfast. I like mixing blueberry and peach together
12. Chocolate pudding is dream and so is applesauce...if you don't mind packing that out
13. I was craving some fresh fruit and veggies by the end of the trip..so dried fruit or even fresh fruit like apples or some carrots...then you wouldn't be a bad idea. It's just all about weight and waste I think :)
14. People that do ultra marathons are some of the happiest and most kind people I know. Believe me we met about 4 or 5 of them at the top of the summit that did King's for their training
15. You can buy a food dehydrator at Walmart for like $20 or $30 and dry your own fruit. I'm not a fan of dried bananas but I was a fan of the ones the Ultra Marathoner shared with me up top.
16. 1 Mountain House can easily be shared by 2 people...at least that was true for all 3 of us girls on the trip
17. 3 or 4 clif bars, 3 or 4 packages of almonds, 2 or 3 Mountain Houses, 2 apple sauces, 2 puddings, 1 tuna lunch was just about perfect for the trip.
18. I took a clif bar, an apple sauce, and some almonds in my day pack to the summit and I wish I would've packed just a couple more things to eat for the hike up.  We saw people with PB&J at the top and that looked like such a dream.
19. Flaming Gorge is super close to King's Peak. Yay for fishing!
20. Don't get talking so much you forget to watch the trail...you'll end up hiking a lot further then needed
21. Henry's Lake is quieter but about 1 mile further than Dollar Lake. Bear Lake is even more secluded but adds about 4 miles to the trip. We stayed at Henry's and it was beautiful.
22. If you stop at the gas station just into Wyoming for food remember: the Meadow Gold cheap yogurt is not worth it and will probably make you sick...pretty sure that happened to me and the cinnamon rolls are gold.
23. We didn't have to worry about this...but plan on being off the summit by 1 pm because of afternoon thunderstorms
24. 3 days to do King's Peak is perfect because it gives you time to relax. Or just do 1 day or even 1/2 a day and it's perfect for Ultra Marathon training.
25. Life is good :) Camping makes me happy.
ok...one more. The rock at the top of the summit makes the Elevation 1 foot higher...oh and also there's a plaque somewhere up there where a man died because he was struck by lightning...so I guess if you get caught in the rain go over there because lightning never strikes twice in the same place right?