Over the weekend went down to Zion to help Jun with his Zion Double Traverse attempt; a total of 96 miles and over 20K’ of vert. I committed to helping him out even though I've been on the disabled list since January. First a bum ankle, then some IT Band problems have put me in the worst shape of my running career. I'd run a grand total of 34 miles in the 5 weeks leading up to Zion. Did I think I could do an entire single traverse of 48 miles? You bet I did; as long as the knee would hold up. Yeah, I'm officially an idiot!
At the advice of Bryce, I started going to A.R.T. sessions 3 weeks ago for my knee. These sessions have really helped me regain some elasticity in my IT Band and assisted in getting back into running form. I’ve also been doing a ton of hip strengthening exercises to assist in recovery. However, as of the day we left for Zion, my IT Band was still snapping over my knee. I was extremely worried about how my run would go.
Five of us ended up going down; myself, Scott, Matt, MattVH, and Jun. Matt and I would run with Craig the first half, and then VH and Scott would run with him the second half. Normally this would be the perfect game plan, but I was not even close to being in shape for this type of run and Matt was on the tail end of a virus. After dropping Matt within the first two miles, Craig and I worked through the next few together.
The reality of my situation became apparent after about 5 miles though. Craig was running strong and he absolutely buried me into the ground. I eventually lost sight of him, so I decided to make a push to catch him. However, in the heat of the moment I missed a turn. In all honesty, I might have the absolute worst sense of direction of any human being on the planet! I looked over maps before the trip and noted key corners, but in the thick of it I just completely blew it! I ran up a narrow canyon, crossing back and forth over the creek. I kept looking for the distinct shoe print of the Altra Lone Peaks that Craig was wearing, but with so much water it was almost impossible to make anything out, so I continued on. I eventually hit a dead end so I turned around and went up another canyon. The walls continued to get narrower and I eventually came to a waterfall with a wall behind it. Foiled again! I decided I was in the wrong place. Duh!
I ran back to the last spot where I saw another trail intersecting. I ran back and forth along this 1.5 mile section for the next hour. I had no regard for myself as I was in a complete panic. Looking for Craig’s shoe print was now impossible since I was wearing Lone Peaks as well and I’d covered every inch of ground in this section. I was running through the creek in spots and even got up to my waist in water at one point. It was on… my mind was the epitome of full blown chaos! Eventually, I stopped for a few minutes to gather my thoughts. My next move was to start running back and forth across the bottom of the canyon until I found someone. Eventually, I ran into some hikers who gave me directions and I finally made it out. By the time I found the trail again, I had lost about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was now 4 hours into my “run” and I’d been out of water for more than an hour, just as it was starting to get hot. I was so physically, emotionally, and mentally drained that I just started crying like a little girl.
I’d like to be clear about one thing here; I was not panicked because I was scared for my life or scared of being alone out there. I’m experienced with survival in the outdoors so those types of thoughts never crossed my mind. I was panicked because I didn’t want to be the jerk that blew it for Craig. I also didn’t want to make my friends – or even worse, Search & Rescue – have to come find me because I was an idiot.
It took everything in my power to get back. My worry now was that the crew would need to move on to Craig’s next checkpoint and that I’d have to hitch a ride or something. I pushed as hard as I could possibly go. Coming into Hop Valley it had now been over 2 hours since I’d had water and it was starting to get hot. There wasn’t a reliable water source, but I knew I had to drink so I drank out of a very unsafe water source. I’ll choose stomach issues for a few days over heatstroke any time!
Once I got to within a mile and a half of the trailhead, some ladies on horseback came along on the trail. They immediately asked “Are you Josh?” I was so relieved to see them and they had some water and granola bars for me. The best part was they had a phone and called my crew. The boys were literally one minute away from taking off. Scott was on his way to meet me and I eventually made it back safe.
I was pissed off at myself more than anything. I really wanted to complete the whole traverse, but it clearly became out of the question. I should have ran the back half with Craig instead of trying to keep up with him when he was fresh. In all honesty though, it was probably a blessing in disguise. My IT Band didn’t bother me at all on this run and going any further than I did could have done some major damage. I’m glad I didn’t go back out.
I spent the majority of the rest of my trip helping Matt crew. We had a lot of fun even though we made some really poor decisions along the way, like trying to drive up the canyon in the van and getting pulled over by a ranger. Stupid!
All in all, a fun experience, even though I don’t want a repeat of getting lost like that again. It would have been so much more fun being lost (did I really just say that?) had I not had a deadline to meet. I don’t ever wish to experience full blown panic like that again, that’s for sure! Next time I do something like this I’ll take either a map, or make sure to memorize one before I go out.
Ended up with somewhere between 25 and 28 miles, so I'm calling it 26. I'm so excited that my knee held up and even more excited that I get to actually start running again!
For details about how the other boys trip went, go check out their blogs. Their write-ups are in so much detail that I won't even try to replicate their experiences. Huge congrats to Mr. Lloyd for completing the double crossing! What an amazing feat! | 