Fossil Springs hike, 2011

Hello Blog people.

Here are some pictures and a video from my epic camping trip I went on this weekend.  It was a lot of fun. But, I'm way too fat and out of shape, because it was super difficult hiking out.  Oh well.  I guess that gives me a greater incentive to get skinny again.

And so, without further ado, here are some nature documents (thanks to my friend Gary, who took all of the pictures - except the ones designated otherwise).

Click here to view the images in a slideshow

As you will see when you watch the slideshow, we saw a lot of crazy wildlife!  I had never seen a rattlesnake before, but we totally saw one.  And, we saw FIVE tarantulas, a scorpion, and a baby skunk!  Also, several lizards and a demon caterpillar.  Check out the videos I shot of the devilish wormy squirmy.





I got 5 blisters on my feet from the hike.  It was pretty rigorous.  I was not expecting it to be as difficult as it was.  But, then again, I'm a lot more out of shape than I think I am.  This experience really forced me to realize that I have a dire need to start working out again - because, let's face it, I was pathetic.

But, despite my patheticness, it was a very enjoyable time.  We enjoyed some extremely beautiful scenery, got to swim in a really cool river that came from a natural spring.  We got to see the source of the spring, which I don't think I've ever seen.  It was pretty cool to see the water just bubbling up out of the ground and forming a river out of nowhere.

There were several cool places, including a beautiful waterfall and a cool rope-swing area.

My shoulders are super sore from my backpack, and my leg muscles protest loudly with every movement I make.  But, it's a good kind of hurt.

One funny story is that there was this cool part by the waterfall where you could swim UNDER a section of the rock and come up in a little whirpool area.  (Basically, the waterfall branched into two sections, and one part fell into this circular pool and would just swirl around and around, and the area was connected underwater to the main river area.)  I was the first to be brave enough to swim under and come up in the whirlpool area.  We didn't know what to expect, because you couldn't see into the whirlpool place, as it was blocked from view by the big rock.  So, I tried it and was pleasantly surprised to find a rope hanging down that someone had tied to the top of the rock.  So, I tried to climb up the rope and get on top of the "bridge" area that separated the two sections where the waterfall split into.  But, it was really slippery, and I wasn't strong enough to make it.  So, after trying my best, I became exhausted and fell back into the whirlpool.  Except, I fell back on top of the rope, and it gave me a pretty nasty rope burn.  So, after I fell back into the water, I decided to swim back under and go to the main area where everyone else was.

As it turns out, apparently, while I was swimming under the rock to go back to the main area, my roommate Jason was swimming under to go into the whirlpool area to check on me, to make sure I didn't drown.  So, he got in there, and I wasn't there, and he started freaking out, thinking I had drowned.  So, he's yelling my name (and nobody can hear him, because of the waterfall) and searching around in the water for me.  He has this scenario in his head that I had tried to climb up the rope and fallen and hit my head and was drowning at the bottom of the pool.  So, he dives down and opens his eyes (with his contacts on!) trying to find me.  At about this time, a couple of boy scouts swim under the rock and join him in the whirlpool area.  He asks them if "that other guy" had come back out from being in there, and they don't understand what he's asking, so they say "no."  That just sends him into an even deeper panic.  Eventually he decides to swim out from the whirlpool and just see if anyone knows where I am, and so he comes back up and, of course, sees me sitting pretty up on a rock out of the water on the other side of the river.  Ha ha.  He was relieved, but kind of flustered.  I laughed.

So.  There you go.  If you haven't already, you should check out the slide show.  It's pretty cool.

The end, by Travis Butterfield.