(Written by Jason)
This camp was a ton of fun and some great memories were made. We went down to Zions area, or basically just southern Utah. The two leaders were Damien Cavanaugh and myself. The boys were: Alex Lambert, Christian McCallister, Michael Bolivar, Liam Salmond, Jared Posadas, Richard McCallister, Dallin Rice.
Luckily Cavanaugh was able to make it at the last minute and we borrowed John's truck so we would have enough vehicles to go. Our first stop was at Kanaraville. We found a random camp spot up the mountain and had a great night of games: Steal the flag, "bases". We had to stop playing steal the flag because I chased Richard into a tree, and he was called scar face the rest of the trip because of a nice scratch on his face.
The next morning we hiked Kanaraville Falls. The hike is mostly shaded in a beautiful slot canyon. You walk in water for most of the trip. There are several areas where you have to climb up rocks or climb up wood/log ladders that people have made. There is also a great natural water slide that is up at the top. The hike and experience was definitely a highlight of the trip.
We made our way down towards Zion after that. We had a hard time finding a camping spot. The research I did beforehand paid off....somewhat. The first place ended up having signs that we couldn't camp, even though it was BLM land. In theory, we should have been allowed, but we didn't want to push our luck. The second place ended up being really good, and probably much better than the original spot I had seen. We set up camp, played some games, and had dinner.
The next day we had planned to do a hike in Zions. We had many options, but the boys were pretty wasted and it was VERY hot. Cavanaugh had the idea of going to Sand Hollow and swimming to cool off. There are some very small cliffs that people jump off of and that's what we did. It felt great and was a perfect activity. The water was a good temperature and we all had fun. After that we had lunch in a park and attempted to play ultimate Frisbee, but the wind was crazy.
After lunch, we hit up the petrified sand dunes in Snow Canyon. It was over 100 degrees and still windy. The exploring on the dunes were pretty awesome though, and many of the boys had never been there or seen anything like it. When we had enough heat we were trying to figure out what we could do since the boys were still pretty tired and exhausted from the heat. So, we decided to go to a movie and the timing was perfect. The boys were all shocked and thrilled to be going to a movie during camp, and so were we since it would give us AC for the next couple hours. We watched Kong: Skull Island. They all loved it. And to top off the day, we went to Five Guys and got burgers and fries. Once again, they were amazed we went there during camp.
That night we were playing around with frisbees and spike ball. All of a sudden, Liam came up to me and said "Brother Gruber, I cut myself pretty bad". He showed me his hand, and yep...he was using my hatchet and going bat crazy on a log to cut it in half and it bounced off the log and hit the back of his hand above the thumb. As soon as I saw it, I basically knew it would need stitches. We called Damien's mom who is a nurse and she asked if it was wide and gaping. The answer was yes. So, Liam and Alex and I went off to the hospital to get stitches the final night. It was 45 minutes away. We ended up getting back around midnight. They left us some of the cobbler that I had started making before we left.
The camp was great, and the video below shows and tells more than what I can write!
In case the video insert doesn't work, here is the direct link:
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