Harrison Kight November 12, 2013

Harrison Kight

November 12, 2013

 

Expedition Errors: The Events That Weren’t Supposed to Happen

 

                During the course of our cross-country road trip, we ran across many mishaps that hindered our progress. Throughout the two weeks of driving, camping, and exploring, almost all of the intended activities were changed or cancelled as a result of some unexpected roadblock. Although the expedition was amazing overall, I thought I should be the one to describe this series of unfortunate events.

 

                The original starting date for the expedition was October 28. At the time, one of our group members, Zach, had some sort of serious illness, and the rest of the group was required to leave the next day. After departing with our new student, Mike Wolfe, we drove for ten hours to a campsite in Missouri. We arrived at 11:00pm, a very late time to eat and set up tents, only to take them down the next day. The following trip to Kansas wasn’t that bad; we arrived at 9:00pm (still after ten hours) and set up quickly, but the brief rainstorm on Thursday morning soaked our tents. This may not seem like much of a problem so far, but many more issues occurred after this.

 

                That same day, after a rather fun afternoon, the group reached Colorado at 10:00pm. Although this campsite had an amazing view, the area was very cold, possibly reaching temperatures of about 25 degrees in the morning. Tired and hungry, we headed out to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We planned on riding a sand sled down the dunes, but the rentals were cancelled the day we attempted to use one (November 1)! After retrieving Zach on Saturday, a long drive to Utah was among us. We finished setting up camp at about 10:30pm, and left for Arches National Park that Sunday. When we returned to camp, a crazy scene awaited us.

 

                We knew that the weather that day consisted of strong winds, but we didn’t think that the gusts would destroy our tents! Two of the tents, including mine, had several broken poles, and my tent had to be hung by a rope in order to stay up! This situation took over an hour to rectify, and it was a pain to do! Not only did we have to drive to Arizona the next day, but now we had to deal with these tents!

 

                The day after our ten-hour drive to the Grand Canyon National Park, we had a major surprise to encounter upon our hike! It turned out that Zach had hip surgery a while back, and his weighted pack was causing a lot of pain in the affected area. As a result of this and several other facts, the hike into the Grand Canyon had to be cancelled. Although we had plenty of activities afterward to keep us entertained, this was a major upset for the group. But the madness didn’t stop after this last destination!

 

                Although the flight back to base went smoothly, the drive after our arrival in Charlotte (my hometown) took three hours. But the main factor here was that the drive started at midnight! So we arrived back at base at 3:00am! Despite all of these mishaps, the expedition in general was amazing, and a great learning experience for the future. Somebody had to mention these factors, though!