Enjoying the many rewards...

Day 217
10-10-2006
Started: Awapa Plateau, UT
Finished: Near Utah Highway 89
Today's Miles: 26.5
Total Miles: 3217.0

The snowfall that put us to sleep last night was still coming down when we woke up this morning. When we opened the tent door we couldn't even see any of our footprints from yesterday's tent set up because the snow that came down through the night had filled them all in. Our measurements have the snow depth at about somewhere just over four inches. When your at an elevation of over nine thousand feet and there is over four inches of snow on the ground you are definitely doing some winter hiking. The calendar might still say it's fall, but the conditions are most certainly saying it's winter! We have hiked in winter conditions a number of times throughout our hiking careers, but we were talking today about how few people actually intentionally put themselves in this position. We thought we would share with you some of the things that everyone should know before hiking in winter conditions, just in case you've never done it and are thinking about giving it a try. We decided we would come up with a list, something like Dave Letterman's Top Ten Lists. We will call this one, "The Top Ten Things To Keep In Mind While Winter Hiking".
Number Ten: Camping in the winter is on the ground, just like it would be during any other season, the only difference is that you get to lay on top of a block of ice.
Number Nine: Your tent will develop condensation just like it would in any other season, but in the winter you get the added bonus of icicles hanging from the ceiling.
Number Eight: In the winter, if you want anything to be warm ( by warm we mean not frozen ) in the morning, even if it means wet and warm, you have to sleep with it inside your sleeping bag. That goes for your shoes too.
Number Seven: Hiking requires you to put one foot in front of the other to get your miles in, hiking in the winter is the same with the added pleasure of sinking into the snow every step.
Number Six: Think carefully about where you leave your supply of drinking water when camping in the winter, otherwise you will wake up to ice cubes.
Number Five: When you wake up in the morning while winter camping be sure to indulge in the pleasure of putting your cold and wet clothes back on that you took off at the end of the day the day before. Not just because it's so fun to do, but because if you don't you will end up with two sets of cold and wet clothes at the end of the day. Things don't dry very fast when the temperature in near the freezing point.
Number Four: When winter camping don't get distressed when you can't feel your toes. They're still attached, you just won't feel them for at least the first three or four miles.
Number Three: No matter how cold it is outside, and no matter how warm you are in your sleeping bag, get up and go to the bathroom when you feel you bladder get full. Doing so will allow you to stay warmer, and give you a chance to actually get some sleep.
Number Two: Never, and we mean never, attempt to drag a cart with sixty pounds of water in it through the snow!
And the Number One Thing To Keep In Mind While Winter Hiking is....
When hiking with your husband, wives should never sit and warm their hands over the stove that is boiling water to make a cup of coffee while your non-coffee-drinking husband breaks down a snow covered tent!

We feel like that list should give you a good start to enjoying your next winter hike. We left out some of the obvious thinks, things like, it's cold and it's snowy, little reminders like, what's not covered in snow is probably wet and what's probably wet is probably muddy. What we really want all of you to know is that no matter how wet you get and no matter how cold you feel there will come a moment when nature will reward you for toughing it out in such harsh conditions. Our reward came about an hour into our hike this morning. Just as we were starting to get feelings back in our fingers and toes we looked up to the sky where the clouds were starting to break apart and a huge patch of blue opened up, allowing a beaming ray of sunlight to shine down on the fresh powdery snow. The pure white glistened so bright and the snow covered Plateau offered us views that would warm even the coldest heart. At that moment we stood perfectly still and in that very instance we didn't think about being wet or being cold, we just took in the beauty that nature was offering and we couldn't have been happier, and we wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in the world. At that moment, everything we put up with to get to that spot for that scene was worth it! Moments later the clouds filled back in and another dark mass appeared in the distance, so we went back to tromping through the snow and dragging our cart like a sled, but we were now feeling just a little warmer. As we continued west we dropped off the Plateau into a Dry Wash and followed it all the way into the small town of Antimony. We took advantage of another break in the clouds and laid all of our wet gear out to dry while we ate a grilled cheese and some french fries at the only café in town. After lunch we packed up our somewhat dry gear and continued west. We were much lower in elevation this afternoon so we didn't get snowed on, we did get rained on quite a bit though. We were treated to a vibrant rainbow late in the day that went clear from one side of the sky to the other. Another reward for dealing with the wet conditions. Tonight we are at the foot of a huge wall of eleven and twelve thousand foot mountains that separate us from the west half of the state. We will have to go back up over nine thousand feet to get through the passes that will get us over them and know that we will be back in the winter conditions tomorrow. We're not sure if it will be amazing distant views or brilliant rainbows or a magical sunset that will be waiting for us when we get there, and we aren't even sure where there is, we are sure however, that our reward is out there somewhere and we are more then happy to go find it!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com