My grand-daughter (MM) just arrived back this week from a 2 week backpacking / hiking trip to Zion Canyon National Park. Spent a few hours talking about what worked and what didn't and some of the strange restrictions imposed by the Park Service (The Tree Fuzz) The group was a batch of high school students ages 18 to 15 and co-ed. They had two "adults" along to supervise the kiddos. I say adults to differentiate from what I would call a Leader. More on this later. I know most of this bunch and to say they are responsible is an understatement - many of the Seniors already have accumulated more than a year's worth of college credit - by way of example. Most of the kiddos had been planning this for up to a year in advance. MM fell into this when one of the kiddos in the group was diagnosed with mono and the doc said - No Go. Zions Canyon is at about 3,000 Ft MSL to over 8,000 Ft MSL. They camped at both extremes. BTW - all of these kiddos live at damn near sea level. Weather ranged from 75+F and bright sunshine to 30F with snow/scrapple at elevation and at base camp. Now then - NPS rules- No fires No liquid fuel stoves (Alcohol OK) For one part of the trip the group had to rent some funky "Aqua shoes" or not be allowed in the stream - this is in one of the narrow canyons. Zero traction, several of the kiddos had multiple falls. (I'll look into this at NPS site) Might be an issue with water borne nematodes. Not sure she got the full story.... Random bits and pieces Binder clips, large (x2) - rated as OMG totally useful - everybody wanted to borrow. Just the thing for hanging laundry/shoes/wet stuff from ruck while walking to dry in the sun. Standard self-rescue gear - signal mirror, whistle (storm-blaster) aluminized mylar blanket: Not used but good to have anyway. Personal FAK - with lip balm (used a lot), moleskin ( not used as group FAK had large sheets for the many blisters) - gauze, band-aids and so on. Not used, but again, good to have on hand. Any issues wee All handled internally by the group with minimal drama.. Food - Got an earful on this one. All had to have 3 x 'meals' a day and that meant freeze dried. General opinion from MM - the stuff was awful. The Kung Pow (?) chicken was so bad only one kid bothered to eat his. It did come with a peanut butter packet - worth more to most of these kids than the Chow. They did a 1/2 way thru the trip stop back to Springdale. Everyone bought large jars of peanut butter. MM had the Jiff singles, so she was good from the get-go. The 'adults' planned to stop mid-day and cook a meal. Too hot, most were too tired to bother cooking anything.. MM would eat breakfast - a mid-day snack (jack links) - Lunch was a couple of granola bars and then dinner was luck of the draw. One comment surprised me - the serving size in most of the FD packets were judged to be 'too much' - in fact, I was told, one 'single serving' FD packet of Chow was good for two. That everyone hated the stuff was likely a factor in this. I was also informed that eating what you could and then try to save some FD Chow for later - the effort would be "a complete waste" with the FD Chow - it just turns to goo after a while. "Best stuff ever" The Nescafe Brew and Blend - FD coffee with real cane sugar and cream based creamer. Pour a sachet into 6 to 8 oz of hot water and - bliss. I gave here a few on my packets sourced from Thailand. She did mention that some variety in the snack bars (lunchtime Chow) would have been nice - I gave her my entire stash of Nature Valley peanut bars.... A couple of the kiddos - ones with real experience - brought their own home made FD Chow. Refereed to - more than once - as "real food". Several in the group brought dried fruit of various kinds and were happy to share. Camp gear was canister stoves - shared. All had piezo starters and there were no issues reported. MM had my GSI Soloist pot/cup combo and it worked well for her. typical carry for the group - pot, cup, room inside for a fuel canister, burner, pot top and in this photo a dish rag. All fit inside a rubberized pot holder (rear left) that can double as a small 'bucket'. Tents were broken up and shared - both carry and sleeping. MM's tent had a Tyvek footprint, a weight-saver that was popular for several others. One kiddo pitched a tarp and slept under that. No complaints about anyone being cold was good to hear. But then these are Alaska kiddos - 45F is warm, 55F is hot and at 70F...well, Hell just escaped.... Lessons for others: Try the FD Chow before you buy a lot of it. It can taste nasty. The 3 cheese mac& cheese was a winner as was the pasta premavera and Stroganoff noodles. Peanut butter is your friend, except in bear country. Lip balm and sunscreen are a must (This from a charter member of the Alaska Chalk Army) A couple more bandanas would have been nice. Having layered clothing - fleece, long sleeve shirts and a rain jacket ensured no cold nights Sleeping on top of your clothes (clothing under sleeping bag) ensures you have something warm to put in the cold morning air. Do not put socks in the bag to dry out - the sand will never fully be removed.... Based on MM's feedback, seems like it was a good trip, with a great bunch students..... neat place to hang out.....
The kiddos will soon publish a trip report with pics on the school website. I'll share the link when it comes to me. That way any 'people pics' will have been publicly released. I am loath to post recognizable (faces) photos of people anywhere on the web. Too many creeps wandering the Web these days - if you know what I mean. Additional random bits Trekking poles. MM had a set of carbon fiber w/cork grips. (G-Ma to the rescue here) . Just the thing to stay stable with humping a ruck 1/3 of you body weight along narrow, steep trails. Nice in the water as well. Knives - Actually, with no fires allowed and most everyone eating prepared Chow, a couple of SAK were all that wee ever used. MM carried a Letherman "CS" - pimped as TSA compliant, it stayed in FAK to use as as a scissors for cutting moleskin. A pair of 'EMT' sheers would be better - but size and weight constraints said go small or don't go. For these small tools, I'm an SOG brand fan. Water bottles She left with three water bottles and a Dromedary 8L bladder. Two camps were dry, so everyone humped extra 'bulk' water - uphill all the way, of course. One of the bottles was a 1 L Nalgene bottle. She used this when measuring water for Chow and as a 'tanker' to fill her main, small, water bottle while on the trail. The primary water system was a Al water bottle that could clip to the ruck waist belt. The clip - a long thin one, allowed easy grab and drink - it has a flip top to prevent spilling if dropped. It was worked for her and she was happy with this somewhat convoluted setup. This is the same Nalgene, with a top from a MSR filter set up (Thanks to REI) and a small pickup tube inside feeding a water tube/bite valve at the end. Hands free. MM's ruck did have the right kind of pockets for this setup. Water treatment Every drop not from a tested NPS spigot was treated. Period. The Auqa Mira Chlorine Dioxide tabs were used. MM carried enough to treat 26 L on her own, but the adults carried a boatload of the tabs, so all good. One tab into 1L, wait 2 hours (water isn't that cold) and the wait time was in the dark. Here in AK, I use the same tabs but wait overnight as the water is quite cold. Some kind of filter was used by another group - UNK as to brand etc. The water in the streams/Virgin river is turbid enough to clog anything used in short order. If you are thinking of going walkabout in that AO and using local water - carry some Alum (Aluminum sulfate) for use as a flocculant. You still need to treat for bacteria/virus. ChlorFloc does both. more to come.
@DKR aluminum sulfate is the same stuff I use on my garden and when the pool needed cleaning lol.... who knew it had so many uses I would never have though to take it on a camping trip Nice to learn something new. Thanks for posting this review of gear, it's been educational
Pretty good demo of just how goodCchlorfloc works. Makes it plain how to use and shows the (to me) amazing results. The water here is (mostly) gray due to suspended solids. I once took a jar of water that was gray from suspended glacier silt and left it on the counter at home. A week later, the water was still gray. The silt is finer than flour and doesn't settle owing to Brownian motion of the water itself. Some kind of treatment is needed - even a double coffee filter doesn't get all of it. Once treated with alum, the clumps can be filtered.. Alum+ chlorine dioxide tabs is a lot cheaper than chlofolc. The Chlorfolc packets are likely a good choice for the occasional user or for when storm waters foul a normally clear stream Everything is premeasured, again, a plus for the occasional user.
ZION 2019 the rucks were as big as the kiddos.... on day trips, they carried less gear and walking in the wet...
Wow,what a trip. As far as water is concerned I have a Katadin filter. Cost as much as my SKS but well worth the money!
