Mr. And Mrs. Leber: This labor day weekend was one for the death books...

I’ve been thinking of what to write on here for the past couple of days now.. for some reason I couldn’t find the words to explain what had happened over labor day weekend. So let me begin from the start..

My father in-law Dan had asked Jason and I to come on a back packing trip with him and Tyler (my brother in-law) in Zions National Park. It would be a 1 ½ day trip. We would be walking almost 17 miles from start to finish. 10 miles one day and 7 miles the next. Dan explained to us that it was going to be an easy going super fun trip since Jason and I are NOT back packers or hikers in the least bit.. We agreed and started preparing for our trip. Jason bought hiking shoes from Walmart that he could throw away after the trip and I found Keens online. (the most amazing shoes I’ve ever bought in my LIFE.)

I kept telling my friends how terrified I was but I really wanted to bond with Jason’s family. Especially since Tyler is leaving on his mission next month! All my friends reassured me that this was an easy-peasy-lemon-squeesy hike and that I shouldn’t be worried at all..

We get to Springdale (next to zions park entrance) and stayed at Jason’s Aunt’s gorgeous vacation house. We had the best sleep we’ve had in a really long time! We had a great time with the family and packed up our packs that night! (Friday) In the morning we had breakfast and headed our way into Zions Park. We started at I think called the “Barracks Trail” along a private road. All of us were laughing because we dislike Barrack Obama.. haha.

We started along the trail on dirt and then went down into the creek where we walked for a few miles. We were hauling! We figured that we were walking 1 ½ miles an hour and sometimes more! Tyler came across a rattlesnake and almost stepped on it! I was terrified! The only time I’ve seen a rattlesnake was in a zoo! We saw SO many bugs, critters, flying things and SPIDERS!!! SO MANY SPIDERS!!!! If I was absolutely terrified before, Im about dead at this point.. haha! I feel like this part was one of the rewarding parts the the trip for me.. I feel like I’ve overcame a little part of my arachnophobias fear. Every step we would take, a hundred to thousands of spiders would scatter around you.. it was terrifying.

We got to our camp around 3PM and decided to not go any farther. We set up our tent and cleaned off our muddy shoes and went looking for some hieroglyphics! Or whatever they are.. it was really pretty walking around our sandy camp site. So peaceful and serine! Dan had made all of us our dehydrated meals and boy were they delicious! We had Chili Mac & Cheese, Chicken Teriyaki with Rice and this amazing Chocolate pie pudding!!

Dan and Tyler slept out on a tarp under the stars and Jason and I slept in the tent.. (I insisted on bringing the tent.. I’m a pansy, I know)

The next day we got a great head start along the river. We ended up running into a man named Ronny who was canyoneering through “Fat Man’s Misery” all alone! He said that he came through Checkerboard Mesa (That’s our ending route). He ended up following us out of the canyon and helped us along the way to find Cairns and to stay on the right path. A couple of times Dan and Jason went a different route and Ronny found the Cairn.. So long story short we were on the right path because of Ronny at first. There were so many drainages along our path that it was so hard to detect which one was the path and which one was just the drainage. We ended up losing Ronny because we followed one of the drainages down the Bute and thought we were on the trail.. we looked up to try and yell for Ronny but it was too late and Ronny couldn’t hear us. From where we got out of the canyon and made it to find the trail with the cairns and to the point where we got lost we were only 4 miles or so away from our end point (checkerboard mesa). At this time we were almost out of water because we thought we could be at the car in 2 hours or so!

Things started to get a little scary.. Not knowing where we were in the middle of the desert, 110 degree weather and barely enough water for all of us. Jason had the idea to go down the 7,000 Foot butte and go up this other butte that was closer to Checkerboard Mesa since we missed the trail that led us to the bridge that took us over to checkerboard. Now we have all of these different finger canyons that we have no idea which one would lead us to checkerboard.. We ended up going down the butte that we just hiked up and started walking up another 7,000 foot climb with sheer rock that was either easy to climb in some places and slippery from the sand. We made it up one butte and realized that it had no way to connect. It dropped off on the other side of the butte so there was no way to make it over to checkerboard. We had to keep hiking, slipping, falling, crawling in 110 degree weather. Not a cloud in the sky. We then became worrisome and realized that we’re going to be in big trouble pretty soon with zero water for anyone. Since Dan went to med school he sat us all down and told us how dehydration works and what we are about to experience. First he said that our legs will start cramping, mouths will become dry, we will all be cranky and irritable, headaches, fatigue and dizziness. Last but not least we will start hallucinating. That’s when we know we’ve hit the almost end. As we trekked on we started to notice that our energy levels were going down, we started cramping in our legs, we were so much slower at walking and hiking than we normally were walking.. Panic sunk in.

Jason started to get irritated with Dan and Tyler for getting us lost (when in reality, Jason wouldn’t get mad at them at all..) we then realized that it was the crankiness that was setting in.. We all started to get frustrated that each and every time we climbed up a torturous 7,000 foot mountain with nothing to hold on to, 25 pounds on our backs and no water, we were only climbing a mountain that we had to hike back down and try another. Dan wouldn’t let us give up. After 4-5 hours had passed we were done. We had walked and climbed almost 3-4 buttes now. Dan knew that we had to keep pushing and moving because it was going to be dark soon. We then started to go around a bowl shape on the mountain that was all made out of sheer rock. We had to almost lay on the rock and shimmy our way over. Dan, Jason and Tyler all got over to the other side of the bowl with only a few cuts and bruises. The bowl was a cliff that dropped nearly 6,000 feet straight down. It was a death wish to even attempt to walk across. It was my turn by then and I had given up a long time ago so my energy level was at its lowest. As I was walking across the bowl my foot slipped. As if everything was in slow motion, I reached for the closest thing to me… which happened to be a cactus. I held onto that cactus and pulled myself up until I could reach for the branch that was a little more sturdy. I couldn’t feel anything at the time as if I had adrenaline running through me for the 5 minutes I was dangling there.. I reached the other side of the bowl to only find my sweet, dear husband looking around. I was trying to scream for him but my voice was completely gone 4 hours earlier.. right when I saw Jason my eyes swelled up with tears. I couldn’t help but sob and feel so weak.. I stumbled to him and threw my arms around him. That’s when I realized that I had cacti all over me.. It stung like a thousand bee stings.. all over my legs, arms and especially my hands. As I looked at him I asked him if he could help me, his shakey hands from being so dehydrated he could barely hold still.. Tyler was standing next to him and I held out my hands and asked sweet Tyler. He of course said yes and was shakey as well.. As Tyler was trying to help me I realized that he also had cacti everywhere and yet he didn’t complain. Hallucinations started kicking in for me.. with all the cacti on my hands I felt like I had a diet coke in my bag or some kind of water bottle (anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE water bottles) I started digging in my pack for what I thought was a diet coke ended up being nothing..

The thing is, we were all weak, tired, afraid, thirsty, hurt, sore and sunburnt.. for one of us to complain, was a joke. None of us really complained, we just wanted to go home.

As we all huddled together to make another game plan, Tyler pulled out his GPS on his phone which wasn’t at all detailed in the slightest. It just told you how far we were from different buttes and the road. No trails or paths to help you get out of our situation. Tyler found on his GPS that if we head down the butte that we just got up and followed the dried up riverbed about 5 miles north, we could possibly climb the butte and it could possibly be our way out with only 2 miles from that butte to the road. After we decided our game plan, Dan said a prayer. All of our prayers were “help us get out of here” “help us find a trail”.. The prayer Dan gave was beautiful. He said “Please help us find the nutrition that we need to press forward and find our destination.” Jason went up the butte a little more to see if he could find a way out and Dan, Tyler and I went down to the dried up riverbed. I remember that part in the prayer because 20 minutes later coming down that butte we found water…

It was the most glorious thing I’d ever seen! At first we were all squinting our eyes to see if that was really water and not our mind messing with us. But sure enough Dan goes tumbling down the hill following Tyler and I! I tried to scream to Jason who was nowhere to be found that we found water. Dan has Tyler and I grab our water bottles and we start filling them up! The water that was in that little puddle was the nastiest puddle I’d ever seen.. Cow manure, Frogs, Tad poles, green moss nasty stuff.. it smelled bad and looked awful, but boy did it taste amazing!!!

Dan had chlorine drops that he put into our water bottles and said that it had to sit for 30 min but to drink it now and to drink it slow. Tyler and I started guzzling it!! We got sick of course, but that didn’t stop us! It was a glorious moment for us. I instantly felt so energized and happy!! It’s amazing what water can do for you!!

About a mile away I hear Jason yelling saying “Water! Water!!!” Apparently he found water on the other side (about half the size of our puddle and dirtier) and dunked his whole head in!!

Now that we had water in our system It was time for us to make that 5 mile trek up the dried up riverbed! Dan went on the butte to see if he could get on top of it and look out and see where we were.. (trust me, I know that going off by yourself is super dangerous..) Tyler, Jason and I trekked up the dried up riverbed and it started to become dark.. we were trying to find Dan and found that he had a couple of near death experiences hiking up the butte and coming down it. At one point, the only thing that was keeping him from falling almost 5,000 feet to his death was an old dead pine tree stump.. lets just say that when we finally found him he was all cut up and shaken up pretty bad.

We started our trek up the rocks in the dark now. Dan, Tyler and Jason all had head lamps on except me.. I had a dinky flash light, but luckily I had one! This was probably the scariest part of the whole trip.. it was a straight up climb on sheer loose rock! Jason had to boost me up on the rock to start rock climbing up this butte. Dan and Tyler went another way but ended up being the harder way. We were trying to go as quickly as possible with the light that was left. Jason had to go in front of me so I could see where I was going.. He would go up about 2 feet and then look back so his head lamp could shine down where I was going.. At this point we were slipping and sliding all over the place, holding onto branches that were holding all of our weight. All of us were wondering if we would make it up this hill alive.. At some points when Jason was moving up the hill and I was in the complete dark holding onto a branch with both arms, I had things crawling on me that I have constant nightmares about… on my face, arms, legs… I felt things walking all over me.. I can’t explain it better than it was like we were in a movie..

As we were approaching to the top and after climbing for over an hour or two we finally made it to a ledge! I see Jasons light above looking up and down and I could hear him saying, “no…no…no….” I then screamed up, “WHAT IS IT??? JASON WHAT IS IT?!!” Over and over again I felt like I was repeating myself a million times.. and then Jason said, “it’s a… cliff.. there’s no way… no way we can get up this…” he then sits down on the little tiny ledge while Dan, Tyler and myself are pulling up to the ledge. We were about 1,000 feet away from the top… we could see it and yet we couldn’t do anything about it. It was a straight sheer rock cliff that went straight up. No more climbing. We all felt defeated. We felt like we just gave it all we had because this was supposed to be the home stretch for us!! This was supposed to be it!!!

We never thought about coming down from that butte. We knew there was no way we could. It was simply impossible.. but we had too. We had no other choice. As we sat there thinking of what our next plan of action was going to be, we started hearing animals and noises.. We knew we had to act fast but go down the hill slow. Jason went first. He was irritated at this point and was screaming back at us to go slow.. we followed behind him with a few scary moments where we almost slipped to our death.. Jason especially had the worst experience sliding down that hill.. At one point he was holding on with only one arm and dangling his body over about a 1,000 foot drop.. There was nothing any of us could do. Luckily he’s super beefy and made it over to the other side of where he was trying to get.. Dan slipped and started sliding down the extremely steep butte. Jason screamed out “DAAAD!!” As I screamed out “PLANT YOUR FEET!!!” As Dan planted his feet he came to a stop and just sat there in silence. We were so shaken up.. Survivor mode is the only word that best describes how we got through all of this and how I’m writing this blog right now..

Not to bore you with our near death experiences, we finally got down to the puddle so we can fill up and sleep. We decided we needed rest and then get a fresh start in the morning. We started a fire and saved our food for the next morning. The last thing we had to eat was a pay day bar and a cliff bar at lunch the previous day… We were exhausted.

The next day we felt more optimistic and ready to go home! We filled up a gallon jug that Tyler carried the rest of the way along with the tent that he carried as well.. Man, he’s such a stud! Now that we can see the buttes, we spotted out Checkerboard Mesa. It was about 5 buttes away.. which meant that we needed to go up and down each and every one of those 6 buttes. We could do it though.. we were so positive about going home that nothing was going to stop us. Especially now that we had water! After the 4^th butte, Tyler found really old foot prints in the sand! Of course I started crying.. We were all so happy that we were on the right path! The next butte over, Jason found the trail that we were supposed to be on!!!!

VICTORY!!

Jason and Tyler were almost running on the trail to get out, I stuck back with Dan because we were so beat up and tired. We then started to hear things.. we became really quiet so we can hear what it was… PEOPLE!!! WE FOUND PEOPLE!!!! I couldn’t be more excited to hear another human beings voice!!!! We ran up to them and they looked at us like we had been ran over by a truck… They asked if we were ok and if we needed anything.. they told us that the road was an hour and a half away! We bolted!!!

Of course I was crying with joy the whole time… oh and did I mention that we had to go up another hill to get to the road? That didn't stop all of us from hiking as fast as we did. We had to go over and under boulders and drop down from cliffs to finally reach the road. We ran into 4 more hikers along the trail that were just starting their hike. Jason was a comedic and said, "don't you feel like you're passing them the Jumanji board?" haha! I'm glad we still had some kind of humor left in us.

As we finally reached the road, Tyler and I were looking for Phyllis's car and realized that we just needed to get back to the house. I flagged down the next truck that passed us and we all hoped in the back of the truck exhausted. They asked if we needed any water but all of us held up our dirty, nasty water and said we were fine! That was the best ride home ever.. I remember feeling like I wanted to change the world after! I wanted to make good with everyone I've ever had a bad encounter with! Life is so short, and you especially realize that when you are close to the end. I'm so thankful for the experiences we had and shared together. I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I learned and grew so much from this trip. I learned more about myself and what I could concur. I passed all of my limits and expectations of myself, and I'm pretty sure everyone else did. I'm so thankful for my amazing husband and how powerful his willpower is! He kept everyone's head and hopes held high. I'm so grateful for our marriage and knowing that no matter what, i'll be with him forever because we were sealed for time and all eternity. I'm so thankful for this wonderful gospel. I know my father in heaven was watching out for us. I know that prayers are answered if you just ask. Sometimes, it's not the answer you want, but if you just wait you will soon realize that everything has a purpose and time of when you should receive that answer.

Maybeeeeeee i'll go on another backpacking trip with Dan... in the future! ha!

This sign was our check point to start hiking up the butte! Below is the picture of the cliff we had to climb!

This pictures shows the slate rock that we had to climb.. it was so fragile that it would break so easily when we would step on it.

This picture above is the little water puddles that we found!

This was our water that we had to drink.. ^^ We even boiled it and put chlorine drops in this one.. so this water bottle is actually super clear compared to our other ones!