Rainbow Bridge

 About the time I was playing VB on Monday night, I started to feel pretty nauseous. 

2 trees.

I still helped Rog pick up his old green Tacoma from Carol's house so he could sell it (WHICH HE DID).

red rocks.

But I also was up most of the night trying (successfully) not to puke. The rest of the week, I lived off of minimal calories because I only felt ok and not sick if I didn't have anything in my stomach for it to curdle. 

another valley.

But that also meant I slept most of the time and skipped the gym. Again. 

another valley.

I still made Rog some stuffed peppers and had CFM study. We didn't have any other commitments this week, which was pretty nice. I also got to read a bit and film/edit some YT vids for my PT study channel, which is still getting really good feedback. 

I had to hike to the top to see all these valleys. 

We picked up meat from the butcher on Friday and delivered it to Sam and Kory and Jeff on our way to Page. Rog picked me up some kombucha, which was 10/10 for curing stomach issues. And we went to bed. 

Owl Arch.

Unfortunately, Rog had survived my strep and stomach ailments until now, did not pass through untouched. He woke up in the middle of Friday night with a few visits from the double-headed dragon, as he calls it. And for most of the next day, he was tired and sick.

surprise valley. 

Which meant that he missed our hike. We got free permits to go hike Rainbow Bridge, an advertised 13-mile trek on the reservation down and back up canyons to get to the country's largest natural bridge (as opposed to an arch, which doesn't have to cover water). 

Me on top of a mountain. 

We woke up early to be dropped off - Stu, Stu, Hannah, Linn, and a friend named Karlin who spends his days backpacking and trip planning for the wealthy. We took the first 10 miles leisurely and stopped for a perfect view of the eclipse since we were super close to center line. Karlin was estimating the trip to take 14 miles to the bridge, then another 1.5 miles to our pickup location. About mile 12, the Stus were helping the girls - who were hurting from the VERY rough terrain, and Karlin decided he and I needed to hustle to make sure our ride knew everyone would be late. 

Another one. 

So we hustled the last estimate 2 miles, which was actually close to 5 per my GPS tracker. Karlin was increasingly irritated, but kept assuring me that Echo Camp (the penultimate canyon) was just around the bend. It was not. 

By the time we did get to the bridge, it was dusk and I didn't care and also I had to still hustle to notify our ride. Karlin stayed behind at a tricky turn that it would be hard to see in the dark so the rest of the group wouldn't miss it. Stu ran ahead and dropped bags with Karlin and then carried his sister for the last while. I hung out at the boat dock (the other way to get to the bridge) with our ride. 

Post eclipse.

I wasn't incredibly tired, but my knees hurt and I was irritated at being bamboozled about the hike. I also did the whole thing on the fuel of 1.5 gallons of water, electrolytes, 1.5 protein bars, and 10 pringles - and weirdly felt really good about it. 

The  bridge. 

I was 2 hours late and everyone else arrived 4 hours later than expected. Which made for a night boat ride back to Page with Stu's friend and a really nice sleep later. I'm still sleepy. 

I wish that I cared more about it at this point of the hike.