Anyway, Saturday night we were packing and getting ready to go. Joey and Justin ran to the store for a couple of things we forgot earlier that day and blew a brake cylinder on their way home. The parts store was closed already but they, along with our resident mechanic Nate got the wheel off and everything ready to fix it in the morning. Early the next morning they went for the part and three hours, another trip (this time by me) to the parts store for brake fluid, and a whole lot of crap on my driveway later they found out they had been given the wrong part and would have to start all over again. Forget it, we'll take Justin's truck. We should have taken the warning that this trip was not meant to be!
We loaded everything up into Justin's truck and hit the road. We picked up the rest of our group in Salt Lake, grabbed free lunch at Nate's restaurant The Philly, and headed out. About 6 hours later we saw water!!! We were finally there! On the way we named a new national monument though: Wii's Tree's. Our friend Nate saw a group of trees in the distance which he thought meant we were close to Hanksville, we all looked around and could not figure out where the heck he could see the trees. Justin asked if he meant those rocks up ahead, he did. It was so funny, it really thought they were trees.
At the marina we loaded enough camping gear, food, and wake boarding supplies to last 7 people for 7 days into one boat (see picture in the collage). It was absolutely insane. The boat was so full we basically had to sit on each others laps to get to camp. By the time we had gone the 7 miles to the canyon we like to stay in it was pitch black dark. We were using our flashlights to look for places to set up camp. Our perfect spot from last year was taken so we had to move on. We finally found a spot that would work but it meant hauling all of our things up a steep. long, sand hill. It was exhausting just to get the necessities for one night up that hill. As we were unloading a few of us heard a noise that sounded like a small waterfall. We all looked at each other stunned when we figured out the boat had a hole and was taking on water-fast. We had no other choice but to have the four guys turn it around and pick the back up onto the rocks for the night. We didn't finish unloading our things, just what we needed for the night, and figured we would deal with it in the morning.
The next morning our hopes were renewed when Joey offered to rent a boat for the week. We were all in pretty good spirits as four of them took off for the marina to ditch the sinking boat and rent us a new one. Dirk and I stayed back at camp and settled in for a relaxing few hours. I read my book, took a nap, and just enjoyed the sun. As it got hotter and hotter the biting flies got worse and worse. Even insect repellent wouldn't keep them away. I was covered with welts and really, really mad! Oh well, we thought, we will just look for a better campsite when they came back with a rental since we could now look in the day light.
The four came back from the marina in a 20 foot piece of junk boat and broke the news: we would be heading home that day. The rental would cost us $3500 for the rest of the week! What a rip-off, even a houseboat would have been less! We also found out that on their way to the marina the boat was taking in too much water for the bilge pump to keep up with so they had to ditch the rest of our stuff on a random rock AND use the Fatsack pump just to stay afloat. The guys at the repair shop said they didn't even know how they had made it back without sinking the boat.
Three of the guys took a load back and picked up the abandoned supplies from the rock while the other three of us stayed back to finish packing up camp. It was hot, the flies were still biting, and that hill was ridiculous to get down. The sand would go over your feet and burn them as you were trying to haul stuff down. I was even more mad! We were roasting so when we were basically finished packing up and hauling things down to load we decided to go for a swim. We laughed as we said "At least we can say we swam in Powell this year!" As we were enjoying the water we noticed a giant black cloud making its way toward us and we knew we were in trouble. We got out and got the last of our things down the hill, then we huddled under the top from one of our canopies to wait for the storm. It started out with lightning. It was right above us, there was no time between the flash of the lightning and the sound of the thunder. I was terrified, I had never been that close to it before and we had almost nowhere to hide. We huddled to the side of a cliff to keep ourselves as small as possible. Next came the wind and the rain. The wind was blowing rocks into our backs and sand into our eyes, even though we were mostly covered. Joey appeared alone in the rental boat in the midst of complete madness. The metal holding up the bimini top was bent to the breaking point and it was just flapping in the wind. I cannot even describe the rain to give it justice. All I can say was that it was raining so hard that it was running down our faces and into our eyes. We could only see for a few seconds when we wiped our hands across our faces. There was flooding coming down the hill, causing us to fall every time we tried bringing something off the rocks into the boat. I finally gave up and started sliding down on my butt as I was hauling things. It was by far the hardest rain I have ever been in. We loaded what we could and left the rest there, someday someone will find themselves a nice table and a few other things!
With the small boat packed down we got in and put on our life jackets. This was something I had never done before, normally we only wear them when we are on the wake board or tube, but we were so afraid that we were going to capsize in the waves that we wore them from the beginning of this terrible ride. Lake Powell can be a scary place during a storm but we felt that we only had a choice to get ourselves out of it or risk staying in the lightning, soaking wet and exposed. We chose trying to get out of it. The waves were about four feet tall which may not seem like a lot but if we took a wave wrong or for some reason lost power, that boat was so small that we would have capsized, no doubt about it. The lightning was still right above our heads and it was still raining like I've never seen, and it was freezing, we huddled under wet sleeping bags to get warm. I was so afraid that I cried and cried and begged God to let me live because I had two kids at home. Telling the story doesn't do our terror justice but even now as I'm typing this I am fighting back tears thinking of what could have happened. Our kids could have lost both parents in a single second. One beautiful thing we saw on the way back was the flash flooding coming over the cliffs. The water was moving so fast that it was picking up a lot of sand and dumping it into the lake. It looked like red chocolate milk waterfalls.
Finally we got out of the storm right as we reached the marina. I can only imagine what we looked like, shivering and haggard. I couldn't stop shaking and Joey finally broke down after his adrenaline wore off. It really gave us a chance to reflect on life, and about what and WHO were important to us. We loaded up the truck and headed out of town less than 24 hours after we arrived. The upper left hand picture of the four guys, and the two pictures of the boat are some of the only 5 pictures we have of the whole trip to Powell.
On the ride home we decided to borrow a boat and head to Pineview for a few days to try to at least salvage some wake boarding sessions. We stayed at Nate's house that night and headed to Pineview in the morning (Tuesday). While it wasn't Lake Powell and we cut our trip short by another full day, we had fun. We camped on grass instead of rocks, set up lasso golf, and played a lot of Bocce. The first night, the three girls (Emilee had joined us by now) made our very own fire without any help! We had a couple of great days with good weather but of course it couldn't be all good after the luck we had for the week. Wednesday night and Thursday morning it rained and rained and rained. We had all packed for 100 degrees so we froze when it was only about 60 and we were wet. Oh well, we had breakfast at Chris' and put canopies up over the fire and the lasso golf, and kept up on the fun.
We had to wait until about 7 that night to get water good enough for wake boarding. By that time the other two girls had gone home so I was the last one standing which meant I got first dibs on the wake board, fine with me since it was cold already and would only get worse. It was a mistake. I tried to jump off the wake and caught the toe edge of the board which quickly slammed my face onto the water. It felt like hitting concrete, literally. I couldn't turn my board over so I was face down, with just enough strength to hold face out of the water. Joey had to jump in to turn me over and get my board off. My nose was bleeding, my face was swollen, and I had a horrific headache. I rode it out while Joey had a turn but was feeling so terrible I had to have them drop me off at shore, so Joey and I went back to camp. Joey made a fire and started on dinner while I relaxed, a first!
The next morning I had massive bruises on my cheek and jaw, I looked great for a few days! We packed up camp, had a last lasso golf match, and headed home. I was so excited to see the kids again and to sleep in my own, comfortable bed.
This trip was an expensive nightmare, but we will never forget it. All we kept saying was we can't wait until Powell 2011!!!
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