Joe is almost 30. His birthday is coming up on 11/3 and he decided that to celebrate we should hike and camp at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Cool!

Welp, there is a little bit of a hitch in that plan. We don't hike. We don't camp. We don't own any gear except for an old tent and 1 sleeping bag. We have to get permits to camp below the rim. Etc. Etc.

As we always do, we threw ourselves into this new project. We bought proper hiking boots and the accompanying wool socks and these things called sock liners. I even got special insoles. We bought a new sleeping bag for me (20 degree rated), and head lamps (6 LED lights!! ooooohhh ahhh). We bought a 1 burner camp stove at Wal-Mart for $20 (Take that, REI bitches! Take your exact replica for $45 and jam it in your stuff sack), and a lantern complete with propane. We bought a new compass, light sticks, a flint and made waterproof matches(fun with scented candles). We bought pink long johns for me and an Under Armour knock off shirt for Joe. We bought trail mix and a mess kit and various food stuffs. Suffice it to say, we stocked up.

Joe did the usual thorough research and found a good campground and hike at Mt. Charleston. The plan was to go up late Staurday afternoon, camp overnight, and hike Sunday morning. Mt. Charleston is less than and hour away and you go from 2,000ft in Vegas to anywhere from 7,000-8,500ft on the mountain. We knew it would be cold, but we were prepared.

Everything was going great. We got a choice camp site at Hill Top campground (space #29 -close to the bathroom, but not too close). I pitched the tent by myself, which I was very proud of. Joe tried to get the fire going, but it kept dying. He left me with the anemic fire, convinced it would die out quickly, and set off to find more kindling and sticks.

While he was gone I got he fire going strong and proved myself as Fire Queen.

I prepared the dinner and we cooked it in the fire on the coals. It was the best suasage and potatoes we'd ever had.

Finally, it was time to hit the sack. We settled in and that's when things went south. The campsite had a set pad where you could set up the tent. It as made of cement and had big chunky rocks in it. Why would you make a foundation for tent camping out of lumpy cement?? We tried to make the best of it by putting some of our clothes under our sleeping bags, but that didn't really help. Aside from that, I was having problems getting warm. I could not bring my body temperature up and I was shivvering very badly. I tried putting on more clothes. I tried taking off clothes. I tried putting hand warmers in my socks. I tried curling up into a ball. I tried lying flat to spread more body warmth through my bag. Nothing worked. Joe got very worried because I was physically trembling and my teeth were chattering. He made the call at about 1AM and we broke camp.

Joe started the car and got the heater going and put me in there to get warm. He broke down the tent and cleaned everything up. We finally got home around 2:30AM.

I felt like such a wimpy failure. My success at tent building, fire starting, and cooking were all for nothing if I couldn't survive the night. Not that I would have died out there; we weren't that bad off. But I would have been useless the next morning and we definitely would not have been able to hike.

If we had those special pads that you put under your sleeping bag, then I think we would have made it. They are supposed to provide padding and give you added heat retention.

So no we know. We are going to try again soon. That mountain can't beat us. I am determined to kick it's wilderness butt.

...until we meet again.