Playing Catch-Up

Nothing quite like transitioning to a full-time job. Pros – we’re finally being paid to work. Cons – a major change in free time. For me (Anna) in particular, I’m rarely on my computer anymore now that I’m working at the hospital and not doing school work. But I bought a new laptop and decided there can be no more excuses. After all – how can we plan TGOT 2024 without talking about TGOT 2022 or 2023 !?

You’re right; we can’t.

Individual adventures have ensued; Maddie visited ten national parks in 2022 and graduated law school. Anna finally moved back West. We’ve also made time for some small adventures including a Tucson interlude as an early birthday celebration for Maddie and a weekend in Las Vegas for the Eras Tour with a quick jaunt around Valley of Fire State Park.

Our mini-adventures were fantastic, and we, of course, managed to #optoutside while exploring Sabino Canyon and Valley of Fire, but that’s not really what TGOT is all about. Two Girls, One Tent is about sleeping outside and finding new places and, more often than not, engaging in some good, old-fashioned tomfoolery. In 2022, we camped in Lassen Volcanic National Park for Anna’s birthday; in 2023 we outdid ourselves and went on TGOT’s first backpacking ventures in Bryce Canyon National Park. In the spirit of “Playing Catch-Up”, we’re going to give you the quick’n’dirty for both of these trips.

Lassen Volcanic National Park. Sept 16-18, 2022. Ft Nicole Leeton.

Lassen is a wildly underrated park. It packed quite a punch considering its size. Volcanic mountains, geothermal features (a new experience for Maddie!!), beautiful forests, dramatic drives, and the first snow of the season!
Anna absolutely shit the bed, forgetting a lighter, getting the wrong type of fuel, forgetting gloves, not putting the rain flap on the tent, etc. She (I) deserved to wipe out.
We actually all three wiped out on the descent from Lassen Peak! Embarrassing. Lassen Peak itself was crazy – we hiked into a cloud and were completely locked in at the top! It did mean we didn’t get much a view, but the drama and uniqueness of the experience off-set the obstructed vistas.
Bumpass Hell was fantastic. Just a wildly cool little geothermal basin, made even more cool by the beautiful hike through the woods to get there (felt like we earned it, you know?)
Lassen marked a mountain range we’d never seen before with the Cascades. It was also park number ten of the year for Maddie, meeting her resolution!
We woke up Sunday morning and drove up the pass from our campsite. With the elevation change came SNOW, enough to make a mini snowman. It melted when the day warmed up but was still an exciting little treat. We also threw in an extra hike on Sunday before the leaving the park, which Alltrails definitely undersold.
Our trip wrapped up with a stroll through the Subway Cave lava tube and drinks at Brewer’s Lair before returning to Reno

Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. April 20-24, 2023. We take unhinged to a new level.

We met up in Vegas and started East toward Utah. Maddie had tried for last-minute Angel’s Landing permits, but when we didn’t get lucky, we decided to avoid the crowds and do a quick warm-up hike in Kolob Canyons instead. It was beautiful, and we passed only a handful of other people on the trail. Legs stretched, it was off to Bryce Canyon by way of Cedar Breaks National Monument and Dixie National Forest. We set up camp next to a Group Hang of deer, picked up our permit and bear cannister from the Ranger station, and went for a scenic drive to get the lay of the land.

We’d been planning the Under the Rim Trail for a very long time. We’d gotten permits, updated our gear, discussed campsites and timelines and details. We did NOT account for the largest snowpack the Western United States had seen in 70 years. How could we!? We watched intently via the Bryce Instagram as the rangers cleared the road bit-by-bit over the days leading up to our trip, but, ultimately, our plans changed to a out-and-back hike instead of a point-to-point hike because of the road closures and snow. We’d heard okay things about the trail, with people saying that, once we got off the plateau and out of the snowfield, we would be in the clear. This was already a bold statement as getting through the snow on the plateau was no small feat. There was no way to find the trail for certain; all we could do was mush and fall through waist-deep snow in the general direction we knew we had to go (toward the edge) and hope the trail revealed itself to us.

More importantly, those people saying the trail cleared up after the top had clearly NOT hiked past a certain point (Yellow Creek). The rise on the other side of Yellow Creek had large stretches of MORE waist deep snow that we trudged through haphazardly, stopping to literally wring out our clothing and enjoy the view whenever we found a dry patch.

The way there almost broke me (I can’t speak for Maddie, but I think she was a little broken too). Setting up camp to rest was a relief, as was eating our freeze-dried dinners. The way back went quickly, as we were armed with knowledge and better use of crampons. We sprinted out of the canyon just in time too; fresh snow started falling during our last few steps walking into the parking lot. The ranger when we returned our bear canister seemed a little alarmed by our venture, but we think at her core she considered us kindred spirits. We waited out the first storm in a coffee shop, but the overnight forecast looked iffy as well, so we abandoned our tent for the last night and slept in my car instead, which proved to be a very smart play.

The snow did have a silver lining; sunrise over the snow-dusted amphitheater was unmatched. Absolutely glowing.