Land's End

We drank the last bit of our water, looking longingly at the cold water in the watering hole meant for sheep and cows, thinking about our filter and purifying tablets we had stupidly left back at our basecamp. I had spent my entire life all over Boulder Mountain, and I never imagined that I could get as disoriented as I was in that moment on what I considered, “My mountain.”

When my cousin and lifelong friend, Carson was sixteen and I was fifteen years old, we talked our parents into letting us go on a two-night camping/backpacking trip on top of Boulder Mountain in South Central Utah, where we grew up. We drove an old farm truck that we borrowed from my dad to get to Miller Lake where we camped our first night. That night and the next morning we ate food out of the ice chest we brought, being who we are and how old we were, that consisted of beef, eggs, and root beer-- exclusively. We left the truck there the next morning and hiked up the rest of the way to Elbow Lake, after a quick stop at Bluebell Knoll to sign the registry because it is the highest point on the mountain (11,340’). We made it to Elbow Lake by roughly noon, and we decided to leave most of our equipment, including our extra water, water filter, and food; to hike out to Donkey Point. Donkey Point is a place on the mountain where you are on a ledge, and you feel like you can see to the end of the world. In fact, when I was growing up, my family nicknamed it, “Land’s End.” The route that we planned on taking was one that I had covered on horseback while herding sheep  countless times before.

The area that we were hiking in is characterized by thick stands of trees separating nearly identical clearings, characterized only by the watering holes that are formed by rainfall and snow melt. While it all looks so similar, each clearing is still able to surprise you with its own unique beauty that makes exploring them so rewarding. After coming through one such stand of trees into a clearing, we came across a herd of elk that ran off when we broke through the trees. We were both blown away by how awesome that was, and how close we were able to be to such a large group of elk. Several hours had passed since leaving our basecamp at Elbow Lake, and we were not even close to where we thought we should be. Carson had a GPS unit with him, but it wasn’t triangulating correctly so it just showed an “ERROR” screen every time we tried to check it.

We waited quite a bit longer than we should have to admit that we were lost, and by the time we turned back, we were way off course, and were almost out of water, except for what ended up being about a swallow a piece. The thing that we had going for us was that we both grew up in the outdoors with our dads, and we were confident that if we needed to make camp on account of it getting too dark that we could do that and scavenge enough stuff to eat and drink to be alright. It was also late July, so it was not likely to get too cold.

We were both thinking back to all of the things we had been told about getting lost and what to do. We knew that we had not covered enough area that we could be that far from our camp, and we wanted to make it back. We did loud whistle blows every so often to see if anybody could hear us, but there was never any response.

Just when the sun was getting low enough that we figured that we could hike for about another half hour before making some kind of camp, we came to the top of a hill, and we saw a couple packing their fishing gear into their SUV! We hurried over to them to ask where we were. It was really obvious when we go to them that they were more than a little bit surprised to see two teenage boys coming out of the trees towards them. They were really nice about telling us where we were, but they were also very obviously eager to get as far away from us as they could. From there, we were able to follow the dirt track that they drove in on to the main drag where we were able to figure out where we were. We ended up back at Bluebell Knoll, but from an angle that neither of us had ever approached it before. From there on, it was obvious how to get back to where we had left the rest of our supplies even though it was well past dark when we got there.

When we got there, we set up our tent and devoured out MREs and drank plenty of water. Even though we had chosen a really poor place to pitch our tent we basically didn’t even feel the rocks and lumps underneath us.

The next morning, we hiked back to Miller Lake and drove home from there.

Neither of us told all of the details of that trip for quite a while because we were afraid that our parents wouldn’t let us go backpacking alone again.

I have thought back on that trip many times since. From subsequent hikes and horse rides in that area, I have been able to figure out where we went wrong, and actually recreate the route we took. Neither Carson nor I at any time have regretted that trip. Honestly, it’s one of our fondest memories. It makes me think, “Why do we look back so fondly at a time when we were thirsty and lost?” We both made a lot of rookie mistakes on that trip, and we got really lucky. That said, having a strong spirit of adventure is one of the attributes that I am the most thankful for. It is what has lead Carson and I on many more subsequent adventures, that have had  varying levels of success as far as how we had initially planned them out.

It is that spirit of adventure that discovered new continents, brought us from caves to houses, mapped and explored our oceans, reached the peak of Mt. Everest, and many more mind-blowing achievements. Not only that, but it is what pushed toddlers to continue to stand up each time they fall down while learning to walk. Just like any other human attribute, to thrive, it needs nurturing and development. While I am not trying to put myself on the same level as Leif Eriksson, Edmund Hillary, Marco Pollo, or any other famous adventurers. I am merely saying that these are all people who dared to venture and face head-on the challenges they set for themselves. There is no doubt whatsoever that they had to start somewhere small and work up to achieve the things that they did that have made them legends.

No matter what challenges we may set for ourselves, be it learning to play the piano, starting a business, asking the person we are attracted to out for ice cream, or even finding the courage to face another day that we know will be difficult due to a medical condition or a disability, we can’t be crippled by stumblings of the past. When Carson and I started out that trip we were totally certain that it would be a fun trip that we would enjoy with no mishaps. Since then, we have learned a lot more than we did then, and we have been able to go on bigger and greater adventures because we learned from the events and mistakes of that Boulder Mountain trip.

That is why “Dare to Venture” is the motto of our business. If you keep that in your heart, then it is my hope that you will have the strength and determination to keep doing the things that you love and figuring out how to keep on working to figure out how to achieve your goal even if you feel lost at times in the process.

We should never let fear of mishaps prevent us from venturing out and chasing the things that we love. The most important part of this is learning from our mistakes and letting them shape us into more knowledgeable adventurers.

This is a picture from the place we had intended to go, Donkey Point, or "Land's End" if you are one of my siblings.