Some Martin Moments: Teton Super Activity

This year for the young mens super activity we were not able to go to Lake Powell, unfortunately. We were going backpacking in the Teton Mountains up to Table Rock. The trip started out on July 11, 2013, we met at brother Burtons house in the morning, I don't remember the time I just remember it was early. (It was 7:30 am- very early considering that Allen and I had spent most of the night up tending to Parker's accidental, self inflicted knife wound, both at home and at the ER. Returning home, pretty shaken around 4:00 am.) On that day we drove up to Lava Hot Springs Idaho, and I luckily got to ride with the good old Burns. We talked about girls and our guilty pleaure in songs, you know, the songs that guys aren't supposed to like but you secretly do? Yeah those one's, and what happenes in the car stays in the car. When we got up to Lava Hot Springs we went to a campsite and parked our stuff. Not soon after, we planned out who we wanted on our tubes, for a one, two, three, or four man tube so we could rent enough. We rode down the river a couple of times before James would actually get in the "freezing" river, and of course when he did, he had to get the other leaders, and flip our tubes. That lasted for a couple of runs down the river when everyone decided to call it quits for the river. (Due to previously mentioned injury, Parker was unable to tube or swim in Lava. Spent the day baking his brains out and hurting.) After that we went and returned the tubes and found a grassy spot and had lunch and got to make our own sandwiches. They were actually pretty good. When everyone was done we went across the street to the Lava Hot Springs water park. That was for good fun. We went down the slides and played basketball, and what else, but the diving platforms. I did the lowest platform with Robert without hesitation, it wasn't much higher than the high dive. Hours later we built up the guts to go off of the middle platform a couple of times, and that was fun until you didn't do a pencil dive and your arms were flayling and hit the water at a 90 degree angle. I thought I could do the highest platform but after Robert was hesitating, I got more and more scared and didn't end up doing it. Later that night we walked up to the camp site where we had dinner. We had Cafe Rio pork burritos. Man, were they good. That night we had a devotional and went to do service for the park rangers if you will, so we didn't have to pay for the camping spot. Then everyone was off for bed.

We woke up the next day and we had cereal and milk for breakfast and then we hit the road once again. This time it was about a four hour drive to where we were going, and once again, listened to our 'guilty pleasures'. When we arrived we parked at the bottom of the part we started at, made sack lunches and started hiking. James surely thought he would lead the way until about 1/4 of a mile in and he went to the back of the line to "make sure the slower guys made it". About two and a half hours into the hike we ran into some people and we asked the best place to camp, they told us about another half mile, so we went a half mile and dropped our stuff. After that we set up our tents and ate our sack lunches. Mmmmm warm sandwiches, nothing better. James said that we were about 4 of the 6 miles to the top, so it will be easy after we dropped our bags,right? WRONG! We were about 3 of the 7 miles to the top, and the rest of the way was super steep or super rocky. It was awful, they said we were going to a certain point that they were pointing out, and we didn't believe them, seemed like 10 miles out, but sure enough, thats where we were going. When we could see Table Rock clearly, it seemed maybe 1/2 mile away, but it wouldn't get any closer as we kept going. Back a couple miles, Aaron P. had stopped and didn't want to go further, so Dave Burns stayed back with him. It surprised me because he was telling me he had never done this hike and couldn't wait. Right as I (Colby) got to the top, here comes Burns running up the trail and he got to the top right after I did, which was in the top 5, then he looked at the view for about two minutes, and then ran back down to Aaron P. who was sitting by himself. We got back down to the camp site and we started boiling water for our cup of noodles and MRI's and criticized James for saying it was two miles up and two mile down when in reality, like four miles up and four miles down. We had another devotional and hit the tents.

The next morning, which was Saturday, we woke up and packed up quickly because it was raining and started for the bottom. Pick a partner and walk down is what they told us, so we just started down and only about an hour later, me and a couple of the teachers were at the bottom. We waited for the others to come down and when they finally did we got in the cars and hit the roads. I swear all you could see for miles was boring farms. We went to the Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch, and ate alot of pizza.

Following that we went to BYU Idaho and did the ropes course that they had. They had giant swings that you got a harness and swung. They had team building activities and a cool looking teepee that had the rock wall stud things on them. When we finished the ropes course we started for home and about dinner time we went to an A&W resteraunt that James' father in law owned the building for, so then we all got free food. That was about 6 o'clock and then we played would you rather the whole way home, and got home about 9. It was a fun super activity and James' last as young mens president, but it was no Lake Powell. Hope for the best next year!