THE NARROWS | Upper on Day 1

The first day of hik­ing started at 5 a.m. for me. I wanted to take the 9:30 a.m. shut­tle instead of the 6:30 a.m. one, but they need at least two peo­ple signed up in order to run the shut­tle, and I was the only one (one minor dis­ad­van­tage for us solo hik­ers). I also added half an hour to my start by stay­ing at the Trav­elodge in Hur­ri­cane because that was a longer drive than sleep­ing in Springdale.

Zion Adven­ture Com­pany runs two shut­tles in the morn­ing, and the 90-minute drive to the trail­head is pretty spec­tac­u­lar.  It’s also very curvy and bumpy, so if you get car sick, ask to sit up front.

The hike started on a dirt road for the first three miles, and the morn­ing air was chilly enough that I pulled out my fleece top and wore it until I was walk­ing in the water a while. It’s amaz­ing how small the river starts at the trail­head, and it was cool to see both the river and canyon walls grad­u­ally grow in size.

The canyon walls start to appear grad­u­ally on the upper sec­tion of the Narrows

I took my time going to camp­site, because I knew I would get bored being their too long. Even with my stop-and-smell-the-roses pace, I arrived mid after­noon (my best guess is around 2 p.m.). Once the hike started, I only encoun­tered 5 groups of peo­ple: a group of 6, a group of 3, two cou­ples, and two park rangers (one of whom I met the day before when she gave me my back­coun­try per­mit and instruc­tions on how to poop in the bag).

Video recap of the day:

TIPS from DAY 1:

1. PACK FICTION TO READ. The only book I brought to read was Peter Drucker’s The Effec­tive Exec­u­tive. Excel­lent read, but I had a lot of soli­tude time to kill at the camp­site, and after three hours of Drucker, I really wanted some fiction.
2. LEARN TO SLEEP ON THE GROUND. I packed light and only had a sleep­ing bag. I need to find the right pad that is hik­ing friendly. I ached more from sleep­ing on the ground than from car­ry­ing 60 lbs on my back.
3. SEAL YOUR FOOD TIGHT. Some sort of crit­ter got in my back­pack which was cinched but not sealed. What­ever the local wildlife was, it broke into my trail mix and devoured all my Power Bar Energy Bites.
4. BRING FLIP FLOPS. Ahh… nice to be out of those boots.
5. TAKE THE LATER SHUTTLE. Or get a camp­site that is fur­ther down the trail.
6. HAVE SOME COFFEE FOR THE SHUTTLE RIDE. It’s a long ride, and they have a trash can on the shut­tle. If you’re a cof­fee drinker, sit back enjoy the ride with a nice fresh cup of joe.

OTHER NARROWS POSTS:

• Prepar­ing and Packing
• The Lower Sec­tion on Day 2
• Par­ody of 127 Hours birth­day message