Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Like a lion in Zion



We arrived at Zion canyon at around midnight, as usual, maybe a little early for us actually, and decided that it was time to find a campground to spend the night. But because we forgot that it was Friday, all the campgrounds were already full. So why not camp in the middle of the nature? But as soon as we started to pitch the tent, coming from nowhere in the dark, Mr Power Ranger busted us and quite gently told us to move out of the park to camp somewhere else down in the valley. The spot he showed us was free, and would be referred later as Ant Land. The good news was that the Virgin river was just down the campground where we found a very nice spot. Despite Mad Wax’s fear of tarantulas and werewolves we decided to sleep under the stars. The night would have been perfect if we could have turned off the stupid moon that happened to be almost full that night. We were woken up by the hundreds of Ants that invaded our sleeping bags the next morning at 8AM, fucking ants! Between that moment and the beginning of our hike, 10 hours were lost, and we still cannot figure out how we ended up starting hiking at 6PM. (Actually you guys are partly responsible for that because we spent part of that time updating the blog).



The hike was cool and we accomplished our daily mission of spreading our awesomeness to others.

After the hike, it was time, once again, to find a place to sleep. So, we headed out of Zion and found ourselves in Ruby’s Inn. This is where we learned we were in Mormon country. (Fucking Mormons!) We set up camp at midnight and slept under the stars again – except Mad Wax, who slept in the tent to escape potential spider attacks.

The next morning, we were so efficient that we got to Bryce Canyon in time to start our hike before 6pm. We should have known better. This was the worst idea ever! The first sign that the journey into the canyon would go wrong was that we were surrounded by French people. (Fucking French!) One family in particular – the Cécile Family – thought we were so awesome that they were always following us around.

Halfway through our hike, we met the Fantastic Four who would prove to be not only very cool people but also very helpful to us. (The main reason they were cool, of course, is that the two women had great names: Tricia and Pat.) We talked to Tricia, Pat, Vince and Bob for a while and then set off to finish our hike. We were nearly done when Trish suggested – clearly joking – that Junior Beaver hang from one of the cliffs so we could take a picture of his rock-climbing skills. The next thing we knew, Junior Beaver had slid more than 10 feet down one of the cliffs and was

stuck there. Within moments, there was a huge gathering at the edge of the cliff. People were very worried, of course, except for one French lady who scolded us. But, don’t worry: Junkie took the time to defend Junior Beaver (while JB was about to plummet to his death) by yelling at her.

Thankfully, the Fantastic Four found us again. Tricia and Pat tried tying their jean jackets together to rope JB back up. Alas, this didn’t work: Junior Beaver was still stuck and one of the jackets was destroyed.
 

Finally, Bob and Vince dragged a huge tree stump over to bring Junior Beaver back to safety. Good thing we captured some of the excitement on video!



5 comments:

tei said...

now i believe those crazy stories from all your other trips

Anonymous said...

I am for a new "Who is the most Awesome of the mercenaries?", after the road trip (and having seen the pictures)... sure the results won't be the same (and I'll have the time to vote). Enjoy your trip little mercernaries !
- Newton John

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

ok -- time for an update Les Mercenaires.
i miss you all very much and now need to know which songs you're singing, who's doing the morning shot, and who's showering with whom.

every now and then, play a whitney houston or christophe maé song and think of me. ha ha.

énormes bisous...

Cécile

Anonymous said...

obviously they do not shower...

hope you're not disappointed

Louis