Hello families and loved ones! We are coming to you this week from Chevelon Canyon, about a 2 hour drive from Flag and a 3-day backpacking trip. This was kinda a plan D for B2B, as plans A-C had fallen through either due to inclement weather or fires.
Upon arriving at Chevelon we packed up and headed out, almost instantly we knew this was going to be tough. There wasn’t any clearly defined trail, or if there was at one time, it was now under water. Chevelon has tall, arching rocks moving uphill on either side with a creek or river flowing through the middle of it into a lake. Our goal was to make that lake… we did not hit out goal, but the important thing is we tried. 
We had to navigate through large brush, treacherously rocky terrain, and cross the river more times than I care to remember. Eventually we looked up and realized we had only gone about 2 miles in 4 hours, not our normal pace for sure. So we decided to make camp for the night and hold our AA meeting but mother nature would not abide. A furious storm rolled in and we were forced to retreat to our tents for the night.
Morning
The next morning our very own resident R shared his experience, strength, and hope after breakfast and we hit the trail or lack of trail again. I will say there is something to be said for making your own trail; it comes with a sense of adventure. The running joke throughout the day seemed to be every time we crossed the river we could spot a faint game trail on the opposite side. A cruel joke, to be sure.
We fared better on our second day, the weather was good and we made it about 4-5 miles before stopping to do Sharing is Caring. Afterwards, we turned around and headed back to our initial campsite to eat and listen to our senior resident P share his story before retiring to bed.
The next morning, we woke up early, had a breakfast of mandatory oats, packed up all of our gear and headed out. We decided to take a different route than we took the first day to try to avoid some of the more treacherous terrain that slowed us down. We also hoped to cut out some of the dozen river crossings we had to deal with by getting up higher on the canyon side. Our plan paid off, thanks to our fearless guides. We only had to cross the Chevelon Creek 3-4 times and we got to do a little bit of rock climbing in the back country – a first for all of us which was scary but really fun. 
After about 2 hours we saw the paved road! I can’t say it wasn’t a beautiful site and we had managed to shave about 2 hours off our initial time. It was definitely a different sort of B2B trip, but after all was said and done we all made it back safe and agreed that we had a great time for different reasons. The spirit of adventure is alive this week at B2B!
So… from Nick, Kevin, and all the boys here at B2B – we love you all and will c-ya next week!!
