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HAT Backpacking at San Juan Wilderness, CO (Sasquatch patrol)

This backpacking trip was great fun. We had to wake up around 6:00 am and get to the church. Once we got there we made sure that everything was ready and got in the vans. We rented big vans that held 12 people each.

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The vans were pretty good but the seatbelts were aggravating. Sometimes they would just lock and you couldn’t pull them out. That day we drove about 11 or 12 hours in the vans and got to the military armory in Oklahoma City. We slept in a gym type room. We used our mats and our sleeping bag.

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We woke the next day and ate some cereal then got in the vans. We drove another 11 hours and got to the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.

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They were AWESOME.

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We got there that night and set up camp and ate, then went to the sand dunes and tried out our sleds and skateboards. The skateboards didn’t really work that well, but the sleds did. We played around for a little while then went back to camp and went to sleep.

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We got up that morning, ate breakfast, and went to the dunes.

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We did a little project thing and picked up all these stakes. After the project, we went to a pool called Hooper pool. It was great. It was like a hot tub pool.

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We swam and had showers there, then we went to the dunes and climbed to the top.

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It was great up there. We sledded down to the bottom then went to the camp and went to bed. We got up that morning and drove a few hours to the trail head.

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We had lunch (honey and almond butter on tortillas and dried apples) and we hit the trail separating into two patrols. I (Raef) was in the Sasquatch patrol. My patrol hiked from the trail head to the Conejos falls. That hike was about 6 miles.

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It was pretty but we had to set up our tents fast because it started raining. We got to choose our food for each breakfast and dinner. I had noodles and chicken that night. We slept and woke up early. I had oatmeal that morning. We packed everything up and hiked to blue lake. This was the hardest day. Lots of Steep up and down hill. It was about 8 miles.

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We got to blue lake, set up, and some people went swimming.

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It was freezing cold. We ate dinner (I had beef stew) and went to bed. Woke up the next morning and hiked 8 miles to Timber Lake and ate tortilla and packet chicken.

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We didn’t quite get to Timber Lake because we took the wrong trail at fork. Thanks to someone we named Mountain Man, we were sent in the right way. We ate dinner (I ate chicken teriyaki) and went to bed. The next day we hiked 8 miles back to blue lake.

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We swam a lot when we got there. We ate dinner (I ate lasagna) and went to bed. The next day we hiked 6 miles to the trailhead to conclude our backpacking.

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It was a great and very pretty trip. From the trailhead we drove to a Mexican all you can eat buffet. It was the best!!!! Then we drove to a hot springs that felt amazing.

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We then drove back to the Great Sand Dunes and slept there.

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We then woke up and drove around 11 hours to the Amory and played indoor Frisbee and went to bed. We ate at subway and taco bell. We woke up, had oatmeal, and hit the road for another 10 hours and got to the church. In all the trip was amazing! I had great fun on this trip and I know everyone else did too.

Trip Photos

 

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