Zions, Heat Stroke and Alex Paulos

Last July my friend Alex and I out of the blue decided to go looking for giant mummies. I knew the locations of a few in Zions and down by Kanab. So we headed off with zero planning. First we went to a small mountain near Levan to see a giant cave with ancient Indian artifacts, horse bones and strange floating orbs of light, then we drove to Mesquite and had a good night of swimming, resting and eating buffet's.

On the way back we stopped off at Zions for the day. We did not start at a trail but hiked down from a remote parking lot on into a dry river bed leading to the area with the giant mummy. All we had to carry things was a small business folder seen carried by Alex on the right. We had one bottle of water each and oh yes a bag of jolly ranchers.

After about 6 miles of hard climbing, 110 degrees, little shade, being somewhat off track, and no water left, things started to get grim. We used the GPS we had to find the nearest road but it was too far away for much relief. We were both in the process of getting heat stroke.

A little miracle occured when we found a very small pool of water. It was teaming with tadpoles, but it was what we needed very dearly. We were close to the Giant Mummy, but were to distraught to go up another mile to see it so we turned back. After cooling down in the pool we hiked a few more miles to the road. Alex went ahead and followed the road another mile to the car and drove back.

Of course the lesson of the story is to always be sure to bury your dead horses neatly and with dignity so a thousand years later thier remains aren't strewn all over the place!