Trevor Fulton, temporary faculty lecturer for the University of Idaho Department of Movement Sciences, led a group of seven students on a backpacking trip to Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah from Nov. 18-24.
Jim Ekins | Courtesy
Trevor Fulton, temporary lecturer for the UI, leads Department of Movement Sciences University of Idaho students on a backpacking trip through Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah, Nov. 18-24.
Fulton said the group drove straight through to Utah on the way there. The trip took 16 hours with everyone taking turns driving. On the way home they decided to take two days instead of one.
According to utah.com, the hiking trails range in difficulty from green circles, or easy, to black diamonds, or strenuous. Fulton said during the trip the group covered more than 30 miles of the desert, and were able to loop three different canyons. He said the weather was great, but everyone still needed to dress warm because the sun went down early making things fairly cold.
“Luckily there were no injuries, and no one got lost,” Fulton said.
He said he felt the trip was a success and everyone had a great time.
Jim Ekins was one of the members of the group and said the trip was fantastic.
“The most memorable part of the trip for me was the third night, camping out on Slick Rock Basin,” Ekins said.
Ekins said most of the group slept outside instead of in tents and were able to see the stars clearly in the sky.
Ekins said the group got along well and they all had a good time.
Fulton said the group had their own Thanksgiving celebration while on the trip.
“It’s tradition for this trip that we have a communal Thanksgiving meal,” Fulton said.
He said the meal had all the food of a regular Thanksgiving dinner including turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy.
Ekins said all the ingredients used to make the meal were carried in the groups backpacks until Thursday night when the meal was prepared. He said the group was able to make cranberry sauce by cooking store bought cranberries with Tang which one of the members brought.
Fulton said trips like these give students who can’t go home over the break something to do, not to mention the fact that it is a great way to stay in shape. He said these trips usually happen over the shorter breaks like Thanksgiving and spring break but not during Christmas or summer break since school isn’t in session.
“These trips give students a chance to meet new people and provides opportunities for them to see new places,” Fulton said.
Ekins said he highly recommends that students go on these kinds of trips but to make sure they are up for the task. He said specifically with this trip the participants needed to be relatively fit and had to have at least some kind of backpacking experience.
Each of the students who went on the trip paid a fee of $190 which included transportation and their faculty leader for the trip.
Erik Fink can be reached at [email protected]