Been there, done that!! Some 40 years ago I first visited Zion National Park. At the entry kiosk there was a lovely young lady manning the station who I thought was one of the most beautiful women I had seen in a long time (I had just recently separated from my wife). I went to the canyon store a bit later that afternoon, and lo and behold the beautiful rangerette was there doing some shopping.
I engaged her in conversation and found that she was into canyoneering and was planning an overnigh excursion the next day. She invited me to come along, so we made plans to meet the next morning.
When I came to meet her that morning she informed me that boyfriend did not think that taking a stranger on an excursion in the back country was a good idea, so she regretfully retracted the invite.
I was pretty much heartbroken and as consolation I planned a hike up the West Rim Trail in Zion National Park. I just had one canteen for water and minimal food, but the trail description said that there was a spring a couple of miles into the hike, and one at the turnaround point.
The description said that it was a 13 mile hike, and for some reason I thought that was a round trip figure. I did find the spring that was 3 miles in and refilled my canteen, but as I hiked mile after mile without reaching the end I realized that the 13 was a one-way distance and I was looking at the equivalent of a marathon.
By the time I realized that I was probably over 10 miles in and just about out of water. I decided that since I was closer to the turnaround, and the promised spring, that I would be better of continuing on to the end so I could refill before heading back.
When I reached the turnaround, I was unable to find the spring! It was already quite hot (this was early July) as I turned around and made my death march back the way I had came. I did make it back to the first spring and was able to rehydrate, but it was pretty tense going.
When I got back to the road I was still miles from my campsite, so I stuck out my thumb and was soon picked up by a group of three young ladies from St. George. They were talking about how much fun they had meeting guys in the park, and I think the topic of skinny-dipping in the Emerald Pools came up.
"Sounds fun," I said, but just asked them to take me straight back to my campsite, which they did. There was a Dairy Freeze just outside of the park where I got the milkshake I had been craving. I then crawled into my sleeping bag and shivered for about six hours.
