Essay #1
I was less than 1 week away from my annual guys only campout in the great Wasatch Range. It was my turn to pick the location, since Ralph and Patrick chose the last two and I decided that we would go camping near Lake Hardy located in American Fork Canyon, Utah. On Friday, the day before we were to go camping, things really started to heat up (literally). The entire State of Utah was in the middle of a heat wave, the hottest day of which was anticipated to be Saturday (our "special" day). I woke up that Saturday morning, felt the heat, and considered calling the whole thing off. Just then Patrick, one of my best friends, called all excited and asking me when we were going to leave for camping. Pat showed up at 8:30 a.m. lugging a backpack that was stuffed with his clothes for that evening and a change of clothes for the following day.
Now I've been to American Fork Canyon several times before, and I’ve camped in various spots, but I decided to choose Lake Hardy. I figured we would have no problem getting a campsite since it was out of the way and we that we would undoubtedly have privacy, so I didn't bother making reservations. Needless to say, when we pulled up to the canyon gate at 11:30 a.m., it was 105 degrees and the line to get in was almost very long. But with everyone enjoying the truck’s air-conditioning, we took our time. I drove up to the gate and asked if we could get a 2 day pass for camping
After pulling the camping gear out of my truck and getting the four-wheelers set up I continued to drag our 150-pound monster of a tent and put it on my four-wheeler. We spent the next two hours riding up to Lake Hardy and finally found a great spot. We pitched our tent and set up camp on what felt like the Sun. It was so hot, that the black metal poles used to hold up the tent were burning our hands. We literally had to juggle the poles in our hands while trying to insert them into the slots that create the frame of the tent. By the time the tent...