The Maze, Day 3: Are We Stuck in The Maze?

March 18, 2018.

To say it was one of the more blustery nights we’ve spent in the tent would be an understatement. Perched on the edge of the canyon wall, the rain fly was getting whipped around, and the tent was acting like a sail in the bed of the truck — shaking the entire truck to and fro.

@mrs.turbodb asked if there was any chance we might roll backwards.

“Not really,” I said. (and then I proceeded to put my clothes back on and get out to chock the tires — you know, “just in case.”

We slept soundly until 4:00am or so — the wind picking up and dropping off through the night, but not a worry since the truck wasn’t going anywhere. But, in those early morning hours, we started to feel moisture in the air — blown in through the screens covering tent doors and windows, which we always leave open for ventilation.

No problem — we just zipped everything up and went right back to sleep — unaware that a Winter Weather Advisory was being issued just as we were nodding off.

As usual, my alarm went off at 6:30am, so I could get up and enjoy the sunrise. It was still windy when I woke up to wind buffeting the tent — a good sign in my mind since that would dry off any moisture from the night before. Unfortunately, as I poked my head out the tent, I noticed that not only was it windy, but there was just a bit of snow falling — a sure sign that there’d be no sunrise to capture. “Oh well, I thought — I got a couple good ones already this trip, I’ll get another hour or so of sleep and hopefully the snow will have stopped when we get up.”

Oh, was I wrong.

Not only had the snow not stopped when I woke up again at 7:30am, but conditions outside had become white-out-blizzardy conditions. We had a quick conversation about our plan of attack, and it went something like this:

• I’d get out of the tent and start putting it away (getting what snow I could off of it, etc.).
• @mrs.turbodb would get out of the tent and take the pillows and blankets into the cab of the truck so they wouldn’t get wet.
• I’d get the tent put away and everything back into the bed.
• We’d wait for Ben @m3bassman, Kirsten, and Zane @Speedytech7 to get up and get their stuff put away.

Within minutes of my getting up, Ben was also up and out of his tent — having gone through a similar morning experience and realizing that it hadn’t worked out the way he’d expected, either. We had a quick pow-wow and decided that our plan of attack would be “get out of there as quickly as possible.” He roused Kirsten and Zane, and we all set about tearing down camp, and then tearing out of camp so we wouldn’t be stuck in The Maze.

To see if we made it out, keep reading Are We Stuck in the Maze? over at adventuretaco.com.

Originally published at adventuretaco.com.