For Kyle and Emily's birthday, we had a brilliant idea of going for a hike. We heard Bell's Canyon was a good, reasonably easy hike... while it was nice to get out with the family for a hike, we were very ill-prepared for this one. We thought an easy hike we would accomplish in an hour or so. So in the morning, we had a light breakfast, set out with our water packs and a bar with the intention of going to brunch / lunch afterward. Not quite how it turned out. It was 11am when we started, it was a million degrees out, we only had 1 bar and those 4 miles seemed like 14. About 4.5 hours later we were back at the car. The steep terrain, winding paths, extreme heat, lack of food and not eating enough for breakfast and making sure to conserve water, it was a challenge to say the least. It taught us a very valuable lesson though to make sure we bring more food than we think we will need and always enough water. And to avoid the heat and have proper covering from the sun in the heat.
Nonetheless, we powered through and saw the first waterfall at Bell's Canyon. About 1/2 mile from the falls, we divided and conquered because Aaron was just done. So Emily and I went first, came back to our meeting point, and then Jeff & Kyle went to the top. The hike got much harder at that point too so it was a good choice even if it took more time when we were all hungry and exhausted.
