Remnants

Backpacking Canyon Country, Utah

As we forged the last river crossing of the day and entered the shade of this 1,000+ foot cliff face, these willows and tumbleweeds stopped me in my tracks. I sat with this scene for twenty minutes or so, as long as I could stand the throbbing, pulsating in my cold feet. My heels covered in duct tape which at this point in the trip did not give me any relief. This was day three of a damn beautiful and radically difficult backpacking trip. With blisters on both feet, inhibiting my hiking, crossing the half-frozen river and not being prepared for single-digit nights, we were ready to go out of dodge. The river crossings, I unfortunately did not prepare wisely, I walked barefoot across the half frozen river, cutting my feet up, bleeding at each cut. Shortly after this image, we found a place to set up camp. We rallied and collected a ton of firewood. I went out and mostly enjoyed a quiet evening alone then came back to a warm and toasty fire and sat looking up at the darkest skies in the