The Legend of Chin Lee (Bruce Lee's Cousin)

Recently I enjoyed an excellent backpacking trip in the Needles Overlook area of South Eastern Utah. It was great to get away and live in the desert again. We hiked in a canyon along Indian Creek. The joy of being in a class was spending a week with strangers and getting tight and having the learning atmosphere to really appreciate the wonders around me.

Near the beginning of the trip I stated how cool it would be to wake up with snow one morning. It wouldn't be cool when it happened, but in like two weeks when we talked about it. Well, I became cursed and got my wish. I guess I never knew my power.

The next day we went on a day hike to a bend in the Colorado River. Even though the trip was cold (my water bottle froze two of the nights), I decided that an adventurous swim was well worth it. To avoid chickening out I decided to just run in as fast as I can and dive in when it got deep enough. After I took off my shirt and shoes I started my sprint. I got about twenty feet into the water, got stuck in the mud and promptly face planted. I tried to wade out to a swim able distance, but at about 30 feet the water was still only 3 inches deep, however I was nearly up to my waist in mud. I posed for a couple of pictures in the freezing water then struggled back to shore. After a very entertaining struggle to clean the mud off my feet so I could get my socks back on we began the hike back to camp (and my pants weighed like 20 extra pounds because of the mud and water coating my pants).


Next we stopped at a waterfall, it was a little warmer, but quite exhilarating. It was nice to clean off all the camping grime and feel at least a little fresh again. Nearly everyone took the chance to wash off.

We had a fun foreign exchange student from China named Lin. He is from Shanghai and had never been camping before. He was fun to hang with on the trip because of how foreign the whole experience was for him. He fell asleep just as we left Salt Lake. He woke up somewhere near Green River and his eyes were wide with the amazement of how the environment had change. It may have crossed his mind that we had taken him to another planet. I don't think he quite knew what to expect. He survived the trip off of a loaf of bread and several packages of oreos. He said he would camp again. I sure hope so.


Overall the trip was just amazing. Here are some more pictures to wrap it up.

Our last Camp

Some Mining Remains

Petrified Wood



Hieroglyphics



So here is the Legend of Chin Lee, it was a way we could remember all the formations (layers) of rock in the area. We came up with it as a class.

It was a Paradox because one Hanukkah (Hannaker) an elephant (Elephant Canyon)was hit by a cedar (Cedar Mesa) and his Organs gushed out. All that was left was White Rim tusks and he could no longer moan copiously (Moenkopi). Then Bruce Lee's Cousin, Chin Lee (Chinli) came along and made a samurai sword from the tusks, went through the Wingate, ate the magical Cayenne Pepper (Kayenta) and defeated the mighty Navajo. He then celebrated by eating Carmel.