day 16 -- zion; hiking with kim jong il

spun down the long road at dawn and got dawn pics that no one but fishermen on their way to kolob reservoir likely see, caught an early shuttle to the angels landing trailhead midway up the canyon, and hiked without too many companions up to a breathtakingly scenic rock 1200' above the canyon floor. the pictures tell that narrative well enough, but this is where the dear leader comes in...midway up I passed a huffing and puffing caricature of kim jong il struggling earnestly up the switchbacks. he honestly looked more like KJI than the team america caricature, and given the real version's tendency to sneak out of north korea once and a while on secret trains, I figured even money it was him. and the can-do spirit that he substitutes for food to his starving people was there, too. thought there was no chance he'd tackle the last, rock-scrambling chain-grabbing last half mile to the pinnacle...but just as I started down after reclining on rocks for a while and snapping photos for various families (including a german one whose father was terrified I was going to back off the cliff in an effort to get a good shot of them), here came our hero. when he reached the top he waved frantically to his wife waiting on a lower shelf and exulted in his triumph for the fatherland. (not really.) all this excitement about asian dictators was part of creeping delirium from a lack of food. at the bottom of the trail I tacked on a loop around the 'emerald pools' to the lodge, and along the way I saw a woman in a teal top and dark sunglasses sitting beside the trail. she turned out to be a cactus. and so on.

the way down was a touch crowded, as was the rest of the day's exploring. crammed on the shuttle bus, herded up the riverwalk into the narrower stretches of the canyon with crying babies and squirrel-feeding new yorkers. wished I had planned this all better with backcountry hikes up the narrows or the trail back to the campsite (now it was too late to trudge 14 miles up), but another time. I did get to ride a shuttle driven by ned beatty, though, even after I'd foraged some food. another quiet night at the campground away from the crowds...the first night I'd occupied the same bed/patch of ground on the trip.