Mission Day Zion - After Action Report
canon07
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Agents from Utah, California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and even a few from as far away as Texas, Michigan, and Virginia explored Zion National Park and the gateway communities of St. George and Springdale, Utah during Mission Day Zion on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019.
A total of 40 agents checked in with the required six banner missions completed, although quite a few agents completed all 24 missions on the day.
This was an unusual Mission Day in that the main attraction, Zion National Park, has too few portals and far too little cell service to create 18, let alone 24 missions. So instead, agents were given 18 missions in nearby downtown St. George to complete along with the option of being able to check in at the photo op early in the day so they could complete the final six missions that would lead them out to Zion National Park and spend the rest of the day after completing the missions exploring the park.
"It was a wonderful idea smoothly executed. It was not at all what I expected. I expected to frolic in one of my favorite national parks. Instead I found a beautiful city with tons of art and culture. Thank you for sharing it. I will definitely be back....when least expected...with more bursters..." said @ALivelyLlama after the event.
The weather was perfect with clear blue skies and high temperatures in the low 80s.
Zion National Park did not disappoint as agents were treated to beautiful fall colors throughout the park which only added to the spectacular colors found in the red sandstone canyons. Agents explored amazing hikes to viewpoints and through narrow river-filled canyons.
"We're glad we drove a million hours, Zion is the prettiest place we've ever taken a nice truck nap in." said @ModularModular.
In fact, a number of agents took advantage of the spectacular weather over the weekend to explore even further afield in southern Utah, Agents in attendance at MD Zion also visited Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and one couple of agents even planned to spend the week following the event volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in nearby Kanab, UT.
Thanks to all who journeyed out to explore southern Utah, Zion National Park and the surrounding area at Mission Day Zion and a special thanks to those who shared their photos along the way!
Photo by @GuerrillaGabbo
Photo by @QuartzXeno
Photo by @TheShadowRaven
Photo by @Morganza
Photo by @canon07
Photo by @GuerrillaGabbo
Photo by @Morganza
Photo by @TheShadowRaven
Photo by @canon07
Comments
Awesome MD, thanks very much for hosting and putting in all the effort to make it happen!
Thank you so much to our hosts for one of the best Mission Days I've ever attended. And certainly the most unusual, at least for me.
My usual Mission Day pattern is to do most or all of the missions, interspersed in rows of 6 with most or all of the local banners. Go everywhere, hack all the things, capture as much as I can. Not this time. Nope nope nope. Zion is just too cool to spend my time with my nose in the scanner.
So I brought a couple of friends, avid hikers and not Ingress players, with me for the explicit purpose of dragging me away from the portals.
We rolled into St. George around 2 am, and the missions were already live. Around 3 am I went out walking, 650 meters to the closest mission and then a relatively tight loop of the 6 closest. Of course I left a swath of green in my wake but it was tight and narrow; I left so many gray and blue portals behind to either side of me. Save my energy for hiking. (Well OK I did succumb to a few moments of weakness. Just a few.) In 47 minutes I'd done my 6 missions and was on my way back to bed. (I did take a few moments to admire Ancestor Square, so nice with the fountain at night, and dropped some hopefully helpful comments in the chat.) The next morning I dropped my bags in the car, walked over to the group photo, got checked out, and was picked up and in the car on my way to the park 5 minutes later.
And we did a fair bit of hiking. The iconic Zion Narrows canyon where the hike goes up the middle of the river. (The water never got higher than my waist.) Lower Emerald Pool, so pretty. Angels Landing, where the pictures make you expect the last bit of trail to be a steep narrow trail with a guide chain, not a scramble up slickrock hauling yourself up on the chain. (My legs were too short and my confidence was too low, I turned around 20 feet up the chains and and killed some time taking boring pictures of places where cute chipmunks had been a moment before.). West Rim.
On the third day we bailed out of Zion and Utah, and went to Valley of Fire in Nevada. Big red rocks ;-). Hiking through red sand. :-(
I did open Ingress here and there, but Prime's inability to handle movement, operate in low signal, or start up quickly kept me from going after the portals along the way. Why bother to open Ingress if speed lock lasts longer than a rest break?
We got to the airport a bit earlier than planned and our airline graciously gave us an extra 65 minutes to sit around, but my legs were too stiff and sore for me to seriously contemplate doing any of the missions in the airport. I just sat, happily exhausted.
I'll be stiff and sore for days but feel I made most of the right choices.
Thank you.
P.S. the group photo was overwhelmingly blue, I'm sorry I wasn't able to stick around for the chaos caps, and I'm sure all the Smurfs were sad to see me go as well. I'll smash y'all next time.