Gunshots Are Not Something You Want to Hear When You are Camping

Next up on our bucket list of adventures was to go camping with a group of friends. It was probably one of the best camping trips I've ever been on! Up big cottonwood canyon, you are allowed to camp anywhere as long as it is 1/2 mile away from any road or trail. We found a great place to camp that is not quite that far....but close enough! This round of camping we went with Lauren, Devin, Logan, Elise, Artyom and Asher. Seth and I arrived a little before everyone else so we had our tent and everything ready by the time everyone got there. So as everyone else was setting up their tents, Seth, Asher and I set out to to fetch wood which Logan then broke into little wooden pieces with a wooden club he found. As the night continued we enjoyed the fresh mountain air and one an others company. Asher, Seth and I went on a little hike on a trail right above our camp. It took us out onto a gorgeous view of the canyon opening. As we walked we discussed how the trail was probably a pipeline trail or possibly....an abandoned mining trail. We even found an apple tree that branched out over the trail! The trail ended off the side of the mountain on the south side of the mountain. There we found a bench that someone had made out of long pieces of wood found on the side of the trail. Watching the sunrise from that bench would be incredible and is defiantly going on a future bucket list! That night we cooked dinner (which included bortch made by Devin's Ukrainian brother!) and sat around the fire and talked. One by one we started crawling into bed and falling asleep. Around 2:30 am we hear a bunch of loud voices of a bunch of men passing our tent. They are pretty much yelling about how creepy our tents looked and swearing up a storm. Seth of course grabs his gun but they pass and go on their way... possibly drunk or high. A couple hours later they come back, being a little quieter but not much. This time Logan is ready, hiding in the bushes , ready with his wooden club. But they left our camp untouched and continued on their way. A little while later our peaceful night was once again disturbed by 5 very loud gunshots sounding like they were very close to our camp. Logan and Devin run down the mountain to grabs Devin's shotgun that is in his truck. Seth stays at the camp walking around with his gun. I get out and walk around with him as well to keep him company. We then hear footsteps coming towards our camp from the west. Seth shines his light down the path and the footsteps stop. He turns it off and they start again and out comes two boys dressed in desiner cloths carrying a backpack. Seth asks them if they shot those gun shots and there response was "uh..........uh......no....." in other words yes. After chatting a bit more they headed down the mountain and Seth made sure they went down the mountain. After we had sat around and chatted for a bit we went back to sleep hoping we weren't woken up by gun shots again.