Parentals on the North Rim

So the P rents came to Grand Canyon…mostly did the tourist thing all weekend. They rolled in last Friday afternoon right around when I was finishing work. Once again, nice to have people from home out here. We headed out to Bright Angel Point with Jessman who was still on the clock.

Mom and Dad with Canyon in the background on right. Can see a bit of smoke from the prescribed burns they were doing on the South Rim

Satuday morning woke up early for a sunrise out at point imperial. Took a stroll on the Ken Patrick Trail for a few minutes. Smoke/mist had settled in the canyon and it was quite pretty. Headed for breakfast at the lodge (first time all season) and then did some hiking on the Widforss trail.

Finally Made it out to Cape Royal for sunset. Saw an Osprey at Roosevelt point! It was huge! Didn't get a picture though.... a little too far away.

Dragged glady to Angel's window with me. Very proud of her for making it since sits not the easist trip for someone that is morbidly afraid of heights (Picture on Right)

Took the rents out to Point sublime on Sunday…. Aandd the truck died.. about 2 miles past the intersection to point sublime or fire point (which was where we were headed). Luckily we passed some fee guys that were going as we were leaving so Jess and I booked it to the intersection to intersept them… they showed up abuot 2 minutes after we got there and gave the four of us a ride back..lucky. Although snowflake is still sitting dead in the forest.

North Kaibab trail on Monday… Made it down to Supai tunnel and back without any problems.. proud of the old farts for getting down there haha…many people can’t do that. Dinner and bye bye trail boys L The North Rim will be much quiter without those volleyball/bonfire gatherings every 2 weeks and all that jazz.

Gearing up for a campfire in the woods and a condor release tomorrow morning. Should be a gas!

Toroweap

So Toroweap just might be my new favorite place at Grand Canyon. One of the only places (maybe the only one) where you can look down a sheer 3000ft drop to the river. Going to try to keep this one a secret though... I try to make it clear that people's tires won't survive but we learned that about 20,000 people make it out there every year. Kind of a bummer. Thousands of people every year could ruin this place. Sorry but its true.

Went out with Adriana who was on her way to California to work. Picture on right is Vulcan's throne, the volcano at Toroweap that was responsible for creating lava dams in the canyon when it erupted 13 times and helped erode and widen the canyon. Arrived just in time for some great lighting and a breathtaking sunset.

Jesse and Adriana on the Edge... Jesse undoubtedly interpreting some geology for Adriana :)

Sunset looking down river (bottom). Clouds and lighting and everything was beautiful! Very impressive. However, I will continue to tell people that Toroweap is impossible to get to (it is pretty much impossible if you don't have good tires and high clearance) but the experience would be much depleted with lots of people out at the point.

Adriana spotted a tarantula, the first one I've seen here. Cool

Got to the campground and started talking with Charlie, the volunteer out at Toroweap. Funny guy. Has the cutest little cocker spaniel named J Lo... (She has a big ass haha). Campground was pretty cool although I don't think any of us slept that well for some reason. May have been the mysterious mosquitos.

Caught sunrise the next morning (right) with some coffee and breakfast out at the point.

Ran into Todd, the Toroweap Ranger who patrols that half of the canyon on the North Rim. He showed us some places to go to and fed us some watermelon at the Ranger Station.

"Greater Tuweep metropolitan area" on left (thats what the sign says when you drive through it). Consists of the Ranger residence/station, a bunkhouse, bathroom and tool shed. :)

After our watermelon feast we headed out to Kanab Point... 2 hours on some sketchy dirt roads but an interesting view point. Most prominent feature is the esplanade sandstone plateauing out all over the place but you can see a stretch of the river unlike the viewpoints in the forest. Had some lunch and then headed out. Was a bit hot out there and getting late.

Jesse at Kanab point...

Caution: Geologist at work. Complete with topo maps and a gin and tonic. Essential materials in the field.

More truck trouble on the way back. Busted a break line right before Fredonia (lucky that it wasn't earlier I suppose). We parted ways with Adriana, talked some truck business and found a place to post up for the night.

Breakline pieces weren't abailable in Kanab... Had to wait for a piece from Denver. Alan and Judy, two peeps that work up here were also getting their vehicle worked on and offered to give us a ride back up to the rim... Paid our dues by helping them out on their property right near Zion which is going to be a banging spot once they get everything they want done.

Now the parents are here. Doing the tourist thing to give them the North Rim experience.

On the Res

Once again...slacking with this thing. my bad. Picture of me on the right at Crazy Jug Point, in the forest. We went there last weekend after taking the forest road back from Fredonia. Cool drive and a really nice view point. Attempted to climb down to the peninsula outcrop but I chickened out. steep scrambling, wearing chacos, about to get dark... I was cool getting half way and watching Jesse and Jake do it.

Anyway...halfway through the week on the North Rim. I may have met George Hayduke the other night (at least the guy that Edward Abbey based George Hayduke off of) which excites me very much.

This past weekend we went down to Marble Canyon to meet Addy, then made our way down to the Hopi Reservation. Addy was going to run in the 37th annual Louis Tewanima race. Louis Tewanima was a Hopi Indian who got shipped off to the Carlisle Indian School in PA and started running track there. He competed in the 1908, 1912, and 1916 olympics... won the silver in 1912 and actually set an American record that wasn't broken until about 60 years later by another Native American, Billy Mills broke it. So every year on the Hopi Res they have a series of runs to commemorate him. Pretty cool. Louis Tewanima didn't understand competitive running so his coach would basically point out the guy in first and Louis would run and beat him

"Me run fast good, all Hopi run fast good" -Tewanima.... All Hopi run fast good because it was a tradition that they would wake up every morning and run toward the sunrise to pray. And damn those Hopi are fast.

Anyway, somehow Jesse thought it would be a good idea for us to run too... a 10k. We were both rather ill-prepared for it to say the least. I ran in my hiking boots and Jess ran in his Chacos... but we finished. Jess might have been able to win a medal if he didn't wait for me at the top of the gnarly last hill (running uphill in sand, and then basically running up these 2ft stone steps...killer). But we finished! Addy came in second in our age group which was pretty awesome... I think 4th or 5th overall for the women.

Checked out some Hopi Butterfly dances afterward. Beautiful...

Headed into Flag and hung out on Sunday. Got lunch and wandered about with Addy and her Dad. Jess and I went up to Snowbowl and camped for the night... Then climbed Humphrey's peak in the morning. Hymphreys is the tallest peak in Arizona, about 12633 ft to be exact. Picture on the left is the trail signs for humphreys. It was about 4.8 miles to the very top. Super windy at the saddle where that photo was taken. Miraculously it didn't hold up at the very top.. although they did have these little structures built as shelters against the wind.

I was feeling it at the top. Both the climb and the altitude. But we got there.... and I took a nap at the top haha. We also whipped out oysters, cheese and crackers for a little feast. Its nice to be done with crappy hiking food and now we can feast.

Picture of me on the right at the very top. Cool Climb but definitely a challenge... and probably not the best idea after running a 10k hopi trail race...

Rim Job

Kaibab mating season wouldn't be at the end of the summer would it? They've been out and about quite a bit this past week... Anyway had my first couple days in full-on ranger uniform and flat hat. Look goofy...but have been told I just might be the cutest ranger some people have ever seen...and have gotten my picture taken much more than usual. haha

Soo...Hiked across the canyon this weekend...twice. Started out late Friday night around 8:30 and hiked down the North Kaibab trail with Addy and Jess.

Picture of the three of us at the trailhead.

Made it down to Phantom Ranch (14 miles) by around 3:30 am. Stayed at the Phantom Ranch Trail crew bunkhouse.. which I must say is quite nice. Air ocnditioning and a full kitchen, showers and flushing toilets. Kind of cheating for a backpacking trip but I think its ok if you're going to be hiking almost 50 miles in 3 days... Full on Rim Job.

Hung out most of the day in the ac (was over 100 degrees at the bottom... too hot to be outside, hiking, or doing anything really). Ate some of the good food we brought down, read, napped, chilled... Then set out around 4:30 pm. Just a few minutes into it we came across a little kid by himself on the trail. We started talking to him (which was difficult cause he was so out of it) and realized that he had come down the Bright Angel trail with a group of people, and he had gone ahead of them. This kid was probably about 8... was carrying no water and was completely dry. This is one thing that always amazes me when people come here. How they just don't get it. The Bright Angel Trail is more than 9 miles down and the farther you go, the hotter it gets. We found this kid around 4:30 which means his group probably started walking in the late morning and maybe even as late as noon. Stupid. Addy and I walked him tabk to the canteen to get him some food and water. I tried to tell him to get into the creek to cool off and he told me that the adults he was with told him not to go in the water....ok.... maybe its alright to tell young children to not go swimming in the creeks... but if you're going to be hiking in the canyon during the day during the hot months you need to stay wet. Jesus. Anyway we stayed with him giving him our water and gatorade, an dhis group that Jesse had gone ahead to find came around 15 minutes later. About 6 or 7 other YOUNG kids and a few adults... all really out of it an dobviously really dehydrated. Stupid.

Anyway, picture of Silver Bridge on Bright Angel Trail on Left.

Made it up to Indian Garden in a couple hours, anice little oasis halfway down the canyon. Made dinner at the bunkhouse and hten did the last 4.5 miles up. Brutal. But hiking in the moonlight was delightful. Jake, NPS river crew guy, met us at the trailhead and had been shining his crazy powerful spotlight on us for the last mile or so of the hike. Jesse mentioned that he felt like frodo with that light searching for us and I had to agree. Haha

Spent the night and day up on the grim rim as Jessica calls it... stayed inside recuperating. Sunday Evening me and Jesse headed down the South Kaibab trail around 6PM. Addy stayed to chill and take the shuttle back.

South Kaibab is an AWESOME trail. A bit of a trade off because there isn't any water on it... but seven miles down to Phantom and no mules! (except the very last stretch).. Which makes a huge difference. Hiking and not having to worry about dodging mule doody is very nice.

We were able to catch a spectacular sunset and stop for a beer with two guys a little ways down. Relatively uneventufl except the beautiful sunset and then four Russian dudes we ran into more than half way down that were coming up form the river and carrying nothing ubt cameras (Not even a water bottle). People are crazy.

Two South Kaibab sunset pictures below

Woke up late the next morning (set the alarm for pm not am) and headed out around 8. Kind of late but the box wasn't too hot and we made it to Ribbon Falls just as it was starting to heat up real nice. Stayed there for a few hours, basking, eating and talking to people.




Picture of me in front of the falls just before we left. Lovely little stop in the middle of the hostile, unforgiving canyon.

Made our way to Cottonwood Campground in the afternoon and finally saw a Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake! (On right) Silius said it was probably Gary, the super chill pinky that hangs out around cottonwood and never rattles or bothers anyone. Typical pinky behavior.



Continued on and checked out the gauntlet... natural waterslides in the tapeats sandstone near roaring psrings. Was a bit too cold to go for a it but definitely want to get down there again soon. The first waterslide looked pretty gnarly but fun.

Headed up. Got dark and hiked in the moonlight around supai tunnel (two miles down). By far the worst part of the trip. Difficult, sandy, steep and mule poopy. Its trails like that that make me wish they would just phase the mules out. or make mule-only trails.

Picture of me at the North Kaibab Trailhead just to give you an idea of how tough those last few miles were...and how sweaty I got.

Great weekend. Challenging, but we were definitely proud of ourselves for completing the full on Rim-to-rim-to-rim (Rim Job) of Grand Canyon :)

Not all who yonder are lost

Have been lazy with blogging again. This week has been pretty busy. My first week of full hsifts, an da bit tiring. Highlight of hte day: seeing two kaibab squirrels playing around during my Nature walk and then having a mama muledeer and her baby walk up right in fron of my group. Needless to say the tourons had a photo field day. Also met the great grandson of the first man to drive a vehicle up to the north rim... pretty neat.

Anyway...

Quite a wonderful weekend.

Had half of Friday off thanks to Robin our awesome boss... headed down to Flagstaff with Jess, Addy, Jake and Kenton for a Yonder Mountain String Band show in the pines. (Picture of the boys on right). Awesome show... and awesome venue. Sort of reminded me of Susquehanna bank center back home except a bit smaller, in the pines, you can get right up to the stage, and you don't have to fear for your life when you're getting there.

Lots of NPS folk there too and we all got a group campsite which was about a 15 minute walk from the venue. Didn't get to hang out too much after the show... slowly turning into an old lady but before and during was tons of fun. However I think the icing on the cake had to be hte civil war battle reenactment when we woke up the next morning haha! The confederates won whilst a bunch of hippies from the yonder concert cheered and took pictures. Very entertaining.

Got to do some real people things and went and . Headed back to Flag after watching the confederates beat all 8 yanks... got some food and did some thriftstore shopping. Made out pretty well... Some heinous sweaters, a unicorn jewelry box, some old school waist high blue pants an da vintage northface fleece from around 1982 :)

Got to do some real people things and went and saw inception. Cool movie. got some sushi, went to a dog friendly bar and listened to some good music and hten headed up to snowboal for some free camping in the forest. Good day.

Headed down to Page on Sunday. Met up with Gibson and some othe NPS peeps, got some food and spent the day on Gibson's boat (the Lady Contumacious haha).

Couldn't fit everyone on the boat so I hung back the first round with Jesse, Addy, Damon and Daisy the dog (one of hte coolest dogs I've ever met I might add). We did some swimming over to a litlte cove and climbed a bit on the sandstone. Got pretty beat up from that. Chilled some more on the beach.. Picture of me and Jesse being beach bums on the Left.

When everyone came back, the four of us got to go out... Had my first wakeboarding experience. Got up after a few tries... Couldn't remember how to steer into the wake from my brief snowboarding days but that's ok. Did much better Sunday than I did on Monday as well. Think I was just super tired the next day. That stuff really takes it out of you.

Spent the night at camp on this beach across the way form Wahweap Marina. Had dinner, chilled by the fire, skinnydipped haha, tried to find shelter when it started Raining...fun night. Went out on the boat a bit more on Monday and headed out of the Powell area around 2 then back up to the N rim after dealing iwht some car issues. Overall...awesome weekend.

Ken Patrick Fail

Spotty internet service has severely hindered my posting. So this update is going pretty far back.

Congratulations to my Aunt Irene and new Uncle Gary who wer emarried yesterday in the Caribbean. Am waiting for pictures but am sure it was a beautiful wedding... Wish I could have been there.

Anyhoo....

The Robertsons are gone. Headed out last week and ar enow safely back in Scranton, PA. Pretty sure they had a good visit.... I know I had a fun time with them here :)

Well its monsoon season at Grand Canyon. Been raining quite a lot. Especially the weekend before last. Sunday (the 1st) was so crappy, there was really nothing to do but laundry, reading, leg waxing and hanging around. Did however introduce the Robertsons to Kings. Silly.

This past weekend, me and Jesse tackled the Ken Patrick Trail.... again. Failed miserably the first time when we started form Point Imperial (on the 31st), walked the three miles to cross the Cape Royal Road, and hten los thte trail when it headed throuh a burn area. Hike started off pretty nicely though. At point imperial it had rained all night so the canyon was just a wall of fog.
You couldn't see 20 ft in front of you... Kind of spooky when you know that one of the world's biggest holes is right before you but you can't see it.

Picture of the foggy trailhead. Sign says 2 miles to cape royal road but was actually 3... They should change that.

Kind of like hiking in Maine, no?

Was truly amazing looking when the fog was starting to lift and you could just see glimpses of canyon among billowing clouds and fog patches. Beautiful.

Picture from rim part of hike before cape royal road on left.

Picture of Mount Hayden shrouded in fog. I guess you could call it inversion (when the clouds are below the rim of the canyon. Either way looks cool.

When we did the hike this weekend, we started from the other end at the North Kaibab trailhead, checked out the Uncle Jim Trail, then walked hte other 5 miles or so to the road.

Hitchhiked to get back to the developed area again. The first time we did the hike last week, we were rejected by swarms of Americans, and then finally picked up by a van full of people from Indian people. (Thanks fellow Americans...Are a couple of kids wearing Mountain Hardwear/Northface and carrying Nikons really that threatening looking? jeez)

Sunday were only passed by 3 cars before a nice family from Manchester, England picked us up.... again, Americans... what the hell?

The rest of the weekend was relatively unexciting. Journeyed to Kanab on Saturday since it was raining and gross on the Rim. Headed to Page yesterday to get another piece for the truck and then took a tour of the dam dam... Ultimate tourist endeavor. I'd be almost embarassed if I weren't doing a program on it and needed the useful information that the tour provided.

Now my afternoon 15 minute break is up and back to work. Having a rager for JR, Interp ranger who is moving to New Hampshire tomorrow. I think 4 of us are going to be there.... oh intwerps.

Ta

Point Sublime and the River

Meant to do this post earlier but thats ok. Crappy weather on the rim has us all bumming around inside so I figured I'd take advantage of it.

This week flew by. Had some program time, saw a bunch of dead kaibab squirrels, and one live one. My scenics roving and programs got rained out againnnn and our neighbor got a new dog who is absolutely precious.

So last weekend......

Because of yet more tire issues, Saturday was somewhat of a lax day. Hung out in the cabin/gym area while Jesse and Ralphy ventured to Kanab to replace the tire they popped on Friday. Friday night we went to Jessica's evening program on past river runners. Pretty interesting and now I really want to get on a trip even though some of the video clips she showed freaked me out ha.

Sunday we went back into the forest. This time took the park road to Point Sublime. Rough. But beautiful once we got out there. The tires survived! Had some food and then headed back toward the cabin. Took a picture of all our feets at the USGS marker (first photo). cute :)



Monday morning. Up at the buttcrack of dawn to get stuff together, run down to Page, rent kayaks, run to Lees Ferry to get a motor rig uprun from Brendan of Colorado River Discovery. Photo on left, view of downriver at the ferry, the location where all the trips going down the Colorado through Grand Canyon start off.

Got a ride up to just before the dam and then paddled down. No rapids or white water but it was a beautiful stretch of canyon definitely. Not too much interest in the pictographs (Jesse offered to draw us some sheep pictorgraphs if we were really upset about it) so we made it down in about 5 hours. Much fun though and lovely.






Got off the river, back to Page to
return kayaks and grab some dinner. Stopped at Navajo Bridge on the way and didn't see condors... again! (picture on right) I should stop telling people that that's the place to see them because I still haven't yet. I think they just go away whenever they know I'm coming...bastards.






Back to the rim after dinner. Ran into a bit of trouble on the way back. Hit a beefalo, the cow-buffalo hybrids we have up here. F'ed the truck up pretty badly... and killed damn thing which we learned the next day when visitors came into the visitor center remarking about a dead beefalo near the park entrance (Normally I'd be a bit more upset, and I was, but beefalos are nonnative and probably invasive which means their screwing stuff up for the native animals that live here). Unfortunately, we were not able to salvage the backstrats in time but at least our beefalo was donated as condor food which is good....


More posts to come soon. Ta