Old Bright Angel Trail

Last weekend, Jesse and I headed back into the canyon... This time on the Old Bright Angel Trail- the trail that was used for getting across before the CCC made the North Kaibab Trail all nice. Parked the suby off the scenic drive and had a nice morning stroll through the forest before getting to the trailhead.

View a little ways down... The trail wasn't as bad as many people said.. And we were shaded for the first half.
Early morning view of bright angel canyon on left.





Mystery poo... anyone know what this is? Might have to refer to "Who pooped in the park"- an excellent resource for identifying animal poopies.



Made it down to the Waterslides in Bright Angel Creek (left)... With somewhat ominous rainclouds in the distance. We only got a few drops but the clouds and winds cooled everything down significantly.. not your average scorching hot july day down in the canyon.






Little King snake we ran into around mossy cove. He let us take a few pictures of him and then continued on his way over the ledge.

Overall a pleasant day hike... it really makes all the difference having the trail to yourself... me like

Kolob Canyons/ Buckskin Gulch

Happy Fourth! Celebrating sans fireworks today.. extreme fire danger up here on the Kaibab plateau... not that we're allowed to have fireworkds when fire danger isn't extreme but that's ok. NPS and Forever Resorts usually celebrate with a water fight but I think they've scaled that back too. I just want to eat barbequed goodness and play some volleyball...


Anyway... still behind. A few weeks ago Jesse and I had a permit to hike Buckskin gulch over two days and stay overnight. However, with the slight chance of rain and Buckskin being one of the slottiest slot canyons around, we decided not ot risk it. Headed up to Kolob in Zion instead (sort of like the North Rim of Zion... less people, no shuttles, more remote, a bit smaller but still cool).




Did the Taylor Creek Trail, a delightful little hike along Taylor Creek that takes you to Double Arch Alcove. We got caught in a rainstorm about a half mile from the alcove and had to hover under a little overhang along the creek because we came ill-prepared without rain jackets. After about 20 minutes it cleared up and we got to the Alcove; two huge arches right on top of each other. Pretty cool.



Finished the hike and headed up to the end of the scenic drive to make some dinner. Really cool view but it was getting cold so we finished up and drove back through Zion all the way to the Buckskin Gulch trailhead to stay the night and start our dayhike in the canyon nice and early.





Up with the sun and drove down to the Wirepass trailhead and began our hike into Wirepass and then Buckskin. Beautiful little slot canyon.


Start of the slottiness..a bit eerie looking









Jesse walking through on right. There was one part where it was a pretty tight squeeze with both shoulders touching the walls.







The patterns of how water has carved the rocks over the years was really beautiful. Hard to capture in there without a tripod- it was pretty dark in a lot of spots.













Jesse under a bunch of flood debris on right. There were a lot of places where you could see logs and debris lodged between the walls way up above our heads. Glad we were in there when it was dry with absolutely no chance of rain. I probably would have been pretty freaked out if we had gone in the day before, knowing how high the water gets in there somtimes.



The baby rattlesnake I almost stepped on with bare feet (wanted to hike barefoot in the really soft sandy parts). He must have fallen in because it was too cold in there for snakes- he was moving pretty slow, a mix of the cool air and the fall I'd guess. He was so small that he was shaking his rattle but not making any noise. Good thing I didn't step on him cause young rattlers can't control how much venom they inject when they bite. Wouldn't have been fun getting a ton of venom in my foot.

Thunder River and Tapeats Creek

So a couple weeks ago, Jesse and I headed west into the forest.. around 3 in the morning. Passed Crazy Jug and stopped at Monument point- head of the Bill Hall trail. Got our packs together and headed off.


Super Excited about to leave the truck and do some hikin (left).




As quite possibly the worst amateur photographer ever, I brought my camera sans battery soo all the pictures I'm using for this post were taken by Jesse with Jesse's camera... meanwhile mine was stashed in a bush just before we started the real descent.
View from the top with our packs on right. Pretty inspiring start to a rather grueling downhill hike.



Had my first experience with hiking on the esplanade- layer of the Supai Group that plateaus out in the western part of the canyon. Looks awesome from the rim and really a treat to walk across... Nice and flat and a pretty unique-looking landscape.
Picture on left is me walking along the esplanade- looks somewhat bleak and barren in the photograph but it really is beautiful.


Around 11am we made it to Thunder River; the shortest river in the world and the only water source in Grand canyon that you don't have to filter or purify. It was warming up pretty nice down there, so it was definitely a treat stumbling up to the water (where it was about 15-20 degrees cooler) and just sticking out your water bottle and gulping down that frigid fresh water. Lovely.
Hung out a little further down in a nice shady oasis (saw a condor on the way!). When it was later and not so scorchy, we walked down to Tapeats Creek and then up a ways to make camp... Water dinner and bed.. we were pooped.


The plan the next day was to explore Tapeats Amphitheater and to get up to the huge cave where the creek starts... Unfortunately the water was a little too swift and cold for us to be walking through so we just hung out for the day.
Me and Jesse goofing off on our lunch break.. shortly after Jesse cut his toenail off.. delicious

We decided to hike up that evening so as not to do the entire 9.5 mile uphill trek in the heat.

View from Thunder River as the sun was setting. Made it up to Surprise Valley right after the sun had gone down which was beautiful! We didn't get to appreciate it on the way down while we were rushing to get out of the heat.

Camped on the esplanade that night. The moon lit most of our journey through the redwall (pretty steep uphill climb)... and our dinner around 10 pm. Nothing quite like standing over a precipice with the canyon before you and the moon lighting it all up.
Our campsite on left the next morning with the sun coming up and us trying to beat it before we were hiking in full sunlight. Nice spot yeah?

Me with Surprise Valley behind me just before we headed out. Wonderful view. Altogether a great hike. Now no more hiking in the canyon til september or so (Its hot down there!)

Rainbow Rim

Happy Summer! Sorry but blogging has become a chore... mostly on account of the awful internet connection I manage to steal form the General store here at the cabin.... needless to say I'm quite behind but may use my day off to get something done.

Ventured into the forest a few weekends ago. Finally got the truck packed up and ready to go and made it to Locust point on the rainbow rim around 2pm. Ate some pb and js for lunch and headed south to North Timp point on the Bikes.



Prescribed burn closed the trail to Timp but we hiked that last year so not that much of a loss.. View from North Timp point of steamboat mountain and Tapeats Amphitheater in first two pictures.





Back to camp for dinner and sunset (on right). Western part of the canyon seems hazier at times but I really dig the view.




Monday headed north... Locust point to Fence point- about 3 miles. View from fence point of steam boat mountain, Crazy Jug canyon and Tapeats Terrace. Love the way the esplanade looks out here.




Ended at Parissawampitts point (name apparently derived form a paiute word for Bubbling spring or something of that nature).


Didn't see any springs or much at all really. The point is pretty overgrown and you have to hike down to be able to see the canyon. So we stopped.. took some pictures of the signs and headed back.

Jesse at the point (left).. classic hippie biking attire.


Tough ride back.. saw a coyote! Mountain biking isn't exactly my forte but I still had fun.

Snowing here on the North Rim.. I figured a good opportunity for me to hunker down and finally get this thing going again. Been at the Grand Canyon for about two weeks now. Nice to be back. Had training on the South Rim this past week. Two days of sitting in on talks and getting "renewaled"... Interesting but hard to sit in one spot all day.



So getting down in the canyon on Wednesday, Thursday Friday was probably the highlight. Went down the Bright Angel Trail.. dropped food off at Indian Garden and continued on to Phantom Ranch to stay for the night. Nice walk.. and much less mule poop than the last time




Made it down to the river just in time for some sunset action in the distance.



Hung out at Phantom on Thursday and headed back up to Indian Garden in the afternoon.



Thanks to caffeinated clif shots, had a much easier time getting up Devil's corkscrew than the last time I did that (photo on left).








Got out to Plateau point for sunset and enjoyed turkey burgers and guacamole for cinco de mayo.









5 am Friday morning.. me, Jesse and Jake head east on the Tonto Trail.. about a 4 and a half mile stretch to the South Kaibab Trail (far superior to the Bright Angel Trail as far as condition and views go)... well worth the extra few miles.


Sunrise on the Tonto Trail.. managed to stay out of the sun for pretty much the entire time.. definitely helpful with the moisture retention.

Made it up around 10:30 and over to the BA trailhead in time to see everyone else come up and out of the canyon.



Saturday was wildlife day! Sat in on some good talks about Grand Canyon animals and got to see Jack Hanna speak (sometimes hard to understand with his super fast Tennessee drawl)... the two baby mountain lions were quite a treat... so cute!
On left is Tesla: a Red-tailed Hawk that collided with a powerline and had to get part of her wing removed. She was beautiful... kind of a bummer to see all these birds that have been injured in some way.. Now they're used for education which is great but it was still hard to look at them perched on posts indoors.

Adios

So long, Costa Rica. Had an awesome time but it flew by! Would have liked to see more but the raging fever I came down with last week prevented any travelling I had planned. So instead of leaving on Saturday, we left Ostional on the 5am bus on Monday morning. Did a whirlwind tour on Tuesday.



Started off with breakfast at a Coffee Plantation. Got to see the whole process of picking, shelling, washing, drying and toasting the coffee beans. Got a picture of this nice oxcart which was the mode of transport they used in the 1800s and early 20th century.


Then off to Poas volcano. The most visited one in costa rica.. probably because its so close to San Jose. Got really lucky. The clouds rolled in about 25 minutes after we got there.. and once that happens they're there the rest of the day and you can't see anything. Took my touron photo in front of the stinky volcano. We also did a nice hike to this beautiful lagoon next to it with this big acidic lake. Pretty.


The view coming down from the volcano. The valley with San Jose in the middle and mountains in the background. It was a bit hazy because its Sugar Cane season. They burn the sugarcane to burn off the leaves and get rid of the snakes that live in the crops.



After the volcano, we went down into the valley and further into the jungle to check out some waterfalls. They were lovely. The jungle was definitely really cool. Picture on right was the first waterfall we got to; Templo Waterfall.. 85 ft tall.




This was the top of the tallest one.. 120 feet. Magia Blanca Waterfall. After a series of about 5 or 6 waterfalls, we headed back to the city. I left on Wednesday afternoon. That morning, me and Stephanie's host mom took us unto San Jose for some souvenir and market shopping.. and also a tour of the Teatro Nacional. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures but it was beautiful. Some part of it reminded me of the Plaza in New York. She also bought us coffee and ice cream. Best host mom ever. Made me wish I was staying with her a little longer :)
Now its back in the U.S... and who knows when the next adventure will be.

La Arribada

The Arribada has arrived. Phenomena that only happens here in Ostional and a few other beaches around the world. I think Ostional is in the top three for the largest arribadas.. or something like that... The arrival of thousands of Olive Ridley Turtles about once a month. This girl on the left was a trooper. Only had one back flipper. Took her a while to get down to the water and she probably had a hell of a time digging her nest.


The Arribadas here have been getting smaller and smaller with the dry season but during the wet season they've seen numbers of about 200,000 turtles over a period of about 5 days. The largest Arribada was in 1995 with 500,000 turtles coming up to nest. The last one was a small one, only 3 thousand in three days. We're not really sure how large this one is yet.
Picture on right digging her body pit before she digs the nest. They look pretty awkward on land, I have to say.



Finished my 12am-6am hatchery shift yesterday and made my way down the beach hoping to see some of the leftover Olive Ridleys. There were still quite a few nesting and moving to and from the water. Cool to finally see some turtles in daylight. I've really only seen them at night on patrols and such.





We're not exactly sure why this occurs here... many people think its because of the moon phases and other think the turtles are able to find their way back because of the high amount of tectonic activity on the Nicoya Peninsula (some geology for you, Jesse)








But of course with every Arribada... in edition to seeing all these turtles, you see the egg harvesters. Ostional is the only beach in the world where egg harvesting is legal. Its very stringent and controlled... the locals are only allowed to harvest eggs if they're part of the association, if they've been approved and accepted, and they can only collect eggs for the first three days of the arribada. While its a bit tough to watch, there are some benefits to it. Having legal egg harvesting greatly diminshes the amount of illegal poaching, and the members of the association keep the beach clean...supposedly. They also harvest eggs that will likely be dug up by the arrival of other turtles as the Arribada continues.



They say it has its benefits but none of us here really see the necessity of it. Really there is no necessity. The locals don't need to live off the money they earn selling eggs and people don't depend on sea turtle eggs for food. I guess its just a tradition thing... and the fact that Sea Turtle eggs are aphrodisiacs.. at least they leave the leatherbacks alone.