Summer Adventures - Grand Canyon Aug 2010

It started with a call from my younger brother, Michael. He lives in DC with his wife and works for an accounting firm. He's been there for over a year but has buccu vacation time. I mean like TONS. He said he was planning a trip to Havasupai, Grand Canyon and invited Michael and I to come.

We were so excited. The plan: dump them kids off on grandpa in Flagstaff, drive up to trailhead early, get our hike on, meet Michael & Matt at camp (they were scheduled to leave a day before us).

So all went as planned. Pack the kids up, get the truck loaded, pack our backpacks, drive to Flagstaff Thurs night. Unload the kids sleeping. Get them situated. Head out at 3am. Unfortunately it was a rough night for the kids. The transfer didn't occur so smoothly and at 3am we only were able to scrounge up 2 intermittent hours of sleep. But by 3am they were soundly sleeping.

The drive was long up to Seligman. It was dark. We were excited and exhausted at the same time. A weekend without the kids. Questions going through our minds, "What are they going to do when they wake up and we aren't there? I wish I left instructions - realizing the only thing I left was a list of foods they eat. What's Madison going to do without me? I've never left her before. Thoughts of worrying parents. But we pushed all that aside when we FINALLY made it to the trailhead and searched for a place to park. It was FULL.

We parked in the overflow lot at first - or so we thought. A native picking trash said are you BIA? We both laughed. This guy was funny. Then we realized what an unfriendly jerk he was. resident parking only. So we had to move.

Michael thought I looked like a weirdo and took my picture. Here's me looking like a hippy. After we moved the truck down a ways off the road - practically in a ditch, we set out. 7:40am. Much later than hoped but it was the best we could have done.


I was unsure at first where the trailhead began but we found and took a couple 'o pix. The sun was just coming up. It was fairly cool still.


I hate taking pictures with my pack on. I'm hiding my big fat stomach rolls that get squashed by the belt. So unflattering.

Can you see how exhausted we are or the kids' pillow I was a Nazi about taking?


The canyon was gorgeous. Why had I not been here before? I had always wanted to hike here. I was curious which direction we were going. If I had been a good hiker I would have brought my maps and at least a compass. But I figured it was well traveled so I didn't even bother. Plus I don't have that stuff anyway. More gear to buy.


The bottom of the switchbacks seemed so easy. Despite my ankle problems - the left ankle has been killing me for about 6 months, I had no idea that my knee would be the worst offender. I got in a little accident on South Mountain biking and hit my knee pretty good on a rock. It healed but the weight and going downhill was pretty gnarly.


20-30% chance of rain. Despite Michael's opinion, I decided to carry the 4lb. rainfly anyway.


I took in the scenery. Where were we going? At first I thought we were going straight. Maybe around the bend? Until we reached a creek bed that led us to the right (Northeast-ish).


We followed the creek bed and slowly started our decent into the canyon.


Here's me looking 15lbs overweight. Time to get on that.


We still had plenty of shade hiking through the canyon. We were making really good time.


Havasuapi, Grand Canyon, Az.


But you can see how the sun in the afternoon would be killer.


A few hours left to go and we saw horses and mules bringing gear out. "Whimps," I thought to myself. Finding high ground or another trail was annoying. We passed 5 or 6 groups of mules and horses. "When we leave," I told Mike, "we are going to start earlier. I don't like passing these guys." AGREED.


This is the last place in the US where mail is delivered by mule. You can see the mail crates.

WARNING. NEXT PICTURE HOT AND STEAMY.


I realized on this strip that the only place I was sweating was my face. Just dripping. I kept wiping my chin.


A quick stop for pictures and to get the rocks out of our shoes. Running out of shade fast.


This was one of my favorite pictures I took. The light hit the tree perfectly illuminating it. Trying to get a good shot sent me 10 mins behind Mike. But it was worth it. This tree was huge! And tucked between the canyon walls. So cool.


It was starting to get H.O.T.


Marching onward. It felt like we were moving at a snails pace. At this point we had around an hour left before we reached Supai Village.


This big 'ol rock seemed like we were supposed to stop and play a game of.... I don't know checkers. But with rocks.


The worst was hiking in the sand. There's no going fast. Or lest you kicked up more dirt. We were 20 mins away or less at this point to Supai.


Ah! The sound of water! We had to be close.

It was very strange. I felt like I was in Hawaii. In Hana. On the road to Hana. But hiking. There were people hanging around outside. Dogs wandering. Horses and Cows pinned up. I felt like I was intruding. Where all them tourist at? It was just all the locals doing their day to day bitness gauking at us.


We passed this church and were cracking up. A church. Here. In the GC. Then Mike said it's an LDS Church! I made him take a picture. We wondered if services were actually held. Then later I heard it is. NEAT.


After eating lunch in Supai at the cafeteria - or at least that's what it seemed like to me - we proceeded on to the campground. We were hot and the hike seemed like it was going to take forever. My knee hurt. My ankle was buggin'. And I overate just subpar food.


But then we encountered this. The new waterfall that was created when Navajo Falls was wiped out. I was down with stopping and cooling off but Mike wanted to set up camp and find my bros.


We would judge how far away we were by hearing the helicopter. I ran back and forth from the hilltop to the village at least 10 times. I then learned that it's only a 10 min. helicopter ride. Geesh!


This was as close as I was ever going to be to holding a helicopter haul potties.


We passed Havasupai falls. It didn't look like much of anything but a remnant of what used to be. I was a little dissapointed. The falls that we saw so far weren't that cool. And it made me wish we had gone before the food of 2008.


Havasuapi Falls, Grand Canyon, AZ.

We were 15 mins away from the campsite here. All down. Hill. It was yucky. Sandy. Hot.


Once we found the campground we searched for the boys' tent. It seemed like forever until we found it by the Green Tuba City Warrior T-shirt they hung on the picnic table.

We set up the tent and rested. 15 mins later Michael & Matt came back. There was no way to get in contact with them since they left Thurs am, so they just went by the tentative schedule. Stopping to eat lunch was not on our agenda and they figured since we didn't get to camp before lunch that my ankle slowed us down. HA! Since all parties had eaten we found some good shade and took naps. I was WIPED. And Michael John (my brother's childhood kickname which I know will use to distinguish between the Mikes) was still wiped from their hike the day before. It's hard keeping up with a 16yr old! Michael told stories from Yosemite (post yet to come).

Once we pushed water through our systems and were ready to explore, we went further down the campground until we hit Mooney Falls. We played until we were tired and made our way back to camp.

It was a peaceful evening. A little cloudy. We were exhausted. The boys played cards into the wee night - 10pm is wee - and I bailed because I was spent. I was out almost instantly. Michael was flopping around all night complaining about the heat. Then he calmed down when it got cooler and I woke up to him saying, "Mouse, it's raining!" Like full on big fat rain, starting to drench everything. So I scrambled in the dark and whipped out the rainfly and flung it over the tent. Good thing I decided to bring it. Otherwise we would out of luck, Chuck.

It rained all evening and it rained all morning Saturday. We didn't bring any rain jackets or ponchos so we huddled in our tent all morning and invited Michael John and Matthew over to play cards. We played A LOT of cards on this trip. It was fun to actually to do stuff we don't normally do.

All night and morning we wondered about the rain. How bad it was going to be. If it was going to flood and we'd have to vacate. How long would we wait until it stopped raining. And if it didn't stop raining when we'd hike out. All those questions we discussed.

Then just before afternoon it stopped raining. The sky was clearing up. 30 percent chance rain. Crazy.


I decided that no matter where you are, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. My legs were pretty beastly. It had been almost a week since I last shaved.


We were all hungry so we decided to get breakfast on - oatmeal.


Some of us had things far better.


Our tent on the right. It's a very large rain fly because the tent is basically nuthin' but a big mesh tent. Half the weight is in the rain fly.


It looked like we had fun. Ate a delicious meal. But in reality, when you smell the pancakes the neighbors are cooking, you oatmeal begins to taste like cardboard.


Matthew and Michael John sharing a cup 'o oatmeal.


Morning faces.


Cardboard.

We decided today was the day to hike to Beaver Falls (Sat). I was really pushing for the Colorado River but the rain held us up and there was no way we could have made it there and back in one day. To the Colorado is an additional 8 miles one-way from camp. No one wanted to do it. It felt like we were back in Yosemite again. I wanted to hike to the top of Yosemite Falls the day after we did half dome but no one else wanted to. BUT, anyways....


On we went back to Mooney Falls. This was the decent down. It was only a mile or less from camp.


My favorite part was the climb down. I love rock climbing.... something I have not done in a decade or so.


Here she is. Mooney Falls. It's a shame. I bet it was a nice swimming area before the flood. The water was pretty shallow. Some people were walking into the falls to see how far they could get before they got blasted with force equivalent to a fire hose.


We hiked thru this amazing jungle-like vinery. The vines are grape vines. I didn't see any grapes.


This one got out of order. It's Michael John and Mooney Falls behind him. Apparently one person has died here. A native resident that committed suicide. It's a 120 ft. drop. Was killed on impact. Some crazy peeps pictched their tents right on top of it.


Shrubbery. We thought, are we in the tropics or in the desert?


The water was a pretty blue-ish green from the high concentration of lime in the water.


The scenery was awesome. it kept changing. This tree was pretty neat.


It felt like it was taking forever to get to Beaver Falls. No one brought a map. How did we know we got there? Was it going to be obvious? I wish I had seen pictures. Or a map of the trail. We crossed the creek 5 or 6 times. There appeared to be trails everywhere.


We stopped and played in the water often. It wasn't that deep in some areas. Sometimes we would just walk down the creek instead of the trail because we were tired of getting whipped by grapevines. The only one time I wish I brought pants.


Playing in the water and looking for the trail.


It was hard to tell how deep the water was. It was either shallow or really deep. As demonstrated by Matt, it was really deep here.


We encountered this bigger water fall, but we figured we would keep going on until we reached a bigger set of falls.


But not without playing in it first.


Michael John and Matthew swimming.


More falls. But no Beaver Falls.


We decided to find the trail and hike through more of the rainforest. I feel like we look like Adam and Eve here. The pose just creeps me out.


Yep, still hiking. It was supposedly 4 miles from camp.


This prickly pear bore fruit.


And the foolish who grabbed it with their hands to partake. Tsk, tsk. (The fruit has fine thorns like the cactus, except you can't see it at first).


Our trail ended here. On top of a cliff. Was this Beaver Falls? It didn't seem like much. It looked to dangerous to climb the cliff face. So we figured that this may be THE Beaver Falls.


The water was fast moving here and it was easy to get sucked under trying to get out of the water.


Despite everyone jumping in and letting the water carry them to the rocks downstream, I heeded Michael's advice for once and didn't jump in. I didn't want to die by drowning. I don't even like water that much anyway.


Can't believe we hiked all this way. For this.

Oh well. Take lots of pictures I guess.


There didn't seem to be much downstream. And there didn't seem to be a clear path on the other side.

**** I did learn after returning that this may have been the TOP of Beaver Falls and that there was a trail on the other side that took you high above on a cliff. The only way to get there was to cross to the other side or swim down the cascade of falls. Tooo bad, next time we will be more prepared and we will see it on the way to CO River.

Hiking back to camp.

Following the river instead. We decided to avoid the trail back as much as possible. Matt was tired of tripping over and getting whacked by the grapevines as was the rest of us.

I was so glad I decided to bring my Camelback. So. Glad.

We stopped back at Mooney to take more pictures.

And Michael attempted to walk into Mooney.

Pitt check for Matt.

Cellulite check for me. At least no cottage cheese on the back end of these legs.

We had to hike thru some caverns to get to Mooney. They weren't that long, but pretty cool to say the least.

There were two sets. This one was probably the longest and the steepest.

Back at camp for a Mountain House meal. My favorites: Chicken Teriyaki, Lasagne, and Chili Mac. Not so fav's: Beef stew, Spaghetti.


Michael in good shape. The only thing I have wanted for the longest time. For us to be healthy, active, and energetic. (Michael has lost 20 lbs and counting this year)

Since this was our last day, we decided that we had better high tail it to Havasupai Falls and Rock Falls aka Little Navajo before the sun went down. This area had once been full of water.

The crew going to hike behind the falls. Matt jumped into the falls and he said it shoots you out like a rocket. Ok, not his exact words but he said the current was pretty strong and just pushed you out underneath it.

Only one thing to do here since I wouldn't jump into the falls.... jump off a log into the water. Kind of lame, but it was scarey. I'm a scaredy cat when I think about all my responsibilities I left back in Flagstaff (w/my Dad).


Coolest part of the trip. Cliff jumping.

Michael named that girl to the left Tanya because she jumped then bawled like a baby because she hit her foot on some rocks or something. So of course, I was scared.

But these three were going to show me how it was done. Up in 'dis heezy.

My life was basically flashing before my eyes. What if fill-in-the-blank scenario happened.... But I jumped and it was awesome, scarey, thrilling, butterflies-your-stomach kind of feeling when you jump 30 ft.

We were beat and were going to call it a night. Of course Michael hardly slept a wink because he's his own furnace and was "SO. HOT." He regretted not having a pillow but finally found a way to get to sleep. It was thundering and lightning on the hilltop and we wondered if we would get rain that night or on the hike out.

3am came far too soon. But we packed up and headed out. We were on the trail by 4am. Hiking out in the dark. Out of the heat. Out of the sun.

Mike was amazed at how many people get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night/wee hours of the morn.

We stopped halfway for a light breakfast. I wasn't hungry and made Matt carry my pack because I was slowing everyone down and my knee was buggin' although it was wrapped and my ankle wrapped as well.


Less than 3 hours out here. This was the last shot I took with Michael. Despite our yelling at Matthew to slow down, he just took off again and Michael decided to keep up with him. You know kids, they don't listen.

I'm pretty sure that's a monkey behind me.

Our last sighting of Michael and Matt for at least 3 hours.


Michael John and I stayed together as the other two were long gone and probably 30mins to an hour ahead of us. My bro was feeling it and even though I had half the weight since switching packs with Matt, my knee was just giving me problems. But I went as fast as I could. Michael John would stop and wait every so often. We found the trail to the switchbacks and started to see people. AH! I had never been so happy to see people on a trail. Especially since I was unfamiliar with the place.

I was definitely starting to feel hunger. We had reached the base of the switchbacks and a passerby said about a mile left. Ugh. I was so mad at Mike and Matt. Jerks. They LEFT us without waiting. JERKS. Bet they are already at the top. One bottle of water left. I was just going to have to make it work.

Luckily the sun was hiding behind the clouds and it wasn't hot. But it was warm, and I was tired and thirsty.

Now I regretted all the things I said about what an easy hike it was. Although Half Dome was intense, we didn't have all the weight.

This is where the pictures end. I took one big shortcut up the switchbacks to cut out a quarter mile. It was nearly verticle and a good climb but I thought it was well worth it. Saved me about 15 mins and my knees. I was so close to the top. I was thinking, "I bet Michael is thinking I'm crazy. But I bet he is proud of me. I hope he can see me." I saw people at the top of the cliff. Then they came down. Then there was no one at the top. It didn't feel right.

Once I got to the top I was so emotional. Where is Michael? Why didn't he wait? Where's my food? I'm STARVING. I could have used that energy bar like 2 hours ago! So we unloaded and went to the truck. No packs. No sign of Michael or Matt.

Then the worst scenario dawned on us. They missed the switch backs. We were lucky to see people. And I was lucky because I paid special attention to the area coming in. I almost knew to go left on the horse trail rather than continuing forward on the creek bed. Then the question became. How far will they go before they realize they missed it? How much water did they have? What if they got separated?

I was a wreck. We waited for an hour. Ate snickers bars. Worried. Then Michael John said, I have binoculars. And we searched. And then we finally found them. Matt 20 mins behind Michael at the base of the switchbacks. They were struggling. I ran down to Michael and realized how badly my knee hurt and stopped running. Didn't make any difference. I was on the verge of tears when I got to him. YOU IDIOT!

Michael John went to help Matt out. We waited and talked about how it was still dark. How you can't even SEE the switchbacks. How we was going to wait for us at the 6 1/2 mile marker but never saw it. How he thought it was around the next bend. How he asked Matt but Matt didn't have his contacts in. How after an hour they saw buildings on the hilltop behind them. How they ran back to find the trail up the switchbacks. How they heard me yell MATTHEW! from the hilltop.

Oh the tales to forever talk about. Hopefully everyone learned a lesson on this trip. The only thing we wished for was prescription drugs to make the pain go away.

It was an amazing trip. The hike was awesome. The scenery beautiful. The workout was intense on the way out. Our only regret was not knowing what it used to be like before the flood. Definitely a trip to remember. Unfortunately my other younger brother, BJ, decided not to come. We were sad about that but he had plans to visit his gf in Texas. Hopefully we will have another opportunity to go as a family again. It was great to hang out with my brother, Michael John. I don't get to see him very often. A definite must if you've ever wanted to go.

This trip ended our summer adventures. Other posts to come. Stay tuned.