Enough of the desert and the heat!

We returned today from our 3 day 'very aggressive' hike in the Grand Canyon (well, that is what the backcountry permit people wrote to us asking for our previous experience in desert environments!).

This has been my favourite hike so far, we walked from the North Rim about 1500 vertical metres down to the Colorado River via two oases/creek systems which were beautiful. Its amazing what a bit of water, and obviously a lot of sun can make - lush green trees that look almost tropical, although the air still feels really dry. We tried to go lightweight as the trip notes told us not to carry more than 15% of our body weight - that amounts to about 9kg for me which means you can't carry much else once you put in at least 3 litres of water.

I was very nervous driving the 40 miles off-road in our hire car to get to the trailhead where we camped for the night. It was pretty cold at the rim, and yet we were planning on hiking down with only sleeping mats, inner sheets and thermal tops. In the morning before we set out, it was still chilly, so we revised that to include thermal bottoms, beanies, a sweatshirt each and a sleeping bag between us. Luckily, it turned out to be about right in the end. We also carried 6 litres of water each so that we could cache some on the way down for the hard slog on the way back up. We didn't really know what we were in for because the canyon is so large with a series of different rock layers that you can't actually see to the bottom from the top and vice versa. We thought the terrain looked a bit like on the Larapinta Trail near Alice Springs, although the cactuses were more impressive and there were hardly any flies!

We hiked the first day in about 5 hours and since we left so early to avoid the heat of the day we were at our beautiful campsite right by the river (Tapeats Creek) by 11am. We then spent the day relaxing and skinny dipping in the river (watching out for river rafters who walked past on day hikes up to Thunder River - an amazing sight where water literally pours out of the rock as if out of nowhere. I don't think either of us had slept totally out in the open before but it was quite nice not having to faff with a tent and being able to see the stars. The only problem was that since our packs were left out for the night our breakie of bagels and pop tarts (our staples now) were gnawed on by lizards (we thought!). The next morning we walked right down to the Colorado and watched rafters negotiate some small rapids, they all seemed to be on day 11 of a 16 day trip - that seems to me a long time to be rafting! The second creek we went to was even more beautiful as it turned into a slot canyon before reaching the Colorado River. This creek was even more popular with rafters so we had to share it with them for the day until they all suddenly left at 4pm as rafting trips are not allowed to camp overnight there. Whilst having lunch, two rafters came by and asked if we knew where the throne room was. I presumed they were after the toilet so we mumbled that we hadn't gone further up the creek and it might be there. They marched on. A couple of minutes later, another two rafters came along looking for the throne room. We said the same thing, and they replied, 'yeah, we're thinking of sitting in the throne room for a while'. Um ok, maybe I was wrong, maybe the throne room is something else? We headed up the creek to find out. It turned out that where the creek emerged as a waterfall from the rocks, there was a large amphitheatre of rocks in the shade. People had placed loose rocks into large seats - hence the name, throne room, oops! It was a good place to sit whilst it was hot - prob about 30 degrees I reckon.

We woke up at 4am this morning for the hike out. We'd carefully put our breakfast into a zipped part of Alex's pack to foil the 'lizards'. But at 4am we realised that it was tiny mice that were eating our food... they were all over our packs and had even eaten a hole into Alex's pack in order to get at the bagel - doh! The 1500m hike out wasn't as bad as I had expected. Yes, we were dripping with sweat and boiling hot by the end of it, but it felt good to have walked all the way down to the river and back up to the rim. On the last half hour we met some day hikers - the only other hikers we'd seen the whole trip (apart from the river rafters). Are we the only nutty ones to do a grand canyon hike in the summer??





Tonight, unbelievably, we are back in Vegas. It turned out to be a good place to stop enroute to Kings Canyon tomorrow. We found a motel for $40 incl breakfast (in a discount coupon book) - bargain! But after about an hour wandering down the Strip we'd had enough, it was 112 F on the drive here this afternoon - that's 44 degrees!! I don't know how people live in these temperatures, just a couple of minutes outside and you feel sick.

After tomorrow, when we drive through Death Valley, we should have some cooler temps as we will be higher up, up to 14000 feet I think!

The world's longest slot canyon

Hi. this is Alex. I've hijacked Amms blog to write while she goes to collect our laundry from the laundromat. She's excited by the idea as she hasnt been in a big American Laundromat before!
I'm going to show her around and take her out to Taco Bell for dinner tonight for a romantic treat!!

All our stuff reaks and is covered in thick slimy mud from the stagnant pools of water that lived down the last canyon we explored. The canyon was Buckskin Gulch and must be the worlds longest slot canyon. We trekked on day one for 8hrs and remained in the cool depths of the canyon for the whole time, every now and then having to scramble over rockfall or wade a cooling water hole that was about thigh depth. The campsite was in a big ampitheatre at the jct with the Paria (which eventually flows into the Colorado). The hike out today was hot as once we left the canyon there was no shade, and my pack was heavy as Amms made me carry 6L of water (thats 6kg for those who weren't good at science!). We are having difficulty adapting to US hiking times. Either the US hikers are a lot faster than the Europeans and Aussies or we are getting old and slow, but every hike we have started on has taken the recommended time.

We tried to get a lottery permit to see the mythical 'wave' formation but lucked out man. They had 30 people at the rangers station all eager for the 10 places. Each person was given a ball number and then in true US style they inserted the balls into an official ball spinner lottery device and one at a time announced the lucky winners. We did not win, never was anygood at lotto.

The advantage of canyoning seems to be you get out of the heat for most of the day but you get a crook neck looking up at the sky way above hoping that the blue sky doesnt give way to grey clouds, thunderstorms and then flash floods. There is so much exporing still avaiable in Utah though for those with the time. Just the other day in the rangers station someone came in with information on a previously undiscovered slot canyon.

We are holed up in Page, Arizona for 2 days rest before we commence the next leg down into the Grand Canyon for 3 days.

I'm off to get a massive american portion ice cream now (going to try bear claw flavour) and to have a nanna nap.

Alex

3rd day in the States

And we've already been in 4 states! California, Nevada, Arizona and now Utah.

The flight was long and uneventful, we had a fat American spilling over into Alex's seat just to introduce us to the country! Luckily though he didn't say a word the whole flight so it wasn't too bad. We picked up the hire car straightaway in LA - its a Chrysler PT Cruiser - the ugliest car in the world I reckon. Its supposed to be an economy class but its quite big, drives like a tank, and did I say its mighty ugly (kind ye olde worlde looking). Anyway, its got 4 wheels and goes so I shouldn't complain.

We drove all the way to Vegas the day we arrived (well, Alex drove cos I was too scared of driving on the first day - on the right hand side and all). Found a cheap motel - only just as the guy didn't understand us when we asked for a double room, he said 'two rooms'? we said no, one room with a double bed, 'oh that is just a bed', he said! Alex then proceeded to get into the right hand side of the car to move it out of the layby/waiting area - oops! We did a whirlwind walk along the Strip in the evening but after a couple of hours we were spent - that place is sensory overload!

The next morning, after a quick squizz at the Hoover Dam, I decided to launch myself into it and sit in the driver's seat for the first time. The weirdest thing is seeing cars driving themselves (cos the driver is sitting on the wrong side!) Anyway, we made it to Zion National Park where we have been based for the last few days. Yesterday, we did a mammoth 25km hike down the Virgin Narrows, the Virgin River traverses the national park and we basically walked down the length of it, mostly off-trail in the water. We were very glad of our sticks as the water was rushing pretty strongly in places, the deepest point was up to our waists! We reckon we crossed the river about 200 times! Beautiful scenery though, starting with flush meadows and ending in a gorge.




Today was a day of extremes! We both woke up not feeling great and the weather wasn't looking too hot but we decided to head to the trailhead for our hike anyway. Once we got there things were looking up, all we had to do was hitch a ride to our start point about 9 miles up the road - easy.... except there were no cars at all (it was about 7am as people told us to get there early to get a lift). We stuck out our thumbs and lo and behold the second pick up that came along stopped. He was an old retired guy going up the mountain to pick up wood - great, we arrived at the top no worries... until we realised that I had left the car keys where we were waiting for a ride - doh!!! All we could do was start walking back down the road to get the keys - all 9 miles of it! I was feeling awful thinking that someone would pick up our keys and drive away our car! Luckily though the next pick up that came along picked us up and took us back down. Our keys were there glinting in the sun. Then it was back to square one to hitch a ride back up! Some other hikers were driving up there and we all squashed in - about 10 in a 4wd I think to fit us in - very nice of them. So, after all that faffing around we finally made a start. It was beautiful and definitely worth it - lots of slick rock and pinnacles and peaks all around - similar to the Larapinta trail near Alice Springs if you've been there. Anyway, we walked down and down into the start of a canyon which was dry at first and then later had water. People had warned us that the water is cold but we didn't really believe them because its been over 90 degrees (30 celcius) since we got here, but man it was cold. We had all our thermals on and we just couldn't stop shivering. Luckily in a way we had more sun in the canyon because we'd wasted more than an hour in our car key mishap! Will have to post some pics sometime of the canyon because it was magnificent. We did a couple of abseils and some very cold swims... then the rest was just rock hopping down river (again!) before a big climb back out. Altogether great!



We've topped off today by having a skinny dip in the river just outside of town because we couldn't find the place that has showers! Much more fun in the river anyway! So tomorrow is our last day here before we head towards Lake Powell. Phew, that was a mammoth blog!

Homeless and Jobless

We are now officially homeless after spending the last day and a half cleaning the flat - all in the name of getting our bond back. We wheeled all our old clothes (5 large bags worth!) down to the clothing bin in a supermarket trolley - that must have been a funny sight!

Saying goodbye to old Stella and Emanuel (our favourite neighbours) was a bit sad. Stella offered us her yummy biscuits (for the last time) and coffee with a Tia Maria chaser!

Only 2 more sleeps till we fly... we still have a bit of stuff to throw out or we will be over the 46kgs we're each allowed!

Nearly packed

Monday lunchtime and our stuff is nearly packed in the 10 cubic metre self storage container parked in our car space. They come to pick up the container tomorrow but we don't know when so we'll be 'camping' tonight - with a tv, mattress and some outdoor furniture that hasn't sold on gumtree!

Geoquest Conquered!

We conquered the Geoquest, all 47 hours and225km of it! Rob, Julien, Alex and I all made it in one piece with only blisters to show for it.

Lowlights for me:
1. The 3km paddle in our homemade raft made out of car tubes and wood - paddling isn't very easy when you're slouched in a tube - there is nothing for you to brace against;
2. The 2.5km portage of our two person plastic kayaks from one lake to another - this came at the end of the second day and it was knackering. Alex and I ended up carrying ours in 50 pace stints while the boys carried theirs upside down which meant they were walking blind!

Highlights for me:
1. The end of the first leg was a huge mtbike down a ridge in the late afternoon with beaut views in Barrington Tops;
2. Seeing sleepmonsters on the second day (ie. hallicinating) - well, I'm not sure this is a highlight, but it was kinda funny. Each of us had their favourite item, Julien's was picnic tables, Rob's was public toilets in the bush, Alex was groups of people at bus stops, and we all saw animal statues (ie. trees).
3. Finishing shortly after our third sunrise in the race!