Plaid Ponderings

So for all y’alls info, for my fourth and final project with AmeriCorps NCCC I’ll be in Colorado Springs doing more conservation work with the Rocky Mountain Field Institute! I’m so thrilled to be doing more camping and more conservation work! I’ve definitely fallen in love with this type of work! I’m gonna be a camping expert by the end of this year =P I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can sleep anywhere….at Lake Mead I slept outside the last four days on top of a hill, the last night before we went to sleep we saw TWO rattlesnakes within 10-15 feet of where we were sleeping and I think I can say it honestly didn’t phase me! =P No rattlers in Colorado though thankfully! 

Look out for a post to be coming soon on my adventures in Lake Mead with fencing, swimming and crazy (awesome) euros!

In honor of Earth Day, I remind everyone to head to Starbucks with your travel mug and/or cup to receive a free drip coffee or tea! I’ll be the first to admit, this is a small gesture on the part of Starbucks considering how much it takes to just make one cup of coffee (on average about 140 liters I think?) but considering most of us drink coffee daily, might as we make our drinking as sustainable as possible right? =)

Since this was such a significant trip I have to blog about my Grand Canyon adventure to all of you! First off, I think I have to comment on the shutdown that almost ruined this trip. Had there been a shutdown natl parks also woulda gone on hiatus so we were super thankful we were able to go!! We’ve been planning it for awhile, got incredibly lucky to get beds in the cabins at all since a group had cancelled but I think I told you guys about that. On Saturday when we knew we were going those of us going (5 of us) had a planning session at a cafe and from there went shopping for our food. It was sorta fun shopping for food since we just had literally plan out every meal ahead of time. I think we did pretty well at getting healthy substantial food good for hikes and keeping the cost down and the weight down! that was the main thing we were concerned about (thank goodness for bagged tuna and salmon!) 
So Sunday we left the house about 9:30 or so, and after a brief complication with the government gas card we got to the GC at about 11:30ish. It really shoulda taken us less time but there was skiing traffic. (Arizona Snowbowl is apparently a big deal lol). So we checked in, confirmed our reservations and did all that. At the top we also talked to a ranger at the visitor center with a sort of odd request. We had seen a little boy giving the Jr. ranger oath getting his certificate. So we asked the ranger “are we too old for the jr ranger program?” and she laughed and said “absolutely not!” =P so we got our activity booklets and she gave us our instructions (fill it out with our age appropriate activities, which for us was the 11 and up category =P and attend one ranger program). We set out on the trail by about 12:30. You were right about the canyon under snow, it was really an incredible site! Granted only the top was snowy but that made the top half mile extremely icy, and then extremely muddy. I was extremely thankful for my new (used) hiking shoes which held up absolutely perfectly the whole time! So we hiked down South Kaibab trail which is really steep but not that long (about 7.5 miles I think) and is known for lots of vast scenic looks of the canyon. It was a good trail to go down I think. Didn’t take us long though, probably about 4 and a half hours to get down. The best part of the hike down was when we passed a ranger and i said to her “hey so we have a question!” to which she said “well I have an answer!” So I asked “yea so we’re part of the Jr Ranger Program and is there something you have to sign for us?” I said this with a pretty straight face and she just doubled over laughing =P she gave us our answer and some more info though so it was good we asked!
So we got to Phantom Ranch at about 5 or so. It was a beautiful site! With a bit of history apparently too (Roosevelt stayed there when he was on a hunting trip at the North Rim). Once we were down there we filled out our Jr Ranger activity booklets! that was fun lol and then we talked to the Ranger a bit. Got our activity booklets that are specifically for Phantom Ranch. I got my National Park passport book stamped for Phantom Ranch which was pretty cool. Apparently less than one percent of visitors to the GC end up at Phantom Ranch so we felt like part of an elite few! We went to a Ranger program on California Condors that night which was really neat. We talked to the Ranger afterwards for about 10-15 mins more with questions. Got our Jr Ranger books signed and got our badges and a cool patch for Phantom Ranch! =P We slept pretty well, the cabin beds were comfortable. Got up around 7:30 a bit sore but ready to go. We hit the trail at about 8:30 after a leisurely morning of breakfast, repacking, and stretching. We did Bright Angel Trail up which I guess is one of the most popular for day hikers. The first half wasn’t bad, there’s a campground, pump station, drinking water, etc place called Indian Gardens about half way up. That was a good rest area. We ate lunch there, refueled, etc. From there, theres a small trail (3 miles round trip) called Plateau Point Trail which goes to a lookout over, well, a plateau! My friend Chris and I hiked it while everyone else watched our stuff (they wanted a pretty big break from hiking) and it was definitely worth the detour! We saw two California Condors at the overlook, which we could identify thanks to the talk we went to! So then the last 4.5 miles awaited us and that was definitely the most grueling. Thats when your legs started to give out! It was by far the steepest portion and we definitely stopped the most in that section to rest. Couple times I felt a muscle spasm or two and I’d stop to stretch it out. This was also the section were you get judgemental of other hikers….you started seeing lots of people with small backpacks, and then people without backpacks and think to yourself “psh..dayhikers!” but thats probably just because we’d been hiking for a longggg time at that point! You’d also see hikers going real slow with huge backpacks…you knew they’d been hiking all day…”props man!” =P The mile of course is the hardest! I kept thinking ‘cmonnnn I’ve done 11 miles today, I can do one more!” Finally got to the rim around 3:30. Mission Accomplished! From there theres not much to tell. We drove around to a few of the look out points but not many, by that point we had seen a million views from the hikes and we were dead tired. Drove back to Flagstaff at that point, stopped at this great cheap greek place, filled ourselves than headed home for showers! It was incredible trip and I’m so thankful I was able to go =) Pics to come soon! If you’re friends with me on facebook I have over a 100 there, the best ones will go up on the blog!