Warning: Rodents May Carry the Plague!

When we checked into our campground in Bishop we read the sign, thought the sign was kind of comical and overly dramatic and carried on with our $2/night camping. Our last night at the campground became a little more interesting though when I was up half the night listening to loud scratching noises all night - Ian was up the second half of the night (after I woke him up to make him listen too). At about 4:30 am when there was a hint of light in the air we bailed out of the van and started emptying out the back. Ian pulled containers out of the back and Piton and I made sure the mouse didn't escape up into the front section of the van. We finally pinned him down behind the batteries and each armed with a broom managed to scurry him out the back of the van. Whew. So we went back to sleep for a few minutes and proceeded on Yosemite that day.

On the way we stopped at Mono Lakes - it was gorgeous. There are these enormous tufa towers on this saline lake. It's far from dead however and hosted quite the diversity of bird life and had little brine shrimp that flourished in the lake. The lake is saltier than the ocean because there is no outlet, all the water in the area drains into that lake. All the water is a lot less than it used to be! Apparently the City of Los Angeles own a lot of land in the area (especially anything with water on it) and they divert the water for drinking water. Unfortunately the water level in Mono Lake dropped over 50 feet with this new "water management strategy", but a compromise has apparently been reached and the city has returned water to some of the creeks they formerly diverted completely and they have committed to raising the level of Mono Lake - not to where it used to be, but at least higher than it is now. For now though the tufa towers, deposits of calcium that formed below the water level of the lake are exposed and quite beautiful!


We headed through Tuolumne Meadows and the Tiago Pass and I started to realize what a beautiful place Yosemite is. Grand Canyon was cool - this place is spectacular.


We checked out our new campground, and settled in to spend another night in the van. As we were driving through the Park Ian gave a bit of a shout and said something touched his foot - so I assured him I couldn't see anything down by his feet when he was driving. We stopped for the night and couldn't have been in bed for five minutes before Ian shrieked again and turned on the lights. He said something touched his foot - I assured him it was likely just the moth I had seen earlier so we laid down again (pillow back over top of my head). Five or ten minutes go by and Ian gets up again and swears there is something in the car. I listen for a while with him and try to convince him there's nothing. As we sit there with the light on we can see this lump climbing up on the other side of the curtain and this awful thump as it fell off near the top. OOPS... there was something in the van and it wasn't just a moth. So for the second night in a row we were pinning down and scooting a mouse out of the van. This time though Ian used a flyswatter and I had a shoe and broom. We kept in the front area and it didn't take too much time to isolate his position and scoot him out the door. At this point it was closer to 1 am and we had a bit of adrenaline pumping.... not so good for sleeping.

We got up early anyways, checked in officially to our campsite and have been enjoying Yosemite ever since. Our friend Ara from Ohio has met up with us, and we've enjoyed two days of rock climbing with him. I'm quickly coming to understand how Ian ended up staying here a month when he intended to just "pass through" five years ago on his solo road trip.


We are looking forward to Matt, Amanda, and Jenn's arrival next week, and loving our time in Yosemite - so here's to hoping we don't really have the plague!

It's a Rough Life

For the last week almost two weeks, we've been camping just north of Bishop, California. We're a few miles from the Owens River Gorge, where we've been climbing most days. It's great climbing on igneous rock on property owned by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Apparently they use the flow of the river to generate electricity for the city, then pipe the water hundreds of miles through the desert for drinking water. Seems a bit silly, but they let us climb on their land, so that's nice.

Our campsite is a few miles from the gorge. We're paying a whopping $2 a night for this view. What you can't see in the photo is the mountain stream that runs just behind me at the back of the site. The weather here is great - we've gotten about 20 minutes of rain in the time we've been here, and it's warm and sunny almost every day. There are also some really nice natural hot springs on public land not far from here. Climbing, relaxing, sitting in hot springs...like it says in the title, it's a rough life.

On Friday we're heading to Yosemite National Park. We'll be there for 2 weeks, and will be meeting up with some friends while we're there. It's also home to some of the best climbing on Earth. It should be fun.

Ian

Death Valley

Death Valley. It's hot. Really hot. The brake pad thickness sensor on the van actually melted before we left. At noon, we were Badwater, California - the lowest point of land in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. It's also the record holder for the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in the Western Hemishpere at 57 degrees Celsius (134 degrees Fahrenheit).  Though it wasn't 57 degrees when we were there, it was 37, which was hot enough for me, and far too hot for Meghan. She's pretty sure that she almost melted too. 

While it is brutally hot, it was worth the visit (to me at least, maybe not to Meghan), because it has some really cool stuff to see. We were there for half a day, and besides the Badwater salt flats, we got to see the Devil's Golfcourse, another salt flat area with some weird formations, Mosaic Canyon, a narrow water-carved canyon, and the huge sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells. It's just such an interesting a varied landscape. I've included a number of photos at the end of this post. I hope you see the beauty here too.

Just as a side note, we're currently in Bishop, California, just east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, climbing at the Owens River Gorge. We'll try to get a blog post up about that soon too.

Ian

You Might Get Tired!

While I didn't think the hike was so dramatic that I would die, it was a pretty amazing and beautiful. Simply getting up at 3:45 in the morning to be at the trailhead at 4:45 am and seeing the sun rise in the canyon was worth it.


For anyone who is ever there and has a morning to spend I would highly recommend at least that portion of the adventure. I hiked the South Kaibab Trail down to the river - and saw the sunrise at "Ooh Aah Point" - quite appropriately named. I was at the river about 7:30 am, and was delighted to not only find bathrooms at the bottom, but flush ones with running water to wash your hands. The river was gorgeous, but this is where I ran into my first mule train. The mules leave their scat all over the trail, and there's flies everywhere, it was actually kind of gross. I had crossed the river on the first bridge at that point, so I filled up on water, ate some more food and crossed back on the second suspension bridge.

At this point I was caught in the middle of two mule trains - the first a string of mules just carrying supplies and the second a string of mules carrying tourists. The first string were out to cover the distance as fast as they could, so they were gone fairly quickly, but the second was right on my heels so I hussled and was able to stay ahead of them for 45 minutes or so. Eventually though I was passed and had even more fresh droppings to navigate around. I did find a lucky mule shoe though and will try to mount it over the door of the van!

Easy isn't maybe the right word, but the trail was nice, it was clearly marked and had little rest areas spaced out throughout the length of the trail. The South Kaibab trail didn't have running water, but there was water at the river and at each of the rest areas on the way up the Bright Angel Trail. When I say water, I mean clean filtered ready-to-drink water - it was so simple and easy. The trail up was allright, I think the South Kaibab was maybe a nicer trail, but the Bright Angel is more frequently travelled and convenient because of all the water on the way up. I saw a couple of people on my descent, all headed up and all carrying big packs. They all seemed competent too, which may be a funny thing to say, but later on you'll see what I mean.

My first actual rest of the day was at Indian Garden about half way up the Bright Angel trail. I was pretty excited about getting another snack and chilling out in the shade for a few minutes. As I walked down the final few feet of trail before the rest area there was a sudden (and ominious) rattle.


I froze and scanned around where I heard the sound wondering how I'd missed that - generally I'm good about these things. Turns out he was on/in the rock wall about maybe two feet to my left and he was big. So I backed away and got a picture to share. :) It's not the worlds greatest picture, but it gives you an idea of his size (I'd say about three inches diameter and maybe 4+ feet long). He was my second snake of the hike, the first was a little yellow one who didn't stick around for more than a couple of seconds (but at least I saw him first!) I saw a bunch of lizards, there was quite the variety of size and colours on the trail, and there were these squirrels (pack rats?) who had no fear and really wanted to eat my snacks. I wasn't interested in sharing.

I took another couple of rests at the next two resthouses, met some awesome people from Conneticut, and met this guy from California who showed me some petroglyphs just off the trail (you can see them from the trail) just down from the mile and half resthouse.
Turns out there are more petroglyphs (although not as good) just down from the trailhead, on your left after you go through the tunnel.

So like Brent (read about his Grand Canyon expereince here) I didn't have any ham sandwiches, but I did end up consuming part of a peanut butter sandwich, two Cliff bars, a lot of salted peanuts, some salty chips, gatorade and lots of water. I was still starving at dinner though, so I have a ton of respect for the granola bar and apple powered adventure Brent took! I think his hike was longer too. And although I'm "ok" my legs are sore today. The park doesn't recommend it though because of the stupid people who set off on these hikes with nothing. No water or food, and they are completely out of shape. Or there is the slightly better version who are hiking with a coffee cup (like a paper coffee cup from Timmy's) and refilling it at the rest areas - did I mention they are sharing a coffee cup for two people?! These are real examples of people I saw at and around the three mile rest-house, which is about 1200' feet below the rim. I'm pretty sure this is the target audience for the park and these people account for a good majority of the 250 odd helicopter rescues each year.


It was a good adventure, and as far as what happened in Vegas - I thought it stayed in Vegas! :)

Meghan

PS. Since Grand Canyon, we headed back to Vegas for a night, moved on to Death Valley, and are now in Bishop California. More updates to come!

You Could Die!

So after a few days in Vegas, playing a bit of poker and whatnot (we'll get to Vegas in the next blog post), we decided to head to the Grand Canyon. Not satisfied with standing behind a railing and looking at a big hole for hours, I thought it would be fun to hike below the rim. There are a few trails, but they don't recommend that you hike more than about halfway down without getting a backcountry permit and staying at one of the campgrounds or the ranch that are down at the canyon floor. Well, it was to late to get a permit, so I decided to do it in a day. Fast and light. Down to the river on the South Kaibab Trail, and back up the Bright Angel Trail. They say this is a bad idea. Don't do it.You should never attempt this. 

Here are a couple of signs along the trail.

Another sign I read said, 

If you attempt to hike from the rim to the river and back in one day, be prepared for the following:

-Exhaustion
-Cardiac Arrest
-Death

Whatever. I'm doing it anyways. I know what I'm doing. So I did. Meghan wasn't too interested, and someone had to stay with the dog, so I went on my own. I started early, really early - before sunrise - to avoid hiking in the hottest part of the canyon during the warmest part of the day. I wore a white long-sleeved sunshirt, pants/shorts, my softshell, a hat to keep the sun off my face, and a bandana to keep my neck warm at the cold beginning of the hike, and to soak with water to keep me cool later on. I carried 3.5 liters of water and 1 liter of Gatorade, my knife, sports tape, my headlamp, an extra pair of socks, and of course my camera. Since I was going light, I only brought 3 lenses for it... (Look for Grand Canyon photos on my photography website - hopefully soon). I also had my altimeter watch, so I could track my progress, knowing how far down I'd gone and how much further it was to the river (or rim), since appearances can be deceiving. I started hiking at 4:45 a.m., with sunrise at 5:30 a.m. and sunset at 7:30 p.m. (twilight around 8:15 p.m.). I gave my self a turn-around time of 10:30 a.m. whether I had made it to the river or not, giving myself twice as much daylight to get back up as I took to get down.

It was a gorgeous hike. The South Kaibab Trail follows a ridgeline down to the plateau, where it crosses the Tonto Trail. From here you continue down more switchbacks to the river, which you cross via the Black Suspension Bridge. You follow the trail west along the Colorado River, passing a historic Native American site and a nice little beach (don't go swimming though - three young guys apparently drowned there just a few days ago), to a spot where there's clean water available. I made it down the trail and across the river, dropping about 4600 feet in elevation in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Three hours ahead of schedule, I wasn't worried about having enough time to make it back up in the daylight. The high temperature at the canyon bottom was to be in the mid-90's F (mid-30's C), so I wanted to start climbing up in elevation before that happened. From here the trail met the Bright Angel Trail, which would be may way back up. My climb out of the canyon was good too, thought I found this trail a little less scenic (still very pretty though). I took my time, especially as it grew warmer. About halfway up the trail, I came across a scene where apparently (this is hearsay) a mule carrying an older woman somehow fell off the trail and tumbled down to the next lower switchback (there is a year-long waiting list to go for mule rides down the trails, and this is how they get supplies to and from the ranch at the river, so you pass a few of them on the hike). She reportedly had a broken leg among her injuries, and got to go for a $3500 helicopter ride. This held up the trail for a bit, but of course everyone was understanding and just found some shade to rest in. Water was available at a few places along the way up, so my water supplies were always nearly full.

I was back to the canyon rim by 1:18 p.m., and not really feeling too much worse for the wear, save for one blister on my right heel. Unfortunately, since this hike was double the distance and elevation gain/loss as what the park considers the "most strenuous" day-hike, I assumed it would take me longer. Meghan wasn't coming to pick me up until 7 p.m., so I had some time to spare. Over 5.5 hours until she would be there to pick me up actually. I rode the shuttle bus in a big circle for an hour, then I sat on a bench. Then I sat on another bench, then I laid on the bench. After that I sat on the curb, then tried to juggle some rocks, then sat some more. This was not the most exciting part of the day, and probably not the most exciting part of this story either. Eventually Meghan picked me up though, and we went back to camp (about 10 miles outside the park) for some dinner. 

After hearing about what a good hike it was, and also not being satisfied with staring at a big hole for hours, Meghan decided to do the hike today. So, we got up at 3:45 a.m. for the second day in a row, and dropped Meghan off at the trailhead. I'm sure she's having fun right now, probably much of the way back up the trail at this point. I'm sitting outside the Lodge again using their free wireless internet to post this blog entry while I wait for Meghan to finish her hike. I think I'll go try to spot her in one of he 25 cent telescopes at the rim. It's a fantastic hike, but you shouldn't do it - You could die!

Ian

P.S. - Just as I was finishing editing this post, Meghan showed up at the lodge here, safe and sound. She didn't die. 

Decisions Decisions

Just a quick blog update this time. We're still in Flagstaff right now, but we just decided that we're leaving in a matter of minutes. I'll get to that in a minute. 

For those of you that don't climb, this won't make any sense, nor will you care, but I redpointed a 5.11a today - a new personal best - so I'm excited about that. The climbing here around Flagstaff is great, and maybe we'll come back some day to do some more, but we have 3 weeks to make it to Yosemite, and a few places in between here and there that we want to go, so it's time to hit the road. 

Where to? Vegas, baby! Vegas! And just outside of town - Red Rock Canyon!

Ian