Grand Canyon Day 6: South Rim Day 1

Today we woke up at 6:30am, broke down camp, ate a quick breakfast of bagels and instant oatmeal, and were ready to leave Lee's Ferry Campground shortly after 8am.

After saying goodbye to Steve and his dog Pepper, we were on our way to the South Rim.  I drove the rental Tahoe with 4 participants, tents, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads.  I was surprised to see pine trees appear in the desert as we neared the Grand Canyon.

We followed Josh to Grand Canyon National Park, where we got in for free since we had been doing volunteer work at Lee's Ferry with Josh.  We stopped at Desert View for our first look at the magnificent Grand Canyon.  It was really beautiful, but some of us were slightly put off by the many visitors (which apparently are significantly less than during the summer).

First views of the Grand Canyon at Desert View

 First views of the Grand Canyon at Desert View

Then Josh took us to Shoshone Point, which is technically open to everyone but requires a decent hike if you don't have a key to unlock the access gate.  I enjoyed driving the Tahoe off-road on the dirt trail too!

Josh unlocking the gate to Shoshone Point

Shoshone Point was incredible.  Such a great overlook, with no tourists or human-touch in sight.  So amazing.  We took group pictures, a guides picture, and individual pictures here.  The panorama was marvelous.

 Our group looking around at Shoshone Point

Emily chilling on a ledge at Shoshone Point

At Shoshone Point

Group picture at Shoshone Point (photo by Malika)

Guides picture at Shoshone Point (photo by Jena)

Then we said goodbye to Josh.  He's a really cool guy, and having him on the trip was a huge asset.  I wish I had been less sick and fatigued each night, and had been able to sit up and talk with everyone more.

Bye Josh! (photo by Joao)

We arrived at our two campsites on the Aspen loop of Mather Campground around 1:30pm.  We prepared lunch while everyone set up their tents and settled in.  Somewhat interestingly, all the participants set up their tents in the site containing the kitchen, while all the guides set up our tents in the other site. Lunch was pitas with peppers, hummus, chicken, salmon, and sausage, as well as cookies and Sunchips.

After cleaning up lunch, we had free time for a couple hours.  I drove the Tahoe to the general store, where I bought postcards, a magnet, a tee-shirt (a Grand Canyon Life is Good shirt!), and a mini bottle of milk.  Then I wrote and mailed the postcards at the Grand Canyon post office.

Then I decided to walk out to the Rim Trail while chatting with JT.  After walking a short while, I decided to just sit off trail a bit on a piece of rock sticking out into the canyon, and relax and blog.  As I was sitting there, it began to lightly snow! So cool!

 The view from my perch just off the Rim Trail

Then we all took the park shuttle bus to watch the sunset from Pima Point (recommended by Josh). Some people said it was the best sunset they had ever seen.

 Grand Canyon at Pima Point

 Grand Canyon at Pima Point

 Sunset at Pima Point in the Grand Canyon

Once we were back at camp, I started preparing my quesadilla meal. Lots of people helped by chopping vegetables. Emily and I grilled the vegetables, and then let everyone prepare their own quesadillas. We had corn and beans, grilled peppers, zucchini, and onions, chicken, sausage, and cheese. The cheese ran out too quickly since the cheese for this meal was not in the cooler and we instead took the cheese from Thursday's lunch. We're not sure if it was never bought/packed, or if it was used in another meal. Everyone liked the meal, but it left me somewhat hungry. I worked the grill the entire meal, but Emily prepared me a quesadilla so I did get to eat. After dinner we had smores and discussed plans for hiking the next day. We decided that one group would leave at 6:45am and hike quickly all the way to the Colorado River, while the other would leave at 8am and hike slowly to Plateau Point. Emily, Diana, Andrea, and I opted for the shorter hike. Emily and I finally got into our tent at 10:30pm. Since it was going to be a very cold night, I used two sleeping bags.

Grand Canyon Day 5: Service Project Day 3

Note: This post reflects my memories of this day.  The original post remained in the 'publishing' state for 6 days, until it finally disappeared.  Hence, I'm rewriting this post one week later.

Today we awoke at 6:30am, ate non-instant oatmeal for breakfast, and reported for our final morning of invasive Sahara mustard removal at 8am.  Josh started the day by telling us some facts about the Grand Canyon - including facts about invasive plant removal, national park jobs, and visitors.

Two people went with Josh, while the rest of us went with Steve.  Steve's group searched along the road leading from the campground to the landfill, and then we walked along a wash leading from the landfill back to camp.  We found a few plants along the road, and found some truly massive plants in the wash.  We took a short break in the wash near the landfill - it was a pretty area to just rest and chill.  Many people ended up taking a short nap in the sun.  Once we reached the campground, we searched every site and removed a good bit of Sahara mustard from the campground.

Leaving the campground in search of Sahara Mustard.  I can almost hear the chants of 'Kill the Mustard'

Many rested in the wash leading back to camp...

 ...while Dan took the opprotunity to climb high above us!

Then we had lunch, which was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Emily started toasting the sandwiches, which led me to make a grilled cheese out of the remaining deli cheese.  So good!  It was at this point that we realized that grilled cheeses might be a good lunch (or dinner) idea for the future.

After lunch we drove over to the river launch at Lee's Ferry, and started our afternoon hike up the Spencer Trail.  The trail was about 1.75 miles to the top, where we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions.  I hiked up in the back of the pack.  Tommy stayed with me, and interestingly enough all the guides ended up reaching the top last!  I felt like I was out of breath the entire way up.

Once we were at the top, we all explored for a while and took lots of pictures.  I found a ledge to relax on that looked upriver towards Lake Powell.  The climb up was tiring, but the view at the top was certainly worth it.  I could have stayed at the top for much longer than we did - I'm not sure why everyone was in a hurry to get down.

View downriver from the top of Spencer Trail.

 View upriver from the top of Spencer Trail.

Group picture at the top of Spencer Trail (photo by Andrea)

I walked down near the end of the pack, walking with Emily for the first part but walking most of the hike alone.  It was a good time to think and reflect, while also focusing on footing to be sure I didn't fall off the cliff at points.  There were a few sketchy points, where the trail was either really narrow on a cliff or a small rock-slide had made the trail a bit unstable - but I never felt like it was really unsafe.

Once we all reached the bottom, we drove back to camp.  There was some debate among with guides about whether we should drive into Marble Canyon and eat or eat the planned stir-fry meal.  We eventually decided to eat the stir-fry meal as planned.

Josh had us all gather together before we began cooking the meal.  He gave us Oreos and Steve presented us each with a NPS volunteer sticker and a Vegetation Crew bandanna.  Apparently one of Steve's friends had designed the bandanna a few years earlier, just as the Grand Canyon vegetation crew was starting to actually go 'below the rim' in the canyon. It was a pretty nice presentation by both of them.  Then we filled out evaluation forms for the NPS volunteer experience.

Overall, I was happy with our volunteer experience.  I expected that we would work longer hours, and likely find more prevalent Sahara mustard.  But apparently due to the weather this past winter, Josh thinks that perhaps the Sahara mustard will not really begin to appear in Lee's Ferry for another couple weeks.  But the other option is that volunteer work like ours is actually starting to put a dent in the amount of Sahara mustard that is appearing.  Although I had planned to work longer hours, I was happy that we did get so much time to relax and do neat things (like hiking Cathedral wash on Monday, relaxing at the beach and seeing Lonely Dell ranch on Tuesday, and climbing Spencer Trail on Wednesday).  Especially considering it was our Spring Break, this seemed reasonable and certainly helped morale.  As I said in my evaluation, I will consider doing this trip again if UT RecSports offers it next year.

Dinner actually ended up being really delicious - Sebastian made two excellent sauces to go with the vegetables (one spicy and one sweet).

Despite wanting to hang out with everyone after dinner, I instead decided to just clean up the dishes and camp and then head to bed.  Being sick is no fun, as it forces you to cherish your sleep over getting to know everyone better.  Apparently the other guides talked with Josh and Steve after I went to sleep about hikes to do in the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Day 4: Service Project Day 2

Today we awoke at 6:50am after a windy, cool night.  I awoke many times coughing or extremely congested. Poor Emily (my tent mate).

For breakfast we had toasted bagels with butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese.  Then we drove down to Lee's Ferry and searched for Sahara mustard for about 3 hours. We found a good bit of trash, and saw a decent bit of native mustard, but found no Sahara mustard. We also saw multiple groups setting up rafts for 2-4 week Grand Canyon trips.

We headed back to camp for lunch at 11am, as we were supposed to have an interpretive talk at noon. We ate tortillas with hummus, tuna, pepper jack cheese, and leftover ham and roast beef.  I could only stomach one roll-up with ham and cheese.  After lunch a bunch of us laid down and napped. I'm feeling pretty sickly and drained today (worse than the previous days).

Apparently the person who was supposed to give our noon talk was delayed when her plane couldn't take off due to wind, so we just went down to the Lonely Dell Ranch to explore.  I was really dragging during the 1 mile self-guided tour.

Orchard at Lonely Dell Ranch

 The Paria River, by Lonely Dell Ranch

We got back in the cars and went to remove more Sahara mustard. We walked by the river for a bit, where we were thrilled to find 2 Sahara mustard plants.  Then we got to a beach, where we napped, got in the cold Colorado River, and played Ultimate Frisbee.  I stayed in the water the longest - it felt good and I'm glad I got in, but now everything is so sandy. It was relaxing to sit on the beach for a while and just chill.

Hunting for Sahara Mustard in a small wash

 Beach at Lee's Ferry

Once we returned to camp, Josh noted how helpful having 17 other people out here helping him grid and remove really is.  Apparently he is the only Grand Canyon front-country invasive species person.  He also noted that it really is a victory when we grid an area and find no Sahara mustard.

We made a quick trip to the gas station convenience store tonight. Most people got lots of snacks and ice cream.  Everything was pretty overpriced.  I got a little bag of Cheese-its and a Marble Canyon hiking tee-shirt.

We made potato and garbanzo bean soup for dinner.  The soup seemed like it would not be tasty for a while, but eventually we added enough spices for it to actually be pretty good.

It seems like it will be another cold, windy night - probably worse than the previous night.  We'll see how it goes.

In general, everyone seems tired but happy and relaxed tonight.  Today was a pretty cool day.

Grand Canyon Day 3: Service Project Day 1

Today we awoke at 6:30am and had non-instant oatmeal with toppings (apples, brown sugar, almonds, honey, ect) for breakfast. We met with Josh and Steve at 8am to be briefed for our day. We learned how to recognize and remove Sahara mustard.  The plants had small bumps on their leaves, fuzzy undersides to their leaves, a distinct smell, and the mature ones also had yellow flowers on stalks.  We were also reminded to always wear our PPG - personal protective gear - when using our geopick to remove Sahara mustard.  Then we split into two groups and conquered different areas.

My group walked from camp and walked along the road to the boat launch looking for Sahara mustard. Then we climbed a steep hill with lots of loose rocks, before looking for Sahara mustard near the ranger residences.  We were pretty 'unlucky' in the morning - which is depressing, but also very positive for the park.

Looking from camp towards Lee's Ferry (photo by Malika)

Such a pretty backdrop for our service project (photo by Andrea)

We stopped for lunch at 11:45am. Lunch was my deli sandwiches (roast beef, turkey, ham, cheddar, and Munster) with apples, chips, hummus, avocado. Everyone laid down to nap after lunch.

We worked on finding and removing more Sahara mustard from 1pm to 3:30pm. We had much more success after lunch - I removed probably 60 plants myself.  However, apparently we are finding many less than last year and are way under the 2000 plant daily estimate for our group. During our search, Tommy found some wire, and shaped it into a longhorn - pretty cool.

 Working to remove Sahara mustard

Sebastian remembering to drink water!

Then we left to hike the Lower Cathedral Wash at 4pm. It was a pretty neat hike though a canyon to the Colorado River. I enjoyed scrambling around in the canyon. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, but it seemed to tire most of us out.  It wasn't as epic and difficult as Fern Canyon in Big Bend National Park, but it did push some people out of their comfort zone and was indeed beautiful and fun to explore.

Something about me loves exploring canyons...

Pepper easily made her way through Lower Cathedral Wash

Hiking through Lower Cathedral Wash (photo by Andrea)

Hiking through Lower Cathedral Wash (photo by Andrea)

Determining the best path in Lower Cathedral Wash

 At the end of the Lower Cathedral Wash trail, next to the Colorado River

Josh climbed up this crack, and two participants followed. :)

We arrived back at camp as the sun was setting, and I started my tortilla soup (black beans, corn, tomatoes, chicken broth, cream of chicken, avocado, cheese, and tortilla chips). I made a regular version, as well as a no-dairy and a vegetarian version. I also made celery and peanut butter snacks before dinner. All the guides helped me prepare the dinner, which was cool.

I'm still feeling sickly.  I'm more congested, but overall am doing better as long as I take the DayQuil or NyQuil.

Grand Canyon Day 2: Caballo Lake to Lee's Ferry

We awoke at 5:30am, and found we had no propane left so there were no hot drinks for breakfast.  Breakfast consisted of granola bars, tangelos, and dried fruit - which really wasn't enough or appetizing.

 Good morning Caballo Lake!

I tossed and turned a lot overnight, but awoke feeling refreshed - but with a terrible sore throat that had gotten progressively worse over night.

We left Caballo Lake State Park shortly after dawn at 7am.  I drove the rental Tahoe from Caballo Lake State Park, through Albuquerque and to Flagstaff (484 miles). We arrived in Flagstaff for lunch at 1:30pm.  Flagstaff seemed much smaller and alpine than I expected - but we only saw the outskirts so it is difficult to really give an opinion on the city.  The other cars swapped drivers 180 miles before Flagstaff (in Gallup), but I kept driving until Flagstaff since it was impossible for all three cars to get refreshed drivers at the same time.

On the last 200 mile stretch I began feeling terrible - sick to my stomach with a terrible headache and chills. We had lunch at Tacos los Altos de Jalisco, where I had a bacon breakfast taco, fries, and horchata.  After lunch, Tommy took over driving the Tahoe.  I went with Emily to CVS to get some cold meds to hopefully help me feel better (since this would be my last chance to get meds anywhere besides a gas station or gift store).

Then I rode with Emily, Celia, and Anna from Flagstaff to Lee's Ferry, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This drive took about 2 hours.

The scenery during our drives today was awesome. When we hit the road at 7am, there was a really pretty stretch on the interstate where all I could see was our two Suburbans, the interstate dipping into a canyon, and a beautiful rock landscape.  As we were nearing Flagstaff, seeing snow-topped Humphreys Peak grow was awesome.  And seeing the ever changing desert landscape with mesas and rock structures was cool.

Once at camp, we met Josh and Steve, our NPS service project partners.  We're sharing two of the large group camp sites with them. We set up tents and our kitchen, and then we drove down to the Navajo bridge. The original bridge was built in 1928 to be the only connection between Utah and Arizona across the Colorado - this bridge is currently just for pedestrians.  Another stronger bridge was built in 1996 to handle modern-day traffic.  This bridge was built using the same methods. The Colorado River was pretty far below the bridge and the canyon was pretty cool.

 Our campsite at Lee's Ferry.

Our group walking on the original Navajo bridge.

Our group on the Navajo bridge (photo by Joao)

We stopped at the balanced rock on the way back to camp. Everyone enjoyed running around and climbing rocks.

Then we made dinner - a Sebastian meal of onions, lentils, and rice - as well as toasted apples and almonds for dessert.

Grand Canyon Day 1: Driving to Caballo State Park

And we are off! We arrived at Gregory Gym at 6am (thanks for the ride JT!), and departed in 2 Suburbans and a rental Tahoe at 6:45am.  It rained and was cloudy until around Harper, and then the sun came out.  I rode in Tommy's car with Cole, Anna, and Celia until Junction where I moved to drive the rental Tahoe.

I drove from Junction to Fort Stockton, where we got food at Sonic and Subway, as well as gas.  The line at Subway was really long, and the employees worked really slowly and sloppily. Then I drove through El Paso before stopping for gas and a Target run in Las Cruces. Then I drove one more hour to Caballo Lake State Park.  On the way, we went through a border patrol station. I had two non-US citizens in my car, and said so when asked, and we ended up getting detained when Malika only had her driver's license (instead of her passport).  We pulled over for 10 minutes while they went and looked her up in their database.  The three girls in my car slept and read most of the ride, while Juan and I chatted.  He's a visiting professor from Portugal, and generally a neat person.  I was surprised how comfortable I felt driving for so long (544 miles).  The heated seat back might have helped. :)

We had reserved 2 RV sites, which were really rocky.  I helped some people set up their tents, while Emily set up our tent and Tommy, Cole, and Sebastian worked on dinner. Due to the rocky site, the tents were difficult to stake. Being by the lake was scenic though.

Dinner consisted of chicken noodle soup, non-vegetarian vegetable soup, and avocado. It was pretty delicious.

It's pretty windy tonight - I'm starting to doubt whether I'll have enough warm clothing for the nights that are actually really cold.

After washing dinner dishes, we noticed that lots of water had run from the water spigot to under Emily and my tent. We unstaked and moved the tent - and the ground cloth had done its job, as everything was dry! We went to bed around 9pm.

University of Texas at Austin Bureaucracy

Today I found out that UT RecSports is currently unable to hire me as a paid adventure trip guide since I'm already employed by the computer science department as a graduate research assistant.  I can still work as a volunteer guide, which means I can work trips for free but not get paid.

I'm pretty frusterated about the situation, since when I signed up for guide school and took wilderness first aid, I expected to eventually earn back the costs of these.  It's also hard to be willing to work trips for free when you know everyone else is getting paid.

I opted to back out of the backpacking trip February 28-March 2, since Explore UT is on Saturday March 1st and the ANTS deadline is on March 2nd.  I had felt guilty for a while about missing Explore UT (since my lab runs a huge robot soccer demo), so this was a good execuse to back out of the trip and help my lab out at Explore UT.

I did decide to keep my other four trips this semester - Grand Canyon, the stand up paddle board day trip, the tubing and hiking weekend trip, and the end of semester Santa Elena canyon canoeing trip.  I'm pretty excited about all of these trips, so they will be cool to go on even if I'm not getting paid.