Third Annual - You Guessed it - Columbus Day Grand Canyon Hike

It's here!

My permit showed up today.  We're scheduled for another 5 day, 4 night GC adventure.  This trip will start at the Bass trail head where we'll drop into the canyon.  Two miles down, we'll head West towards the Royal Arch area, then we'll drop down to the river and visit Elves Chasm.  Finally we'll head East, pickup the Tonto trail and spend our last night at the Bass/Tonto junction area.  Our last day will be a climb back out of the canyon to the vehicles at the trail head.

I've established a new countdown timer.  Am I excited or what?  But I fly a desk all day long and these type of activities make the job bearable.

BTW, I'll in the process of revamping my blog.  Stay tuned for some changes.

Dale

Another Change

My last 'Hello World" announced that I was released from one calling and called as 2nd Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency and as an assistant scoutmaster.  During my 'lengthy' tenure, I've gone on four overnighters and taught maybe 5 or 6 lessons.  But in the church, one thing is certain, you get called and you get released.  I was really enjoying the position.  However, sometimes good things don't last very long.

I've now been released from both the 2nd counselor and assistant scoutmaster positions.  

So what's in store for me now?  I've been called as the Teacher's Quorum advisor and Varsity Scout Coach.  The person that had the job moved out of the ward and as I was 'recommended' as the replacement.  Hopefully I will do well in this position.  I've already gone on one outing with the older boys.  It was planned before I got involved and I was planning on going on it anyway.  The outing leader needed another adult to go on the hike and he knew that I was a glutton for punishment when it comes to those type of activities (Meaning that I like backpacking and enjoy going to new places.)

Old Store at Sego, UT

On 16-18 June I went with the Teacher's Quorum down to the Thompson Springs area and spent a few days in the southern part of the state.  It was a good outing and I got to know the boys a bit better.  We did some exploring of the old Sego mining town and then went on an overnight backpacking trip up Nash Wash.  The boys followed it up with a service project at Cunningham Ranch.


This past weekend, 25-26 June, I had one last commitment with the Boy Scouts and that was a short backpacking trip up by Causey Resevoir.  It was a short hike, about 2 miles each direction, but the boys made it and I didn't hear any complaining from any of them.

Change is Good

I was recently released from my Church calling and have been given a new one.  I had my old calling, or one similar to it, for 11 of the past 13 years.  I have been an assistant or secretary in the HP Quorum for the majority of the last 13 years with brief lapses when I served in the bishopric and when the Group Leader was released, but I've always been called right back into the the HP Quorum.

Not this time.  I'm now second counselor in the ward Young Men's organization.  It's been a long time since I've worked with the young men, and most of the time it has been a challenging, but enjoyable calling.  I'm excited for the change.

I've been car camping with them twice, and have been favorably impressed with most of the boys, but there are some behaviors that concern me.  One is that a few of the boys try diligently to do as little as possible.  For example, we've worked on the personnel fitness merit badge which requires, among other things, for them to set a benchmark for situps, pushups, pull-ups, stretch and a run.  After working through a fitness program, they do the same events again and try to show some improvement.  Most of the boys gave their benchmarking session a real diligent effort.  However, a couple of them walked the entire distance and did the absolute minimums on other exercises.  Talk about taking the easy path.

We have one young man with Cerebal Palsey.  Everything is difficult for him, but he never quits and he has given it his whole effort 0n each event.  He used his walker for the run, and he gave it every bit of energy that he had in order to make it around the loop twice.  I asked if he wanted to quit after the first lap, but he saw that all of the other boys went around twice and so he hung in there until he made the second lap.  I was totally impressed.

I'm looking for a good opportunity to serve the YM, but it has been a long time.  Hopefully I'll have the patience for it and I'll be able to help them in some small was as they continue to mature.

Tonto is in the bag

Last month we had plans to hike another segment of the Tonto Trail.  It's now in the bag.  See my trip report at the Grand Canyon Adventurers link.  It's now time to start planning for our next hike, hopefully the Western most segment on the Tonto and a visit to Elves Chasm and Royal Arch.  More to come as our plans are developed.

My hiking buddy, Mr. J, recently announced that he is moving to the Boston, MA area.  Ouch, this hurts.  Mr. J and I have been to Grand Canyon four times, Dollar Lake and the Kings Peak area in Utah three times, a trip on the Teton Crest trail in Wyoming and a trip to Boston where we hiked along the freedom trail.  We've also done a few Triathlons together and I'm going to miss his friendship and willingness to be out and about.

Tonto Rides Again

Another Grand Canyon hike in the making!

As noted in earlier posts, I have a goal to hike the Tonto.  I've hiked from the eastern beginnings of the Tonto to the tipoff at the Kiabab.  In Oct 2009 I hiked from the Bass to the Boucher.  Can we get another permit allowing us to hike from the tipoff to the Boucher?

Mr. J and I originally kicked around the idea of another President's day weekend hike.  However, for various reasons, it was not to be.  However, on President's day I sent a request for permits for the week of 8 March.  After 9 days, I still didn't have a response, so after trying to get through on the phones to see if I could find out our status, I sent an email.  Later that afternoon, I made one more phone call and this time I got through.  The ranger told me that my permit was denied because the campsites were all occupied.  I then asked if there were other possibilities that allowed us to do that segment of the trail.  He said they had two open nights at Monument Creek.  I signed up for those two nights and he put my name back on the list for consideration.

Saturday, Feb 27 I received an email stating that the two nights at Monument Creek were approved for March 11 & 12.  Now we need to plan a trip around those two nights.  My initial thoughts were to go down the Hermits, day hike to Boucher and back, and then hike out.  If energy and time was ok, instead of hiking out the Hermits trail, we would make a long day and hike out of the Bright Angel.  Justin suggested hiking down the BA to Indian Gardens and then over to Monument.  It makes for a long day, but it is probably doable.  Need to check out the mileages.

My victims for the hike are Mr. J and my son Justin.  This will be Justin's first hike into the Grand Canyon since we did the Christmas holiday rim-rim-rim hike back in December 1991.  He was 12 years old at the time and was quite the hiker/backpacker back then.  He'll probably smoke the old guy again.  The details for this hike can be seen at the Grand Canyon Adventures link.

I've done the Bright Angel trail from the trailhead to Indian Gardens multiple times as part of other hikes.  These other hikes include the Rim-Rim hike in 1982 and a Rim-Rim-Rim hike with my sons in December of 1991.  The last time I hiked this trail was in March 1992 and on the return trip up the BA, we were temporarily stopped when 4 mules were spooked and fell/slide/tumbled over 600 feet vertical and landed on the trail between my daughter and I and my sons.  The boys were about 3 minutes ahead of us and didn't see or hear the mules.  My daughter and I had to wait on the trail until Park Service personnel came down.  Three of the mules were so severely injured that they had to be put down before we continue on our hike out.

2nd Annual Grand Canyon Hike - Mission Accomplished

There wasn't anyone else at the Bass trailhead, so we took our group photos in two shots.  From Left to right it is my friend, co-worker and hiking buddy, Mr. J, myself, my racquetball buddy and neighbor Lynn, his son Jacob, and Lynn's brother-in-law Marc.

The details of this fantastic hike are posted at the Grand Canyon Adventurers link.  There were five of us on this trip, and I'm hoping that everyone had at least as good of a time as I did.  Hopefully they had a much better time than I did because for me, it was one of the toughest, most grueling things I have ever done in my life.  I pride myself in being in fairly good shape for an old man, but this hike kicked the crap out of me.   I've never been so happy to see a warning sign as I was to see this sign at Hermits Rest.

It has now been almost a month since we started down the trail, and I'm all ready contemplating my next trip to the GC.  I'm working on the Tonto Trail.  A trail that runs from East to West below the rim and above the river.  I hiked my first Tonto segment back in 1998 and didn't get back to it until Oct 2008.

My Grand Canyon Summary
Mr. J and I have now hiked from the Eastern start of the Tonto to its intersection with the South Kaibab trail (~31 miles) and from the intersection of the Bass and Tonto to its intersection with the Boucher trail (~29 miles).  I'll be back again to hike from Boucher to Kaibab and from Bass to the Western terminus of the Tonto.   To get to the Tonto, I've hiked down the Tanner, New Hance, Grandview and Bass trails and to get back to the rim I've hiked up the Grandview, South Kaibab, and Boucher trails which has added an additional 51 miles.

I've also hiked from down and up the Kaibab in Dec 1980, down the Kaibab and up the Bright Angel, Jan 1982, North Rim to the South Rim in late September 1983, and a hike with my wife to Havasupai in June of 1981 (I think it was 1981, I'll have to find an old journal to verify).  In August, 1989 I took my twin sons down to Havasupai and in December 1991 I took the boys on a 3 day, 2 night rim-to-rim-to-rim hike between Christmas and New Years.

For me, the Grand Canyon is one of the most enjoyable hiking places in the West.  However, I must admit that hiking in the fall, winter and spring is much more preferable than the summer hikes.

Please see my posts under the Grand Canyon Adventures blog to see my report of this hike.

2nd Annual Columbus Day Grand Canyon Hike

It's getting close!

Last year I led a small group of friends on a hike into the Grand Canyon.  We started at Lipan Point and hiked down the Tanner trail to the Colorado River.  We spent the next few days hiking downstream along the Escalante Trail to Hance Rapids.  At Hance Rapids we picked up the Tonto trail and after climbing up to Horseshoe Mesa, we exited the Canyon at Grandview Point.  An excellent trip.

I'm the old dude on the left in the photo.  Also in the picture are the three Js.  Jeremy, Jason J (Maj J), and Jason H (Mr. J).

Now I'm doing it again.  I got a permit for six to hike west of Grand Canyon Village.  We'll start by going down the South Bass trail to the river.  We'll then pick up the Tonto trail and head East and exit several days later by climbing out on the Hermit trail.  The cast of characters for this trip has changed.  Mr. J will be making the trip along with 3 new victims.  The victims from last years trip would like to go, but one has moved to Ohio (are there any hills in Ohio?) and the other drew for an Elk hunt in Montana.

Dollar Lake Again

I'm trying to  getting ready for the 2nd Annual Columbus Day Grand Canyon Hike.  My training regime has been running 8-12 miles per week and biking home from work as often as possible.  To keep it interesting, I try to throw in a swim every now and then.  To measure my progress, I'll do a triathlon once or twice a year.  Now a tri isn't my favorite activity in the world, but it does add a little variety to the workouts and makes them a bit more tolerable.

I recently signed up to do the Hill AFB mini triathlon:  800 meter swim, 12 mile bike ride, 10K run.  I was even looking forward to it.  I need something as an intermediate step in preparing for my Grand Canyon hike.  On Thursday evening, before the Saturday tri, my triathlon and hiking buddy (Mr. J)  stops by the house.  He won't be making the tri this weekend because he's still recovering from a vasectomy - ouch.  12 miles on a bike saddle - ouch ouch.  "Hey Dale - are you up for quick backpack to Dollar Lake."  Uh - triathlon or backpack?  The backpack trip will always win.  No need to toss a coin.

Dollar Lake is located at the foot of Kings Peak, UT.  Kings is the highest point in Utah and I've been to the summit twice, once on Aug 11, 1994 with my two sons and again on Sept 6, 2008 with Mr. J.

Dollar Lake is 7.5 miles from the trailhead.  We left the vehicle at 4:37 p.m and arrived at Dollar at 7:28.  1345 feet elevation gain, 7.5 miles, less than 3 hours.  Not to bad.  By the time we had our tent set up and dinner cooking, it was dark and raining.

It rained through out the night and though it had stopped by the time we got up, the basin was fogged in.  We had met our objective of getting to Dollar Lake and so after a breakfast of oatmeal - yuck, we packed up our stuff and headed back out.  We left Dollar at 8:37 and arrived back at the trailhead at 11:27.  We didn't see any large animals this trip, but we've seen elk, moose and deer on past trips.

All in all a very good trip.  No injuries - not even a blister.  However I decided that my water filter needs an overhaul.  Pumping water out of the lake took forever.