Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Grand Canyon Calling


For those that don't know, Brandi and I obtained a permit to hike the Bright Angel this April. And we're taking the kids! We'll spend the first night at Indian Gardens, then two nights down on the river at Bright Angel, and then the fourth night back up at Indian Gardens. We're hiking the canyons and trails around Moab to get ready. Should be about 25 miles of hiking fun! Or absolutely insane. Hopefully the former.

Our trip got me thinking, and I remembered I had two trip reports published on one of the big Grand Canyon sites. You can read our Royal Arch adventure here. Or you can read about our South Bass/Copper Canyon trip here. If you go to the main page at http://www.grandcanyontreks.org/ you can scroll down the right side and see our reports listed there. Good times!

Dave and I are talking about hiking the Little Colorado River Gorge. Years ago, Brett, Daniel, and I hiked the first 13 miles from Cameron before succombing to the heat and ditching all of our food and climbing out an obscure slot canyon and hitchhiking back to the East Entrance of the park. And then a couple of years later, Brett, Eric, and I hiked the lower 40 miles of the LCR and then out the 20 miles on the Beamer/Tanner trail (the famous - Joe got giardia so bad he prayed for death trip). It's a crazy, crazy adventure only a relative few people have accomplished. We're probably shooting for early June. Who's in?
Here's a picture I took two years ago of a Chinese tourist going muley in the Grand Canyon. If he can do it, you can do it. (No wind is gonna blow that hat away. Chin strap? Check. Skidoosh.)

5 comments:

Bryan & Bobbie said...

I vowed to never be a pansy on any more Canyon trips. I can't believe how many memories I have missed out on due to my pansiness. And though I am prolly still in decent shape, except for my back, I will not be able to attend.

The Real Jim Heywood said...

I'm tempted.

If I still have a job. Your mother and I are both on an unofficial list of district castoffs. We should know by mid-March.

joeheywood said...

I've been on an unofficial list several times when cutbacks are coming. I actually created one of those lists last week for my own employees - it sucks.

However, I've only been cast off once, and that was because I was a first year teacher (in Hesperia).

The lists are created to show the legislature how you will cut costs to meet their cutbacks, but with names on a list, the USOE fights to keep many, and usually all, of the names and programs on the list. It's hard for a legislature to cut actual names of people, thus the lists.

Dave Heywood said...

First of all, we are only TALKING. I am still trying to convince myself to hike 80 MILES. Thats right, Joe forgot to mention it will be a 80 miler.

joeheywood said...

80 miles of pure, nekid fun.