04.19.08
Posted in photo, travel, vacation at 10:57 pm by heidihoho7
The adventure nearly halted as my back rejected the abuse I was giving it. Heidi decided a bit of pampering was in order, so on Wednesday she arranged for me to get a long massage in town and hopefully the back spasm would cease. Not to be outdone, she herself was treated to a wonderful facial. We then headed out towards Supai in preparation for the next day’s 10+ mile hike to Havasu Falls. Staying at perhaps the oddest motel/lodge/playground we could find, Heidi and I checked out the wildlife – including dinosaurs, cows, and horses. Photos are a must.
We woke the following morning, drove an hour to the trailhead and began the long decent into the Havasupai Canyon. This was Heidi’s first real backpacking experience and she proved to be quite the trooper, toughing it out through blisters and sore feet.
Eight miles into the canyon lies the village of Supai, a wonderful Native American village who’s people can trace their heritage back to the area almost 1000 years. We trekked through the village, past the helicopter landing zone that brings in fresh supplies from the otherwise removed village, and onward to our campgrounds, another 2 miles away.
The campgrounds sit along a powerful, yet little, creek that feeds the main attraction for those like us visiting – Havasu Falls (video). In addition to Havasu, the creek continues to feed down the valley yielding to gravity in a number of other beautiful waterfalls. The creek which carries with it a great deal of lime naturally found in the hills of the valley and the deposits left from the lime and other sediment form travertine terraces at the lips of most sharp declines. This gives the creek its unique beauty and kept us clicking our camera for the next two days.
This being the gem of the trip for Heidi, we spent much time hiking around and checking out the falls at strategic parts of the day to capture, or avoid, the light conditions. As you can see, she gathered some amazing photos. I believe all in all, she took over 700 photos during the trip. I took almost 150 myself, mostly for giggles.
As the time drew near to conclude our trip from Supai, it was clear neither of us was still in peak condition. For that matter, we were tired and whiny to boot. So we made arrangements in the village to have our packs hauled out for us. We also decided we could fit into our budget rides for us as well. At 7am, we met DuShane, our Supai guide and took the merry 10-mile trek out of the canyon on horseback, saving us about 5-6 hours of hiking, complaining, crying, whining, bickering, coughing, and overall pain. I could complain that the horseback ride made us sore, but I think at this point, that would constitute as bitching. We were out at last. Then we headed back for the long drive back to Phoenix, one more peaceful night in a hotel, and then on to home sweet home. We had an unbelievably wonderful vacation. Hope you like the photos.
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04.15.08
Posted in travel, vacation at 10:17 pm by heidihoho7
Flew into Phoenix Saturday afternoon since our first flight earlier that morning was canceled. Went to REI for the first of many little trips to that wonderful outdoorsy haven. Heidi and I picked up some necessities and made our way to the Superstition Mountains. We found a cute little campground at the base of the mountains and spent a lovely first evening in Arizona, however, we realized that a choice not to bring pillows was perhaps not so wise. Damn our hindsight!
By mid-afternoon, we were both hurting from the sun exposure and over exertion. My head pounded so hard that I spent the afternoon trying to avoid tossing my lunch in the rental car on the way to Sedona. Heidi quotes me as saying, “Uh grog em mutter grgkl.” That was about all I was good for. We grabbed a room at a beautiful little cottage motel, and after some sleep, I was feeling better. That was convenient because it was Heidi’s turn to teeter of the brink of sir-upchuck.
The next day we hiked around Red Rocks State Park (Arizona, not Vegas) early in the morning before turning our attention to some much needed relief from the heat. We ventured to Slide Rock State Park, a well spent $8 for the afternoon. A short hike in brings you to a small water hole where you can soak in the sun, laying out across the picturesque red bedrock or have a go slip sliding through a flowing rock bobsled. Even though the sun rained down, the water’s temp was only like 4 degrees warmer than suck ass cold. However, as we convinced a little girl to go first and be the guinea pig, we told her it was more fun than cold. Paving the way, I felt I should show a little manliness and give it a go myself. Heidi one up’d me by taking the waterproof camera for the full ride, capturing a hysterical 43 second first person video. Make sure you bug her to see it (low quality video). We killed the evening under a nice campfire and hearty meal deep in the Coconino National Forest.
Tuesday we drove north to Page, AZ (about 3 hours from where we were camping) and took a tour of the Upper Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is renowned for its slot canyons and photographic opportunities. At the right times of the day, light shines down through small openings in the canyons canopy and the rock is illuminated with shades of color from purple to yellow, pink to rust orange. It was quite breath taking regardless of your interest in photography. After the tour we made one side trek, visiting Horseshoe Bend. As it was earlier in the day, the wind was the only thing about which we could possibly complain. Mother Nature decided today to be the day to cast upon us winds which held steady at 20-30 miles per hour with gusts well over 40. Couple this with open land and desert sand and we had some serious conditions with which to play. I believe much of the evening will be spent cleaning the sand from our ears, eyes, nose, clothes, etc. You name it, we got sand in it. Heidi’s cameras and equipment also need some tending to. As of now we are joyriding back to Flagstaff, jamming to whatever station comes in on the radio, and downing some Dr. Pepper to relieve the crunch of sand still covering our palette.
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04.11.08
Posted in recreation at 3:50 pm by heidihoho7
well its kinda spring… temps are dipping back down to freezing this coming weekend but its no big surprise, its Illinois!
This past weekend Bela and I split up and ended up doing our own fun things. He went up to Devil’s Lake with Ian to scope out some climbing areas for groups and get in some quality climbing of their own. It was a gorgeous weekend and they were glad to take advantage of that.
I signed up for a photo lighting class so i went to that in the morning and afternoon and then joined up with the williams clan for a 2nd bday party for Steven. We enjoyed looking at old photos, eating oysters (my first time), and just hanging out.
On Sunday Bela ended up doing a lot of yard work while i went out and paddled the Vermilion River. It was a beautiful day yet again. I joined up with Diana and Jack for a nice float down the river. We ended up playing in a few good surf spots but made sure we didn’t flip as the water was still a bit chilly. We ran into a few other paddlers, and most notably a group of rec kayakers. There were 4 guys dressed in jeans and t-shirts toting along 4 coolers, grilling gear and i don’t think any PFDs. As you will probably guess there was some carnage to view as they swam 4 times (that we counted). the last time we ended up helping with the rescue seeing as how the 1 paddler and the boat kept floating down the river for at least 5-10 minutes. After many attempts we finally got the guy as well as the boat to the riverside. The other paddler was 100’s of feet upriver and now out of site. Diana decided to get check on him and she found him just standing on the side, stripped down to his boxers, staring at the water. She snapped him out of it, grabbed all the extra stuff and stuffed in his wet clothes in the cooler and started heading towards us. He just followed her like a little puppy. We were a little worried about hypothermia but turned down the emergency blanket we offered and decided to start a fire. So we left it to fate and continued our paddle. All in all a great weekend!!
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