Spring Break and other cool stuff

Whew! I got back frommy 10 day break in Arizona March 4 and it's been go go go ever since then. I've started a new job that the Lord blessed me with - tutoring math at my college's "Math Resource Center." Between that and classes, I'm on campus from 7:30 AM - 8 or 9 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays (not to mention my other 3 days of schooling). I'm such a nerd.

Anyhow, a lot's happened and I'll try fill everyone in on it. I'll make this the exhaustive Spring Break trip report and follow it up with a more digestable blog about what's happened since then.

So, after a month of hectic planning an coordinating, I flew out to hike Havasu Canyon with my good friend Johnny Slachta. Havasu Canyon is one of the many canyons in the Grand Canyon system, but with one unique quality. Water! With blue-green water dropping as much as 200 feet over four water falls, Havasu Canyon is a true oasis. The picture to the right is where we stopped for lunch on our third day.

The trip started Saturday, Feb 24th, at about 1:30, after having spent a night's rest at the house our very generous brothers Zeb and Jesse in Prescott.

Our trailhead was Hualapai Hilltop, located at the end of a 64 mile dead end road. It's the first paved road that branches off to the right past Seligman on northbound Route 66. It's about an hours drive before you get to the turnoff.

Once you get to the trail head, it looks just like the typical airid wilderness of northern Arizona, you wouldn't think for a moment that an oasis awaits. The picture to the left is me overlooking the canyon fifteen minutes and a few switchbacks down from trailhead. From this point it's about 9 miles till we reach our camp site. We have to keep a steady pace because we got a late start and we don't want to be hiking after dusk.

After about 1.5 miles of descent, we entered a wash with red rock on all sides of us and some srubbage here and there. We spend about three hours here. Only a small fraction of it was spent climbing trees. At about 4:30 or so we exited the wash and caught our first glimpse of Havasu Creek - a beautiful natural AquaShade color (has to do with the limerock). We passed through Supai, the most remote village in the U.S. It's the tribal seat for the Havasu Indians and has a population of 450. From there we progressed toward our camground.... another 2 stinkin' miles! Seriously, I don't know what it was about those last two miles.

On the way to the campground, we caught our first glimpse of Navajo and Havasu Falls:

The bottom on Havasu Falls reminds me of a golf course for some reason.

We arrived at camp at late dusk and were set up before being enveloped in total darkness. It was probably about 7:00 or so when we started eating and man! Those freeze-dried food packs are sooo good! We're were asleep by 8:00 (I'm guessing, neither of us brought a timepiece). The picture to the right is the next morning in our tent.

After having breakfast we began our mile hike Mooney Falls, we're I considered the "real" trailhead to be. After Mooney, you don't see any people and (at least, not in winter time) and the sign off civilization drops off very quickly. Mooney Falls is the largest of the lot with a 200 ft drop. In the picture to the left, I'm standing at about a 100' elevation.

The hike alongside Mooney Falls is pretty crazy. First you double back on your trail and go through two travertine tunnels (with, btw, we had to go down backwards because of pack clearance issues). After you get through the tunnels you have maybe 80 ft. of near sheer trail to scale... the only safeguard being metals stakes the Indians nailed into the side of the rock wall. It's pretty intense without 50 - 60 lb packs throwing off your balance. One mistep and you're dead. See for yourself:

After coming off Mooney Cliffs in one whole, live piece, Johnny and I hiked the rest of the day toward the Colorado River, fording the Havasu Creek numerous times (the canyon wasn't very wide, forcing the trail to cross the stream often). Only at one point was the water above our waists, at which point we threw our packs in industrial weight 60 gal. garbage bags, blew them up, and twisted rubber bands on them, and floated them across the stream. It was a harrowing, nerve wrecking experience because at any moment your bag could hit a rock that would penetrate both layers of plastic (they were double bagged), soaking your gear and potentials sinking your pack to the bottom of the river. Thank God that didn't happen - even though I personally took a dump down a mini waterfall. "Get the pack!!!" Fortunately we bumbled across a high trail on the way back that bypassed that spot. Again, praise goes to the Lord. It was a major moral booster.

We were again cutting it close on arriving to the Colorado, thinking we might not even make it and end up having to camp in Havasu Canyon. Defeated.

Fortunately, we did get to the Colorado that night. The pictures below were tkaen the next morning, but show Havasu Creek just before it intersects the Colorado and at the actual intersection. It's taken from a bluff about 40 or 50 feet up, so those fish you see there are monsters (although you may have to view the blown up version on Ringo to see them). You can see an easy 15' down into the water in Havsu Creek... not so with the muddy Colorado.

The next morning we came across some rafters at the river mouth trying to break in on our wilderness experience. They were going to spend the whole day hiking up to Beaver Falls and back (about halfway between the Colorado and Mooney Falls where Havasu Canyon intersects Beaver Canyon). We blew by them in a hurry. I'm afraid we weren't very congenial. We got to swim a little bit on the way back to the Supai campground, but not as much as we would have liked... shoulda swam in the sun. My one regret. :(

The fourth day was our trek out - and boy were we ready. The most beautiful sight I could imagine was Johnny's truck! We made a really good pace from Supai to Hualapai Hilltop - 2000' vertical ascent over 8 miles in 4 1/4 hours, not bad considering that Johnny had some monster blisters (not having any hiking shoes, he defaulted to using someone hiking shoes that were one and a half size too size for him. yikes!).

Here is one of our last views of the canyon before we dissapeared around the switchbacks:

After what seems an eternity.... the TRUCK!!!!

From there, stopped by Jesse and Zeb's on the way to Pheonix. In Phenoxi we stayed the night at Phil's crib. Wednesday night we were in Tucson for a service at Johnny's new church, Divine Love. A wonderful little church with very warm and welcoming people. Made me feel like family. I was pleasured to get to visit again for their Sunday service. I got to go to a Jazz concert with Gabe Tewari (who just happpened to be visiting at the time), the Slachtas, Steven Bryant, and others on Saturday night. That same day Steven, Emily Wallace, and I went up to Finger Rock so I was thouroughly relaxed at the concert - expecially with some great food from the Blue Fin in me belly! I'd share the pictures of Finger Rock, but I'm tired of posting and you need a break from my blog and some fresh air. CHeck them out at your conveinence at my Ringo site.

God bless all! Hope to see you soon!