Phase One of Vacation - Havasu Falls

We arrived in Pheonix last Wednesday, and set out for Havasu Falls on Thusday. After spending the day shopping for food, getting a rental car, and trying to make sure we had everything we needed, we drove up a 70 mile road with no services to the Havasupai Indian Reservation. We didn't get in until after dark, and we still needed to eat dinner, and re-pack our packs to include fuel, water, and food. The wind was blowing probably 50 MPH, and first thing I did was loose our tent bag.

We got packed, and all situated so we thought we would try to catch some shut eye. Mind you, we are sleeping in the car tonight because it is an early morning, and we weren't willing to deal with the tent. I got the back seat, and Jason got the front passanger seat of the car. Between the wind, being extreamly uncomfortable, and my anxiety about the 11 mile hike with a 40+ lbs packpack allowed me about 2 hours of sleep.



We finally got up and around at 4:30 am. We were excited, so it wasn't that bad. We ate some breakfast, and did a couple of last minute packing re-arrangements and off we were. In the dark down 2-miles of steep switchbacks. It warmed up pretty quickly as the sun rose. There were 2 other groups that started as early as we did, so we were not alone on the trail. It took us about 5 hours to get into the camp ground. We rounded Havasu Falls first which made the trip worth it. Until that sight I wasn't too sure.



We picked out our camp sight, which was this incredible spot on a point - down a hill from everyone else. We had the creek running by us which kept out all of the noise from the rest of the campers. We really didn't have to acknowledge that anyone else was there. Once we got our tents set up, we both took looong naps. We were so exhausted. That evening we didn't really do much but explore the camp ground area. We were not willing to walk much more that day.



Day two we hung out at Havasu Falls for a while. The water was cold and the mist was really chilling. The sun wasn't really shinning on us at all, so we actually got cold, and decided to go check out Mooney Falls.
Mooney Falls was an adventure to get to, which was fun. You had to go through two tunnells in the side of the rock wall, and then down the face of the rock. There were some steps, and chain drilled into the rock to hold on to. It definatly had my attention! The falls were beautiful, and as we found out colder even then the water at Havasu. On the way down we met a few guys that wanted to swim, and somehow convinced us to jump in with them. We were told that 1. the water at Havasu was warmer, and 2. that you could crawl behind the falls and there was a ladder that you could use to get onto a rock and jump into the falls - so off we went back to Havasu falls. Once we got there, we jumped right in to hopefully warm up. We swam against the incredible current to the side of the waterfall, and then walked our hands along the rocks to behind the fall. It was so cold - ounding down on our head, and it was so strong, you could hardly breath. We made it to the ladder, and jumped off the rock. I didn't really jump out far enough, and came up right under the pounding water. Dumb. But fun!


That was about all the excitement we could handle for one day. We were freezing, so we went back to camp and cooked up some soup.

Day Three we decided to hike down passed Mooney falls to see Beaver Falls. They aren't as well talked about, but we heard it was beautiful. So off we set with our day packs. We got to a wonderful spot just passed Mooney falls where the sun was beating down. We haven't really had any intense heat until this point, so we layed out in the sun, and enjoyed every moment of it. After we felt the burn set in, we continued on our trek down the creek towards the Colorado River.

We went to bed early the thrid night, because it was another early morning to beat the heat and hike out. It was another 5 hour hike, with slightly less weight in our backpacks. We made it!

For the rest of the pictures go to: http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t212/jcarmichael0483/Havasu%20Falls/

Why I Love Alaska: Reason #163

Snowboarding in September!

It wasnt the best I have riden but it was awesome. We noticed some snow up in the higher elevations and i heard some rumors of a few guys getting some turns in a few days ago, so i got Frank (Richells Dad) to fly me over Hatcher Pass to check the snow conditions.

I would like to add that i did most of the flying and i can take off and land now. The flight lessons are coming along well.

Anyways, the snow looked rideable so I loaded up my snowboard and me and Alo set off. It was about an hours worth of hiking from the car, but it was all worth it when i found a foot of fresh powder to ride in.

Here are a few pictures.

New Things

Again, it has been a while since our last update. Sorry.
We haven't really been busy, that isn't much of an excuse. We have been hanging out at my parent’s house for the last 15 days, just re-cooping from our summer I guess. Jason's family was here for 2 weeks the beginning of September, and other than that we have pretty much been doing nothing. It has been SO wonderful!
We leave tomorrow to start our 2-month vacation. We are getting so excited.
We head out to Arizona tomorrow to spend a week in the Grand Canyon backpacking. We packed our packs yesterday, and I made sure mine was 1/2 the size of Jason's - so I should be able to do this all right! hehe :)
From there we will be spending some time with Rick, who is in Arizona going to school - and then on down to Mexico. Man I am sure excited about the heat!

We will post pictures (I promise!) when we get to Florida.

Hope this find everyone doing well. We miss you all!

Richell and Jason

Its what you've all been waiting for!!

Or maybe not, but it is here if you want to read it.

I will follow this blog with some of my favorite photos of the summer so keep reading all the way to the end.

This summer has been amazing. Suposedly we were supposed to get less that 30 sunny days in a year but we have already had many more than that. This place is basically paradise with more beauty and untouched land than anyone could every explore in a lifetime.

Those of you that have not come to visit yet are really missing out.... Wait. No one has come to visit yet. Its your loss, but seriously you guy really need to come see this place. But be warned that you might fall in love with it as i did, and never leave.

I have worked a lot all summer but have definately also found time to play quite a bit. While working i was in the backcountry for almost 30 days on 5 different trips and the rest of the time was spent on day trips. Either way i spent my days paddling around Prince William Sound among massive glaciers and ice bergs. And when i got bored with that there were still plenty of whales, and sea lions, and bears feeding on salmon to take up my time. I also got to spend some time in the Wrangall Mountains backpacking in the wilderness.

My play days have been spent whitewater kayaking and rafting, as well as ice and rock climbing.

My parents will be here in a few days. We are going to spend some time traveling to Denali and Mt. Mckinely as well as some other cool places around the state.

Starting October 3rd we are off to Arizona where we will be backpacking in the Grand Canyon in Havasupai and then down to Puerto Penasco, Mexico for Circus Mexicus and Roger Clyne and the Peacmakers. We are then heading to Florida until December and then we will be back in Alaska for the Winter.

Thats it in a nutshell. Here are the pictures I promised.


A Beautiful evening in the Sound


Campsite at Jade Island


Evidence of a visitor, Iceberg Lake, Wrangall St. Elias National Park


Our Campsite at Iceberg Lake

Pictures

Click on the yummy salmon picture below and it will take you to our photobucket site where you can see more pictures!!

Enjoy!

Photobucket Album

New in the world of JAR

Well, lately work has picked up for Jason, and I have just finished mid-terms, while working 70+ hours a week. It has been busy. Thankfully it doesn't feel as crazy as it sounds.

I had an entire day off the other day... weird. So Jason and I, with a couple of other friends decided to head up to Worthington Glacier to play around. I had not been glacier hiking yet, so it sounded good. We got up there, strapped on our crampons, grabed our hiking poles, and off we went. It was great! I don't know much about glaciers, so I was getting the run down as we went up. Why glaciers have crevases, how they are created, why it was safe for us to be up there (which I am still not so sure of), and some other things. We had great views from the top. Mountains, and rivers. This places seems to be opening up with more beautiful sights every corner I turn.

I hiked what is known as "high school hill" the other night at about 1030pm. Alo and I needed some girl time. At times it feels like I am living in a frat house. Not much different then the Springs I guess. Some day I think I will need to admit that I will never be getting away from that. But I degress. When I got to the top of this hill, I could see the entire town. It was spectacular. I am sorry, I didnt have my camera. But I counted the blcoks that we have in Valdez. If knowing that there were 4500 people here didn't give you a feel for the size of the town - see if this will -there are 6 blocks running North to South, and 6 blocks running East to West. I couldn't believe what I was counting. I did it a couple of times to be sure.

We think we have some plans for the fall now. We will be visiting the Colorado area for about a week in late September, before we leave for a 2 week trip to Belieze. When we get back from Belize we are meeting all of my family in Vegas for a long weekend, and then heading to Florida for Leigh and Mike's wedding, and to spend some time with Jason's family for a while. That is as solid as our plans are for now... but we are really excited about them!

It is a beautiful morning today. Blue skies, with a layer of fog over the harbor. It is the beautiful yet erie view. At 10:30 this morning I could still see my breath while I was outside. I think I am going to have to put some shorts on! My face and hands are the only skin that has seen the sun since I left Colorado I think. I am really really ready for some warm weather.

Jason has been on a 9 day trip with 4 sets of father-son combos. It really sounds like it should be a fun trip. 4 days of kayaking/camping, ice climbing, 2 nights at a lodge, with one day of guided fishing inbetween, and then a bush flight into the Wrangle St. Allias National Park where they will be doing a couple of days of backpacking. I am sure he will have some amazing photos and stories to share from that trip.

I am sorry that it has been so long since the last update, and I am sorry that there are no pictures. Jason has the camera, and we will post some when he gets back from his trip.

Hope this finds everyone well!

No Work, All Play

I finally got out and did some exploring of the climbing areas around town. I was definately pleasantly suprised. There is a lot of really bad rock around here but if you know where you are going there are a few areas hidden around that have some really bomber granite. Quality sport and trad routes. Everything is pretty hard which is good beacuse thats all there is so it pushes me to climb harder. There are also a few good bouldering areas around.

We had a killer party the other night. We had some great games of flippy cup with my bosses 4 year old son. He is pretty good at it.

Then we proceded to build a huge bonfire and we build a ramp over it a jumped the bikes through the fire. That was a good time. Where's little greg when you need him. If anyone tries this in the future, i wouldnt recommend using your wifes nice bike. She probably wont be too happy... trust me.

I havnt been working much. Just lots of playing. We went white water rafting, that wsa lots of fun, but next time we will bring more beer.

Life is Good

Just to clarify things. I took the keys on purpose. Richell kept complaining about how she wanted to ride her bike to work so i figured if i took the car keys then she would have to. Thats my story and im sticking to it.

I just got back from my camping trip. We had a great time. I had too 63 year old clients from England. It rained for 4 days straight but we made the best of it. After a couple days you dont even notice its raining anymore. A small price to pay for the beautiful rainforests that surround this area. We did have a humback whale, which we named "Humpy" follow us around from campsite to campsite for 3 days so that was pretty neat. There were numerouse times when i was less than 10 feet from the whale.

Back to some day trips for a little bit until my next camping trip.

I posted some new pictures on our photo bucket site. I dont have any that pertain to this particular blog so i will let you look at them on the other site. There are some pictures of me with the whale as well as some other pictures that people have that i will post as soon as i get.

I am still waiting for people to visit.

I'm Just a Girl, and a Bike

We live about a mile and a half away from the shop. Gas here is $3.50/gal. I have been walking to work on nice days, because it is good to be outside, and it is nice not to have to worry about waisting the gas on a 3 mile round trip commute. Jason has been riding his bike to work; even on the rainy days. I opt to drive on the rainy days, because my bike has been out of commision - - since, oh-you know, LAST Memorial Day weekend when we took them to Moab. I have needed a simple tube replacement in my front tire. Something my husband has promised to take care of everyday since we have been here.

I really wanted him to do it yesterday because he left today on a 7 day camping trip. He didn't. Which is fine, I was just going to have to do it, and have someone help me install it. Jason took the car to the shop this morning because he needed to carry all of his gear with him. I walked in this morning, with the intention on driving home, and stopping by the bike store to get a new tube. Jason left on his trip before I got to the shop, and only like Jason could; he took the keys with him. Luckily he didn't lock Alo inside of it!

So here I am with no bike, and no car, and a forecast of rain for the next 7 days. Fun! I did go pick up the tube, and just had them install it for me. Alo and I rode home tonight. This is a challenge. I haven't done much biking outside of a spinning class for some time now. Now I am doing it with a backpack, in the rain, with my crazy dog on a leash. All was alright. I made it about 2 blocks before Alo saw something move. For all I know it was a misquitto, or maybe a rock... but it was interesting enough for her! Off to the right she goes, and right off my bike I go too.... I was able to catch myself, and didn't totally eat it, but it was close.

I thought this would be a great picture painted for you guys. Here I am, a girl that just over a month ago was dressing in professional clothes, driving my Jetta to work, in an office where casual Friday's did not exist. Today, I am a girl that wishes I had a reason to get into some nicer clothes without getting a look (really, not even a resturaunt around here calls for more than what you just got off the fishing boat in) riding my bike to work in rain gear, holding my dog on a leash in one hand, and coffee mug in the other.

Anyways - I thought this was funny. Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Training Trip

Again, I apologize for the lack in keeping you all up to date. We are still trying to figure out the Internet thing. It is $90/month here!

Last week we took a 3 day training trip with the Pangaea employees. It was so much fun! The first day it rained, and blew so hard. I was so miserable. We kayaked about 5 miles, and then got to shore to set up camp, only to find that all of our things were wet. Fun... The next morning the sun was shining though - It was the makings for an amazing day.
We packed up camp and went out to Columbia Glacier. This glacier is a very active glacier, and is caving (shedding ice) on a daily basis. In the last 13 years this glacier has receded 8 miles. So what that means for kayakers, is that there is 8 miles worth of icebergs to paddle around in. That was quite the experience.

Alo had quite the adventurous day this day. Of course she went with us. our plan was to leave her, and the other Pangaea dog (Abby) on the boat while we kayaked. Alo had another idea. She wanted to come with us. When we left the boat, and were a good 100 yards away, she decided to jump in the ocean after us. Mind you, Alo is not a water dog, and has never until this moment, ever volunteered to get in the water on her own. Thankfully someone was on the boat, and she realized very quickly that she had mad a big mistake. They got her back on, and she decided that she was ok with being left on the boat from then on. When we got to camp that night, she ran off to explore as she normally does. Here, on Saw Mill Bay, Alo met Mr. Porky Pine. Mr. Porky Pine didn't like Alo. Alo tried to eat him, and then came squealing back to us. She wasn't as bad as I have seen. She had about 1/2 dozen quills in her snout, and another dozen or so in her paw and leg. The worst one was in her nostril. She was humbled by that experience pretty well, and hasn't really wandered off since.

Day three was another beautiful day. We went to Shoup Glacier and paddled there for the afternoon before heading home. We set out shrip pots the first day we went out and got about 10 HUGE shrimp. Seriously, they were about the size of my foot. They brought 30 back yesterday. Too bad I dont each shrimp. We have a picture of Jason kissing one before he killed it. I will try to get that up soon.

This link is from one of the other guides. I haven't been able to get my pictures up yet, but they are a lot the same. I am in the light blue jacket, and black hat in most of these pictures. Yes, there is a picture of a bunch of us sitting on an iceberg!
http://www.flickr.com/gp/7423775@N08/8Gp033

Hope everyone is well! We miss you!!

Check out this link for

Valdez

Well, we are here - in our new home of Valdez. Sorry we haven't updated in a while. We don't have internet at our house yet, so we have been hard pressed to find something that will work long enough to let us write something.
We are here, and half way settled in. My parents are bringing the rest of our things up tomorrow. We have been working hard with our new boss (Kenny) to put together tents, buildings, shelving units, boats, and lots of other things. The winter here really takes a toll on things, so it is a good 2+ weeks of repair, and clean up before anything else can happen. The shop is really cute. It is small, but it will work wonderfully as my home for the next few months. It is across the street from the harbor, so my view is of the water, watching boats come and go, backed by huge beautiful mountains. Our house is about a block from the ocean, and also backed by huge beautiful mountains. The sights are unbelievable. The weather, on the other hand, is something to be desired. Colorado defiantly had us spoiled. It has been low 50's, with enough of a breeze off of the water to make it cold. I am wondering if I will ever be able to wear my shorts...

The town is really quiet right now. Everyone around here shuts down for the winter - so we are all trying to get things together for the first hurd of tourists. Which should be this weekend. There is an air show in town. It will be nice to see people moving around. We are really anxious for the guides to get here, and to make some more friends.

We are planning on getting out on the water for the first time tomorrow, and next Wednesday is our training trip. We will be gone for 3 days. It should be fun. Interesting but fun. I am finding my self doing things that I don't normally do. Like using a power drill, and digging trenches with a shovel. Yeah, a shovel. So much for the mani I got before I left... I guess I used to do this stuff when I lived here before... but I think my brother always got the short end of that stick, because I would always play the girl card. Jason isn't really letting me play that here. O-well. I guess it is good for me.

Well, it's late - light, but late, so I am going to sign off for now.
We miss all of you back there in Colorado. Please stay in touch.

~Richell

I drive a Wagon!

Not your typical granny wagon... We decided that we did not need a huge truck just to drive back and forth from Palmer to Valdez on an occational basis. Gas prices around here are about 3.21 a gallon and that just wasn't going to work for a truck that gets 10 miles to the gallon. So we are selling the truck and last night we bought a 2003 Subaru WRX wagon. Its really fast, and we got an amazing deal on it. Some idiot at the dealership messed up and quoted us the wrong price so they had to honor it. After it was all said and done, i think they actually lost money on it. The truck is up for sale and we have almost sold it. I am showing it to 2 potential buyers this morning. It all works out well because it was great for the drive and hauled the trailer excellently and now we can sell it up here for more than we bought it for.

I will take some pictures of the car and post them later on today.

It just rained alot so maybe we will go get muddy somewhere today.

We leave for Valdez tomorrow afternoon. My next post will probably be from there. Wish us luck!

Airplanes, 4 wheelers, and Sunlight

The days up here keep getting better. They also keep getting longer. It is getting dark now at about 10:30 at night and it is taking a little getting used to. I love it. I just keep going and going and then i sit down for a minute and wonder why i am ready for bed when the sun is still out. Then i look at the clock and its 10pm.

I went 4 wheeling with Ricki yesterday. We had an awesome time. We got them stuck about a dozen times. But that is what we set out to do any ways. Those of you that know what the muddy season is like in Colorado can multiply that by 1000 and it will give you an idea as to what the muddy season is like here. Kris made us strip in the front yard and take our clothes to the laundry mat to wash them. Good times. More of that to come tomorrow.

Today Frank took me flying. What an amazing experience. Stay tuned for a "Juice Takes Flight Lessons" post. We flew out over he Matanuska and Suprise Glaciers and through the mountains in search of bears. We only spotted a few moose and a bunch of mountain goats. The bears wil probably start to come out in a few weeks. They probably know that it is hunting season and are hiding from all the horrible animal killers. Did i mention that i want to go bear hunting. I will let you know how that turns out. Frank let me fly for a little while and that was awesome.


More pictures at http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t212/jcarmichael0483/

Ricki and I are off to the top of Lazy Mountain on the quads.

Heaven

This place is awesome. There are so many places to run and to smell. And there is moose poop everywhere. I am just glad to be out of that stupid car. This morning Dad didnt tie my leash on very well and i got to run off. I only explored for about 15 minutes before he caught me though. Next time im gonna head into the woods so he cant find me. And they have a cat here which is pretty cool, but dad yells at me evrytime i chase her too. He's no fun. Ok i have to go sniff some more moose poop.
-Alo

Home at Last

I apologize for leaving you all for the past few days. We have been in the middle of nowhere since Saturday. We have finally arrived in Palmer, AK where we will spend the next week before heading to Valdez on Sunday.

The rest of the trip was amazing. For 1500 miles we drove through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Mile after mile I was repeatedly reminded why we chose to make this move. When we visited Scott in Montana he told me he was asked a few days earlier what is the best thing about life. He responded with "The beauty in Life." Driving through this magical place i couldn't help but think of that and fully agree.

We saw an abundace of wildlife. Lots of moose, caribou, stone mountain sheep, elk and one blad eagle.

The drive was great, but we are also glad to finally be home. Every second I spend in this place, i love it more and more.

I promise to continually update this more often now that we have fulltime internet. If you would like to see more pictures, you can view them at http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t212/jcarmichael0483/

Update From the Road

Sorry about the whole mix up with the other blog site. Blog.com sucks and you should never use it.

Heres an update of everything up until now.

The trailer is working great, finally.

Thursday we made it into Bozeman, MT to visit Scott and Oscar. Those of you that know Scott will find the following information very ammusing yet enlightening. Scott is one of the top Plant Science students in the country and has recieved numerous awards for it. He is getting straight A's double majoring in Plant Science and Chemistry. Those of you that know Oscar wil find the following information even more amusing. Oscar wll soon graduate with a pre-med degree and then will be off to Medical School. I guess everyone must grow up sometime...

Anyways, we had lunch with them and and then made it to Calgary, Alberta by last night. This morning we got up and drove a whole 2 hours to Edmonton so that the women could spend the rest of the day shoppping at the Edmonton Mall. Apparently the biggest mall in Canada. What a blast... Well needless to say we are still in Edmonton.

Tomorrow we begin the drive into no mans land. Northwest through British Columbia, Yukon and then Alaska. We plan on making it to Dawson's Creek by tomorrow night and the start in on the Alcan Highway by the next morning. This should put us into Palmer, AK by sunday evening. If all goes well.

Finally

Now that we finally got this whole blog thing figured out, we can get on with it. This post was supposed to show up last Wednes day so imagine that you are reading it then.

Well. Were do we begin... The first two days of our trip have definately been eventfull to say the least. We got off to a pretty late start on tuesday and enjoyed traffic, snow, slush and rain for the first few hours of our trip. We finally pulled out of that when we got into Wyoming. Stopping for gas just north of Cheyenne, Frank (Richell's Dad) decided to check the clearance of the trailer tires from the bottom of the trailer. In doing so we discovered that there was none. The front tires had been rubbing on the bottom of the trailer for who knows how long.
Since we were in a place that had only a gas station, we were forced to drive 120 miles to the nearest town, Casper, WY. We stayed the night there and the next morning decided that we had too much weight in the trailer. We drove to the nearest parking lot, which happened to be a Wal-Mart and proceeded to unload the entire trailer and repack it. At this time, the "Wal-Mart police decided to come regulate and make sure we were not having a yard sale in there parking lot

In the process, to get rid of some weight, we decided to sell our couch and washer and dryer to the nearest used furniture store for much less than it was actually worth. We were not to upset about it, we can always get new furniture. We then also repacked all of the heavy boxes in the back of the truck to release. some weight. But, 6 hours, two Wal-Mart Police, 3 trailer hitches, one yard sale, one trailer repair shop, three less pieces of furniture and one nice bystander with a big truck, later. We got on the road. The trailer is driving great now and we have finally stopped for the night in Billings Montana.

We have only smooth sailing ahead of us (hopefully) and expect a worry free great drive the rest of the way. Tomorrow we will take off and head to Bozeman, MT to visit Scotty and Oscar and the hope to make it into Canada by the evening.