Tuesday, October 9, 2007

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/

Monday, October 1, 2007

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