Grand Canyon Trip

Happy Thanksgiving.
We had a 4 day trip into the Grand Canyon planned. My friends Pam and Shannon invited us over to their house before the trip to have a "small" thanksgiving dinner and a packing-the-backpack session. The "small" dinner turned out to be: an entire turkey, roasted corn, cheesy potatoes, home made asparagus and spinach soup and the most delicious salad ever-spinach salad with roasted squash and goat cheese. Yummie.

Well I guess we didn't have to worry about starting the hike on an empty stomach :-) We pulled out all of our gear. JR and I realized how little we own for hiking. Here is what we have: one sleeping bag, boots, 2 army backpacks (which are actually really great for hiking), plastic forks-which were after the first dinner Tridents, and after the second dinner Bi-forks :-)...that is pretty much it. Thanks to Walmart which is even open on Thanksgiving (hihihi), we got us some cups as well :-)
Pam and Shannon provided us with everything else, which was such a big help. Also Pam was the one who made the idea of hiking in there real, she got the permit and everything. Thank you guys so much for taking us with!!!

While we were at their house Jack got to learn how the big boys rule, he decided to do the same and ended up getting treats. Here is circus director Pam and her wild animals:

Next morning. All packed up. I thought about just sitting in Pam's backpack :-)

Here we are at the Grand Canyon. Excited to start our 4 day trip down into this huge canyon. With the temperature changing from freezin to hot in no time I was happy to have my armwarmers. No stopping for me, I can take those warmers off while walking :-) And I can even leave my backpack on!!! We all looked happy - off we go to our first destination: Hermit Creek.

Not sure how, but JR managed to get ahead off us and even have time to climb up boulders and take off his boots before we got there...

Hello there cathedral stairs...Best invention ever: ARMY PANTS. You can slide down steep and rocky stairs without destroying them and your butt.

And we made it. It was nice to get out of the boots and taking the backpack off after about 6 hrs of hiking mostly downhill. We refueled with some FLUID, put up the tents and "made" some water. It was great to learn how to pump and filter water out of the smallest creek.

I was prepared to live off rice and beans for a while down there, but here is what we had instead:

...and broccoli and mashed potatoes. Mhhh!!! Next morning: we were happy people, just a little sore :-)

And off we go. Next stop: Granite Rapids. All the way down to the Colorado River.

Just down the hill and we are there. The views in the Canyopn are just amazing.

And we are there. After searching the entire beach for the best camp spot, we realized that we were the only people!!! THE ONLY PEOPLE!!! No rafting boats, no other hikers. Just us, the water, the rocks and some beavers that decided to come out at night and nibble on the bushes.

Oh, and one little mouse that decided to jump into Pam and Shannon's tent at night and scare the sh&^ out of Shannon as he realized that whatever is touching him is NOT his wife :-)

Instead of Steaks we had Burritos. Chicken Parmesan. We enjoyed them. We knew that we were out of fancy food now and that we had to live off dehydrated things for the next two days. It was well worth it packing steaks and burritos in a 30-40 lbs backpack and hiking into the grand canyon with it...right Shannon, Pam and JR :-)

Could there be a more beautiful campsite then this one? Let me tell you, sand makes a nice mattress.

The next morning was a little rainy at the bottom, but looking up to the rim, we realized that this rain is way better then the snow that the rim got.

We hiked up the creek to the monument campground where we stayed the last night. What a great place with lots of little caves, perfect for waiting for the rain to go away and playing cards.

This is the riverbed we hiked...

Next mroning: early start. We got up with the sunrise and started moving. Good bye colorado river, hello civilization.

View from the top of the cathedral steps.

Only 3 more hours!!! Yeah!!!

Lunch break on top of this crazy plateau.

Yummi, Knaeckebrot with honey!!!

One last set of steps (it only went like this for about 1 mile :-)

And we made it!!! Yippie. It felt great to finally take the backpack off, knowing that we don't have to put it on anymore.