Rim to Rim - hike to the North rim

With night still looming outside, at 5 am we woke to a mix of clock alarms and cell phone jingles. While the guys got dressed and bumbled around in the pre-dawn darkness we joked and chatted as only people with little sleep at 5am can, semi-no sensibly, and very comically. Right on schedule, packs in hand we headed to the car to drop the hikers off as close as possible to the entrance of the trail by 6:00.

Christine and I wished the guys luck and safety on their adventure and got back in the car as they walked into the darkness toward the trail head.  On our way back for the hotel we pulled over at a nearby lookout point and observed little sparkling lights on the side of the canyon. At first they appeared to be stationary but given a little longer observation they were actually groups of hikers' head band lights sparking in the darkness. It was a pretty neat scene as they twinkled about, descending into the pre-dawn darkness that is the Grand Canyon.  Despite Christine's serious concerns for their safety I was honestly quite calm about their trip. I couldn't pinpoint my faith, but suppose it stems from my unshakable doubt that they would complete their trip safely. I knew for sure, whether healthy for himself or not, Jonathan would finish the rim to rim hike no matter what.

A little over an hour later Christine and I packed up the car, verified our route with the park transportation people and started on our trip to the north rim. We stopped at a scenic view/overlook tower before exiting the park but other than that it was pedal to the medal for another 4 hours before making it to the North Rim Park Entrance.  Sure, the scenery was nice, and the company, always pleasant, but as we drove I could feel the slightest bit of jealousy for the hikers trip starting to brew.   Cursed competitiveness.

 After checking in to our weee little cabin Christine and I made contact with the guys via walkie talkie.  It was around 2:30PM and, according to their calculations they were less than 5 miles from the top.  We decided we would start walking down around 4 to meet them and drove over to the general store to pick up some celebratory "you finished the rim to rim hike" beers. Right around 4 we started down the trail and came across many a weary hiker finishing the Rim to Rim.  The first guy we saw was about 5 minutes from the top and looking mighty haggard.  We chatted for just a second, gave him some smiles and words of encouragement and continued down the trail while he staggered forward.  A few more travelers later we were again asked, "how much longer till the top" and when we said they were about 20 minutes from the top, in the most positive, excited for their accomplishment tones we could muster without being sappy, we got a snippy "everyone says that"! response. Taking no offense we continued our descent and discussed our next response for curious, tired and potentially cranky hikers.

A little after a mile down the trail we found our hikers! They were a little tired, some more sore than others but in great spirits. We made our way back up the trail headed for the finish line and chattered excitedly attempting to learn about their 20+ mile adventure. Jonathan admitted to having severe knee issues starting around mile 7, and just like I predicted, muscled himself, pain and all, across the canyon.  At this point I'm lacking in the hike adventure and will have to ask Jonathan to fill in the details he wishes to share.

Upon finishing the guys enjoyed a refreshing brew in celebration of their achievement before we made our way back to our cabin for much needed showers.  Still in a celebratory mode and needing a little pain reliever we made our way to the Rough Rider Saloon while we enjoyed a pre-dinner beverage and waited for our 8:00 dinner reservation. No doubt we would have wanted to eat earlier, but due to some last minute reservations 8:15 was the best option.  Having celebrated a little too much, a little too fast we were down one group member as we sat at our table to enjoy our much anticipated dinner at the North Rim Lodge.

Back in the cabin we turned in early, allowing the crisp fall canyon air and refreshing canyon silence to sooth us to sleep. The next day, bright and early, we slowly made our way to the deli to pick up some coffee before enjoying the view of the rim.  As Jonathan and I walked towards one of the seating areas someone commented on Jonathan's "Kaibob Shuffle".  Shuffle indeed.  Thanks to some very sore, over worked knees Jonathan was a walking akin to Frankenstein.  Despite our short visit its very clear that the north rim is quite a different experience than the South rim, and may very well be worth the extended drive.  Seeing that its a little more time consuming, and not quite as convenient to get to this rim, the tourist crowed is a quite different.  From our visit I noticed considerably less bus groups and a much calmer, more "there for the nature than the photo opt" type of crowed. 

Around 10ish we packed into the car and started our journey home.  The ride was pretty uneventful until we started coming across random 4x4 beams laying in various lanes along the road.  Someone was steadily loosing some of their lumber load causing a bit of a road hazard which lasted about the last hour of our drive home. 

Having drove though a lunch stop we decided to hit up one last tourist stop for pie. Every time Jonathan and I have traveled to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon or even Prescott upon our drive home we've seen an advertisement for Pies but have never stopped. We each enjoyed our own slice, apple, peach, rhubarb, pecan etc and as tasty as it was, I can't say I'd go out of my way to get more.  The service was incredibly put off by our purchase and from this baker's perspective, the crust was too salty.  We made it home early afternoon and spent the rest of our day catching up with the kitties and Mr. Jackson who spent the weekend with his bestest buddy Yager, down the street.

Overall we enjoyed a terrific trip and should Jonathan take on this challenge again, I'll certainly be joining him : )

 

Rim to Rim - Grand Canyon South Rim

Friday morning around 8:30AM Jonathan, myself, Nick, Christine and John loaded the car with all our stuff, packed in like comfortable sardines and started the drive to the Grand Canyon's South rim.  Seeing that we had some time to play tourist before we got to the Canyon we stopped in Jerome for a little sight seeing.  We walked some of the streets before enjoying a lovely wine, cheese and olive tasting at Caduceus Cellars tasting room.  Jonathan and I have been here before and enjoyed the wine as well as the atmosphere. 

After enjoying our wine and cheese we walked about and toured a few more shops before making our way to Bobby D's BBQ for lunch.  WARNING, if you're ever in Jerome DO NOT eat there, the tasty aromas wafting form the smoker are a lie, all lies.  Despite the fact that the meat should basically be ready, having been smoked all evening/morning, it took 50 minutes to produce 3 pulled pork sandwiches, 1 brisket sandwich and 1 rack of ribs.  My pork was barely room temperature and nothing special, the 5 fries provided were on the boring side and the beer was a lovely combo of flavorless and stale.  The highlight of the entire experience was the low blood sugar, giddy entertainment we got while guessing the purpose of the plastic sandwich bag filled with water, nailed above the Exist sign.  Perhaps its best some mysteries are left unsolved.

 Dissatisfied with our food but determined to squeeze one more tourist activity out of Jerome we loaded back in the car and drove to the closed gold mine. Damn you Jerome for your tricky ways.  Turns out the mine is a bit of a fake out because its not actually something that can be toured, instead you end up at some one's tchotchke store which just so happens to offer a tour of their hording/junkyard.  Sure some of the trucks and equipment provided some good photo opportunities but the whole experience was a bit creepy. The owner's political opinions were clear in some of the decorations and their mountain man life style was on par with the white trash mountain folk stereotype.  Lets just say I wouldn't have attended the tour, but my ticket was ever so kindly paid for by Nick.

Back on the road we made it to the South rim of the Grand Canyon around 8:15 PM.  We opted to dine at the cafeteria before checking into our room seeing that our opportunity for dinner was about to close in the next 45 minutes.  The temperature had dropped a good 50 degrees from when we left Phoenix, but the cool, crisp mountain air was a refreshing change from the valley . I don't think the bags hit the floor of the hotel room before Jonathan, Nick and John started discussing their attire, snacks and packing/re-arranging their day packs. Despite much anticipation, hyper excitement and claims of not being able to sleep, pretty much everyone fell asleep quickly and remained that way until 5 AM the next morning.

Next up, a 4 hour car drive for some, a 22 mile hike for others and our stay on the North rim.

Yet another haboob!

This past Tuesday we experienced yet another nasty dust storm.  Hopefully this was the last one of the year, because these storms are just plain wretched!  Below are pictures I took from my office. (Mind you the window these are taken from is a bit dusty, but you get the idea)

This is what it should look like out the window of the 11th floor:

This is what it looked like on Tuesday around 1:00 PM.  You can see why these things cause 30+ car pileups on freeways.

This is after the storm "cleared" past down town. YECH!

Toby toe

Just the other day I noticed Toby's back center toe looking a bit dirty. At closer and grosser inspection I realized that his nail was missing! I will not describe it but a missing kitty nail is pretty funky. Seeing that he was not limping or indicating pain I figured I would clean it for him then monitor it to be sure he was keeping it clean. A few days later I discovered I had put too much faith in my cat's personal hygiene and made an appointment with the vet.

This would be Toby's first visit to this vet but he is all too familiar with where he tends to go when the carrier comes out. The time came to get him loaded up for the 3 block drive and, as per usual, I had to shake Sydney out of the carrier within which she was quite comfortably resting. Given Toby's seemingly calm demeanor I thought getting him I might be easy, however this disillusion quickly faded while he did a pull up on my back with his claws dug in like a fork in sponge cake.

After much howling protest we made it to the vet and, still loaded in the crate, he was placed on the scale. When I chuckled at the 20 lbs that appeared on scale display the tech tried to comfort me by insisting the carrier weighed 10 lbs. Silly girl, I knew better. Turns out Mr. Toby rings it at 15 lbs exactly. Toby was sure to assert his annoyance with some very breathy hissing but overall did great for the vet. The vet assured me that he had simply broken the nail clean off and after a little clean up, an application of quick stop to cauterize the wound and some antibiotics we were on our way home.

Since our visit Toby's toe is looking better and surely on the mend.

Weekend updates

Every weekend I thought would be the one that I caught up with my posts, but for the third weekend in a row I've failed!  So here is a summed up version.

2 weekends ago...Three hawks, one havalina and 47 miles later Jonathan and I finished our Saturday morning ride and peeled our human salt lick selves off our bikes seats for a quick visit with Joanthan's aunt and uncle.  Our ride started, and logically ended, at their front door, giving us a chance for a nice chat and check up on Mr. Max, their 14 year old puppy who has recently recovered from some health issues, before heading back home for the day.

A good eight hours later, after safely nestling two over-sized IPAs in my purse, we picked up our amigos down the street and made our way back to Scottsdale to dine at FnB. BYOB is the reason for the smuggled booze.  The experience was fun as the company is always a pleasure, and the food was good, but something is lost in an evening out when you have the bring your own beverages.

 

Sunday we returned to our long ignored to-do list.  Ever since we took down the aluminum car port, and Jonathan got a new car*, his little car has had to endure the desert sun while parked at home.  In hopes of resolving the direct sun contact and maintaining the look of our house without adding a bulky shade structure, we ordered a custom sized, custom fabric shade sail.  We lucked out in that the custom canvas fabric was a near exact match to our exterior beam/ceiling color.  Two trips to Home Depot, one trip to the always toxic, off-gassing Harbor Freight, and a lot of sweat later Jonathan and I managed to pull and tug our shade sail into place. When standing underneath and looking up the matching color to the house fits in quite well, and while looking from the street you barely notice the canvas.(*Note Jonathan's car did not make the photo opportunity as seen here)

One weekend ago...Jonathan stepped up his hiking by making the drive to Prescott to hike 9+ miles while I stayed home attempting to get my running mileage progressing.  Seems I've hit a bit of a rut at a way too short a distance to even be considered a rut!

Post exercise we checked out a new neighborhood nursery and finally replaced some of the front planter plants that didn't fair too well in this summer's heat.  I was sincerely sad to see the loss of the jades, especially the one that came all the way from VA, but lesson learned.  We replaced the voids with more elephant's food (which does freakishly well here) as well as some little cactus.  The plan is to have a nice ground cover of elephant's food plus a few little vertical plants for visual variety.

Sunday Jonathan worked hard at removing the old fan support in our bedroom and replacing it with a far superior support. His work left an odd shaped void of drywall in the ceiling which I was confident I could replace.  Didn't turn out as easy as I'd hoped.  Frustrated and defeated I walked away and decided to try again the following day.  After watching a few videos I still thought I could avoid cutting the hole in the ceiling to match the new dry wall piece as many a do it yourself video suggested.  I should known better than to try and out smart the experts in the videos.  As of that Sunday evening, the void remained, resulting in a "fail" on my end of the project.  Life goes on.

Past weekend: Due to a bike tube blowout and being low on spare tubes we canceled our planned long ride on Saturday morning and instead took Mr. Jackson for a nice little hike in Papago park. The park was on our route to the Botanical Garden where we were scheduled to pick up our free trees, thanks to APS' shade tree give away program. On our hike we witnessed a little military training as we watched 7 massive helicopters, looked like Th-1 Iroquois or the better known Blackhawk, fly over head in formation, land, and take back off from the nearby base.  I can't say I agree with everything military, but the machinery and history/concept of warfare continues to fascinate me.

After we dropped off our trees and a tired little Jackson at home we ran a few more errands, picked up a new-to-us bookshelf, and stopped for lunch at the newly opened Rice Paper on 7th St. The restaurant focuses on spring rolls, and Vietnamese sandwiches/soups (Pho), and boy oh boy was it good.  Service was lacking, aka don't go if your already very hungry, but the atmosphere is nice, the good is great and its certainly worth a return trip.

Jonathan finished repairing the hole in the ceiling and I set to work on taping and puttying.  I have about one more layer of to go and it should be finished. Hopefully this week/weekend we can re-attach the fan and, fingers crossed, it will no longer wobble and creak!

Preview for this weekend...This Saturday morning we have a dude with a tractor scheduled to grade our front yard.  Now that the summer weather is at an end we can finally get back to finishing the front landscaping!