"Job Affected"

At least the bastards could have laid me off before I left for the Grand Canyon. I'm actually looking forward to taking a break, seeing friends and family, and skiing. Stay tuned for further adventures and for how I'm going to figure out ways to make some mo-nay and do some more wall staring.

Flickr Site for GC Photos

Go here for more!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32100525@N03/

You'll have to cut and paste until I find out how to make the link thing work.

The Grand

I have a hard time believing that one week ago I was hiking out of the Grand Canyon. As I sit here watching winter settle into the North Fork I can't help but to be struck by how far away The Grand feels. How quickly things like budget, grocery shopping, career, and the tedious b.s. of life have asserted themselves. How little meaning they all have in scope when it comes to chasing the reality of adventure.

The Grand is big. Bigger than photography, bigger than words and journals, bigger than John Wesley Powell, the National Park Service, and Ed Abbey combined. The only thing that rivals it is imagination.

I went in with very little information and few expectations. I'd heard things about the scale, the eddy lines (arghhh, so true), beauty, and ancient nature but I purposely didn't do much research. I wanted to discover.



Lee's Ferry on a Sunday night.



Justin Tearing Up 24.5

GC Whitewater is pretty understanding at first. It starts off with some doable class 1-4 (GC Rating System is 1-10, not I-VI) and gets progressively bigger each day. The upper canyon is all about T-ing up, figuring it out, and learning that the current is pushier than anything you can imagine. If you're not on the way somewhere before you get in the rapid then you aren't going to make it there in time for it to count. Which is where the emphasis on hitting things straight comes in. If you can't get where you need to be then hit it straight and hit it hard. That pulled me through the first couple of days until my shoulders loosened up and I remembered what a ferry angle was. We shared rowing duties between everyone. The big rapids went to the vets, then some less gnarly stuff went those of us who have rowed but not for a while, then the wave trains and flat water went up for whoever felt like it. It was awesome to see people who had never rowed navigating their first serious whitewater; and fun to see some of my guiding mentors tear it up on the big stuff. I only did the first 7 days of the trip...but there's certainly some stuff in the upper canyon big enough to flip a boat and then some. I got schooled on House for sure and caught a big piece of a big hole. It was an ugly line and big wake up call but we made it out upright with everyone in the boat. That's a successful run in my book.








The first real side trip was Redwall Cavern. This thing is immense. I wish the photos could communicate it. This place is really special. We spent the first few minutes there in reverent silence. And then started yelling and climbing the walls.






I know, it looks fake





Anasazi Granneries









A couple of days later took us to another highlight of the trip. This is where the Little Colorado joins the Colorado. The LC runs bright turquoise. Brilliant.







Haloween




The Hike Out







It's tough to walk away from your friends. Six hiked out, six hiked in and the trip went on for another 2 weeks.

Parting Shots





When you're in the bottom of the canyon you can only see about 1000-1500 feet above. I found out on the hike out that there's more!

Trung

This is Trung. Trung had the foresight to put in a permit 9 years ago. Thank you Trung for including me. Thank you everyone on Team Sonic Boom for sharing, loving, tolerating, and becoming.