10/16 Day 2

I met some very cool travelers over breakfast and just as I was starting to head out for the Grand Canyon, some of them were sitting in the reception area and invited me along to Sunset Crater and Wutpaki National Monuments.  Of course, I couldn't resist even though I need to be careful how I budget my time because I need to be in Moab by the 20th.

Left to right: Jessie, Marty, Stefan, and me at Sunset Crater, with the San Francisco Mts. in the background

Though I'll have less time at the Grand Canyon, I am SO glad I went.  We saw massive lava fields, impressive ruins, and the Painted Desert, which defies description.  It was heartbreakingly beautiful, but what was probably most striking was the absolute stillness.  Not the hollow roar of cities, not the whisper of cars on a highway, not the rustle of leaves, NOTHING.  Such a change from the East Coast.

This was the closest Marty was able to come to doing the Painted Desert justice.  My camera battery died and I didn't  bring a spare, so shame on me (though I would have done no better).

Ruins!  Also courtesy of Marty.

There's something really special about hostelling.  People I met over breakfast were good friends by dinner (which we ate at Mountain Oasis -  I had an amazing spinach ricotta ravioli).  Marty just arrived from Dayton, OH and will work at the hostel while he transitions to living out here.  Jessie lives in Salt Lake City with her sister Catherine and both are from State College, PA.  Jessie studied anthropology and Catherine sells her handmade jewelry to high-end boutiques.  Stefan is from England.  He has been traveling for ages and has no intention of going home.

10/15 Day 1

Note: All posts beginning with the date and "Day X" are transcribed from my hard-copy journal.

I flew into Vegas today, landing 20 min. early.  Got up at 6:15am after only 3 hrs. of sleep because of Jesse's sketch comedy show and going out for a beer after.  I had a brief moment of panic while sitting in Whole Foods in Vegas, thinking, "I don't know if I can really do this; maybe I just want to go home."  But I took my month's worth of TVP and packets of freeze-dried bananas and soldiered on.  Driving to Flagstaff, I got just beyond the mountains surrounding Vegas and the landscape opened up to a gorgeous expanse of desert and more mountains.  The reality of being here hit me again, but hard.  I started half-laughing, half-sobbing, saying, "oh my god, I'm here.  I'm doing this," over and over.  There was one turn that revealed a mind-bending view of several peaks that seemed very close and made me think of huge swells on the ocean.  The view of Lake Mead was gorgeous but the sun sinking into the mountains was one I was sorry to have behind me.  The 4-hour drive was otherwise uneventful and I got to the hostel at around 10.  A woman in my dorm happened to be from Philly and now lives in Santa Fe.

The Grand Canyon Hostel in Flagstaff, AZ

AUGH

So much has been happening every day that I'm pretty certain I won't do much updating here until after the trip ends.  I'm keeping up with my journal (it's almost up to date) so I won't forget all my experiences before I get the chance to share them, and there are SO many photos already that I'll never get through them all.

Right now I'm in Moab, UT (mountain biking capital of the US), taking a break from trying to wrangle all of my gear and plan my meals and not be so nervous.  This will be my first float trip, and my longest backcountry trip so far.  I've done 3-night trips but those were with Clara and in familiar territory.  I'll have my SPOT unit in tracking mode, I'm sure there will be other folks on the river, and unfamiliar territory or no, I know what I'm doing.  I know this is going to be an awesome trip that I'll always be glad I did; I just wish my nerves would shut up already.

Flagstaff is adorable

It really is.  I wish I had a bit more time to check the place out but I think exploring the Grand Canyon will prove to be a better use of my time.  Today I'm doing a dayhike in the Canyon and then camping out in Kaibab National Forest, just outside of the park.  Unless I can get a backcountry permit tomorrow morning to camp out in the canyon itself, that's what I'll be doing for a few days until I move on toward Moab.

CHANGE OF PLANS!!: Going hiking at Sunset Crater with some cool people from the Hostel, saving Grand Canyon for tomorrow.  Not sure where I'm sleeping tonight, but I could always just come back here tonight.

It's getting real!

After nearly bursting into tears I'm not sure how many times* between my house and 30,000 feet above New England, I've found myself at the intersection of "oh my god, I still can't believe I'm actually doing this," and "it's happening; this trip is real now".  Also riding out a 2-hour layover in Providence, but that's not important.

I've never done a whole lot of traveling and have been itching to dive into a big, way-outside-my-comfort-zone trip ever since I started working for the Parks.  Of course, a month of organic farming in Peru would have been an absolute dream but it just always seemed a bit too intimidating for someone with so little travel experience.  At some point while working at EMS last winter and lamenting another winter of lost travel opportunity, I realized that there's a ton of excellent stuff to see and experience here in the US that I've never even thought to explore.  I demanded of myself, how the heck have I been working in outdoor rec environmental education for so long without ever setting foot in an honest-to-god National Park?  Sure, I've visited NPS lands bearing other designations, but the likes of Canyonlands, Zion, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite were starting to whisper beckoningly.

So I started doing the requisite homework and little by little realized I was actually making this trip happen.  For once, I actually went beyond visiting kayak.com and going, "how much for a flight to Australia!?" and then essentially abandoning the idea.  I crunched numbers (of the spending type), watched flight prices on Southwest.com, compared gear features.  But the first thing that really brought home the fact that I was actually going to follow through on this one was when I ordered an $8 driving map of Canyon Country and a used UT hiking guide online.  My heart pounded as I went through the payment processing pages because trekking poles and sleeping pads are things I can use over and over again for trips to various locales, but these things were just for this trip.

And so it begins.  I'll update this blog when possible (aren't hostels great?), and keep a hand-written journal in the backcountry to be transcribed here later.  To all of you following along, I wish so many of you could have joined me but part of my intention was to travel alone, and it'll be comforting in my lonelier moments to know that you're keeping tabs.  Thank you for that.


*I think mostly because I got very little sleep last night.  I blame sketch comedy, beer, and awesome friends.