Travel Journal, Grand Canyon Day 3

Lauren's Journal: July 20, 2011 - Wednesday

This morning many of us were up before the coffee call. After a bit of morning yoga, we packed up camp, and loaded the boat before hiking up the canyon to the ancient granaries. I notice that everyone seems to have settled into camp life well, and the mood is quite easy today. The hike started in the sand, and ended up climbing several hundred feet of stone 'stairs.' I kept thinking back to the Great Wall in 2008, and Andrea's harrowing experience. I kept thinking about that on the way up, and also the horrors I read in the Death in the Grand Canyon, and when the guides start talking about people 'rag-dolling' down the mountain, I start getting nervous. Thankfully, my ankle held up without anything more than a little stiffness, but the hike probably did it some good in the end.

The hike's intensity and the heat increased in relation to each other. As the hike got more intense, so too did the heat. The hike quickly became what we referred to as 'The Death March." We were all sweating, guzzling water from our packs, and I was definitely panting, but the reward of the spectacular views of the river and canyon made it all worth it in the end. A few people had to turn back part of the way there, and though I'm not sure how I managed, I did make it to the top, and the view from there made it all worth it.

We took a break while sitting at the granaries, and some people climbed a few extra (perilous) feet to peer into the granary. I was nervous about that, especially since touching the stone there is verboten, and I was still having horrifying images in my head of rag-dolls falling of the canyon.

Coming down was much easier, especially since the temperatures cooled very quickly. The river is truly life-giving, and I was surprised by how much I missed it such a short amount of time. I think after the heat of the hike, we were all feeling relieved to be back on the water. Once we were back on the water, today seemed to be all about singing through the rapids (a trend that would continue until the very last day of our journey). The group appears to be gelling more, and getting comfortable with each other. This is really turning out to be an amazing trip, and I am so glad I could come!

 

The lunch spot was nice, with little bits of shade everywhere, and plenty of things to explore while we waited for the Azra crew to prepare lunch.  I wandered around a bit and met a spiny lizard who was quite curious about what we were doing there. Judging by how much he liked to have his picture taken while doing push ups, I'm sure this little guy spends a lot of time in the company of and examining humans. In addition to the Lizards (which became our most photographed animals on the trip), this lunch spot also included a beautiful array of stalactites (on top) which looked like white soda straws hanging from the limestone rock face.

 
 

















The Lunch today was Roast beef on whole grain bread with horseradish mayo, German mustard, avos, tomato, and Havarti cheese with dill. I don't normally like roast beef, especially not in sandwiches, but this was delicious! I ate my fair share (and more) of the cookies, and following Penny's lead, made apples with peanut butter, dried cranberries, and pistachios. When I felt stuffed later, I certainly knew why.

After lunch, I played Euchre with Luchs, Kelli, and Jones. We cut the game short to get back on the boat, where we headed for the Little Colorado and where Captain Dave had a great surprise in store for us!

On the hike, we saw this collared lizard who popped out from under the rock to watch us as we walked by. As we rounded the bend of rock along the riverbed, we could see the water changing into the prettiest, alkaline blue water.

When we arrived at the starting point, we were instructed on how to put our life jackets on like diapers so that we could flow down the river like this:

After this, we felt exhilarated! Many of us flowed down the shallow, lazy Little Colorado rather than hike back. It was a welcome and relaxing time back to the rafts before we headed to make camp for the evening.

Travel Journal, Grand Canyon Day 2

Lauren's Journal: July 19, 2011 - Tuesday

 I was up early again this morning, right around first light. I had the WORST night's sleep ever. We all put up tents because there were some clouds that made us think it might rain in the night. Mary and I put up our tent and the rain cover, and it was SO HOT and humid, I'm certain than neither of us hardly slept at all. And to make it worse, the rain never came, so there was all that heat and sweating for nothing! I don't have a watch or a clock, so I think that the coffee call came around 6:30. I was up early enough to hear the 'jet engine' sound of the propane-powered blaster used to boil the water. 

The coffee we drink is Cowboy Coffee, which has obvious origins with American Cowboys of the West, and would have traditionally been made over a campfire. Cowboy coffee uses coarse grounds of coffee (think a larger grind than French Presse). Boiling water is poured over them, and when the grounds settle, it's ready to drink. It's usually not filtered, and judging by the grounds I chewed up when I was drinking mine, we won't be filtering ours either. Breakfast was a smörgåsbord which included eggs to order, bacon, cereal, fresh melon, yogurt, granola, and toasted bagels with jam.




The morning ride was brief, and we passed by Vasey's Paradise before stopping for about 30 minutes at Redwall Canyon -- a wide amphitheater-beach at the edge of the river. The guidebook says it is estimated to be large enough to seat about 50,000 people. I think that assessment is pretty accurate, if you'd be able to get 50,000 people on the river at any given time.








Most of us took pictures, because this canyon was pretty extraordinary, and of course, beautiful, as they all are. I also took the time to paint a mediocre water-color. Not even very good for mediocre, but so-so for my first try, I guess it wasn't bad.


After packing back up onto the raft, we rode for a while , and stopped for lunch. The Newman Ginger O's went quickly at dessert. The group is starting to gel some more, as we get more comfortable with one another. While stopped, some of us took the opportunity to take a bath in the freezing water. The water was so cold, so I could only go in thigh-deep and was shivering. Suffice it to say, I don't think I got very clean.





 After lunch, we hiked the Buck Farm Canyon, just after mile 41. The hikes are all optional, due to the varying skill-level of the rafting groups. There was a bit of a scramble over the boulders on this hike, and that was probably the hardest part.




Once inside the canyon, there were some small ponds that played host to clouds of tadpoles, and young frogs.




On the way back, I twisted my ankle (the reconstructed one), and though I didn't pay much attention to it, once we made camp (Lower Nankoweap) and stopped moving for a while, it finally started to swell a little and hurt.

 Tonight's dinner included burgers and brats on the bbq, and they were so good! The guides also surprised us with a fresh-baked carrot cake! I don't know how they did it with a camp stove, but it was a welcome surprise. After dinner, Luchs, Kelli, Mary, Kee, Jones, (who else was there?) played apples to apples around the circle. A larger group of us also tried to play chase the Ace, but it eventually got too dark. I took this opportunity to take some failed photos of the stars before going to bed.


 Sleeping was tough again because of the heat. Plus, I was still irrationally paranoid that a bad, kangaroo rat, or cicada were going to eat me while I slept. A few times I woke up thinking that it was time to get up, but I was wrong. The moon was as bright as the sun!

Travel Journal: Grand Canyon Day 1

Lauren's Journal: July 18, 2011 - Monday

Yesterday, we left Las Vegas for Flagstaff. The ride was somewhere in the area of four or five hours, and I really enjoyed the ride with Kee, Luchs, and Jones. We left really early in the morning, so I slept some, read some, and we spent some time getting acquainted.

We stayed at the Radisson, and had orientation last night. We received the blue and white bags for our stuff, and Mary and I spent some time packing, and went to bed fairly early. My bag is SO heavy! I don't think I'll need all this stuff, but I can't seem to bring myself to leave it behind! I was up early this morning, and headed down to breakfast for a nice huevos rancheros (my favorite!). I sat with Sherilyn and Tom, and they gave me a coupon (w00t!) for 20% off my breakfast.


I look pretty perky for so early in the morning!

At 6:45am sharp, we began our journey to Lee's Ferry, where we picked up the boats, and hit the water. Our guide is Dave, the Swamper is Lauren (Swampy!), and the Assistant is Meghan.




The AZRA team got us on the water relatively quickly after a short orientation, and the water was calm where we pushed off. After a little while, we hit some rapids, and held on like our lives depended on it...well, at least I did. And WOW! was the water cold! I think that this time of year, the temperature is between 45 and 55F. When the air temperature is 100F, the water feels even colder.

Just after Badger Rapids, we stopped for lunch with grilled chicken Ceasar salad wraps, dried mango, and GORP. This stop was pretty long, so many of us took the opportunity to take some pictures. Here are a few of mine from this stop:

Wedding Cookies part Deux

Last summer when my sister got engaged I made some wedding themed sugar cookies for her. The wedding has since come and gone but, since it took place in Mexico, few of our family attended. To make up for that, and possibly as an excuse for my dad to raise a pole barn, my parents are hosting a reception for them in Michigan this weekend. I am actually negative about four days of vacation (since I did go to Mexico) so I can't go. In lieu of my attendance I'm sending another batch of wedding themed cookies. I have a sad feeling that they'll arrive and my mom will open a big box of crumbs. Thankfully I documented the process so everyone can see what took me three days to do. And that I didn't just send a big box of crumbs. Although that would have been easier.

I started with a bride-shaped, champagne-shaped (does anyone else pronounce that sham-PAG-na to remember how to spell it? no?), and cake-shaped cookies cutters, both regular sugar cookies dough and chocolate sugar cookie dough, and a super duper floured surface.

I despise rolling out dough. This is one of the main reasons why I don't use fondant. Well that and the nasty taste. But I no less dislike rolling out cookie dough. And I rolled, and rolled, and rolled. For days. But then I had lots of cookies!

Yum! First I outlined all of them with royal icing and got to work decorating.

I'm very serious about my decorating. I had two colors of sugar sand, markers, royal icing mix, gold and silver powder (which amuses me for the warning label that says non toxic but not recommended for consumption;), color gels, little sugar ball things...and more. And the vodka was legitimate decorating. You have to mix the gold and silver with clear liquor to make a paint. I also made some buttercream as an alternate to the royal icing.

I was really annoyed to remember that buttercream always comes out rather yellowish (duh) so I added some blue to cleverly come up with the sea green the groom wanted (but did not get) for the wedding color. Sadly none of the buttercream frosted cookies took to my decorating techniques very well. Obviously I couldn't send those. So I ate them. Oh the sacrifices!! I used the food safe markers for most of the decorating. Mostly I just doodled but the bride cookies got a lot of poetry. Some of my favorites:

 Shame my handwriting isn't better.

 Homage to my other blog!

I used the chocolate dough exclusively for this topsy turvey cake shaped cookie cutter I got for Christmas. The cookie cutter came with three decorating mats for use with fondant (yuck + rolling = no) or buttercream. The buttercream just didn't work out for me so for these also I used royal icing and food markers.

I was pretty happy with these.

Also, can I say how awesome it is that I used both a bottle of vodka and the Bible for decorating? 'Cause it is awesome.