And so it begins....

Well, everyone, it's summer ... maybe not so much in Salt Lake quite yet, but it's for sure hot in Grand Canyon. I've done two trips so far and it was already over 100 several days each trip. But, like my granddaddy always said, "if yer hot and yer by a river, then yer dumb!"

They've been great trips to start the season. I never know if it's good to have the best trips at the beginning because then it's just all down hill from there. The first trip there was a group of 18 people that were all from SL and Park City and they were so much fun. It really didn't feel like work at all because they were so great and they were all friends so that helps a ton. There was one guy on there that was a biologist and I was pretty frustrated by him. He knew a ton and admittedly, I really did learn a lot but he would correct me on these little tiny facts right in front of everyone and it kinda drove me nuts. Here's a picture of him telling us some random, little-known fact about lizards and you can tell I'm pretty stoked about what I'm learning.
The guides were cool too. I'd never really worked with any of them so it was cool to get to know them better. Here's a picture of us on dress up night. This is Evan, me, Joey, and Gonzo. I'm not quite sure how I feel about Joey in my dress!



Joey is in a band and we do a cool stop in this canyon called Blacktail which according to the "earth keepers" is the center of the womb of Mother Earth and it does have a really cool feeling in there, and it's always a good stop.



(That hat is supposed to be a little floppy, but let's be honest, that's a little much) This is Alice Webber, you may have heard her on KUER, yea, she's famous.

There's a few stretches of flat water on a couple days and I bring tons of nail polish and these guys went nuts. It was great.


I also bring a bunch of embroidery floss and feel like I'm in Jr. High again, and I teach everyone how to make bracelets or anklets to help them not realize that their faces are melting off in the afternoon sun after Havasu.

Here's a couple more pictures from the trip. There was a guy there that had a really nice camera and he was taking tons of great pictures, so I can't choose which ones to put, so you get to see them all.



For the break in between trips, I met me roommate Erika down in Zion and we did a couple slot canyons and I slept in the park while she recerted her WFR. I love being in Zion when it's not so hot, it was great. I didn't have my camera so she has all the pictures and as soon as I get them from her I'll put some more on here. It was a really good break though.


The next trip was really fun. I was swamping for Brain Lugers (aka Luge) who was the boatman on my first trip ever and it was really fun. He's a great Trip Leader and he runs a really fun trip. Justin Olsen and Jason Tea (aka The Bag) were on the other boat. And besides the fact that they have really pervy mustaches, they're pretty cool too. Here they are doing a great job of holding up the cook kit.


We camped at a couple different camps that I'd never camped before and that was a treat. This trip was a little more May- ish on the weather front. It was perfect, a lot of clouds and perfect temps, until the third night when this moved in. Luckily it was after we'd run most of the biggest rapids of the canyon when the people are freezing and soaked by the cold water.


That night though, right before bed I gave the usual speech about rain in the desert. It goes a little something like this "hello everyone, you all look pretty cozy, and I just want you to know that it may rain a little bit but this is the desert, and it usually rains for like 5 - 10 minutes, then stops. So you all have tarps in your bags and they work great to make a bed burrito and just wait it out, and it'll be done soon. But if you decide you want a tent, I put some in the kitchen. Ok, everyone, have a good night!" and off I go to the boats. The problem with that night was that I believed myself too and I LIED! It started raining and pretty much rained the whole night! Brian let me get back in his kingdom (the back part of the boat with big boxes on the sides that are perfect for setting up a shelter) and we threw up the tarp. But since we did a really half - ass job of it and since it wasn't the 10 minute shower I'd promised, the tarp was soon laying right on us and we could feel the rain and any time either of us moved it poured a puddle right down onto our pillows which in turn leaked all down our bags. If I was a good guide, I wouldn't have been so lazy and I'd have helped the peeps set up their tents and refurbished our little fort, but apperantly I'm not, so we all (4 guides + all the soaking wet passengers up on shore) were a little groggy in the morning. Luckily no one was too mad at me for my obvious misjudgment of the weather. The next night we were smart and all the guests had tents set up in the first 5 minutes in camp. (Side note: I love the desert becasue we got all our bags and clothes out at camp and they were dry by the time dinner was done. Everything dries so fast! I love not having to wake up with tons of condensation on my bag and all over my stuff!) And the guides delayed it as long as possible, but eventually took some time and actually set up some good shelters.


The Bag is a little too homo-phobe to sleep back with Justin, so he'd set up a tent on the boat and bungeed it down, and I helped Brain get his all sussed out and we all slept so much better! It's amazing how when you're not in bed, 5 minutes of a little work is no problem, but thinking about getting out of bed and getting more wet to make your life 100% better is way too much to do.


We had some really cool clouds in the morning and I actually really like rain in the canyon.


It's pretty funny because I'm pretty sure without a watch or something to tell us, I don't think any of us would ever know the date, let alone the day of the week or anything of significance. So, when someone mentioned that it was Memorial Day, none of was prepared. No flags, sparklers, nothing. So, Brian and Justin taught me how to make a grease bomb, while Jason was throwing up off the back of the boats (poor guy had a rough evening on the last night of the trip and Luge and Justin both got it afterward, but luckily it must have been a boy-only Noro virus!)


It's not a great picture of the final outcome, but I though it was pretty cool. HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY everyone!


Here's Luge contemplating life and getting lost in the overpowering effects of the canyon.


So, now here I am, back in Fredonia, getting ready for another trip tomorrow. I'll be doing 8 more tips, so about 4 more months down here and if they could all be like the last couple I'd love it and the summer will be a great one, so let's hope for that! Clouds, some rainy nights, good guides, rapids, and peeps ... and being in the canyon away from the rest of the worries of life .... what a dream!

Private trips are amazing!!!

I can't really complain about my job in Grand Canyon. Sure it is hotter than hell, and I have to deal with toilets a lot, and people that have never been camping and pretty hard physical work all the time, but I'll be honest and say that I have a pretty rad job. It's so cool to be out there in nature and enjoying the scenery and showing people what the desert can be for them. However, one of my main complaints about the job is that I don't really get a summer. I haven't had a real summer in 6 years and this year is not going to be any different. One thing I am determined to do is do more private boating. I would love to get my own boat and eventually do more trips on my own and just with friends.

My friend, Jason (aka The Bag) put together a trip down Deso and it was so great! Besides the two day Westwater I did last year this was my first multi-day trip with friends and it was AWESOME! About half of us had been guides at one time and I think that made us realize just especially how wonderful it was to not be filling up water bottles, answering real dumb questions (ie ... (this one is my favorite and it gets asked at the put-in) "So, is this where we're going to get off the river?" ... seriously? Do you think this is Lagoon-a-beach?) and pretty much having to be "on" all the time and cook three meals a day for 28 people for 8 days straight. It was great!!
I was in charge of food and that was a bigger ordeal than I thought it was going to be, but it was pretty fun to do and fun to go to Costco and fill a flat bed and regular cart. It turned out to be a lot of work but was so great. We had 15 people there, and it ended up being a pretty random group, but everyone got along great. It was a bit of a pain getting the shuttle and everything worked out, but once we were rigged and all ready to go we slept at Sand Wash under the stars. I remembered how much I love being under the stars! When we finally pushed off the shore, it was such a great feeling!! We set out for 6 days and it was great.














We had some great limbo contests, swing dance parties, and leg wrestle contests.


We camped at one of our favorite places and it is a really good camp with a nice sandy beach that is great unless it's windy which unfortunately it was. Here we are sitting on the beach trying to pretend it's not blowing sand into everywhere, eyes, ears nose (it made for some great fiberglass -esque boogers!)



To get away from the wind we went on a hike to this sweet natural bridge.



One of the dudes that came brought his kayak but ended up swimming in a couple rapids so he let me take his kayak the rest of the time. It was really cool. I haven't paddled in a while and it was great. Erika had her boat too, so we got to kayak a lot.


Of course in Deso, the inevitable wind brought the rain and it even hailed a little the last night.



We all took turns cooking and the last days team pulled off dutch oven enchilada that were amazing!

We all brought dress up clothes, but the last night since it was raining no one got them out so Jos and I pulled them out the last morning. I've got to get the picture of both of us together.

Safety first

A weekend in the desert is always a good weekend in the desert but it was a bummer because we weren't able to do what we came there for. We went down to do Washerwoman Tower in Canyonlands. It is a 6 pitch route up a tower and with a crazy belay. I love having friends that are willing to plan stuff and put things together. I went down with Garrett, Scott Epperson and Ian. It was a pretty quick trip. We drove down Friday night and decided to stay in the trailers. It's so nice to have a place to stay down there. It was pretty cold and Ian had forgotten his sleeping bag. We had to drive seventeen miles that ended up taking 2 hours on the Shaffer Trail to get in to it. When we finally got to the base we racked up our gear and headed up to the base. It was a 45 min approach up the scree to the base of the route. When we got up there and started unloading gear I realized I'm an idiot and I had forgotten my harness. We tried to think of ways to make a webbing harness and to belay with a munter hitch but decided it might not be too awesome if there are some hanging belays to be hanging in webbing and to lead belay Scotty with a skethcy munter hitch. Anyway, I took off down for the car. I made it down and back up in a hour and by the time I got back, Ian and Scott had already started, and they were the two leaders.
They thought it was going to take me longer to get back up and they didn't want it to get too late so they decided to go and Garrett was going to try to take pictures from the bottom. They were only one pitch up and I think we could have worked something out and not had a big set back but the decision was made and with those guys once it's decided, it's decided. So Garrett and I sat at the base and waited for the them to climb it. They did it pretty fast, in like 3 hours and it was really nice weather, so it did feel nice to just hang in the sun and enjoy the desert. I love taking naps in the spring sun!

We watched them repel down right in front of this arch and it looked like a really hairy belay!
We drove back into Moab and ate tons of pizza at Zax, and had another great night in the trailers. We did get a little climbing in on Wall Street and I do like those routes.
There were some other people there climbing that were from Moab, and they were so funny. They think they're so cool being from Moab. This one guy that had his 12-ish year old son with him (that was a really good climber) said "I don't even consider myself from Utah, I'm from Moab, .... it's the only city in Utah as far as I'm concerned" and all this other lame stuff about how cool he is and you know he's passing that on to his son, because he already thought he was so cool. It was pretty funny.
The drive home ended up taking 7 1/2 hours!!! It had started snowing and Highway 6 was closed because of multiple accidents, so we headed toward Duchesne and a semi had jack-knifed and was blocking highway 40 so we had to sit there for an hour and a half! We cooked mac and cheese with chili in the car with our jet boil that ended up being a bit of a bad idea (surprisingly) and were so ready to get home when we finally did.

Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I felt bad that Garrett didn't get to climb it because of my forgetfulness, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

On a side note, I have only two more weeks of work at the hospital then I'm done! I'm doing a Desolation Canyon river trip with some friends for a week then going to Yosemite for a week then headed to the river and will be there for the next 5 months! I'm getting pretty stoked. I get spring fever and can't wait to get down to the desert and the river!

Packed in a Bolt Bus driving through New York

I just went through Times Square in New York on a huge bus and I would freak out trying to drive here!! There are so many cars and people walking in the streets and right in front of the bus. It's pretty crazy. Being from Salt Lake where no one really uses public transport, I have loved being back here and seeing how it can be done.

This trip started because my aunt, Din gets to come to Washington DC for a meeting and she stays in this really nice hotel and my mom has come back with her the last few years, and they invited me to come with them this year, which is a huge honor. My mom grew up with 4 sisters and they go on a girls trip every year. Me, coming from a family with four brothers I've always been a little jealous because I love having brothers but there's just a different things with sisters, that I've always wanted. So, I was happy to be invited on this trip. And I've been in touch with my friend, Preston who has been living in Boston for the last few years, and he's invited me out, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. And being from the west I think that everything back here is right next door, however that was a misconception. I'm on the second of 2 four hour bus rides from Boston - NY - DC.

It was a really good time in Boston. I had never been there before, and it was a pretty cool city. Since it was a last minute thing to decide to come there first, Preston was working during the days so I had some time to go explore the city. I'd usually sleep in for a while which was a dream the go explore the Freedom Trail and see a bunch of stuff that's older than anything we have here (but still doesn't really compare to Europe age stuff) but it was really cool.
Preston's a squash pro and I got to watch him play in a match and it's so fun to watch that level of squash. There are so many good players on the east coast it's crazy. I also got to see "court tennis" also. It's apparently the root of almost all racket sports. It's one of the weirder sports I've ever see and here's a little video of a few points.



There are TONS of really weird rules, but it was pretty cool to see a new sport I have pretty much never heard of.



I was good to see Preston, it had been a few years and really cool to see Boston. I went and walked around Harvard and got some suggestions from my roommate Erika who went there about where to go and what to see. I really do love it that everyone pretty much walks everywhere and takes public transit and even though SL is harder to get around, I'm recommitting myself to ride my bike or take trax more!

So, 8 long hours on buses, and a really awkward, long feeling 10 block walk down the streets of New York with my bag that doesn't have wheels, my computer bag, purse and pillow, and 5 episodes of Lost (which I'm totally obsessed with and that saved me on the buses!) I made it to DC where I met my mom and Din.
My mom and explored a ton of the museums and monuments while Din was in meetings or until she could come meet us.
This is the only Leonardo DaVinci in America right now. The paintings were amazing! It was fun. A great time to spend with my mom because she knows so much about art and can teach me so much. One of my favorite things was the Human Kaleidoscope. It was so cool. A triangle of mirrors you walk in with really neat images reflecting off them. It was really neat.



My mom and I had a great time and it was so good to get to be with her. I lived at home until last winter and even though I am really happy to be living where I am, I do miss being closer to her and my family and being able to catch up with them.
And there is nothing better than coming back into Salt Lake. I really feel like it's home here. I love visiting other places, but especially when I get to fly in over the mountains I realize how much I love this place!