Canyoneering in Zion

Zion is well known for it's deep and spectacular canyons. Unfortunately many of them are not very accessible or are very technical, so that you need the right equipment and experience to do it. Since Tommy and I don't have either them, we decided to treat ourselves to a little guided Canyoneering adventure with an outfitting company. Although I'm afraid of heights and therefore don't like climbing and rappelling (the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope), I didn't wanna miss out on a great experience. So I decided to challenge myself and just do it. How bad can it be, I thought. Since I'd never done canyoneering before, I assumed the rappels wouldn't be much higher than 30-50 feet (15 Meter) and that I would be lowered by somebody from the top. Well had I known what we were about to do, I would have probably changed my mind about going. After a 45 minute drive, a 2 mile hike in and about 1000 feet elevation gain, we got to our base camp. There we got our orientation and started setting up ropes for the first descend into the canyon. I couldn't really see the edge when we started out, which was probably a good thing. Because the drops were a lot longer than I had expected and I wasn't lowered by somebody but had to do it myself. When the guides told me that, I started getting really nervous. What if I made a mistake and the rope would somehow slip through my hands. I would certainly crash on the ground and die! I wanted to trust somebody else rather than do it myself. The guides smiled and said that it would be a good exercise in self-trust for me. Shit, there was no turning around now. I was roped up and ready to go. So I decided to not look down, try to stay calm and just concentrate on what was in front of me. The ropes are set up with extra security mechanisms, so that my fear was actually unjustified. But since it was my first time. I didn't know that. So I just went for it. The first decent wasn't too bad actually, we just went to a ledge 20 feet below from where we rappelled about 40 feet over a waterfall into the canyon. It was amazing. What a great way to see the canyon from that perspective. It was nerve recking and exciting at the same time. Full of adrenalin, I got to the bottom and couldn't stop smiling. The next rappel was even longer and we also had to go over an overhanging cliff, so that we were actually freely dangling from the rope without any contact to the canyon walls. But the craziest one was the rappel after that. It was over 100 feet (30 Meter) long, where we had to lower ourselves through a waterfall and then swim out of a pool to get out. It was nerve recking enough to descend from that high up, but the water was made it even worse. The outside temperature was about 80 degrees (26 Celsius) while the water was only 40 degrees fahrenheit (4 Celsius). I got completely soaked! Shivering I got out, but I still couldn't stop smiling. I just couldn't believe I just did all that! I felt like I overcame my fear and pushed myself to try something new. I was able to trust myself that I wasn't gonna kill myself and I stepped out of my comfort zone. All around it was a beautiful day. Our guides and the people in our group were a lot of fun and we got to see an amazing canyon in a completely new way. I just loved it!

Bryce Canyon (Day 3) THUNNNNNNDER MOUNTAIN!!!

Wow. Okay let me start off by saying that Danielle and I usually write this blog with a big sense of togetherness as far as opinions of things go. But on this day, we differed sharply. We decided that we'd seen just about everything we wanted to see in Bryce Canyon and Danielle had found out that there were some mountain bike trails about 10 miles away in a place called Red Canyon. It's Friday and we had a long work week so we decided to drive on down and see what this place was all about.

We parked at the visitor center and we were talking to the ranger and I was kind of screwing around with him..

we said: 'we want to go on a bike ride.'
Ranger: 'What kind of bikes do you have?'
Me: 'We have full suspension bikes and we like danger.'
Ranger: 'We have this ride called Thunder Mountain. Here's a map. You take the bike path up here, take a right here, it joins the trail here and it's a 12 mile loop. You'll love it.'

I hated it, at the beginning. It was 5 miles or so of concrete path and steady climbing. When we finally got on the trail my legs were hurting badly (mostly from yesterdays hike). My first impression was, 'this is gorgeous!' My second impression was, 'god damn this hurts.' This love/hate relationship I was having with this trail was a major theme throughout the evening. It would have these great descents followed closely by strenuous climbs. The terrain was mostly packed dirt and the scenery was heavily wooded; which was such a welcomed change from Moab.

We finally made our way to the top of Thunder Mountain, finally... finally (have I stressed how tired we were?). This is where the fun started, for me. This is where the hate started, for Danielle. It was this awesome single track descent that winded down the mountain. There were some steep drop-offs on the sides of us and some very technical maneuvering. I decided that after all that damn climbing.. I was either leaving this trail a very happy man or I was leaving en route to the hospital, but no matter what, I was going to go fast. It was a blast. Twisty switchbacks, flying over loose rock, roots, mud, water.. you name it. I felt like a kid again.

Danielle hated it. I'll have to say that if something makes her feel unconfident then she will not take a risk, which is a very responsible way to ride. Her front brake needs adjustment badly and this trail turned out to be a lot more technical than either of us planned for. I think when we do this trail again she might have a different opinion, but as of this writing.. she hated it.

Thunder Mountain is by far one of the most impressive mountain bike trails I've ever been on. It's big in every way. Scenery: probably the prettiest ride I've ever done. Technical: manageable, but it definitely tested me. Strenuous: I'm going to be sore for a few days at least. Fun: I can't wait to go back.

Bryce Canyon (Day 2)

I had a big meeting this morning for work. It takes quite a while for my department to get all the items together for our part of the meeting, so yesterday was a really long day, which stretched into the night. So after the meeting I was ready to get my hike on and de-stress. Off we went to see what Bryce is all about!

I don't know how I went my whole life without realizing what Bryce Canyon was. I had this assumption that it was the yin to Zions yang. I pictured big iconic gray cliffs and pine trees. How wrong was I? Completely wrong. I'm so utterly amazed by this place. We did a pretty long loop today and you basically start off on a rim overlooking the valley floor. A lot of people stop there and still, they get an amazing view of this place, but Danielle and I opted to see what the valley looked like. So from the rim you follow some switch backs and these huge sandstone fins and spires start rising farther and farther above you until you're all swallowed up in the belly of this sandstone giant!!

We followed the Navaho trail till we got to the Peek-A-Boo trail and took that for 3 miles. The Peek-A-Boo trail weaves through some amazing fins and spires, you also get a good elevation gain so you can get a beautiful view of the valley from the opposite side you began. After that we met up with the Queens Garden trail where we met an opportunistic chipmunk who luckily, for me, thought my camera could possibly be food. So when I got low to take his picture he came right up to sniff the lens, snap! Gotcha! haha

It was a really fun day and a great way to decompress from being cooped up in the RV working and dealing with the weather this last week.

Oh! Danielle has fully trained me to spot Germans! They all wear this brand called Jack Wolfskin and the logo is this paw print. It must be the equivalent to us wearing North Face gear. Anyhow, today we were walking along the trail and I spotted the logo on this girls sock, so I turned to Danielle and said quietly, 'Germans.' She turned to me and said, 'Your training is complete.'

Tommy

Bryce Canyon (Day1)

After two rainy days we woke up early, right when the sun started peaking over the mountains. Ahhhh finally, the sun is back! We took care of a few things for work then packed up and headed to Bryce Canyon, our next destination. The drive was short and lead us up into higher elevation. Which lead us right back into another storm, that greeted us with a cold wind and snow! Disappointedly we checked into the Campground and decided to just work the rest of day, unless the weather would get better. We were lucky, in the afternoon it stopped snowing and the sun came out. So we used the opportunity to go out for a quick peak at Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon is basically a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion, leaving these exposed delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos. The erosion is taking place in a pretty short time span, so that you can see trees growing along the ridge of the canyon, whose roots already had been exposed. Every once in a while pieces break off, and apparently you can hear the sound of crumbling rock in the spring when the sun starts heating up the rocks. When we arrived at the park, we got out of the car and walked up to the first vista point. I looked at Tommy and he had his mouth open and said: "I had no idea what Bryce Canyon was". I laughed and asked him if he had never seen pictures of it, not even in the gift shop at the campground a couple of hours earlier when we checked in. Apparently he hadn't because he was really blown away by what he saw. It really is a beautiful place and there is no comparison to seeing it in person, but what a surprise it must have been for him not even knowing what he was in for and then seeing this amazing place for the first time.

Escalante (Day 2)

Today is our second and last day in Escalante and unfortunately the weather turned even worse. Temperature dropped and rain, snow and thunderstorms alternated back and forth all day. Once in a while it cleared up and the sun started peaking out, but the next storm front and dark clouds were already building up in the distance. I was really disappointed because I had really wanted to check out some of the amazing slot canyons in this area. But during weather like this, a slot canyon is the last place you would wanna be. So I just had to let it go and decided to make plans to come back here another time. Even the 4-5 weeks we are staying in Southern Utah is not enough time to see everything. There's just too much to explore. But luckily, once we live in Flagstaff, Utah will be just around the corner and most places will be reachable in a 5-6 hour drive.

~ Danielle

If you like to see more pictures...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14097442@N00/sets/72157626407846881/

What's in a day?

I was sitting here tonight thinking about what people might think while they were reading our blog. How they might imagine our day unfolding. What we've written so far isn't exactly reality. We give you a picture and a brief description of a highlight or two. So I decided that it might be nice for you to see what a day for us is like, from start to finish. Today is somewhat unusual because we moved the RV from Capitol Reef to Escalante. But today encompassed all the of the 'usual' things we do in a day while living on the road. So here goes:

5:20 am - Wake up to the sound of heavy rain and wind. Decided that we shouldn't move the RV today because the weather is way too bad. Had breakfast (english muffins) and coffee; read the news, start working.

7:00 am - While working we realized that the rain had stopped for a while. We talked it over and looked at the weather on the internet. Seems like we had a brief window of good weather so we decided to close up camp and make a run for Escalante which is only 65 miles away. So I dumped the sewage and locked all the storage bins, these are all standard moving chores. I do these while Danielle makes sure everything (potential flying projectiles) is put away inside.

7:20 am - Depart for Escalante.

7:40 am - Starting to rethink our decision. Didn't realize that we'd be going up to 9600 ft elevation which means.. snow. Everything got a lot better once we got over the mountain. We saw deer, deer, deer and a marmot. Danielle actually started yelling into her walkie talkie 'Oh my god I saw a marmot, I've never seen a marmot!!!!'

9:00 am - Pulled into the Broken Bow RV park. Got our spot picked out. Started working.

10:15 am - Had our weekly Monday morning department meeting over Skype with Billy and Jess. We had a lot to talk about but somehow we always finish before lunch.

12:00 pm - Lunch! Split pea soup with crackers (meh.. could have been better).

5:30 pm - Hiked to a waterfall. It was a pretty easy hike and the waterfall was running. We saw a momma duck and some babies swimming around. Then.. the weather rolled in. I've got to say, Danielle and I have been very lucky with rain. We get back to the car and 5 min later.. rain drops.

8:00 pm - Got back to the RV and I made some dinner (stuffed chicken with goat cheese, broccoli and left over cous cous).

9:40 pm - Write blog!

SInce it's Sunday and we had a long week of work, we decided to sleep in before going on a hike today. So we actually didn't get up until 8:15am. As we finally roll out of bed to walk into the kitchen area to make some coffee, my mom calls from Germany. She suggests to video chat with my Grandma since it's her 91st Birthday today. "That way", she says, "Grandma can finally get to meet/see Tommy". I asked her to give us a couple minutes to put on some clothes and comp our hair to look half-way presentable. Tommy wants to make a good impression and selects a nice collar Polo Shirt :) I give him some last quick instructions on how to impress Grannie, by trying to teach him to say Happy Birthday in German. I say: "Look, it's really easy, you just say: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag". He looks at me a bit confused then lights up and says: "oh just like: Hairs-licking Glue-range some Woodstock"? I burst out laughing, he sounds like an auto-spelling program that you have on your computer or smartphone. He's so cute, always happy and always finds a way to make me laugh. We get on the computer with my Uncle and my Grandma, they see us for a quick moment then the connection goes out. We try it a couple more times but no luck. So I pick up my phone and call my Grandma and she tells me excitedly that she was able to see Tommy and me for a quick moment and that she saw Tommy has a beard! Not sure why she pointed that out. Maybe she likes beards or maybe she just thought Tommy looked a nice a guy. Either way she'll get to meet him in person soon, because we're planning a trip to Germany in late September.