Tag Archives: grand canyon

Sedona, Arizona

June 30, 2008 Chris Leave a comment

If any of you have ever driven from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, you will understand how difficult the drive is to do in a rv. I had lines of cars following me because it is a twisting, turning, slow, difficult drive where you have a 7% grade and drop 2000 feet in a couple of miles. I was scared to go over 15-20 mph because I didn’t want to be responsible for driving us off a cliff. Occasionally I would pull over and let the train of cars pass me (I know if I was driving a normal car, I would be none to happy to be stuck behind a slow rv). Although at one point, I had a car continuously ride up on my tail and start honking; let’s just say I didn’t pull over for them. In fact I went even slower and Chris took care of the rest (imagination at work).

So once again a 2 hour drive turned into a 3 or so hour drive. The only problem with that was we HAD to check in at the rv park before dark. Unfortunately, we didn’t know if dark meant sunset, headlights on, or pure blackness. Well anyways we made it and got the pleasure of following a fire truck down into Lo Lo Mai rv resort.

Don’t worry; there wasn’t a fire, just a rattlesnake that they wanted to get rid of. So we checked in and decided to order some yummy pizza because we were too tired to cook and too hungry to go without eating. While waiting for our food we saw lots of wildlife. The rv resort has a huge pond with geese and ducks (missing our own little Koozie Duck), raccoons, dogs, cats, skunks, snakes etc. (the owners liked feeding wild animals). It was actually pretty cool. There was a creek nearby and lots of trees (shade is always appreciated. It was 32 dollars a night but the park was very secluded, clean, friendly, and had good bathrooms and laundry area.

We were soooo tired but we still had to set up camp. Our neighbors were impressed that we still even hung our cool outdoor lights even though we just hiked up the Grand Canyon. The only downside to Lo Lo Mai was that we had NO cell phone service. No calls in or out and no internet. That wasn’t too bad for us because it was the weekend so Chris didn’t need to answer calls and we were too tired to talk to anyone. We could still send and receive text messages so we weren’t completely disconnected. Chris tried to put a movie in but we basically just fell asleep.

Ah, a bright new day and OW we are SORE. Man you think you are tired after the hike but try walking the next day. Sedona is known for their amazing red rocks and the Jeep Tours that you go off-roading on. Instead of paying $150-200 to have someone else ride us around in a Jeep (Chris’s Jeep is sitting at his parent’s house in Spartanburg) we decide to take the dirtbike out

We change into grungy clothes, fill up our camel backs (small backpacks that hold 2 liters of water each) and head off to the trails. At first, the trails aren’t how I remembered them. I had been there with my family some years ago and I remembered it being more extreme (trust me we hit those just a little later on). We stopped first at some old ruins that we had to hike out to. They were really cool and built under this cliff. After seeing those, we asked the woman at the beginning of the trail where the best places to go were. She sent us off on 60 miles of fun riding (although I am sure Chris wished at some points that I wasn’t on the back, it’s much easier to ride with only one person.)

We finished riding and we were hot, thirsty and dirty so we decided to go into Sedona and check out the downtown area. (Lo Lo Mai is about 8 miles south of actual Sedona) We got smoothies and checked out some of the tourist shopping; most of it was out of our price range. Instead of eating there, we drove back to West Sedona where we saw a nice Mexican restaurant that had happy hour specials from 4-6.

We go it and sit at the bar because we were still dirty from riding. We get $4.00 big margaritas, chips and salsa, and calamari. The drinks and food were delicious but the best part of our night came a little later on. A couple came in and sat down next to us at the bar. We ended up small talking about the food and drinks and then Chris and I find out that they have been living in Sedona for 7 years. We ask them what else we should see or do before they leave in the morning and they proceed to tell us about this amazing, secluded place to see the sunset.

After getting detailed directions, we start to tell them about our trip and explaining how Chris runs his own business from the road and was South Carolina’s entrepreneur of the year this past spring. Well that must have set of a light bulb in Terry’s head, (the couples names are Terry and Jeanette). He is a venture capitalist, and he and Chris started talking business and cars. We continue talking, finishing our drinks and they remind us that we have to get going if we are going to catch the sunset. We go to leave and they say “instead of driving all the way out to that other place, why don’t you just come back to our house and watch the sunset from our balcony.” Chris and I of course agree.

We follow them back and pull up to an amazing house (even nicer than the houses we had driven around looking at earlier). They have a fountain in front, two very friendly dogs, a donkey that lives next door, and a view that is breathtaking. We couldn’t believe how friendly and nice they were! Inviting two dirty strangers inside their beautiful house to hang out with for the night. We pour some wine and tequila (not mixed of course) and go upstairs to sit on the top balcony and watch the sunset.

We stayed there until past 11 o’clock just talking, looking and the view, having the guys look at some amazing cars Terry has, and feeding carrots to the donkey next door. At the end of the night, Chris of course gets their information (venture capitalist + entrepreneur = hopefully a good idea and a lot of money some day)

We had such an amazing night, probably one of the most entertaining we had so far on this adventure. Who knows, Chris might even have found a future investor in his business.

Cross Country Trip, Travel

We hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

June 29, 2008 Chris 1 Comment

Chris and I successfully climbed up and down the Grand Canyon. We left our campsite Thursday morning around 5 am and drove to the back country office to park the rv (we were allowed to park there overnight for free) and then had to wait for the express shuttle to take us to the South Kaibab trail. We got a slightly later start than we wanted but what do you expect, Chris and I aren’t morning people.

So we started hiking, and hiking, and we saw a few people in the zone on their way up. And down further we go. Chris kept looking at the gps to calculate how far we had gone and at one point, we asked this other group if they knew how long the trail was; they said “About 6 miles.” We see the amazing views of the canyon that this trail is known for and take some pictures. We saw mules carrying people and loads down and were pretty impressed with the two restroom stops. This trail has NO water on it so we packed over 4 liters for each of us. Once we got close to 6 miles, Chris and I were like “wow this wasn’t that bad, we weren’t even that exhausted.” But oh no, that woman was very wrong.

We still had another 3 miles to go downhill. Ugh! By this point, Chris was carrying the big pack and I was carrying the backpack. We switched on and off the first few miles but my knee was started to get weak. Having a trekking pole saved my life when it came to getting up and down the canyon. (I bought mine for 30 dollars the day before but we found out later that you can rent them for $2 a pole per day. Definitely rent them if you are going to do this hike!)

The sun started to get hotter and our stops became slightly more frequent. Yes we did get passed by a 15 year old boy hiking by himself (we think he was a boy scout trying to get a badge or something because he was hauling ass) And around 10:30 we were passed by this guy who was heading up the mountain. He stopped in our shady rest area and told us how he had ran down the bright angel trail and was now running up this trail AND he had left the same time we did in the morning. Some of these people are nuts; they made me feel really out of shape.

Finally, around noon, we made it to the tunnel that leads to the bridge. We had finally made it down. We cross the bridge thinking we were there but oh no, there is another MILE walk to the Phantom Ranch! Chris and I decided early on that we were going to go straight to Phantom Ranch and buy a 4 dollar cold beer to celebrate as soon as we got down. So we dunked our heads in water and slowly started to make our way uphill. We got our beers, 2 Tecate’s each, carried down the canyon by mule. We also got some bagels because we were too tired to make our freeze dried meals.

After our beers, we went and checked out the campsites by the creek. It was sooo hot that the temperature was 105 but felt like 125 in the sun. All of the full shade sites were gone so we took a half shade site that had 4 trees for us to tie our jungle hammocks too. (tents are way too heavy to carry down, and the ground is way too uncomfortable to sleep on so the hammocks were perfect) We sat in the creek and drank some wine, so we could be cool and do what my parents did when they hiked down, even though we didn’t hike down and up in one day (Sitting in the creek is what EVERYONE does down there. It is too hot to be anywhere else so all the hikers just sit in this 2 foot deep cold clear creek until the sun sets).

Chris set up his hammock and then accidentally fell asleep before setting up mine. I tried to go sleep on a picnic table in the shade but it didn’t work too well. I ended up sitting in the river for another 2 hours until he woke up. We made freeze dried lasagna which was actually pretty tasty. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk (and no we aren’t crazy, we just wanted to see the Colorado River) So we went and sat on a different bridge overlooking a rapid and then went to the sandy beach once the sun set. The stars down there were breathtaking. I have never seen stars that clearly in my life. And the weirdest part of the beach was that bats were flying 6 inches over our head as we laid there.

We started to get sleepy so we went to leave and Chris realized that he had left his knife in the sand. We had brought only one head lamp and after skimming the beach, we realized it must have gotten buried. This was a knife Chris has had since he was little so after some digging, we finally found it. By this point it was 9:45 and we had to get back to the ranch store to try and get mole skin for my blisters and a few other things. Unfortunately, by the time we hiked up there, it was closed. We flashed our light in and a woman opened a window asking if we needed anything. We convinced her to let us in to just buy the mole skin.

We went back to our campsite and made a second freeze dried meal, beef teriyaki, climbed in our hammocks and went to sleep for a few hours. The people next to us got up at 2:30 and our alarm went off at 3:30……nooo thank you. We were way too tired to get up then. Around 4, Chris gets out and convinces me to get out of bed. We packed up our gear, ate freeze dried scrambled eggs (yuck they were horrible, I didn’t eat any, I had a granola bar.)

We get on the Bright Angel Trail around 5 am, about 2 hours later than they recommended. So we hike and hike and the trail is completely different than the trail we took down. This one passes by a few creeks and actually had a few trees at the beginning.

We were making pretty good time and filled up with water and the 3 different watering stations. By the time we reached 3 mile (3 miles from the top) we started to see a lot a day hikers and people that were WAY less tired than we were. The next mile and a half took us an hour and a half to complete. It was starting to get very hot and very steep. We made it though with the help on this family who gave us some trail mix to help replenish our salt.

We got a mile from the top and I couldn’t go any further because I felt very sick. I had only eaten 300 calories that day and my body literally had no energy left to burn. One of our fellow friendly hikers gave me a bag of trail mix that had 900 calories, enough to boost up my energy so we could make it to the top. By the time we were close, we were stopping about every 200 feet because we were soo hot and tired. But guess what…WE MADE IT!!

After we made it out, we were sooo exhausted and looked pretty awkward and dirty compared to the rest of the tourists. (We were pretty much stumbling around using our walking sticks for guidance) We had NO desire to walk the mile to our car so we waited in a line for about 15 minutes to eat some ice cream. We sat on the ground and ate while turning our cell phones back on and calling home. The ice cream gave us some energy so we went in the store right there to buy our shirts that say we hiked the Grand Canyon. Still carrying our packs and half delusional from exhaustion, we head off in search of our rv. We couldn’t really remember were the backcountry office was so we just stumbled on the railroad tracks (we remembered we parked right by them) And Yay we made to the rv and everything was still in tack. We throw our gear in and decide that we want some Wendys, which is about ten minutes away.

I decide to drive since Chris was even more tired than me because he had to carry the huge pack all the way up. About 2 minutes down the road, the rv started smoking. We stop immediately blocking traffic and Chris diagnoses the problem as an old wire that had come loose. He pulled it out and the smoke went away. 3 minutes later down the road, the rv started sputtering and oops we had run out of gas. Stopping traffic again, we filled up our tank with the 3 gallon reserve we kept bungee corded on the back. All we wanted some fooooddd. We had to stop at the nearest gas station and had to buy gas for 4.69!!!!!! After that, we ordered 17 dollars worth of Wendy’s from the dollar menu. Delicious!

We were tired and sore but knew we wanted to try and make it to Sedona that night since it was only 2 hours away. I start driving and we were off to Lo Lo Mai rv park in Sedona.

Cross Country Trip, Travel

The Grand Canyon

June 25, 2008 Chris 4 Comments

The alarm goes off and after about 20 minutes(remember we went to bed at 3 and this is at 5 am), I drag myself up and continue driving. In case if anyone was wondering why we just didn’t stop for the night, we HAD to get to the Grand Canyon today on Wednesday so we could try to get a permit to hike into the Canyon on Thursday. Chris and I didn’t make any reservations on this trip and had already called the Backcountry office and campground. There was nothing available.

I stopped after about an hour to get McDonald’s breakfast (a treat for myself) and picked Chris some food too. I was letting him sleep until we got to the Canyon. It took me about 2.5 hours but the drive was really pretty. We finally get to the entrance and didn’t have to pay the $25 fee because we had bought a National Park Pass in Carlsbad. (For 80 dollars, you get admission to all national parks and a bunch of other stuff. The card is good for up to 4 people or one vehicle. We already saved 37 so hopefully we will earn the rest back in the next year.)

I have been to the Grand Canyon a long time ago with my family but Chris has never been here. On our way to the Backcountry Permit Office, we stop at Mather Point and jumped out so Chris can get his first view. I don’t even think there are words to describe it. Unfortunately this was a quick stop because we had some major begging to do.

We show up at the permit office and were greeted by a very friendly park ranger. We wanted to put our names on the waiting list to camp overnight in the canyon on Thursday but instead…..WE GOT THE PERMIT. You have no idea how stressed we were (well I was) that we weren’t going to get it. Our friendly ranger gave us lots of tips and advice on how to do the trip properly and safely. After all of our questions were answered, he even gave us free fuel for cooking that a camper had left behind.

After that experience, we were in such a good mood that we thought we should at least try to see if there were any cancellations or openings at the fully booked rv park and campgrounds. (We didn’t want to drive out of the park since we would have to be back here at 4-5 am. to hike) I walk into the rv campground, the only place with hookups for an hour radius, and ask if by any chance they had room for us. There was even a sign on the door that said, “All Booked, Reservations Only.” And guess what, WE GOT IT….haha and the girl working the desk was from good ole Greenville, SC. She let us check in right then (2 hours early) and gave us an awesome shady spot on the end of the row.

So overall, today had been AMAZING. Haha I don’t think anything could have worked out any better. Chris is working outside in the breeze and I started packing for our adventure tomorrow. There won’t be any more posts until Friday night because we will be farrr down the canyon. I am hoping that my knee will hold up (if any of you don’t know I have had two surgeries on my knee, one replacing my ACL).

One last thing before we head out for the day. My Dad’s sister Nuria Serrat died of dehydration while hiking on the trails of the Grand Canyon a couple years ago. We know the dangers and already packed more than enough water and have located the water stations along the trail. I was curious to see which trail it actually was that she was hiking and while I was looking that up, I realized that she began her hike on June 26, 1999. In case if any of you don’t know, tomorrow is June 26. This was completely unplanned and I just remember that she died in the summer and I couldn’t attend her funeral because I was away at a soccer camp.

So along with our permit on our pack, I have attached a note saying that we are hiking in memory of my Aunt Nuria. She was an avid hiker and outdoorsman and I know she will watch over us on our journey keeping us safe. Wish us luck and thank you all for your comments. We love hearing from everyone.

Cross Country Trip, Travel

The looooonggg 24 hour drive

June 25, 2008 Chris 3 Comments

(Carlsbad, NM to Grand Canyon, AZ)

We woke up in Carlsbad on Tuesday around 7 am, knowing that we still have about a eleven hour drive to do that day (which turned into at least 16 since we were going through the mountains) We started to pack up camp and Chris took to dirt bike around before he loaded it up on the back of the rv. While riding in the park he saw 5 wild pigs roaming around. We also saw our skunk friend from the night before and 2 ringtails. Ringtails look like a mix of a big cat with a raccoon tail.

Later that day I was driving and started see rain clouds out on the horizon. They looked really cool because you could literally see where it was raining. Then the lightning began, and we were driving right into the storm. Chris was in the back working and all of a sudden the wind picks up to 40-50 mph and it started POURING. I start freaking out (as you know by now, anything out of the ordinary while driving the rv scares me) and then it starts hailing. Chris tells me to pull over and all of the other cars on the road pulled over too. It was a super bad storm that we waited out for about 10 or 15 minutes. Look at the size of the hail Chris picked up.

So it started to look like we had only seen the beginning of the storm and Chris thought it might get even worse if we stayed any longer. (Remember we have kayaks, a solar panel, dirk bike, etc. on the outside of the rv.) So we drive on and everything turns sunny again. Chris gets out to check on all that equipment and when he gets back in the rv, he sees this huge bird sitting on a rock right outside out window. He gets out the camera and starts to take really close, cool pictures. We later find out (after watching all of the professional photographers take pictures in the Grand Canyon) that this bird is an endangered California Condor. (Chris and I can do and awesome condor impression if you ask us to.)

We continue driving through New Mexico and realize that we are going right through Roswell (the place with all the UFO action). Of course we stop and go to the UFO museum and gift shops. We learned a lot about the government and air force’s conspiracy to cover up the alien ship crash landing in Roswell that contained 4 extraterrestrial beings. Many people swear to its authenticity while the government said it was a weather balloon and 4 test dummies inside. Who is right…..that is for you to decide.

Chris had done a report on UFO’s back in the day and was slightly more interested in all the museum documents than I was. We had a lot of fun there messing around with alien stuff and it was a good stop on our trip.

We then ended up on a 100 mile scenic drive in New Mexico, past Smokey the Bear National Forest (the danger level for forest fires is very high right now, you can’t have campfires anywhere). It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. No matter which window you looked out of, the views were breathtaking. We even stopped in a lava field to collect some rocks for the salt water fish take Chris has.

The only bad part of the drive was that the rv doesn’t go above 40 when going up steep mountains so it turned a 75 mph drive into a lot slower one. Hours later, it was 8 pm and we were driving into Albuquerque, NM. We planned on just driving through but Chris really need to buy some hiking boots. (He had ruined his previous ones while working on the rv and decided that it would be no problem to just scoop up a pair on the road…NOT) We find four sports stores that had Columbia shoes and only one of them was still open. Luckily we go to the Sports Authority just in time to pick up some new boots and a walking stick for me. (Once again me=clumsy which doesn’t bode well for steep grand canyon hiking)

I get back in the drivers seat and continue on past the famous, historic Route 66. While we were going down the road, all of a sudden a truck driver pulls up next to me and flashes his brights. Then he pulls in front of me and hits his break like 5 or 6 times. I freak out and tell Chris because it was looking like something was wrong. We pull off and Chris goes out to check our lights. We realized that for the past 200 miles, when we have our lights on at night, the break lights were permanently on. The turn signals were also wired backwards Oppppsiess. Haha at least we corrected our mistake and didn’t get in an accident during those first 7 states.

I drove until around 1 am and we were still about 300 miles away and was sooo tired. Chris took over the wheel and I went to bed. He drove us another 200 miles while smoking a cigar until he got too tired to drive. Around 3:30 am our day ended and we both went to sleep at a rest stop for a couple hours. Unfortunately, the alarm would be going off in about two hours…..