Apr 2009

[Pictures will be added later, sorry!]

After Moab, my next destination is Bryce. The drive from Moab to Bryce is long and quite desertic. That said, the road goes through all kinds of deserts, depending on the relief, the altitude, the type and the colour of the rocks. Yellow, grey, white, red, orange... And also green in the mountains where there are big forests. I went by plenty of places that were screaming at me with their little high-pitched voices "Hike me! Hike me!" It was tough not to stop.

Tired by hours of driving, I stopped in the mountains near Boulder (a small assembly of houses that barely merits the qualificative of "town") and went in a random 4-wheel-drive trail. My car didn't go very far, but I went on on foot and made quite a hike out of it (maybe 4 hours?).

It was all above 9000 feet (nearly 3,000 meters of altitude!) but I was surprised to meet quite a lot of snow! Sometimes it would hold, but most often it would just give and I'd find myself with snow up to above my knees in some cases! I was fun but it made for slow progress and a very tiring hike.

I had no map and no precise idea of where I was. I followed the signs for "Meeks lake". Unfortunately, near the end (I was quite high by that time), there was a lot of snow and it was either hiding the trail or making it impracticable. I tried to find my own way, but progress was slow and I eventually had to renounce.

Even so, it felt good to do something completely random!

Back at the car, it was getting quite late and Bryce was still a fair bit away. I was so cold and tired, I didn't feel like camping at all that night. So I spent the night in a motel near Boulder. It was more money than camping, but after 2 weeks of tent, it felt great.

It was also a good occasion to watch American TV.

One amazing thing I saw was an ad for a sleeping pill. It started as a normal ad, where you see a lady having an insomnia and being unhappy and tired, and then she takes the pill and she is peacefully sleeping and the next day at work she is rested and happy. But then, as the relaxing little music went on, and you could see footage of the lady peacefully sleeping, the voice-over went on for what felt like ages listing all the possible unwanted side-effects, including things like hallucinations and suicide! It was in sharp contrast to the peace of the music and the pictures. This was quite an experience. Only in America.

I also saw a couple of ads for attorneys specialised into helping people claiming "what is fair" from insurance companies. One ad was specialised against drunk drivers!

Today, I'm in Bryce National Park, where I'm going to spend the next two nights. Then I'll probably head to Las Vegas, and then back to Phoenix...

[Pictures will be added later, sorry!]

There was a car show in Moab this weekend. It's the occasion to see lots of insane cars. Most of the "show" consists of the participants driving up and down Main street in the evening in the middle of the regular traffic. There were people sat on chairs on the pavement watching and cheering. It was funny to watch 5 minutes, but overall it was pretty stupid. And noisy. And smelly too! Only in America.

I went rafting on Saturday, down the Westwater Canyon, on the Colorado river! The rapids in this part are classed III and IV (out of V!). It was a day trip but in fact most of the day was taken by getting to the rapids (by car and then on the river) and then from the rapids back to town (again on the river and then by car). Lunch was provided, just before the rapids.

There were 3 boats: 2 paddle rafts (where you have to paddle!) and one oar boat (where you just have to hold on and, from time to time, bail!). I chose a paddle raft. We all did exactly what our guide told us to do and everything went very well. In fact, it was almost too easy! That said, if things had turned wrong, it would have been seriously scary. It's a big strong river. I guess that showed how good our guides were.

After the rapids, we stopped on a small beach to change from wet gear to dry gear, before cruising on the river to the take-out. I could recover my camera from the water tight boxes and take a few pictures. That's when I dropped it in the sand. It has refused to work ever since, beeping and complaining "lens error" :-( The only way to fix it would be to have it taken apart and cleaned by a professional. And that would cost almost as much as a new camera.

Apparently, there is so much sand in the air around here, you don't even have to do anything for your camera to break. During the summer, the guy in the shop told me he sees someone with the same problem every day. The sand here is even in the rain. It rained a bit the other night and my tent and car were both very dirty as a result. This is electronics hell.

I was seriously hit by this turn of events. I loved that camera. And what a lousy time to break it, only two thirds into this amazing trip!

One guy in Moab tried to sell me a replacement. The camera seemed quite good but he wanted $229 for it. A quick peak on Amazon showed the same model for barely more than half that price...! Unfortunately, I can't easily have it delivered on my path, and I'm pretty far from any decent-sized city where I could find a decent shop ("Best Buy" maybe). So I'm reduced to using single-use cameras. That sucks!

But ah well, it could have been much worse.

On Sunday, I had an introduction to canyoneering. It basically consists of rappelling down into otherwise inaccessible canyons and grottos. It was fun! The half-day trip I took had 2 rappels, both around 90 feet. On this trip, I met with Jonalyn and her mother Mina, whose husbands were having fun somewhere else with their 4-wheel-drive jeeps. They were fun company and they took plenty of pictures they promised to send me. Thank you very much!

Our guide, Jayce, advised us on the best places to eat in town. Because of that, I met again with Jonalyn and Mina this evening, this time with their husbands, Dale and Fred. We were all at Milt's, a kind of retro, good fast-food place. It's been operating since 1954! And it's said to have the best burgers in Moab. The burger I had was pretty good, but I don't think it topped the one I had in Jerome! I had a good time eating and discussing with these nice people. Oh, and Jon would be pleased to know my pronunciation of "burger" has improved a bit! :-P

(No pictures for now as this internet access is really crap. Watch this space for pictures hopefully soon!)

I am in Moab (Utah) now. Probably the furthest from Phoenix I'll be on this trip. According to my GPS, I am 473 miles away from Phoenix and it would take me 8 hours to drive there!

Since Monument Valley, I am on Utah time too. For some reason, Utah is in a different timezone (US-Mountain) than Arizona (US-Arizona). Weird. I am camping anyway, so I mostly live with the sun.

Moab seems to be a popular adventure holiday destination. It actually fits well with my mood. I feel like doing some organised, unusual stuff. So I booked a rafting trip for tomorrow Saturday and some Canyoneering on Sunday. Should be lots of fun!

Even if I used my card to pay these, I'm starting to run seriously low on cash... :-(

Since I left the Canyon, I'm starting to feel the pressure of time. It is not long before I have to go back home! I need to make real choices about where to go and what to do. Also the sheer excitement of the trip is wearing out a bit. I'm getting confused: when I go to climb in my car, I found myself more and more often going for the passenger door (on the right of the car), as if I was in England!

Today, I went in the Arches state park. This kind of park is really weird to visit, and it's very different from my experiences in the French Alps. It is so huge, you have to drive around, for miles at a time sometimes, to go from viewpoints in trailheads.

The roads here were built by miners, when there was an important need for Uranium after World War II. They didn't find much, but with roads came tourism. The Grand Canyon actually have a similar story (replacing roads with trails), where miners came first, if not as recent.

This kind of park feels like a drive-in "fast-tourism" (like "fast-food"). You can cruise through this amazing place in the comfort of your air-conditioned car, maybe listening to your favourite music, stoping every now and then to stretch your legs and take a picture. Sometimes you don't even have to get out of the car to take a picture! Sometimes, you have to hike a mile or two, which feels better, but it is still weird to have to do several mini-hikes in one day, interspersed with driving.

Also, people are much less friendly. I'm guessing it might be related to the drive-through style. People you meet don't look at you, don't say hi. Some don't even return greetings. These people probably would prefer to spend the whole day in the comfort of their car. It was like that too in the Grand Canyon, at the end of the Bright Angel trail, when after hours of hiking up you start to meet the look-like-a-star people that gently strolled 20 minutes from the top. They were not friendly at all and didn't want to have anything to do with sweaty hikers.

For most important spots, big wide trails are provided. Sometimes, you also meet "primitive trails" [sic], which feel a lot more like normal hiking paths. You meet much less people on these. Probably because "primitive trail? ZOMFG this is not where everybody go, it can't be worth it!" :-P

Sorry to be a bit moody, but I didn't enjoy the park as much as I would have liked. Delicate Arch was fun to see, though. One thing I should have done, had I known about it in time, is a guided hike through the canyon maze (you can get completely lost, they say!) of Fiery Furnace. People are not allowed there without a guide or a permit. That sounds like fun!

Moab is very busy these days because they have a big car show this weekend. It was very difficult to find an available campsite and I'm having to move every night. Tonight I'm in the Up-The-Creek campground, which I would thoroughly recommend. It's small, tent-only, and has some amazing old trees and grass. Very nice setup and the woman who runs it is very friendly (nice change with the people in the Arches park!).

Fun part of the US to take some pictures at sunset and sunrise. Because of the intense sun, I don't feel like doing much hiking here! So here are the pictures.

The clouds were great.

The ultimate Monument Valley cliche.

Silly pic :-P

Say goodbye!

Long time no post! It’s been a bit difficult to find free internet access since I left Flagstaff. Those who followed my FaceBook status know a bit more about what happened… ;-) But here is the full story, with pictures!

After leaving Flagstaff, I headed to the Grand Canyon Village. To get there, you drive through miles of roughly flat desert. There is no built-up to the Canyon. After entering the National Park (for $25), you park the car, walk a hundred meters, and there it is: the earth simply opens. It’s massive. You can’t start to imagine how many tons of soil and rocks the water has taken out to create the Canyon. You are so high, and it’s such a maze of smaller Canyons down there, you can’t even see the Colorado river (at least not from where you arrive).

It’s very hard to have a good idea of the distances too. The Spanish Conquistadors, having (surprisingly) not found any city paved with gold and looking for a way back to Central America, discarded the river as impractical: they thought it was 6 foot wide! It’s more like 300, in fact. They were totally fooled by the distances.

But before even looking at the view, I had a lot to do. First thing was to check in at the local campsite. Then I needed to find out how to get a permit to camp down the Canyon. Normally, you’d apply for it up to four months in advance, but there is also a daily waiting-list system. You have to go to the Backcountry Office as soon as you arrive. There, the rangers give you a number in the queue. The following day, you have better be there at the opening of the Office (8 AM), when your number is called! If you’re lucky, there is still some place available where you want to camp – there are a few campgrounds in the Canyon. Your permit doubles as your reservation.

If you’re not lucky, you get a new number for the following day. As long as you keep coming, you’ll get a permit!

While waiting, crossing fingers, I met with Phill and Trudy, a couple from Florida. They had “lucky” 13, and I had number 10. It’s never really obvious at which number the permits are going to run out, because they have two independent limits: the number of campsite, and the total number of person per area. Permits run out as soon as either limit is reached.

Finally, number 10 was called and I had a permit to camp at Bright Angel campground the next day. Yay! Bright Angel is right at the bottom of the Canyon.

A few moments later, as I was coming back to the building to take some pictures, I met again with Phill and Trudy. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get a permit, but they were first in line for tomorrow’s give away. They were going to have breakfast at the El Tovar hotel and asked if I would come along. I already had breakfast, but I wasn’t going to refuse hanging out with such nice people! I had the whole day to kill anyway.

It was very nice, both the restaurant and the conversation. I took the cinnamon roll, which was amongst the cheapest item on the menu. It was not the smallest though!

Boy, it was huge! Keep in mind I already had breakfast. So I asked for a doggy bag. That was a first for me! I’ve never seen it done in the UK, and it’s certainly not something you can do in France. So I had to take a picture.

It was very nice to meet Phill and Trudy. And thanks for the tab!

Later that day, I half hiked, half rode the bus along the rim trail. That was a great thing to do to let the view sink in and tame the Canyon, before going down there.

The following morning, I woke up before dawn, took down the tent, went to park the car near the Bright Angel trail head (where I would come back to the next day), and packed up my rucksack in a hurry before catching the 6 AM express to the South Kaibab trail. I couldn’t really pack the day before, since I still had to use my sleeping bag for the night for instance!

It was great to see the sun rise on the Grand Canyon.

The South Kaibab trail is 7.0 miles (11.3 km) and 4780 feet (1457 m) of elevation difference.

It took me only three hours from the rim to the Colorado river. I was going pretty fast!

This trail really means business.

It’s difficult to assess if you’re getting sun burnt when your arms look green to you. I know they don’t on the picture, but after staring at red rocks and sand for hours, they did look green to me! Nice demonstration of why surgeons wear green outfits.

Colorado river in sight!

Because of the difference in altitude, it’s a lot warmer near the river. In fact, they advise to be done with your day of hiking by 10 AM! The forecast down there was about 90 F (about 30 degree centigrade) for the high. And that’s shade temperature. Now, there is little shade on the trail!

Before 11 AM, it was already near 90 Fahrenheit and I felt like doing nothing. I just ate and dozed. A funny thing is that my Jetboil was boiling water super fast, much faster than on the rim. Probably because there is more oxygen in the air down there… (Ah! Physics!)

The Colorado river. Notice the squirrel that popped out just as I was taking the picture.

I can see why the mules refuse to cross the Silver Bridge!

The Bright Angel Canyon – due to the Bright Angel Creek, a tributary to the Colorado river – is teeming with life. This is in sharp contrast with the desolated landscape you can see from the rim!

This is me, shooting cactus from the hips! :-)

Minimal campsite. It’s warm here, and there was no risk of rain, so I was advised not to take my tent with me (it saved me carrying 1.8 kg!). Notice you have to hang your backpack and shoes and put all your food and/or plastic bags (yes, even the empty ones) in the metal boxes provided. Animals here, because of the hikers, have associated plastic with food. Ringtail cats can even open zippers, so nothing is safe!

A few years ago, rangers had to shoot down deers that were starving to death because they ate too many plastic bags. :-(

A great little bird is the Canyon Wren. It’s a small ground bird and I love the way it sings. The “melody” starts pretty high and fast, and then slows down as it gets lower. It sounds just as if the bird is laughing out loud, mocking the tired hikers. This bird really is cracking me up!

It’s well worth looking for “Canyon Wren” in Youtube. Hopefully, you’ll hear its call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj8xmjVyhC4 around 0:50 is only an approximation. The Canyon Wrens in the Grand Canyon are really funnier.

In the afternoon, we heard stories about the Canyon told by a ranger. It was great to come back to the campsite the head full of the stories of the first explorers.

After the night had fallen, a ranger, armed with a UV lamp, set out to look for scorpions. For some reasons (what good does it do them, really?), scorpions glow in UV light. It was still a bit cold for them and most people following the ranger gave up after 10 minutes. I was the last one still there at the end and we did find one! It was much smaller than I expected (but they say the smaller, the more deadly), and it was back under the rocks before I could get my camera ready.

The night on the picnic table was great. It reminded me of Christophe, one of the Belgian guys I met in Sedona, who was sleeping on the picnic table every night! I could see the stars, hear the bats hunting (lots of them), and I tried to ignore the flash lamps of hikers coming to and from the restrooms, searching their food box for something they forgot, or simply having breakfast and taking the tent down at 4:30 AM...

The sun rose a bit before 6 but I lazily took my time and set out at 7 AM for the Bright Angel trail: 9.5 miles (15.3 km) and 4380 feet (1357m) of elevation difference.

Just when the trail stopped annoyingly going up and down alongside the Colorado river and started to climb consistently, I met with Jon and Julie, from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, respectively. They are both in healthcare and met in Hawaii (isn’t that something!). They were very friendly and we had a lot of fun climbing up the Canyon together.

It worked out pretty well because they helped me pace myself and I took a lot more breaks than I would have on my own. As it turned out, I also helped them keeping a good pace. They left the Cottonwood campground (somewhere on the way to the North rim) at 4 AM, and they were expected in Phoenix tonight for dinner! Crazy schedule if you ask me!

We made it back to the South rim at a quarter to 2. To my surprise, it took me almost seven hours to climb the Canyon! The biggest hurdles were the sun and the temperature. As we were getting higher, so was the sun, so it was pretty hot all the way. We had lots of breaks in the shade every time we found some.

It was a great experience, hiking down and back up the Grand Canyon, and I’m glad I made some good friends along the way!

When I was leaving the campground this morning, my car refused to start. I obviously left the CD player on and the doors open too long yesterday evening and this morning! That said, that car is so clever in so many other ways, I think it should know when to shut down to preserve the battery! Thankfully, my neighbours Jim, Catherin and little Stewart, from California, helped me and jump-started my car.

Now I’m near Monument Valley. The sun is awfully strong here, and I don’t think I’m going to stay very long. Next stops will be Utah’s national parks (most probably Bryce and Zion).

Disclaimer about food: It’s true that I’ve shown a few pictures of burgers here and while it’s true that cookies and burgers are probably my favourite food on this trip, I eat a lot of other healthier food too! But salads, fruits, pasta and rice are boring to take into pictures! A good thing is that it’s not that easy to find good, reasonably priced burgers. Best burger so far was the one in Jerome, without hesitation!

And sorry Jon, but I don’t see what’s wrong in my pronunciation of “burger” ;-)