Purple Haze

Today is Purple Friday in Baltimore, to rally the Ravens in Sunday's playoff game. Tom Jr investigated making the trip, but the air fares to come home Sunday nite...the end of the holiday week...were waaayyy too expensive.

Auld Lang Syne

Time to take a long look back....at last week.

Here's some pictures at our house on Christmas Day.

New luggage for Beth...not that we're trying to move her out or anything....

Rosie is excited about her new power tools.
If she can't figure out what to use them for, we'll help her.
I can tell that Maureen wishes she got something that cool.

Tom can't seem to get too excited about much.
He's got all his sports teams covered though.

In the Midnight Hour...

...I'll most likely be asleep!




We're gonna have some steamed shrimp early in the evening, then call it a night. Lovin that Twilight Zone marathon, though.

Come Together

I'm posting some of the highlights of our Christmas Holiday over the next few days.

Christmas Eve we joined up with Ed & Keri for Ed's traditional Polish dinner. Quite a feast, including pierogies, golabki, kielbasa. Before dinner we shared the oplatek ((Christmas wafer), and afterwards we exchanged some gifts and the kids treated us to a little variety show.

Do That...One More Time

After reviving the blog to tell our Grand Canyon story, I kinda let it die last summer, but with all the activities and visits the past week or so, I thought I would try to get back into it.



The big news here is that the Ravens, predicted to be a rebuilding team this year, made the playoffs by beating the Jags yesterday (decisively, I might add). Beth and I lucked into some 50-yard line tickets for face value (with a parking pass!). Tom went too with his friend Mark.


We checked in with the Oriole Bird before the game. After all, Spring Training is only six weeks off!

A Horse........of Course

Tom, Beth, and my nephew Ross all had a special Fourth of July...riding a horse that my next door neighbor had over for the day.

(My neighbor is a former jockey who won the Preakness in 1983).


What more could you ask for...parades, pony rides, a cookout, fireworks. Despite a little rain off and on we had a great time. The fireworks were "the best ever"!

Rosie and I passed on the horseback riding. Here we are earlier at the Catonsville Parade.

Mid-Hike at the Oasis

Day 3 it was time to head back up -- We started out around 6 AM from the Bright Angel Campground, next to the river, and hiked to Indian Gardens...about 4.5 miles, and an altitude increase of 1300 ft.

The only rough part was a nasty set of switchbacks called the Devil's Corkscrew.

You can see part of it here zigzagging up from the bottom center of the photo.











Fortunately, shortly after that we arrived at a shady spot by a creek where we could rest and chat with other hikers for awhile, comparing notes on where we were hiking from (and to), hometowns, and experiences on the trail.














Along here we also started to see the warning signs to downhill hikers.




We arrived at the campground about 10:30, and spent the afternoon "chillin"!

Last Dance

Tom played his last game in the Catonsville Parks and Recreation League tonite...after thirteen seasons. He'll be 18 in September, and thus becomes ineligible for the kid leagues.

Despite that crippling knee injury a month ago, he caught two games in a row in the championship playoffs, which the team sealed up tonite with a 24-1 win.


Thought you might like to see his "rookie" card from 1996 when he first started T-ball.

Let's Hear It For the Boy(s)

We brought back some souvenirs for my grandsons, so we met up with them for breakfast this morning...they have pretty busy schedules with about sixteen birthday parties to go to every weekend, so we had to catch them early. Evan got a caribiner gizmo with a compass, watch, and flashlight and Eric got a stuffed mule...who looked much happier than the real mules, since he wasn't carrying a load of mail or or cranky tourists.

Please Mr. Postman

We camped two nites at Bright Angel Campground, near Phantom Ranch.
Guests, supplies, and even the US Mail, come in to the Ranch by mule.




















On Day Two, we hiked towards the north rim, but only about a mile or so, just to keep loose. Here's a few pictures in and about the ranch.

Homeward Bound

We're at the Phoenix Airport, waiting to board the airplane for Baltimore. Loaded up on a bunch of food for the flight, but I think mostly everyone will be sleeping. Hate to leave, but looking forward to getting home too.

UPDATE:

Got home a little after 1 AM. Flight was a little bumpy, but we got in early...special thanx to Josh's Mom for coming out to the airport to get us in the middle of the night.

I'll post some more pictures and stories about the trip over the next few days.

On The Road Again

We're back in Williams, Arizona, where we had a delicious steak dinner last nite, then ice cream at the Dairy Queen. (Josh went for a buffalo burger...it was good, too).







Back at the motel we went thru all our pictures, and relived a lot of the hike. Here are a few highlights from the first day.






















This afternoon we head back to Phoenix for the flight home.

Happy Trails

We started out at 5:20 this morning for the final hike out. (Yesterday we were kind of embarrassed, we were almost the last ones out of camp...at 6 AM. ). After an hour hike, we're stopping for breakfast at the 3-mile point.  Lots of conflicting thoughts, want to hurry to beat the heat, but want to linger to continue enjoying everything.

UPDATE:

We reached the top just after 1030 AM. The last mile was loooong, definitely feeling the effects of the high altitude! We treated ourselve to a Coke and an ice cream cone, called home, and exchanged email addresses with fellow hikers. After hot showers at the motel we're gonna have a big steak dinner.


Scroll down to see some pictures I added.

The Heat is On

We left Bright Angel camp at 0600, got to Indian Gardens (our destination for today) at 1030 in time to beat the afternoon heat.

No problems, but now we're discovering "uphill muscles". Packs are supposed to be getting lighter but I can't tell. Maybe Tom has been secretly loading me up!

Hot this afternoon, glad we're off the trail.


Added Later:

This evening we hiked out to Plateau Point to watch the sunset and get even more astounding views of the Canyon....you can't see this from the South Rim.


Later we saw the International Space Station pass directly overhead. And of course you can see a hundred times more stars at nite with no city lights to interfere.

Up, Up, and Away

Now the hard part...a two day climb back out. Each day is about 4.5 miles, and as you can see from the map we're going from around 2500 ft altitude to nearly 7000 ft! We'll camp at Indian Garden Monday nite, then gaasp our way to the rim on Tuesday. Looking forward to shower and a steak dinner.

Kodachrome

If this were "Survivor" I would have been voted off the hike yesterday. I took at least 85 pictures, and would have taken twice that many if Mr. Joe and Tom hadn’t been constantly urging me to “keep moving.” They even tried to trade me to another group of hikers that liked to take pictures! But since today was a rest day there was no timetable and no destination and they told me that I could take all the pictures I wanted.

After breakfast at Phantom Ranch—scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and great coffee- we hiked north about a mile and a half or so along the Bright Angel Creek and we got back to the Phantom Ranch around midday had a nice cold lemonade then took it easy during the afternoon (the thermometer says it's 110 in the sun).

We’ll be hiking down to the river this evening, then hit the sack so we can get an early start tomorrow. We hope to be on the trail by 6 am to beat the heat.

One Fine Day

We made it!





I knew when I got my first glimpse of the Canyon while riding the bus to the trailhead that this trip was going to be unforgettable.
It's simply indescribable.
It took six hours total; that included a couple of long (20 minute) rest breaks and lunch breaks.

The scenery is breathtaking, it changes as you move down the trail, so there is a constant thrill. . . well until the last hour or so. By then, the end is in sight, all sorts of new muscles are making themselves felt, and it's getting hot.


No matter....our camp is next to a wide, swift, cold, creek and ten minutes of soaking our feet wipes out that last mile.

Extra bonus the camp is not so primitive, there are bathrooms and drinking water too.

Tomorrow we will eat breakfast at Phantom Ranch and have easy hikes in the canyon.






Comments from Mr. Joe:
It was so cold this morning that Josh was wearing a coat.
Dad thinks that it is more of a tourist site not a seven mile hike.
Dad had to stop every five minutes to take a picture.
Tonight they will be resting their feet for tomorrow.

Editor's Note:
Dad dictated this to me over the phone this evening, and everyone is in great spirits. The word "indescribable" was used many times in the description of the hike. He mentioned the weather was warm but there is an occasional wind that cools you off. I expect to be speaking to him sometime tomorrow evening.

Beginnings

This is what the first day looks like--all downhill. The total distance is 7.3 miles, the altitude drop about 4800 ft, and of course the temperature will go from around 70 at the rim to possibly 100 in the canyon.

We'll spend two nights at the Bright Angel Campground.

By the Time We Get To Phoenix

We successfully got thru the most tense moment of the entire trip ---

All the luggage made it!


We had a great flight to Phoenix, with only a little turbulence over Kansas…we saw this house with a little girl and a small black dog fly by…OK, not really, but we arrived on time, had a bite to eat and headed north.

Gorgeous scenery as we drove up to Flagstaff, about 120 miles and 5000 ft later. We’re staying overnite in Williams Arizona, along a little stretch of old Route 66. What a place, it’s like jumping back in time 30 or 40 years.

Tonite, we get the packs ready, have a light dinner, then hit the sack for a 6 AM departure.