Grand Canyon South Rim Greenway Trail

The greenway trail is complete! Thanks to everyone who helped with this project. Photos of the finished product are posted here.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38855418&id=210043#!/album.php?aid=2277808&id=210043&page=2

Peace!

Dave

The Return To Fossil Creek

Ah, Fossil Creek...LEGEND!!! (Shout out to Alec). What started with two people committed to spending the day swimming and sunning at beautiful Fossil Creek blossomed into an 18 person mega expedition, replete with joy, danger and adventure. A hot hike down, and sunny day jumping into whirlpools, off waterfalls, swimming through underwater caves and climbing rocks ended with an awesome 4 mile hike out in a full on thunderstorm. The chance to show this unbelievable place to friends and acquaintances just gets me more excited to start leading adventure trips. The feeling I get when someone is just awestruck and inspired by nature dwarfs any time or money outlay to make it happen. When people are inspired in the outdoors, they are inspired to preserve and protect it, and I hope this is the way forward to a sustainable relationship with the earth. I received my AmeriCorps grant this last week and am looking into courses with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) and WMI (Wilderness Medicine Institute) to better prepare myself to inspire people of all ages in the future. Days like this make me feel like I understand what life is all about. Thank you to everyone who came out, and may we have more eco-adventures in the future!

South Rim Trails 7/7-7/14

("Effengee" Campsite, new found nation based on two concepts...Freedom and Funny Accents)

This tour was almost a completely new crew. Hard workers and great attitudes, every one of them, made it very successful and low stress for me. This was the premium tour as we hit up all the classic after work activities, including our first trip down Hermit Trail and another successful condor sighting at Bright Angel Lodge. The museum collection was a hit again as Coleen gave us a wonderful tour filled with information especially about the projectile points, pottery and hand tools of the native american inhabitants. The work was dirting, leveling and compacting for the first 4 days, and then a combination of clearing rocks off the Greenway Trail and some odd jobs, including laying new asphalt at Maricopa point and loading mules with dirt on the South Kaibab near "Ooh Ahh" point. This hitch we created the sovereign nation of "Effengee" at our campsite, complete with national sport (broadcasting the dishwater), national creed ("Freedom to speak in any accent") and national bread (Marble Rye...or "Freedom Bread" colloquially).

(Sunset on the last night)

South Rim Trails 6/22-6/30

Another great hitch in the canyon.

We had mostly the same crew, but some new tasks. NPS rolled out the heavy machinery to level and compact the new trail…the steam roller, Whacker vibrating compactors, bobcats and tractors. All the work was about leveling the trail as much as possible to make the asphalting process easier and cheaper. After work we hit up Grandview Trail, Desert View Watchtower (aka Gift Shop), Tusayan Ruins, a pickup soccer game at the Rec Center, more world cup soccer (dammit USA) and a sunset from the fire tower on the west rim. Showers were plentiful and free at the Rec Center, food was good and the work was on, so it’s all good.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Spur of the moment some friends and I decided to hit up the tail end of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

(Nick and I took a hike to look down on the festivities, and scope out some potential high-lining spots)

We left Saturday afternoon and got in that night just in time to get some food and a Pinstripe at the Corner Haus. We peeped the scene and headed into a nice bar that had two live bands tearing it up. Bluegrass of course, I mean Bluegrass was coming out of the rafters and through the cracks in the street.

(Buddhist monks performed a chant on stage and then made this art using colored sand. At the end of the festival it was scattered into the river as a ritual)

Everybody was carrying banjos and fiddles all over town and setting up on street corners, in bars, and makeshift tents in the campgrounds to romp and stomp out some beautiful music. I think we saw the Henhouse Prowlers and Blackberry Bushes or something like that. Alls I know is that the fiddle player for Blackberry was a prodigy…his tone, timing and sound were perfect and seeing that stayed with all of us through the whole festival as the best people in the world got down on their instruments. Later that night we headed into tent city and jammed to a real mellow group in this set up tent, with heat lamps, decorations and a bunch of generous people. They played well past 4am and we headed to camp at the elementary school with visions of fiddles dancing in our heads. It was up and at ‘em a few hours later, with some food in us and the spirit of music we picked up our tickets for the last day of the show and staked out some ground at the stage.

(Jeff and Steph mac on some breakfast and get ready for a day of music)

The Carolina Chocolate Drops tore it up and had the whole crowd dancing. Mumford and Sons brought it, and then it was all a set up for the “Telluride House Band” which was an all-star mix of the best Bluegrass musicians. Bela Fleck on banjo, Edgar Meyers on bass, Jerry Douglas on slide, Sam Bush on Mandolin, and Stuart on fiddle. Good god, they made it rain bluegrass and just blew us away with their talent.

(the Telluride House Band...basically the dream team of bluegrass shut down the festival)

We hit the sack early to get ready for a drive home and the next hitch starting bright and early Tuesday morning.

(Nick's got that gleam in his eye that can only come from scouting 13,000 ft. high-line spots while bluegrass music drifts through the valley)

South Rim Trails 6/8-6/16

(The crew! Me, Jinu, Chantal, Eunsil, Matthias, Simon, Mariska, Suzanne...Ian's off wandering somewhere. Couldn't ask for a better group!)

My first hitch in the Grand Canyon as a crew leader was challenging and rewarding. I had a great, hard working crew that made my job a lot easier, so thanks goes to the office staff for taking care of me. The excitement and spontaneity of doing something for the first time can never be recreated, so I know this hitch will go down in my memory as something very special. We were working on south rim trails near the South Kaibab Trailhead. Our project is called the greenway and is an extension of the Rim Trail. By the time we arrived, NPS had run a gannon box over the surveyed route and we did a ton of McCleoding and picking to remove rocks and organic materials from the trail.

(A little bit of weather on an otherwise sunny hitch at 7000 ft.)

A constant stream of eager tourists was hiking through our work site every day…I just don’t get some of these people, walking through a construction site when they’re surrounded by the beauty of the canyon in every direction, so we took a couple days to put up a mile of orange safety fencing using t-posts and trees to keep them out. Bewildered and skittish, like a bunch of lost deer, they continued to go over, under and through the fence in their unending quest to hike next to loud, smelly construction equipment.

(Trying to keep the tourists out, connecting the two ends of our mile long fence)

Our campground was at the “F and G”, or mule training facility, which gives it a bad name. The site is beautiful, with a large crushed cinder camp area, fire pit and large ramada with picnic tables. Nobody else camps there except the CREC summer crew, so it’s a great escape. Work finished at 3:30pm each day, so we had lots of time to have fun after work.

(Sunset from Hopi Point on the West Rim)

We saw the West Rim sites, watched the sunset from Hopi and Yavapai point, caught ranger talks on Geology and Birds of the Canyon, hiked down the South Kaibab to “Ooh, Ahh” point, watched World Cup Soccer at the Rec Center, saw the Grand Canyon IMAX, and got a back stage tour of artifacts discovered in the canyon at the employee-only museum collection. Split twig figurines, intricately designed pottery and a 1,000 year old yucca sandal stole the show and definitely connected us with the canyon. We had some awesome times just playing soccer or Frisbee at camp and everyone kept their spirits high. First hitch in the bank and I’ve heard it only gets easier from here!

Trampled by Arizona: Fossil Creek and Tucson

I have a brother! He was in town for 10 days taking his WFR course before he goes to the Florida Keys to Scuba Dive with the youth and teach them about ecology by riding dolphins. After beasting the course, he stayed for 7 days to see Arizona. First stop was 3 days camping by Fossil Creek, a spring fed creek just below the Mogollon Rim. We rented a Subaru Outback to tear up the dirt roads we would be on, and 1.5 hours after leaving Flag, we were wading up this beautiful mineral blue creek.

Within an hour we found this sick waterfall with plenty of good jumping rocks and crystal clear water. Fossil Creek is one of the few wild rivers in Arizona, and through great efforts has been repopulated with all native species. It kept calling us back as we discovered countless beautiful and deserted swimming holes.

The next day we spontaneously struck out to the Verde River. After cooking up a breakfast of oatmeal and trail mix at the camp ground, we once again took off up the river...the true spirit of the original Canyon Boys. A stream crossing and a shotgun-wielding-crazy-rancher property crossing later we were heading up fire road 68E into Prescott National Forest. Spring time meant amazing blooming cacti like the one above.

Apparently it also meant snakes. After nearly stepping on a 5 ft gopher snake sunning itself on the road, we were on the lookout. About 1 hour later, this rattle snake gave us a warning when we walked by his hiding place in the bushes. It was refreshing to feel a bit of fear in the wilderness and renew that respect for the power and wonder of nature.

The return hike went quickly as we craved a dip in that inviting Verde River. Plus, there was the promise of a hot springs which we had heard about, but not found on the way out.

Following the abandoned infrastructure of a burned down lodge we found the healing waters and a hot tub prophet; a kindred and kind spirit from Kansas who came out here to meditate in the desert, lose weight and find God. We didn't agree with all his ideas, but he was promoting love, happiness and self-fulfillment in a peaceful way, so we were grateful for the encounter and wish him the best on his journey.

We headed back up Fossil Creek towards Strawberry and made a day hike down to the Springs, where 20,000 gallons per minute gush out of the side of the Mogollon Rim and create the beautiful waters we'd been enjoying for the past 2 days. Further down, we'd heard rumors of a great swimming hole called Fossil Dam, and all I can say is, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Probably the coolest swimming hole I've ever been to. The creek plunges over a 30 foot dam into an 8 ft hole, with caves behind and a swirling whirlpool churning in a 15 ft. diameter granite basin. Chris showed these high school yahoos the flying chinchilla as they waffled on the precipice and eventually left without jumping. Well, it's hard to follow an act like that. *FUN FOR THE KIDS: Can you find the snake in the above picture?*

This big old snake was swimming around our garden of Eden and trying to escape by climbing up the waterfall, presumably after falling in. We're thinking it wasn't poisonous, but it thwarted our efforts to explore the cave behind the falls. This made snake number four for the trip after Chris spotted a garter snake in the bushes on the hike down.


Chris couldn't contain his joy and went for one more jump, this time from the falls, after our exploratory trip further downstream.


After our great hike and swim, we headed into Strawberry and feasted on a delicious spread of ribs and buffalo wings. Then it was back up to the rim where we found this money camping spot looking out over beautiful Arizona. An hour drive the next day took us back into Flag for a little civilization before heading down to Tucson the next day.

After a wonderful drive, we made a quick expedition to Milagrosa Canyon to find a waterfall that was either dried up, or just well hidden. Though we didn't find any water, we did get a great desert sunset, surrounded by the Saguaro Cactus bloom.

After a night on the town with friends, we rallied to find a swimming hole near Tucson and heard of Romero Pools in Catalina State Park. A very hot and dry 3 mile hike had us wondering if there was really any water out here at all, but we were rewarded with a multi-pool spot with plenty of good jumping spots and sunning rocks.

Refreshed after swimming and sunning for a couple hours, we cruised back to camp and got our Memorial Day on.
Chris tended the dogs while I sauteed bacon, onions, green chiles and black beans for our signature "Romero Dogs". The spirits of friendship, family, happiness and the outdoors were abundant, and I couldn't have asked for a better end to this amazing trip with my brother and friends.
We've only scratched the surface of this state. To more full bellies and amazing adventures in the future!

Trip Playlist: Trampled By Turtles (Codeine, November, Wait So Long, Whisky, Never Again, At Your Window, School Bus Driver, The Outskirts), Old Crow Medicine Show (Tell It To Me, Wagon Wheel, New Virginia Creeper), Greensky Bluegrass (Into the Rafters)

Wupatki Rhythms

My one chance to get out on project in the last month was a four day project to Wupatki National Monument, the site of an 800 year old pueblo in the volcanic fields around Flagstaff. The short drive, small group of five people and short days made for a very laid back hitch that felt more like a family camping trip. Anasazi and Sinagua people inhabited this area for about two hundred years after the eruption of Sunset Volcano in 1050 a.d. On a very interesting guided tour by one of the NPS Archaeologists we toured the site and learned that trade routes extended from this Northern Arizona location all the way down to South America, and included copper bells, live Macaws and the rubber balls used to play the popular South American ball games.

Our work was a continuation of an earlier ACE project. The previous crew had backfilled some of the excavated rooms in the Wupatki Pueblo to stabilize the walls, and we were shaping and tamping the dirt so that rain will drain properly in the upcoming monsoon season. This effort will keep water from pooling up in the ruins and damaging the walls. We used pressure sprayers to water the dirt, and then waited for it to dry to just the right consistency so we could tamp it into place.

Tamping a steeply angled backslope in a small room with an 8-10 lb tamper was challenging and monotonous, but we passed the time by getting into a rhythm as a group and "dancing with the tool" as the Hopi NPS guys advised us to do. The best moments were when the whole group was working in unison, singing and dancing in this sacred site. The project partners were awesome and it was great to get to know them and talk about their connection with this pueblo of their ancestors.

We camped nearby in the Coconino National Forest at a primitive site set up by one of the ACE supervisors. The volcanic sand and vegetation was unlike anything I'd seen before, and we spotted unexcavated dwellings and structures sitting peacefully among the scrub. Our chef, Junior, kept us well fed and entertained, introducing a game of tug-of-war that involved two people balanced on elevated platforms. When another ACE crew rolled in for a fencing project, we had a battle for crew supremacy late into the night, accompanied with drum rhythms banged out on the hand wash bucket and garbage can lid.

At the end of our short days, we rolled around to other impressive archeological and geological sites like Wukoki, Sunset Crater and The Citadel (pictured above); an unexcavated pueblo atop a hill that sits right next to a big sink hole. Seeing volcanic stones in the walls of the dwellings reminded me of man's connection to the land and made me realize that 1000 years ago, people were sweating and laboring and working together to move rocks. They would have been kick-ass conservation workers!

Weird and Beautiful: Lake Powell and Monument Valley

Lake Powell was a weird place, like something out of a sci-fi painting. I was in between being impressed by the scale of it and depressed by the ruination of a beautiful natural place by human intervention. The Mechanical Engineer and Environmentalist were pitted against each other and I'm pretty solidly on the side of nature now.


The landscapes in Southern Utah were stunning, especially this flower-studded moon dust field on the edge of Escalante National Monument. I had the good fortune to drive back and forth through this beautiful place a number of times as I shuttled everyone back and forth to hiking and camping spots in the one car we had that could handle the high clearance roads.


We stayed overnight at Monument valley on the Navajo Reservation, definitely a different feel than the national lands that I'm so used to. The signs were different, the rules were different and there were vendors at every viewpoint selling jewelry and food. We couldn't figure out where to camp the first night, accidentally set up in the wrong place and had to move along when a Navajo woman came by in a truck and chided us. Above are the "Mittens".

Rez Dogs and children were wandering around the place. Some of the homesteads had a really nice family feel. We met a bunch of great people just getting by in their ancestral home, including a very motivated high school student editing an essay on the Son of Sam. Southern Utah is a place that demands more exploration.

Whoever Is Reading Moby Dick...Your Tent Is F***ed

Gale force winds whipped across Mormon Flats this hitch, claiming 6 of our 11 tents...but nobody got it worse than poor Keith. As we worked on the trail, blissfully unaware of the destruction going on below us, our project partner hiked up to pass on the bad news. Of course the question on everybody's lips was, "Whose tent is it?". "Whoever is reading Moby Dick, your tent is f***ed." The 60 mph wind snapped the aluminum poles on three tents and destroyed the rain flies on three more, and with a storm coming in, the decision was to hike out and camp on the South Rim for the duration of the hitch.

The storm hit and dropped temperatures to around 20 deg F at night, in addition to dusting us with snow. NPS provided some sweet little Mountain Hardwear solo tents for those of us whose tents were destroyed on Mormon Flats, so we did alright.

Cold nights were softened with big campfires, and cold mornings meant trips to the Grand Canyon Cafe for breakfast burritos and fresh hot coffee! A tough hitch turned into something special as we soldiered through rough weather and treated ourselves to the perks of frontcountry camping.

After accomplishing some great work on the South Kaibab trail, including repairing an eroded Mule Bar at Cedar Ridge and covering all kinds of check steps, we were rewarded with a hike to view some hidden petroglyphs and a scramble down into a cave on the rim. This was the last hitch with all of the AmeriCorps members together and will go down for me as one of the toughest and most rewarding tours in the Canyon.

Desert Bloom

Spring hit the canyon last hitch and we got to see the flowers blooming right in front of our eyes. Between the flowers, rocks, rainbows and skies it was an awesome display of color, especially set against the red-brown canvas of dirt.

(Flowers and rainbows on the last day.)

We camped up at Mormon Flats near Skeleton Point, more than halfway out of the canyon and right next to a cliff, so our views were the best ever.

(Looking back at our tents on the cliff's edge)

The rom-tec (portable composting toilet) was perched overlooking the Tonto and inner gorge, and has to be in the running for most beautiful bathroom in the world.

(A toilet with a view)

We worked with NPS and CREC to continue our cyclic maintenance up the South Kaibab, putting lots of crushed and dirt on the eroded checks. It looked really nice when we finished and got rave reviews from the hikers, but it’s just a big band-aid that will get torn up by the mules. The long term goal is to armor larger portions of the trail to stand up to the beating of daily mule trains. We got to work with the mule wranglers a bit which was a special treat. Harkening back to the old school trail work, we loaded up mules with dirt to transport down to a particularly hard hit section of trail just below Skeleton.

(Buckets of dirt ready to load onto the mules)

Other notable events included two of our co-workers hiking down for an overnight visit and packing along some Rocky Road ice cream. After 5 days working under blank skies with no running water it was about the best thing we could ask for.

(The only man fast enough to hike ice cream into the Grand Canyon)

A condor soared over camp during lunch one day, and our CREC bird expert spotted a pair of Peregrine Falcons with a nest on the cliffs below our rom-tec. Foot traffic continues to increase, sometimes to the point of frustration. The hikers are enthusiastic and supportive, but trying to work in the gaps between them can feel futile. Among the countless questions we receive, my favorite was probably “why are you guys so dirty?” Well, because I move dirt all day and don’t shower.

I never know what the weather’s going to do since I don’t check before I go out on hitch. By the ninth day in the back country it’s really anybody’s guess what might happen, so it’s always fun to make sailor predictions based on the wind and sky. My predictions are pretty much always wrong, so not surprisingly I was caught unawares by a pretty good downpour that started during stretch circle on our last day.

(Ominous skies, the weather swept in over the south rim and had us running for the trailhead)

Of course I chose that day to be as “Dad-core” as possible, with my shorts, tucked in tee, moccasins and makeshift shoelace headband. With a hi-ho the wind and hail stung us on the hike out, but also brought some beautiful rainbows and provided great motivation to get to the trailhead. While we waited for the mules to bring up our coolers we crashed the “El Tovar” hotel to drink bottomless cups of coffee out of silver carafes. The hostess suggested that my friend Jeff change seats for a better view of the canyon, but Jeff was more concerned about getting his breakfast steak with a side of bacon.

Next hitch could be our last on the South Kaibab. Our crew will probably start working from the North Rim as soon as the roads open, doing cyclic on the North Kaibab. It’s rumored that we’ll have a sweet yurt to operate out of, and the extra 1000 ft of elevation should keep the temperatures manageable during the hot summer season. Meanwhile, it’s time for some camping during my off days…I know, it’s a sickness.

(CREC, ACE and NPS working productively and living harmoniously together.)