Advanced Camping Techniques at Tip-Off

Having a goooood time, everyday (mos def knows what he's talking about). Great hitch in the Grand Canyon, for the first time we camped up at Tip Off, right above the inner gorge. NPS set us up with a sweet work camp, complete with BBQ, Master Blaster, tables, dishes, handwash station and the coup de grace...a $6,000 Everest expedition tent to use as our Mess Hall and living room. There was some crazy wind and weather some days, a few tents were almost ripped off of their stakes, but no losses fortunately. We had a couple days of snow, which made for some real cold work and also some really great appreciation for the sunny days. I finally have my own camera with working batteries, so let's turn this into a photo tour. Of course they loaded in reverse chronological order, but this is just going to have to be quick and dirty since I ship out to the Canyon tomorrow morning.

Eating lunch in a cave on the Red and Whites while the snow storm rages outside. I was cold this day, but also incredibly thankful for this shelter.


Crazy snow and rain made these moments unbelievable. Patrick's tent, complete with dust shield (aka log) is in the foreground. This is the tip-off work camp.

One day we hiked up to work on the "Old Miner's Trail" instead of the regular route up the South Kaibab. It was an awesome scramble on vague singletrack. The route is real, meaning it's not "off trail", but it definitely didn't show up on any map I saw. Props to NPS trail crew for letting us do amazing things like this. This is looking down the trail over the bones of a dead mule that was kicked down here 2 years ago by NPS.

Oh yeah, Everest dome tent, grill with propane, bomber NPS super bulky sleeping pads and nobody else allowed to camp here but us. What more could you want?

Looking down the trail from Skeleton Point at the beginning of the red and whites. The rock crusher has been deemed a health hazard because of the dust it creates, so we're dirting the crushed that we've already lain down. This is probably the prettiest and softest section of trail in the entire canyon. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, Danger Ahead!
Traffic went up considerably on this hitch. Poor Jeff is dying inside because he can't go 110% with all of the hikers clogging up the trail.

Our first day hiking down we went to Phantom, thinking we'd be staying there the whole hitch. Turns out we were relocated due to a lack of campsites, but luckily we got a blissful afternoon in at the secret beach.

In San Diego I drew the Otter Card from a Tarot deck. Here I am being an otter, running "Cut Foot" Rapid at Phantom. This is my first time down since pioneering the run the hitch before. Didn't cut my foot this time, but my coworker did, so I'm happy with the name.

Other highlights:

• Post work hikes on the Tonto with Jeff, Alison, Stephanie (San Diego crew) and other volunteers. Jeff and I took a rainy day hike and sheltered under a natural overhang for a while, watching it pour down.
• I entertained my first guests in the canyon (btw, I can host you at our work camp for free if you're in the area...pretty sweet)
• Telling an improved story in the Thunder Dome about the adventures of Rugged American Boy and Tiny Bavarian Girl...loosely based on my coworkers.
• Doing dishes with the "Manwich" cooking team (me, Jeff and Patrick).
• Singing "Oo-de-lally" and the "Mr. Bucket" Theme song along with just about every other song I know at the work site...also listening to Alison sing, old "one take" is a real talent.
  

All hitch we got stoked for our trip to Joshua Tree and San Diego. I'm going to squash the suspense and just say that the trip delivered. Check it out in the next post.