Wednesday Feb, 25
I woke
up in very rough shape. Anny was late for her convention. I really didn’t do
anything today. At some point in the afternoon I went to get clean clothes from
my car and shower up. Anny had to take a client to dinner and a party after, so
I grabbed some pizza at a place on the strip. I was trying to meet up with Anny
at the party so I had a few beers in the room and got ready. Turned out Anny
drank too much and by the time I got to party she was already back at the hotel
room. The line for the party was huge and she was my only way in, so I just
walked back to Aria and had another drink at the hotel bar.
Thursday Feb, 26
I sat
around the room and used the computer all morning. After the great weekend in
Utah I talked to Natty and Lee. They suggested, sense I ended up in Vegas, I
should check out a place called Havasupai Falls. It’s located at the far south
west side of the Grand Canyon. It sounded great to me. So I packed up and hit
the road. I stopped at a town and picked up some food for the hike. I also had
a long talk with a cousin of mine, James Robbins. He is currently in Michigan
and heading to California. If it could work out we might try to meet up along
the way. After that I continued driving. I didn’t make it all the way there
before having to take a nap. My time in Vegas had me exhausted. I pulled into
the parking lot right at sun down. I cooked up some food and watched movies the
rest of the night.
Friday Feb, 27
I
originally planned this to be a day hike, but I woke up a little later than
expected and turned it into an overnight trip. I quickly repacked and hit the
trail. The parking area seemed a bit sketchy; the native tribe that lives in
the canyon uses this parking lot to take all the supplies for the village down
by mule. So there is quite a bit of unsupervised traffic. So I waked back up to
relock my car. But then I was off. This is still pretty much the Grand Canyon,
so the first part is always super steep. But after about 2 miles it simply
follows a wash to the bottom. It was a really nice hike through a canyon with
very steep beautiful sides. When you come out of the canyon you run into the
river that you then follow to the village. This is your first glimpse of the
water this place in known for. And it’s breathtaking! The water has calcite in
it which make the water blue and lime that deposits on the bottom turning it
white. The water even looks blue at night. I had to pay and check in in town
then I was off to the camp site. You continue along the river and you hike past
several places that look like the Garden of Eden. Then you come to Havasu
Falls. This is a huge falls and you can walk right up to the spot it drops off.
From the village it’s about 2 miles to get to the campsite. I didn’t bring the
tent again, but I did bring a hammock. So I got that set up and decided I was
going to still try to hike to the end of the canyon today. So I was off again.
Right at the end of the camp ground there is another huge falls that you pretty
much have to climb down. They have ropes and chains for you to use but still
not for faint of heart. I hiked along taking in this beautiful, unknown part of
our country. I set up my camera on a timer to try to get a few pictures with me
in it. Then I tried to run and jump off a log onto the face of one of the
smaller falls. This turned out be a really really shitty idea. The run and the
jump were picture perfect, but I didn’t stick the landing. What I was jumping
onto was all soft stone and my foot hold broke off as soon and I put some
weight on it. Which lead me to basically running and jumping straight into a
rock wall, and then falling off said wall. I smashed my left knee into the
wall, scratched my right leg from mid calf to mid thigh, cut my right forearm
and left wrist was bleeding. The worst was the knee smash. I laid there on the
ground wondering if I just broke my knee. Then I heard the camera click and had
to laugh a bit. After a few minutes I wondered if I needed medical help. A few
more minutes and I wondered if I could get back to camp, after walking around I
wondered if I could make it to the village. Once it loosened up a little more I
was wondering if I could make it out of the canyon. Then I figured if I could
finish this hike and get back to camp I would probably be fine. Still in a lot
of pain I finished the hike all the way to where it meets up to the Grand
Canyon trails. I headed back to camp, after climbing back up the waterfall. I
was in serious pain and knew I needed to take it easy on the way out. But I was
trying to keep positive and hoped I would be better in the morning. If I stood
in a certain part of the camp I could still get reception. So I called mom and
we talked for a long time. I believe this was my first call to her so it was
nice catching up on life back home. At night I like to do little wood carvings.
Tonight was a pretty sweet sword.
Saturday Feb, 28
I tired
sleeping in the hammock but that didn’t go so well. So I tried for the ground,
also not going so well. So I slept like crap and woke up very stiff and hurting
all over. I walked back down to the falls to loosen up my knee and get some
more pictures. Then it was back to camp to pack up and start the trip out. On
the way out I stopped at all the falls I rushed past on my way to the camp. I
had a serious limp going on by the time I got to the village, and debated on
taking the helicopter ride out of the canyon. My knee hurt but felt stable, so
I decided to hike it. Hiking up the wash is difficult but nothing compared to
the last 2 miles. That was slow going with lots of breaks. I was very happy to
make it back to the car. At least I thought I was. The first thing I had to do
was charge my phone. So I reached for my charger and realized it wasn’t there.
Then I looked around, those mother fuckers opened my car and stole my shit! I
was furious. They walked off with over $3000.00 worth of my gear. Including
laptop, all my chargers, passport, wallet with military ID, and many other items.
I looked through all the garbage cans to see if they ditched the personal items
but no luck. The only thing that saved me was that they couldn’t figure out how
to open the hatch on my car. Turns out this is really common here and the
Indians go through people car looking for booze. If they only know I had 5
bottles of very nice bourbon in the back. Damn Indians taking shit that aint theirs,
they could have at least left me a blanket! That’s a little smallpox humor for
ya. I knew there was nothing I could do about it so I drove 60 miles back to
the nearest town to make a police report. This took a bit a time and I was
getting frustrated. But we finally got everything sorted out. I planned on
calling my insurance in the morning. But this is the reason these blog posts
have been so late. I had no computer to keep up with things. I was lucky in
that I had my credit card, id, phone, and camera with me while hiking. I have
my pictures from past trips backed up at home and my camera has everything from
this trip on it. Of all the things in my possession, the pictures from trips
are on the top of that list. This whole experience really put a damper on my
trip. Not only the theft but also the hurt knee. I knew I needed time to heal
up and I wouldn’t be able to do some things I had planned. From here I drove
back towards Vegas. I tried to get in touch with Anny, I could have really used
a drink about then. But I couldn’t get ahold of her. So I continued driving
back to Hurricane UT. Maybe I could still try to do something in Zion.
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