Thursday, June 06, 2024

Day One Peru

We have arrived in Lima Peru.  We flew out Wednesday morning out of Billings, MT. At 6:30 am.  The plane rides were short but the day got really long.  Had some delays for several hours in Minneapolis before we flew to JFK.  Our flight to Peru from JFK left at 11:45 pm and we landed in Lima Peru just before 7 am.  We got a taxi down to our apartment at the Estelar Apartmentmentos Bellavista.  Nice apartments with a lot of space, quiet and very secure.  We are staying in the Miraflores district of Lima.  Just across from our hotel is the John F. Kennedy city center park.    Today we walked around the area and just got acclimated, made some plans for what things we are doing the next couple day.  We got into our room at noon and had to take a nap for a couple hours as we both were wore out from sleeping on the plane last night.  Some pictures of things we did and saw today.  

This church is just around the corner from our Hotel,  It is beautiful on the outside, but the inside is just as gorgeous.  I love the history of these old buildings when I travel,  It sure makes me realize how young the USA is compared to the history in other countries. 







It was really hazy today here.  The humidity just hung in the air.  Really cool watching the waves roll in on the South Pacific Ocean.   

Artwork on the tall buildings in the city. 
Tomorrow we are heading out early to do a 4 hour bus tour of the different areas of the city.  Seeing some old churches and doing some Spanish missions.   The on Saturday we are doing a walking tour of the Lima City Kings and Catacombs in St. Martin Square.  


Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Top down Narrows hike, Zion National Park











Memorial Day Weekend. Jerad put in for permits to hike the Narrows 3 months prior and was awarded them for Sunday/Monday hike. The hike starts at the beginning of the Virgin River and navigates downstream 18 miles, exiting the river at the Narrows site in Zion National Park. We hired a Shuttle services Red rock Adventure Shuttle that drove us out to Chamberlain Ranch to start our hike in through the canyon. The shuttle service was the way to go for sure. We started our hike in about noon and arrived at our campsite, #5, about 6 pm that evening.

I admit I was exhausted for sure. The last mile or two of our hike that 1st day was over boulders and rock. I was wearing NARS water boots, and while there was great traction they did not have a hard soul to keep my feet from feeling each rock. Shoes are important on this trip and while I am not sure I would do much different in shoes, I would consider renting the canyonairing boots from the facility outside the park as they have the traction and also the firmer soul to protect the bottom of your feet. My muscles ached for sure. I would say the weight of my dry pack backpack was about 25 pounds. I had my Marmot Ultra light tent, my Nemo sleep pad, camping pillow, jet-boil/ fuel and food items. Dry clothes to sleep and sweatshirt, and a pair of Chacos for the evening. I was wore out and was in bed by 8 pm that night for a good nights sleep so I could do it again.

I felt like I had walked across every type of boulder/rock size there is. My feet were sore, who am I kidding, my whole body was sore that night. It felt good to sleep by a river and just listen to the water flow over the rocks. Love sleeping to that sound in nature! Monday morning was slower moving for sure. We were all pretty sore. In the hike you are just crossing back and forth across the river as you go into the narrow slot canyon, working your way across big rocks and the deep parts of the river. Most places were about waist deep the first day, but I would say we crossed the river well over 200 times in the two day hike. We each had a wood staff for bracing in the river current, by the end of the day I had 3 blisters. The second day we made breakfast and packed up and were headed out to finish the hike, stilling about 10 miles to go.   We had a couple of miles to get to the spring to get fresh water from our campsite.  Not that we were out but knew we had to conserve till we got there. The river had a cya-no toxin growing in it so we couldn’t just get water to filter out of the river.   

Second day was much more technical as the canyon got more narrow and big rocks would mean deeper parts of the water.  We had to climb over, and several times had to swim with our packs on in the deep water.   2nd day I wore my wet suit for the first 6 miles as we had a lot more deeper water spots to cross and the water temp was about 40 F degrees so pretty chilly.  For clothing both days I had on my water boots, a pair of neoprene socks, a pair of Zyia leggings and long sleeve sun shirt the first day and a tank top the second day because I had the wetsuit on most of the day.  I will say walking so many miles in a wetsuit is not the easiest thing.  It makes you sweat inside and you’re wet, but body heat is warming the water.  I needed to make sure I was drinking lots of water because it was warm out  temp wise in the high 80’s both days.  But being in a slot canyon it didn’t get much sunlight directly due the canyon walls. 

At Big Springs it changes from the permitted area to an area where for day hiking from Zion National Park to hike up the narrows so the closer we got towards the end of the hike the worse the traffic was because the people everywhere and it was waiting in line for people to move through the river crossings.   I would say that the hike is very technical due to having to always be gauging and watching where you are stepping.  I kept thinking how easy it would be to sprain, twist or even break an ankle it would be stepping over and on all the different rocks.  It was a great trip and would hike the Narrows for sure.  It was amazing there was a dad and his 8 year old son, Brent that rode the shuttle out to start the hike.  We passed them quickly on the first day as they were only going to Camp site 1 which was at least a couple miles before our campsite at #5.  But it was amazing to watch this little boy navigate with his dad and at the end seeing him accomplish Top down hiking the narrows.  Now to load pictures, I didn’t take many the 2nd day and left that to Matt Jackson as I put my phone in the dry bag inside the dry bag backpack.   I can say I was lucky that everything stayed dry on the trip and protected. I will add more photos when I get them.  







Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Havasuapi Falls Day one April 1st.

So to do this hike you need a permit.  Permits are obtained through the website either in the yearly drawing.  It is held the 1st of February and tickets sell out quickly.  Seriously don't blink because they will be gone.  If you are more flexible with your dates you can get on the transfer list each morning at 8 am mountain time to try your luck at buying someone's tickets they can't use.  These also sell quickly.  So packing, I will say the lighter the better.  You're hiking 12 miles in to camp.  That bag gets heavy fast!you won't use half the stuff you pack!  
like that blue bag with a chair, carried it and never used it.  Clothes, you are not going to wear most of them.  
We stayed at the hotel in Peach Springs the night before.  Nice hotel.  We got up early so we could be ro trailhead for a early hike.  It is still over an hour from Peach Springs.  
it took us about 7 hours to hike in to camp with us taking breaks and stopping for pictures.  
By the end of the hike we were ready to get to camp, set up and just relax for the evening.  Here are some pictures from our hike in.  

Traveling to Utah and Arizona April 2023

Getting to take a road trip with one of your children is always awesome!  This year I have had the privilege of taking two major trips with my son, Jerad.  Our first trip was actually scheduled to happen in 2020, but then COVID happened and so it kept getting bumped back till this year it finally happened.  We had three tickets to Havasuapi Falls for April 1-4.  Jerad invited his friend, who just happens to be an amazing astro photographer, to join us.  It was an epic trip down to Utah, Arizona as they had so much snow this past spring.  We got to stop and see some amazing sites on the way down.  
  It actually snowed on us for much of the trip but it made for awesome backdrops.  Bryce Canyon with the snow was spectacular.
on of the places we stopped and explored us Wupatki National monument.  


Horseshoe bend outside of Page Arizona is always worth the stop.  
we also made a stop at Sunset Crater Volcano NAtional Monument.