Travel Blog

I had promised Phil that I would go hiking with him again, so I said we'd go for Valentine's Day. Now, this was a few week's back, and I figured I could come up with some excuse when the time came, but since it was Valentine's Day, and I didn't get him any chocolates, I decided I'd just give in and go.

This time around, we decided to go to Plateau Point and back. This is about a 12-mile round trip hike, and it's not really recommended to tourists to go there and back in one day. But since we did so well on the Phantom Ranch hike, we thought we'd try our luck. And we didn't do too badly either, except I think I was in worse shape than in November, and the last four miles up the hill past Indian Garden was starting to get to me. I whined a couple times that I just didn't think I could make it, but no one was listening to me anyway, so I just kept going.

We made pretty good time, despite my complaining. We did it in a little over 8 hours, and we spent a while at the point itself, refueling and chatting with a raven. Want to see some pictures? (I didn't take any on the way down Bright Angel Trail except for one of a really nice icy waterfall-like thing, but I didn't have the camera on the right setting, and it didn't turn out. You'll have to take my word for it...it was snowy and icy and crappy for the first 3 miles down.

But once we were to the last mile and a half to the point, it was nice and clear. The trail, from above, looks nice and smooth, but it really wasn't. But it was flat, so who's complaining?

The sun wasn't out for much of the time we were hiking, but we did get a peek every now and again.

But you should never look back...we had to get back up there, and we had already hiked six miles.

When we got out to the Point, though, it was all worth it. The view was nothing short of spectacular. It was even better than I expected.

The river was gorgeous, and we had a bit of company. This guy hung out with us througout, and chatted with us a bit. He was hoping for a handout, I'm sure, and I hate to admit that we did give him a few peanuts. Do as we say, not as we do.

This next picture shows a portion of the Bright Angel Trail we had come up in November from Phantom Ranch. Looks a bit wicked from Plateau Point, doesn't it?

And another one of the river...but this one has some cool lighting, and it's a bit out of focus on the left, and I know how my sister likes that.

This last one is of a rock feature that I caught Phil staring longingly at, to which I said, "Don't even think about it, buddy." He then had the nerve to say, "How did you know what I was thinking?" Please. How long have we known each other? Pat, I know you know what I'm talking about.

Last but not least...some pics of the Batmobug. I love my little yellow bug. It may be worth staying in one place for awhile just to drive this little honey. And I sort of have the hang of driving stick again. Sort of.

That's all from the witch at the ditch for now. We're going to try to be a bit more active, so hopefully there will more adventurous blogs in the near future. In the meantime, I hope we're making the canyon hard to resist. It would be nice to have visitors. Hint hint.

It has been a quiet month in the Canyon. We managed to go three weeks without having to go to Flagstaff and do shopping – a thrifty tactic that will be important when trying to avoid the summer hordes. We got a little more snow at the end of January.

Like most of the country we have been enjoying a very warm and weather free winter. The only people who seem to mind are local photographers who want more dramatic shots of the Canyon. I joined the hunt for that one great shot last week when the North Rim had a storm blowing through. While I didn’t secure a prize wining pic, I did get some nice images.

When I was coming back I stopped to have a look at my store. It is kind of scary when you realize just how on the edge it is.