Grand Canyon NP '05

 

Must be quick...internet cafes rip you off. Grand Canyon was vast, amazing...really makes you feel small. We hiked down...see pics below. On our way to Phoenix today to stay with my uncle, hopefully. Can't wait to finish Harry Potter 5 book on tape in the car today and tomorrow...thanks Lorig! =) We'll be back in a few days...can't wait to see our friends and family again, but it's been an amazing trip. More details later...

love,
Cara and Mike =P

This is from Bright Angel Trail, which we took down into the canyon.

Sunrise at Pinnacle Point at the halfway point from the South Rim to the Colorado River. We woke up at 4:45 am to hike out and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, a forest fire on the North Rim filled the canyon with smoke and we couldn't see the whole canyon...but it made for a nice picture and dreamlike vista.

Grand Canyon at sunset.

This one's for Calle...hopefully Whit will have some equally beautiful pictures with my hoodie...damnit.

Chico & Tessa!

 

Chico was great. Tessa took us to a swimming hole in a little canyon. Refreshing and beautiful. Then we went to In and Out to eat our first "grilled cheese animal style" burger, which they really should put on the menu...deeeelicious! After a night of margaritas and mexican food, we hit the road early to make it to the Grand Canyon by sunset. Thanks for the hospitality Tessa and Frisbee! We can't wait to see you back in ATX.

Mt. Rainier NP '05

 

Our Potlatch team...Stock Party.
Haaaay!

Mt. Ranier was fun, and rainy. We spent most of the time keeping warm with some Captain Morgan's in our tent. We're off to Chico today after hitting up an Indian food buffet with Claire, Whit, and Brian...teammates from Potlatch. Can't wait to see Tessa...weee! Then off to the Grand Canyon. We decided to save Yosemite backcountry for another trip in interest of getting home to Austin sooner. Pics of Potlatch and Mt. Ranier coming tonight...

Potlatch '05

 Cara and I spent the last weekend in fantasy Ultimate world. We had a great time making and playing with new frisbee friends. Our team name was Stock Party. We spent the weekend wearing slacks, button up shirts, and ties and discussing our portfolios while laying out. After a tough first day (playing Team USA) it set us up to play less experienced teams and we went 7 and 0 for the rest of the weekend to win the C-bracket championship! During the finals we backed up our heckling and put "a line in a bucket". translated to: 7 players (4 guys 3 girls) in one honey bucket, northwest for portopotty. Team Canada won the finals, but they didn't put "a line in the bucket." We know who the true winners are.

Whit, Claire, Cara, and I are heading to Mt. Ranier today to hang-out and camp for a night. After that we are slowly heading home. Expect a going away party for Cara in about 2-weeks.

More later.

Tank & Cara

Glacier NP & The Machines

 

Haaay!

We're in Spokane, WA right now at the very gracious Machine's (Allers) house. We came out of Glacier National Park unscathed. We hiked into the backcountry and camped out by a little glacial lake in a bowl valley of huge snow covered peaks. We didn't actually see any bears, but there were a lot of bear prints on our trail to keep us on edge. After all the mental (dreams of confrontation), physical (going hoarse from yelling "Haay Bear!"), and fiscal (bear spray=$40) preparations we made, it was kind of a let down not to have to face off with a grizzly. A "friendly" deer did eat our bag of wheat thins though. Mike tried, at the ranger's wishes, to scare it by hurling 20 pound rocks at it, but it didn't care...it kind of liked the wheat thins. Glacier is beautiful...wish we had more time...maybe next summer!

I'll let Mike talk about Banff since he had never been there. Tomorrow we're off to Seattle to play in Potlatch...

Banff National Park was beautiful, but overcast. We experienced the park like 90% of the visitors do...driving to lakes or other beautiful destinations awing over them, taking a picture, and getting back in the car to drive to the next amazing place. We hiked a little around Morainne Lake (which was amazing), but we saved any backpacking trips for next time when there is better weather. We spent our coldest and wettest night in Banff Monday night, and one of our best camping nights last night in the grizzly infested backcountry of Glacier. Although we were sufficiently scared of bear attack, the mountain winds rushing over the lake drowned out any prowling grizzly noises that were certainly happening just outside our tent.

Cara =P & Mike