I can't really explain why it has taken me so long to post on our blog, other than perhaps I have been just too busy with life to stop and try to find the right words to tell our stories. However, this adventure is one that I have to share. This adventure is one that i know has changed both of our lives forever.
Just three weeks ago, after more than nine months of anticipation, Sean and I went on our first multi-day backpacking adventure together. We and my dear friends, Ann and Beth, and a whole gaggle of new friends all hiked into a remote corner of the Grand Canyon to a place known as Havasupai.
I have been hearing astounding things about Havasupai every since I moved to Arizona. Every time I have heard someone speak of it or looked at someone's pictures of it.
So after four days of waiting for a call to get through to the village Campground, Ann finally got through and was able to book our weekend in Havasupai - one of those places on Earth that reminds you how lucky you are to be alive.
Sean was completely amped to go! This was going to be a challenge with a HUGE reward at the end. To get to Havasupai, you either hike, helicopter in, or take a mule. We decided to hike in (of course) and to carry all our supplies that we would need for the trip. The others we were making the trip with hiked as well, but opted to have the pack mules do all the heavy lifting for them. What can I say, Sean and I love a challenge, so we trained for months carrying our large multi-day packs which by the time it came to go, weighed a little more than 40 pounds each.
So we left Thursday afternoon to drive North to Seligman, Arizona where we dined at the Roadkill Cafe and then slept for the evening so that we could get an early start on the trail. Sean and I opted to leave at sun-up so that we could enjoy watching the Canyon walls come alive with the sun, which meant we woke up at 4am to drive the 82 miles to the trailhead to get underway as the morning settled in.
To get to Havasupai, you start at the rim of the Canyon and hike about a mile and a half down sharp, steep, rocky switchbacks to reach the canyon floor.
This is a local dog that hiked with us from the parking lot until about three miles into the canyon when he found another canine friend of his
running with one of the
muletrains! We named him Max.
Once you get to the canyon floor, you begin to hike a little more than six miles down a wash that winds gradually between the red canyon walls slowly bringing you down even further into the canyon where you finally come upon the first signs of water ...
We stopped on
occasion to let the mules and horses pass or to tighten our boots.
... this is when we finally came upon the first sign of the emerald green stream that eventually widens up to revel the brilliant topaz colored water that runs along the side of the
Supai village.
There is a native American tribe that still lives here, this is where Sean and I stopped to have lunch and wait for the rest of our group to check into the campground.
Once the group arrived and we were all checked in, Sean and i started our way through the village and down the sandy trail that would take us the last two miles to the campground. As e travel down that sandy trail, we finally get a view of the first set of falls.
The sign says it all!
Two members of the group had left ahead of us to scope out a camping area large enough for the 14 people in our group, but once Sean and I got to the campground, we couldn't find them, We walked up and down the campground, up and down each side of the creek and to no avail. We just never found
Ko and Kara, so with my foot killing me (something had just popped inside the ball of my foot) and us both running low on water and ready to be done with those heavy packs, we decided to find a place to set up camp vowing to find the rest of the group later.
So once we were all setup, we wandered through the campground once more in
search of our group and could not find them, so we decided to put on our swim suits and head down to the falls nearest to the back of the campground.
So it was on our way down the steep cliff face on the way to the falls that we finally found the rest of our group, so with that resolved, we climbed our way down the slippery, steep footholds to the pool at the bottom of Mooney Falls.
Once to the bottom, we stripped down and waded through the water to delight in the invigorating spray from the fall.
After we returned from
Mooney Falls, we went to find our group when Ann, Beth, and
Nichelle were already walking up to our campground ... together at last! Sean and I kinda laughed off the prospect of moving our campsite, but agreed to go join the rest of the group for dinner conversation, games, and other
nighttime campground antics.
I think we headed back to our camp around 7 o' clock that night, we played a couple card games, sipped on some of the wine we packed in and then fell fast asleep to the sounds of the creek running by.
The rest of the weekend consisted of more of the same: hiking, eating, crawling down rocks to get to waterfalls, swimming, playing, and making new friends.
Sean even ended up swimming up to one of the falls, finger gripping his way along side of the rushing water, to dive under a large rock to leap out into the rushing fall and allow it to push him out into the pool - smiling and laughing like an eight-year-old boy. It was great! I haven't seen him smile like that since our wedding day.
All this while, my left foot was in
excruciating pain, I had injured it somehow a couple days prior and knew that the hike in and all the activity was probably only going to male it worse, but I just couldn't help myself. I had to go! We had been waiting way too long for this and chances were we wouldn't be able to reschedule this for a couple years since we plan to try to start our family this summer. So I powered through, but let me tell you after hiking more than 10 miles on Friday, probably close to six miles on Saturday, the
hike out on Sunday was not so appealing.
So Sunday morning came, we broke down camp, loaded our packs and headed out.
Sunday morning was a windy one to say the least; we had a 10-30mph head wind the entire time out of the Canyon. We got sandblasted the entire way. My foot hurt so bad on the way out that I started to favor my foot even more and in turn felt the blisters on my feet enlarging, and we still had that mile and a half of steep, switchbacks up the side of the canyon wall before we were back to the car.
Sean is amazing and cheered me on the entire way and I, of course, was too stubborn to let him help me. However, he eventually took about 10 pounds of the weight from my pack to make my load easier and made me stop to take in the view and remember why we were doing all of this ... and we finally made it!
... and let me tell you, despite all the pain in our legs when we tried to get out of the car in Prescott to grab dinner and the fact that our feet were so sore that we took baby steps for the next two days, we would do it again in a heartbeat.
This trip changed our lives ... it was our first real HUGE adventure together! We loved everything about the trip ... even the tears in my eyes the last three miles out of the canyon. We were so good together on this trip! We can't wait until our next big adventire! Havasupai will always be very dear to us!
