2009 was an excellent year.
I'd have to say one of my favorite adventures of my life happened in Fall '09.
Paul was in Mongolia for the month of July (the entire month), and just missed our one year anniversary. We decided that we would take a belated anniversary trip to when he returned from his bug catching adventure. Plus Camie had made reservations for the first week in August, and although they couldn't come we carried on just us two.
Where did we go? Havasupai, AZ.
I was really nervous because I hadn't done any backpacking before, but Paul was experienced so he showed me the ropes.
We drove down there and stayed at a Motel that was about 20 minutes from the start of the road that takes you to the reservation. It was particularly ghetto. In fact, we were the only people staying there. $50 later, we got a room for the night and decided we better get a picture.
Boy do I miss those tan legs, and doesn't Paul look so ruggedly handsome :)
We woke up really early, because we wanted to hike before the sun came up. Remember, we're in Arizona in August. So we got up early, ate a couple Pop Tarts and started driving to the trailhead. We got on this road that said you must have reservations or passes or something that you can get in the city we just left, and we got worried because all we had was a number that Camie had told us. So we turned around and tried to find where to get reservations... no luck. We decided to just hope for the best, and go for it.
We got to the trailhead, and no one else was there. This scared us quite a bit, because the parking lot was full, but there were no other hikers. I was so nervous that we were leaving way too late and some vulchers would be happy about it.
We started on our adventure anyway.
Top of the trail, ready to head down the mountain.
The parking lot was on top of a mountain/cliff, and you hike down a bunch of switchbacks to get to the base of the canyon (The Grand Canyon). It was rocky, and so was the relationship between Paul and I for a minute because I was going slower than he would have liked, because with a 50 lb pack on my back plus poor balance, I felt like I was going to get to the bottom of the canyon the REALLY fast way.
We resolved our differences and enjoyed a cool hike through the canyon.
Hiker Paul
We knew the village was about 8 miles from the trailhead. We saw random mile markers once in awhile that gave me hope. Soon, we turned and saw a little stream. It was this beautiful color blue, and the trail went right next to it. There were lots of trees around it too. It was breathtaking. This put the wind back into our sails and we kept on hiking.
Then we saw this.
Supai Village.
What a relief! We had taken the right trail, we had made it 8 miles, we were almost there. The bad part is the trail. If you notice, it is sand. Sand is not easy to hike in.
The village was really cool. There is no access by road, the only way in is to hike, ride a horse, or by helicopter. So it's pretty amazing the things they have down there. They helicopter in a lot of stuff.
We walked through the village until we found the registration office. That's where we paid lots of money to camp there and be there. As we were taking care of that, I told Paul I felt queasy. Then I got really lightheaded, so I rested my head on his shoulder. Next thing I knew I banged my head on the concrete floor and realized I had passed out.
Everyone in the office was really nice, they brought wet paper towels to stick on my forhead and called the doctor that lived in the village. I felt alright, so a kind lady carried my pack over to the cafe and Paul and I decided to eat some food- since we hadn't during the 8 mile hike, and even though we drank water, that wasn't quite doing the trick for my body.
As we were waiting for our tots, the doctor came. He was really nice and said I was fine. But, he said he was going on some house visits and said he would take us about halfway to the campground. We jumped in his Gator and rode around the village. He would wave to the locals and tell us a little bit about them. It was really fun.
He dropped us off right at the first falls.
A flashflood had come through the year before and changed the river quite a bit. He create a couple of new falls, and destroyed a couple of old ones.
I believe they called this new falls "Rock Falls or 50 falls" I can't remember. We actually took this picture the next morning, and the cool part about these falls is that you can walk behind them.
We kept walking and soon heard the next falls, we came around a corner, and this is what we saw.
Havisu Falls.
It looked like something on a Hawaii postcard. The trail went right beside it (this pic was standing on the trail). We knew we were really close to the campgrounds now, and we couldn't wait to drop our packs and jump in that water!
The campgrounds were right past Havisu Falls, and we took the first spot we saw. He had lots of shade, and we were pretty close to the water source (a natural spring), and the port-a-poties (they helicopter them in and every week -- we saw it happen!)
As soon as we set up camp, we headed to Havisu Falls, it was a 2 minute walk from our site. It was so beautiful and fun to swim around. The water was chilly, but such a beautiful color blue. And it felt really good after a long hike.
We relaxed a bit, and ate some lunch, then we went to go see Mooney Falls. It was at the other end of the campsite, but the campsite was a mile long. When we got to that trail, this is what it said...
"Descend at Own Risk. Exercise Extreme Caution! Do not pass beyond this point in inclement weather conditions"
This made me a little paranoid. As you can see, we had to hike through tunnels. There were also sections that had chains and ladders.
Slow and steady....
Then we started to see the falls, and holy cow! I couldn't wait to get to the bottom...
Still on the trail, looking out at the Falls.
Last stretch of trail.
This picture doesn't show it's size well. It was 200 ft tall! So beautiful. The pool it fell into was really huge. We came and swam there the next day.
Then time to go back up the trail.
We went back up to our campsite, and decided to go see Havisu Falls again before it got dark.
This picture shows the "Tufa" really well, it is the mineral deposits that the water leaves which build up and make those cool structures.
This is where we washed our hair and face before bed the second night, because the first night we couldn't sleep it was soooo hot. So we decided to get in the cold water right before bed the next night.
Isn't that water beautiful? It looks like blue gatorade in person. It has a lot of calcium carbonate in it, which gives it that color.
Someone had also made a swing in the tree right next to this river. I felt like I was just in some kind of paradise!
Paul is such a great photographer. Havisu Falls again the next morning.
Rock Falls... the first Falls we saw. You can saw the boy scouts behind the falls, jumping into the pool.
We weren't as brave as the boyscouts, I was too worried about jumping onto a rock. Plus the sun hadn't quite reached the falls and it was freezing just standing in the mist.
But we took a few pictures and went behind the falls and smooched.
Then we headed back to Mooney Falls, and hiked down the river from it. I felt like I was in the Garden of Eden. There were smaller falls that were really beautiful.
Yes, we were standing in the river. We just wore our chacos and hiked down the river. It wasn't too deep. The falls on the right of this picture looked like a perfect natural shower to me :)
I think the reason I loved this trip so much was because it was an adventure! It was natural and beautiful, and it wasn't just a "gimme", we had to hike and go and see! Plus it was with Paul. After a month of absence from him, it was so nice to go have a grand adventure with him, without the interruption of cell phones/computers/work.
I loved it.
We left really early in the morning to hike out. (Again, beat the sun). So we started going and for some reason, I was just a machine. I was hiking so fast, and just kept going. My feet killed because of blisters, but I just kept trucking. Paul would stop to take pictures and I would just keep going, because I had such a pace going. We got to the base of the switchbacks in about an hour and half to two hours, that's pretty fast for 8 miles.
Then we had to go UP the switchbacks. Not fun. That last .5 mile took another hour. It was STEEP!!! When we were at the base, I remember looking up and seeing this speck of white. A trailer in the the parking lot... I couldn't believe how high up it was.
But we made it!! I almost cried when I got to the top, actually I think I did cry. It felt like a huge accomplishment.
My blistered feet.
We started our drive home, and stayed in Las Vegas that night (4 star hotel for $50... much better than the Frontier Motel). We had a fun time on the strip but it was an interesting contrast.
Right before we headed up the switchbacks, Paul and I had stopped to eat some food. We were sitting there eating and I said, "Paul- stop eating, and hold still". We sat. We listened. We heard NOTHING. It was empty. It was so wonderful to just sit and to not see or hear anything man made.
Vegas was the opposite. Walking on the strip everything was covered with cement. The grass was plastic. The ground was covered with porn. (And my feet killed from the blisters pictured above). But it was fun to swim in the hotel pool, and see the cool hotels. We also ate at a Sushi Place during "happy hour" so everything was half off. It was awesome. We ate tons of good food for like $15 total.
I think the trip gave me a huge appreciate for natural beauty. It also helped me know I can do hard things, and do them well. Mostly, it was just a way fun time with my bearded husband :).
Luke. This is when Justin, Meghan, Ian, Isaac and Luke all stayed in our 500 sq ft apartment. It was awesome. We loved having them.
That same weekend, Paul and Justin went match-team style (a suprise? no). So did Ian and Isaac. 
