The first pictures of my trip are here

So yeah. This morning I messed around with Flickr and got about 15 or so photos online from the trip so far. Of course, that apparently is my upload limit for the month with Flickr until I upgrade my account, which I will surely do soon. All the photo's are from the first day and a half.

Let's talk a bit about it. The Grand Canyon Motel was where we stayed the first night after getting into Vegas. We drove about three hours to Fredonia, Utah and stayed there. As the sign says, it had Telephones, BBQ's!?!?!!, and Microwaves. Fantastic.

We wound up driving another two hours to Lee's Ferry the next morning. Lee's Ferry is where the Mighty Paria River converges into the Colorado River. We came back here to the Colorado when we ended our journey and jumped in. But that's another story for another day.

From Lee's Ferry to the Wire Pass Trailhead is only 55 miles of canyon hiking. But, due to the terrain surrounding the Canyon, it's another 2 hour's worth of driving. We were shuttled by Betty. Betty had a bit part in the Donald Sutherland movie Benefit of Doubt if anyone has a copy. Let me know. She also knew virtually everything about the surrounding land. She had been doing the shuttle thing for 17 years. She loves her job, and she was a great conversationalist. Hearing her love for the area and the land surely helped get me excited, and I think some others too.

Eventually we were at Wire Pass Trailhead. We met a few people in the parking lot who had told us that at parts in the Buckskin Gulch pools were chest high. We had only heard it was about waste high. At any point this sort of got the adreniline going a bit. As did this sign. Emergency response is never rapid!!!! Awesome!!!!

The first day we went into Buckskin Gulch just a few hours. Bucksin Gulch at 16 miles long is supposedly the worlds longest slot canyon. I had no idea what a slot canyon was before this. I now know among other things it's absolutely beautiful. There was plent of staring up in awe throughout. After maybe two hours, which included about a half hour of solo hiking to take in the surroundings, and to prepare ourselves for the trip, and to quiet ourselves in an attempt to prepare to hear what God would teach and tell us this coming week, we came to our first campsite. Up on a hill, overlooking the trail. This was flat out of Outdoor Magazine. No picture can do this justice, really. And the tents. Those were just for aesthetic value. Sleeping under the stars was what the night would bring. What a great experience.

Our first full day we expected to only go about 8 miles. We were facing going through countless pools like this. Of course between finding footing in those pools and having 45 pounds on your back you tend to be slower than you would want to be. After about 10 hours. It dawned on us that we missed our campsite. Or perhaps it had been washed away by a flash flood in the 6 months since Larry had been there last. You can't really climb out so there is nothing to do but keep going. So we did. After about 13 miles and over 11 hours of hiking, including over and down a boulder where we had to pass down packs and repell 10-12 feet we finally came to a campsite, but thats about where my pictures and story ends for the day. So maybe we'll just need to talk about that at a later time. And besides, this is already far too long.