The other side of the world!

What a crazy awesome winter it has been! It has been so amazing! A couple weeks after the river season ended I headed out for a great trip with my friend Molly for the other side of the world. Our first stop was Rome, Italy. We stayed the first three days with a lady, Carolyn and her son, Max who had come had on a river trip last summer. Carolyn's boyfriend, Michael worked a little from home and he was around to show me how to use the train systems and they picked us up from the airport and were really great hosts. It's so awesome to have a job that helps me to meet so many great people from all over!

Rome was pretty amazing. Molly had been there in high school but I've never been to Europe. I went a day early and I toured the Colosseum and it was really cool. I could just see the Gladiators slicing the heads off of wild beasts! Molly came the next day and we did a tour with Alex, a half Roman half Scottish, good-looking (of course, we were in Italy) tour guide of the Forum.



 I really think that if you're going to be in a place with 2000 years of history you just have to take a tour. We saw the Colosseum, the Forum, the underground tour of Rome where we saw the very first painting of the Virgin Mary that was supposed to have saved someone from an army,

the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.

Without a tour it's just an old building that's kinda falling apart. That was my justification for spending way too much money on a tour at the Vatican also. But learning about the Sistine Chapel and a lot of the art there was pretty worth it. 

I loved the light and how it showed up in all the buildings through the ceiling and coming through all the columns that are everywhere around there, it was great.

 Of course we had to see the David! What a specimen.... well, almost. The hands anyway :)

That's really made me think about doing good interp in the Grand. For our passengers, it just looks like a canyon dug out of some old rocks, but if I do my job, they'll get a much better understanding of how awesome that place really is if they know all the history. Alex told us about a tour he did of all the side sites of Rome, the ones no one goes to. It was really cool.



There's so much history there. It's so weird that 2000 years ago they had places with toilets and aqueducts carrying olive oil and pillars and a thousands years later in our part of the world, they were still building huts out of sticks and mud and hunting and gathering. Anyway ... I digress. the history of Rome was amazing!

After that we hopped a train to Florence for the afternoon (which was probably my favorite city, so it was a bummer we didn't stay longer, the treats were AMAZING!)
















then through to Venice. I did like the trains, but we had a little mishap ... We thought we were at our stop which was the end of the line and Molly got off the train and I was futzing about and was a minute behind and didn't get off, and the train took off to where we were supposed to be. It was super late and we had already had made a mistake buying the tickets and had to pay more for them and we were so over it by then and the look on Molly's face (and I'm sure mine also) was so dejected and exasperated. We just had to laugh about it. Luckily she got on another train and made it about 15 minutes after me. I was not very much in love with the city of love, Venice, when we first got there at 11:30 at night and the street names were off and there were weird dogs all around and we were on the fifth floor of a ghetto hostel. The next day was a little better, and to see Venice in the day with the boats in the canals, and all the bridges, was pretty cool.





But there was soooo many people there! The whole Italy leg of our trip I was one of millions of tourists. And it was pretty cold and we both only had like one warm outfit that we wore the whole time we were there. If any of you Salt Lakers have had Hatch's hot chocolate, you'll appreciate the stuff we had on the streets of Venice. It had one of those McDonald's size straws and was like sucking a liquefied melted chocolate bar, it was the best treat ever.



A couple nights and a day in Venice was plenty and we were happy to move on to Cinque Terre. That was our favorite place we went. The little cities are so quaint and cute. Our hostel was up some super skinny stairs and had a really cool view of the ocean. We did go swim in the Tyrrhenian Sea for about 45 seconds until we saw these with our goggles right in our faces.











We hiked the trail that went from Riomaggiore through the next 4 villages and it started raining and my ankle was tired so we didn't make it all the way to Vernazza.








We saw some of the biggest prickly pear fruit I'd ever seen which lead to some pretty fabulous Prickly Pear Gelatto. Which by the way the gelatto made our whole trip. We insisted on trying as many flavors several times a day as we could. But look at these, how could you resist!

 So, after a week of spending too much and just traveling for ourselves, we made our way to Kenya.



 I've wanted to go with my aunt Rinda and uncle Brent for years, and I was so happy to finally have made it happen. It was such a great experience! We started the trip in Mombasa for a couple days staying in a really nice hotel and doing a tour of that city and we got to go to essentially a zoo with awesome African animals.
 



From there we headed to "the bush". Our house consisted of cement walls around two bedrooms, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom that is a toilet bowl built into the ground, (and we were lucky bc we had a flushing toilet that flushed with water from our showers). Our "neighborhood" had one pipe that ran water into it and so we had water to fill buckets for "showers" and to filter for drinking.

I really didn't believe them that these kids really do want to go to school so badly, but it's everything to them. Most of them realize that to get an education is to change their life and the lives of their families and generations to come. Mostly the purpose of Kenya Keys is to help subsidize the cost of education. The Kenyan government only pays for the kids to go through 8th grade and unless the family has money to send the student to high school, they are left with an 8th grade education with only hope of doing menial labor jobs and not really going anywhere in life.



So, Rinda and Brent work hard year round to help find sponsors to pay the rest so these kids can go to school. Most of what Molly and Ben and I would do is bring letters from the sponsors to the kids and help them write a letter back and take pictures with them.

 

It was a really great experience for us.  Hearing their aspirations for life and for higher education makes us Americans seem very ungrateful for our education system. We also taught in the classrooms. I brought a model of a body and took some lessons from their school books and it was really cool, but most of the teachers had never even seen more than the black and white drawings in the text books and it was a neat experience to tell the stories of the OR and the inside of the body. They had never even thought of seeing things like that before.




Interviewing the students was great and getting to know the teachers was really great. The woman who ran the library, Mercy was sooo great. She always had the biggest smile with the most perfect teeth! I brought over an old laptop that my friend, Becca donated and we left it for her and it will change her life, and it was so good to see how excited about it she was.

One of the major projects of Kenya Keys is libraries. We each carried over an extra suitcase of books for the libraries there that KK has started. My mom and some other interns had painted some of the buildings and it was really cool to see all the neighborhood kids there reading and loving all the books.

Another big thing they do is raise money for desks. A lot of the younger kids just have to sit on the floor but here is some of the desks they pay to have made and a new science lab in progress at one of the high schools. It was really cool to see their building styles.




There was some really great women there! This group of young girls is called the SOS girls, the Save Our Sisters group who got together as high school girls to help younger girls learn how to say no and to practice safe sex, and to teach them how to use the sanitary kits that we made for them (that's the # 1 reason I'm stoked to live in America! Thanks heaven for tampons!) Also, here's Molly and me with Joseph (the headmaster of the main school) and his wife Mwaka

Molly rode her bike in to the school with Joseph one day. Molly really loved getting a good sweat on just by walking outside!

Our neighbor Isaac showing us how to eat fresh sugar cane.

Molly still needs some practice! 

Molly knew she wanted to find a student to sponsor while she was there and she found Rai and knew that he was the one! He is an albino and he teaches at the elementary and is a trying to go to college. We went to visit his house and it was really cool. He's got great rhythm and a great voice and we had a really amazing experience seeing his house and his family. He's showing us the framework for a house he's building for himself and he was really proud of it.

 

 We had Mwaka pick us up some of their standard wares and I gotta say these are pretty comfy, but not the most flattering!

One of the things I was most impressed by the was the strength of the women in general. Their mental and physical strength was amazing! They were able to live with so much tragedy and struggle and their daily lives were so much harder than ours here with all of our modern conveniences but they never complain and are generally so happy about life and are so inspiring! 

One of our last days Molly and I tried to learn how to walk with water on our heads. The women there would walk with a kid strapped to their chest and a couple more in tow and have a 5 gallon bucket on their heads and be talking on their cell phone all at once! They were amazing! Even the little girls start as soon as they can walk! I managed to make it like 20 seconds with a 2 gallon thing once. By the end I was soaked, with a sore neck and the afternoon entertainment of the complex we lived in.

Alright, if you've made it this far through this, great work! Thanks for sticking with it! It was such an amazing life changing trip and I will be forever changed by the people I met there and I will never take for granted some of our simple conveniences of everyday life! Thanks Rinda and Brent for all you do to make these trips possible! 

Good morning home!

2 down 8 Grand trips to go! I did these two back to back, with only 10 hours in between and it was rough doing a quick turn around but they were good trips to start out the season. It's always awesome to wake up at Lee's Ferry for the first time of the season! It's so beautiful there and it's a slightly less frantic morning than the rest of the trip and it's just awesome there. It's already over 100 degrees especially in the lower part of the canyon and I don't know if I'm ready for what that means about the rest of the summer! I think I'm probably going to be baking my brains out. There wasn't any wild flowers, they were all too confused by the lack of water and early heat that accompanied this spring.

I did have some people who were stoked to hear about the geology and I even had a geologist on one trip (that actually makes me pretty nervous but I love geeking out and rock talking with them!)

But the point of this entry is to say how awesome it is to come home! I love our house! it's so much better than some of the other houses Kristina and I looked at to rent. I've even been fixing it up a little. I know it's just a rental and who knows how long we'll be here, but even though I am soooo happy that I it didn't work out to buy a house bc I had my accident and it would have been a lot to handle right then, I still do have that nesting feeling creeping in I think. And this is longer than I lived anywhere since living with my parents. I painted the kitchen the week before the river, and it was awesome to come home to.

We also planted a garden! I've wanted to for a while because this house has THE perfect spot for it but I'm not around to take care of it so I said I'd do all the work at the beginning if Kate and Kristina take care of it. It (of course) was a bigger project than planned, but felt great to get it done. The whole section was covered in 5 inches of pine needles, grass clippings and weeds from like 10 years of not being used, so that had to be covered first. Here's Kristina working hard on her tan, wearing her sweet Mexican visor watching me slave away :)

This is Utah after all, so after 6 hours of jumping on the shovel to turn the soil we went to the dump and got compost which was great and seemed like it will be so good for our garden!

It doesn't look like much yet, but here's the finished product! We've got tomatoes, peppers, squash, watermelon, basil and a couple other things that I can't wait to eat! it was great to come home to see some of them sprouting!

Now all I need is chickens! I really do want some, but that might have to wait until I'm around in the summers.

OK, so back to my point, I loved coming home yesterday! I hung out with Kate for a while and we went to a movie (I love movies in the summer! Cold, dark, someone else is entertaining me... it's perfect!) and it started raining as we were going to sleep. I slept with my window open and when I woke up at 6:45 (which is sleeping in for my usual 4:30 or 5 wake up time) I could smell an beautiful morning and I grabbed my house coat and went for a walk. I was a little late for the real beautiful colors of the sunrise, but the clouds were still a little pink and it was a little chilly and smelled like rain and felt like the mountains. It was just what I needed! Now I'm sitting on our porch drinking tea, looking at Mt. Olympus, still in my house coat, appreciating my life! What a lucky girl I am! I love the dichotomy of my life: not working, skiing and traveling all winter, now working, and working hard in a beautiful, amazing, hot place.  It makes me realize how much I love my time off and want to take advantage of it, weather it's climbing or biking or just relaxing and watching a movie, I am a pro at enjoying time off! And this morning has been a great welcome home!

Best. Trip. Ever......

The Grand Canyon

....oh, Grand Canyon, especially after working down there for a couple years, it's got a very special place in my heart, but after this trip, my life will never be the same. I'm ruined, truly.

I was super lucky to get an invite for an 18 day private trip with 16 people, and it was AWESOME. I'd heard about the trip but thought it was just for the "good old guys" but I went on a trip earlier in the year with Fat Newty, who had the permit, and I got the invite and I was STOKED!

Almost all of us work for Western or have worked there and we all are pros at rigging a huge J-rig but we were a little bit of a disaster trying to figure out how to get tons of super deluxe food and all the gear we could possibly bring into 7 rafts and 5 kayaks.

We finally managed to get everything all packed in and spent the night at the ferry and headed off. I knew it was going to be an unreal trip while we were eating left over ribs as we floated under the Navajo bridge. To just be hanging on my own boat with my birthday bestie, Lindsay Hale and not have to be talking geology (even though I do love it) was the first realization of how absolutely spectacular this trip was going to be!

We were able to do tons of side hikes and other things that we never get to do and I relished in every minute of it! Here's the above and beyond of Elves Chasm. Finchie and L-Hay with the trickle in the background.

People think that we really get in shape but they don't realize we are lazy boatmen and we don't row and in actuality all I do is sit at the back of the boat and work out my wrist while motoring as I eat tons of Sour Patch Kids and Hot Tamales and then take an hour to do a mile hike. So, it was awesome to get to hike at "guide speed" up to Salomon's Temple. (I used this picture from Shannon's blog. She's a way better collager than I am) Here's the whole group up top with celebratory blow pops.

 

Pretty awesome to get off the river and perfect temp for a hike! 

 

 We did the Carbon - Lava Chuar loop, and I may or may not have gotten us a little lost,

but I just really wanted some extra time in the Lava Chuar drainage....

Lindsay is showing off her beehive braid I did for her. 

I've always wanted to do the Thunder River-Surprise Valley-Deer Creek loop, but I have also not wanted to die, which I think just might happen if you do it in July. The hike is up to a spring that is coming straight out of the limestone then up over a couple miles out in the open (that some of the idiots - Hanel, Jos and Newty ran and Shad and I jogged at my slow pace) then down to another 125 ft waterfall. It was alright I guess. 

Luckily, on the way up to Thunder River we had the legend, Mark Pearce on the trip and he showed us some amazing graineries. Despite / because of some awesome bouldering to get to it, it was one of the coolest graineries I've ever seen. Here's Hanel and Jos doing the worm.

We did tons of hikes that we usually don't get to do, but it was also great to not do hikes that we do every week. I sure do love Havasu but pulling in the mouth, watching Jos freeze her ass off going for a swim, having a beer then pulling out was pretty unreal. Then floating through the "Havasu face melt" without dying of heat just blew my mind with awesomeness.






































But really, the best part that I will remember forever is Thanksgiving dinner. Newty and his wife, Tiff did so much to get ready for the trip and all the meals were amazing but Thanksgiving way above and beyond! They had cooked 2 turkeys and tore them all up and froze them with the juices. We brought a million potatoes that Shad and Newty made short work of, and made stuffing and Jos brought Moab on the trip with Turn and Burns and Newty even made Grandma Newty's gravy from scratch. Shad really upped the ante with his holiday sweater.






We camped at Stone Creek and it was the perfect night. We heated up water for baths and were all fresh and clean for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really great. For the rest of my life when I'm having Thanksgiving dinner with my family in a church gym (which is great and I do love being with my fam....) I'll remember eating turkey cooked in a dutch oven over a fire with Dubendorff raging in the background.

All the food on the trip was amazing! Newty and Tiff did a great job planing and getting all the food ready! It was a bummer Tiff didn't to come on the trip and partake of all the great food she organized and put together. We had great camps that we never get to see or stay at. Here we are having a fire (that we also don't do during the summer just because it's so hot!) waking up in the puppy pile at Schist camp, Lindsay flipping hot cakes and Newty cooking bacon for the best BLTAs I've ever had, especially after a cold morning in the shade, the Ledges was a great camp!

It was Fat Newty's birthday on the trip and we had a pretty bitchin dance party that Jason Tea was the star of. (photo cred to Shan!)

For working, a J-rig is the best ... they're great people movers, but I gotta admit that I LOVED taking a raft through the canyon! Rowing was scary since the water was running at 20,000 CFS (higher than it's been in years!) I was a little bit of a stress case about some rapids and didn't even really think about Hermit, until I saw it looking at all of us like it wanted us for lunch. Little Newty and Jos hiked in at Phantom and he took some awesome photos. Here's Evan and Nash punching Hermit in the face and coming out clean in their cataraft.

 

Jos broke an oar on the first wave and amazingly pulled it off and didn't flip. It was probably because Lindsay put her whole heart into punching tubes.

 

I was on my way out of the boat when I hit the meat but luckily the oar lock kept me in.  

 
Lava rapid was the one I was worried about because during the summer we were the first ones to come upon a private trip that had had someone die in Lava. The NPS was there but it really got me pretty scared. We all were. Here's the kayakers all deciding to go big and hit the right side in style.

 We all made it through unscathed! Most of us had never run the left side and it looked super scary, but we made it and were all so excited to have made it through the last big rapid of the canyon!
Kelly McGittigan couldn't come on the trip but she'd sent a package for us to open at Tequila Beach, and she put in Tequila for those that like that type of punishment, sour worms and hot tamales for those that don't. And MP brought the world's largest cigars that we shared.

 

I'd only smoked a cigar a little before but it was such a celebratory moment I just couldn't resist.

Jos is a party and brings a party wherever she goes, and we brought some dress up clothes to celebrate





















 I love the skittle brigade.... and Jason Tea looking pretty content. Too bad 

he had to hike out and ditch us for his real job.

Just our boats lined up at Redwall

 

We had awesome weather the whole trip. We were so lucky. I was really nervous it was going to be freezing and I pretty much bought out NRS of all boots and gloves and anything possible I would need to keep me warm, but we must all be living right .... or maybe at least one of us, or probably just Shannon and Johnnie, because we lucked out. It was nice enough that a lot of us slept out most of the nights in the "puppy pile". A couple nights we had to take refuge into tents to get away from some wind, but the days were pretty perfect. 

 

The last day was kinda cold and overcast and rainy and windy but it was awesome. Usually that stretch is blazing hot and we're racing to get out of camp before the sun comes up too much and we're just biding our time waiting for the jet boat to come get our passengers. We just didn't fight the wind and took our time, and it turned out to be a great afternoon. Next summer when I'm floating past the bat caves, consolidating coolers I'll remember to look around and enjoy that section of the canyon.

We spent the last night close to Pearce Ferry and we followed Western's usual policy of "hog the ramp, steal you camp" and we did that quite well.



We are spoiled rotten because we work for Western and were able to rig and derig at the warehouse and use their boats and trailers and ice and we could even dump our shitters there. It poured rain while we were derigging and it would have sucked to have to do that all at someone's house.

 I now finally get it when our passengers talk about readjusting when they get home. It was pretty rough to come home. I think all of us would have started right over the day we got off if we could have. I've seen some private groups that even just passing them on the river you can feel the tension and you know that it's not going well. But Newty did a great job picking out a great crew. Every factor of the trip, the people, the food, the weather, the rapids, everything was perfect. I've been down the canyon when it's pouring, freezing, boiling hot and also, pretty perfect but I was always working. I really do love my job and love being able to show this amazing place to people and help it work it's way into their hearts, but it's still working and I'm always thinking of interp, working on names and making meals. This trip....to just be able to just BE in the canyon. Float by myself, or with Lindsay on my boat, or having another boat or two or a kayaker holding on for a chat. I really did love not listening to the motor and that all we had to worry about was what fun things we were going to do that day. It was just so simple and so so great. I can't even explain just what a spectacular trip it was. We all said there's really no way to ever top this. I'm officially ruined!
 
I got too sick of doing collages so here's just some extra photos to check out....

Some really cool pottery we found at I took all these home... jk, I only take rocks not pottery.


 

Lindsay and me talking about boys and geology probably....

 



Jos and Lindsay and I had to stay back and have dance party and hang with the girls.

Gilly?



LOVE




 
Campfire



 Salomon's temple



Thanks for reading!