A descriptive look at traveling and full-timing with our second RV, a fifth wheel toyhauler.
Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005
for a two week vacation in a truck camper.
Year 2011: At Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Canyonlands & Grand Canyon National Parks!
Year 2011 : So how did things turn out this year? It was an exciting year to be sure. We went back to Lake Mead for our second season, and did more, this time as roving interpretation docents, hiking trails and going to trailheads and giving out information. It was a newish type of position, one which Sasha loved, and I definitely liked more than standing behind a counter. I also took a Winter Online Workshop with Astronomy From the Ground Up that winter. It opened up my eyes to a new way of learning about the night sky and would make my evening program so much better.
We then went back to Canyonlands National Park for a second season, until I got a call (well, first an email as there is no cell service in Canyonlands!) to go to Grand Canyon National Park for work. We were shocked that I could get a season in at THE Grand Canyon and so I jumped at the chance to do it. My superiors were fine with me moving to another park, and so we started the season in one park and ended in another. (Actually did almost a full five months with Grand Canyon.) Also for the first time, Sasha got a job with the Grand Canyon Association. He excelled at the job as well - helping people with where to go and manages to do some selling as well.
So the Grand Canyon was excellent for a first season there. We had some friends come out to check out the canyon and to see us, and that was very nice. I was able to do some new programs and be a part of the Star Party in June which I absolutely LOVED. After that was over, it started getting hot, not crazy hot, but still pretty hot. Sasha wanted to do more hiking alone, and I was worried (reading some books like Over the Edge, and having a couple of deaths in the Park did not help the worrying.) It seemed like I was scared of many different things and constantly.
I started to have some digestive problems. I do not know if it was because of the worrying or not, but I finally went to a naturapathic doctor who suggested (after I took a few tests) that I give up eating wheat. It took a full two months to really get rid of the wheat in my body, especially since I would crave it. And also because we did not realize how much stuff has wheat flour in things. Of course bread and tortillas have wheat, but SOUP?? Yup, so it was crazy for a couple of months.
Then in the fall, the weather started to get quite good, especially in September. While my season at the Grand Canyon was nearly over, I got accepted to go to a workshop to learn how to use telescopes and become a better Dark Sky Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine! This was again through the Astronomy From the Ground Up group who I then got to meet and learn from as well. When I got back from Acadia (Sasha did not go with me, but instead kept working for the Association), I had a couple of days off, and then I too, started working for the Association as a sales associate. Because I knew the place inside and out at the museum, sales went up considerably! I was asked by the association if I would like to give up my Ranger job and work for them instead! While I kindly said no, it was quite a nice feeling to get that offer.
So we stayed for the month of October, starting to freeze out a bit as it turned colder, but then our friends came the last week of October. It was just for a couple of days but it was so great to see them, that they got their own page on the website!
Then came November, and getting blistery cold, so we packed up our rig, and headed off for another season at Lake Mead. We will be staying at Lake Mead for the longest time this year, an almost full five months. We started off just getting familar with the park again but this time we had a government vehicle which we could use, access to the government computer and keys to get into the buildings. I had more responsibilities and Sasha would be leading hikes. All in all, getting to do some things that as a paid Ranger, I would not have been able to do.
So that leads us to the end of 2011. But we are still here at Lake Mead, and will be here until March 2012, when we will head back to the Grand Canyon for another season.
I also hope for 2012 that I will finally get to finish the website to make the old pages look like the new format. It will take a bunch of work, and right now I am doing quite a bit: writing a manual for training Interpreters on Astronomy, making a new program while using a telescope, taking an online class about Globe at Night (counting the stars wherever you are) and trying to set up a Star Party at Lake Mead before we hit Grand Canyon. I have also been asked to give a program/talk/presentation at the Grand Canyon Star Party in June. Plus I want to finish up an Eppley course - Conducted Activities Advanced course with a coach. It will be my third course, but then I was also asked to do a webpage on the Dark Sky for Lake Mead. Do you think I have too much on my plate? But I love the dark sky so much, I just have to figure out how to get it all on paper.
Next year will be interesting, I am sure. Lots of pictures and hopefully all the pages and all the links going to the right places. We will hope!
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The Months are now a little different, I totally changed everything around. Expenses are now lower on the page. Sasha wanted it that way, and so I have switched it. But you can still see each year's expenses, just click on that year.
| Picture Pages | Expenses |
|---|---|
| January | January |
| February | February |
| March | March |
| April | April |
| May | May |
| June | June |
| July | July |
| August | August |
| September | September |
| October | October |
| November | November |
| December | December |
So the home page of 2011 is below.
..
..
December 6th: We are at the Library, I have put up some more pictures for the December page please check it out. I was not able to get them all up yet but I will soon. We are going for a hike tomorrow with some other folks in the volunteer village, and then I hope to work on the telescope again tomorrow night. Pictures of tomorrow's hike will be ready as soon as Sasha takes them and then resizes them. Soon, always soon...
December 4th: We are at the Water Safety building here in the park, working on our computers and surfing! They have wifi here, which is nice, so we can use our laptops on their systems. So Check out November, I have uploaded a few more thoughts.
November 30th: We have been doing a bunch of hikes lately, so I haven't been putting stuff on the website. We have been averaging at least two or three hikes a week, then two days of "working" for Lake Mead. I have been trying to get the Telescope that the park just got, aligned properly so that we can use it on a program. But I am doing something wrong, not exactly sure what it is, so I am getting some help. You can check out our November page to see some of the pictures we have.
Also I now have the October and November expenses up with their explanations.
November 18th: I have a new page up, called Leo & Karyn Visit that happened in October. And the October page is finished as well.
November 16: At the library working on Eppley and the website. We will head to a lunch buffet and then come back to the library.
November 3rd: We have left Grand Canyon and are right now in Kingman, AZ. We are staying here for two nights as we had some problems with the truck. All will be explained on the November page. We just finished up September Pictures page, and the September Expenses.
October 17th: We only have two more weeks here in Grand Canyon National Park, and then we head to Lake Mead for the late fall and winter. Lots of new pages up, please check them out. Also, down below, I talked about a young man from Morocco that lost his hand, and had asked for donations. Well, we reached our goal, so the donation box was taken down. Thanks to those that helped out!
Already October, that page is starting to have some stuff on it! Wow, the days are going fast. My birthday was October 6th, and it was a great day, very relaxing. Today is October 7th, and we are at the Rec Center in the village, getting some pages and some pictures uploaded. One of the best pictures from Maine is on the September page, and there were some extra expenses that Sasha told me about after the month was up, so I made changes to the September Expenses page.
Well, I am back from Maine, just in the nick of time too, as the last day was a little rainy, but no fog or really cold weather. But now if you look, it is colder and rainier than before. So it is nice to be home. I will be working for Grand Canyon Association (same as Sasha) for the month of October. And I will have pictures of September up shortly. But first, check out the expenses of August and September, now up.
So I am traveling to Bangor, Maine today (September 23rd and 24th), I took a red-eye flight. So I am going from Phoenix, Arizona, to Atlanta, Georgia, to New York, New York, to Bangor, Maine. While the red eye was tough - hello 36" seats and we were packed like sardines, I still managed to sleep for at least a couple of hours. And I am now awake for a few, had a yogurt and fruit salad breakfast ($5 - again HELLO!) and I am people watching. There is no free internet at the Atlanta airport. Check out September 2011 - I have actually written some stuff in it, and August and September Expenses will be up soon.
Last day of work as a park ranger, September 22nd (for this season!) When I come back from Maine, I will be working as a Sales Associate for Grand Canyon Association. That is, if the government is not shut down. If the government shuts down, then the park shuts down. That means that the park is closed, and you can not go on the trails. You can still live there, but you do not get paid, and you still have to pay rent and utilities. But everything is closed. The stores, the restaurants, places to check out, all closed. Closing down the government does not just mean government, it also means the companies who depend on the government to be open.
September 18th: Headed into the Village today, going for shopping and to upload pictures. I have gotten some of the 2008 pages done, but I have to do some more to them. However, if you would like to see what was happening back then, check them out: Full-Timing in 2008.
September 16th: Happy Birthday to My Sister, Karen!
I completed the 2009 pages, and I am now working on the 2008 pages to get them to look like our other pages. Like I have said before, it takes a while to get these things done. I have also been working on new articles, and my season at Grand Canyon as a Park Ranger is almost over, I only have one more week left. Then it is off to Acadia National Park for a week of training in Astronomy and then in October I will be working for Grand Canyon Association (like Sasha) for a month. Then we will be back at Lake Mead for the winter.
Also, I have found new pictures that I did not have in the website before, so I will be putting them up on the website and letting you all know as soon as they get up there. I am hoping for the end of September.
I realize that the September page does not have anything on it right now, we have been a little busy. But it will. SOON.
September 7th: Almost done with 2009 pages, and now we also have an Articles page. These pages I put up back in 2009, but they are still relevant for today. I have updated them a bit first, but now they are ready. I am sure I will have some missing links but all of the pages are here. You might have to click the back button to get back here, but ultimately, all will work. I am hoping by the end of the year.
Sasha took a ride the other day, and he got so muddy, it took him two days to clean off his bike. I think it is now clean and in the process, he also cleaned my scooter. Yea!
We will be headed into the village tomorrow, September 8th, so that I can fill out the paperwork to work for GCA (Grand Canyon Association) the same company that Sasha works for. I will begin working for them in October.
September 2nd: Well, I jumped ahead of myself, and did not get the Articles page finished so it is still going to the old place. However, I have gotten 2009 pages almost all done! Very excited to have them with the new format. I am sure there are some linking problems still, so please be patient with me, and I am sure to get it done in the next couple of days.
August 29th & 30th: We went to Tim and Christine's wedding on the afternoon of August 29th and the reception that evening at Ten X group campground. The wedding was at the rim of the Grand Canyon, where we do our sunset talks, and it was beautiful. But the reception area was fabulous! They had candles inside of spray painted jars. She had been collecting these jars ever since we first came to the Grand Canyon, back in April! But you know, we did not take a single picture! Oh well.
So we stayed over at Ten X in the group campground sites with only a few other people and helped clean up on August 30th. And then we came to Flagstaff. We got a motel room this time, but Wednesday night we will head into the San Francisco Peaks area.
New Page: Articles: I had them back in 2009, but they were no longer in the navigation, so I decided to put them back in. I also got the 2009 finished up, and so old pages with the new design.
August 24th: We are going back into Flagstaff. Sasha is selling his computer. But that is not the biggest news I have:
The Donation box has been removed, they have reached the goal, thanks to your generous donations! I was able to send the cash, and did not incur any fees from PayPal.
Charlie is a friend of mine who is in the Peace Corps and is in Morocco right now.
Charlie has befriended a 17-year old young man, named Aziz Atmani. They met as they were both walking near the village where Charlie lives. Aziz was severely burned in an explosion last year and had to have his left hand amputated. Charlie had the idea to try to help this young man obtain a prosthetic hand. He arranged to have a doctor evaluate if Aziz is a good candidate for this and he is. So Charlie has received permission from the Peace Corps to do some fundraising to obtain the $2500 (U S dollars) to have a prosthetic hand made for Aziz.
Laura of Laura-n-Sasha: Since we are always looking to help our fellow man, will you make a donation? All of the monies, minus the fees of PayPal, will go to help Aziz get his hand.
And thanks to Carolyn and Ed as being the first to donate!
Sasha is going to sell his computer to a young man here in Flagstaff, going to college. He will get a MacBook Pro like mine sometime next week. We are also looking for a new camping chair for me. Tomorrow we will go into the Village to work out and do some more uploading of the website. The year 2009 is coming along well, I should have those pages up by the end of August.
August 17th: Warm day, and we are going to go into the village to get some internet and check out the work-out room
August 16th: Obviously we were not in Flagstaff the entire time. But I am getting some tests done that take a little while. I feel overall, mostly healthy, but there is a slight bug in my stomach. Maybe if I zap it with lots of yogurt, it'll stop? We will see. We are going to go into the village today. We went for a short hike last night and then saw one of my co-workers programs. He did a great job.
Going through the Road Trip of 2009. Man, it is a bit of work to get the road trip done. I will have an extra navigation for it.
We have this insane car alarm going off somewhere near us, we think it is in the Desert View parking lot. It has been going off for the past hour, and although there are supposedly rangers on the scene, it is still not off. Sasha said that he would be able to disable it - take a rock, smash the window, open the hood and unplug the battery cables. I would be inclined to do the same, if I knew how.
We are in Flagstaff on August 10th, to get the rear brakes done on the truck as well as a wellness check for me. We just had lunch at The Place, across the street from the Brake Masters and I hope to get to my doc appointment soon.
August pages are now up, I have a few pages. Just go to August 2011, or the continuing Road Trip page, or The Rest of August. I finished all of the road trip pages (there were quite a few) and now have the rest of August in its own page.
August is now up, and the expenses did not change all that much for July. August, now has some great pictures on it, actually quite a few... I also put in some more pictures into July, so those are now up.
We took a couple of days (our weekend) to check out Kanab, Kaibab Forest and some visitor centers near Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Vermillion Cliffs, and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We also went to Page, AZ (Huge disappointment there - everything was very expensive and no places to stay.)
I also finished up July, I had more pictures of Sunsets and Viewpoints, and my evening program. I had to wait until we could upload the pictures (there were lots, there always are...) which actually happened in August. But anyway, these pages are pretty good. Actually, I had more than just July 2011, there is also Laura's Evening Program and Taking a Ride 7-11.
July 31st: So is something going to happen soon? Well, I am working on the 2009 pages, putting in lost pictures that Sasha resized for me to put into the website. I also am revamping some articles that I wrote back then about Google Adsense and other pages. So hopefully in August I will get them done. I also will not put up the 2009 pages until I can upload the lost pictures as well. Then I will do a massive upload and you will be able to see some cool stuff for 2009. Thanks for being patient.
Also, thanks to all who look at the website. We had just about 6,500 unique hits for the month of July. At least 200 hits a day! Thank you for staying with us and checking us out!
I have been doing a bunch of things for my career as a Park Ranger. We have these courses online: Eppley Institute, that help us give the public a better program and better contacts when they see us. These trainings help us help others better. So I just finished another course and my coach said I wrote very well! It is nice to hear and getting a pat on the back is always nice. So I will be taking a new course starting in August as well.
I usually try to have at least one training a year, and as this is my third year as a Park Ranger, well, it makes sense to get this one done as well. So while I may have a bit on my plate, I feel comfortable about it.
July 27th: Yahoo! The Year of 2011 is finished up to July and I managed to do it before July was over!!! I want to thank all those who keep coming back to see what is going on. Really do appreciate you totally!
I plan on continuing to work on the site, especially trying to get the other years up to look similar to the home page. Ultimately, everything should look the same but please realize that this site and the other sites before it, goes back to 2005! That is how long Laura-n-Sasha.com has been in existence, longer than lots of other websites. And before it went live, it was a twinkle in my eye. So time to get back to work. But all the way up to July 2011 is done, as well as the expenses.
July 21st: Sasha went shopping in Flagstaff while I stayed at a Wildflower restuarant and did massive amounts of uploading. Now please realize, not everything will work. Best thing to do is to go back to the home page. Ultimately everything will work, I am still figuring it all out. And putting in pictures. But at least all of the pictures that we have UP to and including in July, are on the server. And you will see them as soon as I make the pages.
July 20th: Finished all of the navigational pages for 2011. So all of the clicks you do to get to those pages SHOULD work. Of course, please realize that I have no idea what we are going to be doing in October, November and December of this year, so there are no expenses nor pictures. And while we know we are going to be in Grand Canyon until the end of September, I have no idea what our expenses are for August and September. But thankfully, I have started with the July expenses, and June expenses are done.
I have also spent pretty much all day putting in the pictures for February. Let me tell you, we had tons of pictures. But what use is it to take pictures unless you are going to use them in some way? So we have tons of pictures. We always do. And because I have been behind on putting them into the website, it takes a longer time to get them all in afterwards. I hope to change that by the end of this month. I am working pretty diligently to get all of our fabulous pictures up so you can see them. However, we do not have high speed interent, so I have to wait until we go to the library or some other place so that I can upload all those megabytes of data.
I would be banging my head on the table if I did the uploading here at the rig. Verizon just does not come in well here, so we struggle and deal as we are still under contract with these guys and do not want to have to pay extra to get out. I think by November we will be out, and then it is good-bye Verizon, hello whoever is better without a contract. OK, Sasha is saying that it will still be Verizon, but it will not give better reception here, but we not be hitting our heads on the 5 GB. Oh Well.
July 19th: More pages up and new ones made. We did lots of hiking in January, 2011. So You can see two new pages: Hiking in January, and Nevada Hiking as well. Plus, April, May, and June have some new stuff, as well as the expenses of June is done. I will start working on July shortly.
July 14th: Finished with November 2010, including the Thanksgiving pictures! And I now have December up too, but we have lots of pictures for December 2010.
OK, so all of 2010 is now up. I will be making some major changes in the layout, the navigation mostly. I want to make sure all of the links are working properly. If you find a link that seems to be missing or goes to no-man's land, drop me line and I will fix it. We are in a library right now so that I can do some updating of the computer and upload January 2011 pictures, plus all of these pages. Thanks for looking!
July 13th: Working on the website a bit, hope to have all of 2010 done with the pictures and everything. I will be changing around the navigation soon, more people are looking at our adventures than our expenses, and so I want the navigation to reflect that. Once I have 2010 done, then 2011 will not be so far behind! Just have to get the pictures from Sasha.
Well, did not get all of it done, just no way. And then had to find the lost pictures, (found) and then I still have to make some new pages. November will be really fun, lots of stuff going on and lots of pictures. But September is completed and so is October along with The RALLY! I did two pages of The Rally, and we had lots of pictures.
November is nearly done, just have to get Thanksgiving pictures up, but I am beat, been working on it all day.
July 7th: Happy Birthday to my friend, Darlene Kiss and we have a few more pages up: July 2010 (only a year later, sigh...), Road Trip in July as well as the Lish Family Road Trip - when you go riding with us, you get great pictures. So July is completed, So is August, and September 2010!
July 6th: Some of June's pages are up: June 2010, Canyon Rim - Needles Overlook, and the page of Manti La Sal Ride with Sasha (finished it, I am getting lots done here.)
Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July, I was working and Sasha was getting us ready for a small trip to Flagstaff. We are going to stay in a hotel/motel rather than camp as the Monsoon Season is now here. Basically that mean that there is rain. Sometimes not too bad, other times, watch out for the floods.
July 2nd: IT is hot, real hot, they only thing I want to do is take a cool shower and lie around. But no, have to work this holiday weekend and so does Sasha, both on Saturday and Sunday. At least this is a short week for me. So where is it cool? Below 90 degrees out west?
June 30th: Lots of new pages up of things that happened last year. You will understand once you start to see the pictures. I will not be able to get them all up but here is just a little list of what I have been doing in the past couple of days: But please do not click on these yet, you will just get frustrated. We have a low connection speed here in Grand Canyon and it will take me about 3 hours of really good speeds to get all of these pictures up. Thanks!
- Home Page
- January 2011 Text
- February 2011 Text
- March 2011 Text
- April 2011 Text
- April 2011 Expenses
- May 2011 Expenses
- June 2011 Expenses
- April 2010 Pictures: More Hiking and Peek-a-boo Trail
- May 2010 Pictures: Laura's Jeeping Canyonlands, Laura & Sasha at iSky, Ride to Canyon Rim, Hiking to Chesler Park, Jeeps on Elephant Hill, Colorado River Overlook
- August 2010 is Up! Have at least four pages: August page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4
- September 2010 is almost finished: Sasha and Lockhart Basin, Last Hike in Canyonlands, Heading Back East
June and July should be up soon, I just have to get to higher speed internet than we have here at the rig.
June 29th - working hard on the website now that I have a couple of days off. I am putting in tons of pictures from 2010!!! August 2010 had over four pages of pictures, some of which you may have seen, but there are now more! Plus September, October, November and December pictures (when we went back east and visited family.) So check them out.
We went through a patch of colds and coughs but are making it through OK. Also, I was able to work in the Village as part of the Star Party this week (June 18th through the 25th) and there were tons of astronomers with their telescopes for everyone to see. I was able to give two constellation tours, one on June 19th, and one on June 20th. Hopefully I will be able to give one on June 25th. They went very well. Also - did TWO tours on June 25th - both with about 45 people at each. Maybe I can do a constellation tour on a new moon evening in the village, that sure would be fun!
June 1st: We are doing well, Sasha and I are both working. Sasha is only working three days a week and he is enjoying it, and I have started to give programs and I am enjoying myself too. We have not gone on any major hikes or adventures as we are trying to comprehend such a great park, but it will happen soon.
Also, it has been COLD! Winds of 55 miles per hour, does not make for fun living. Although I can see the San Francisco Peaks from my dinette window, the cold blasts we have been having, were not fun. However, it is finally starting to warm up. But we are still having winds. I guess they will continue until they don't, and then we will want them (so I have been told.)
Anyhoo, we have the May Expenses up. We had to pay health insurance this month, so that is the biggest expense. Otherwise, we are right on target.
We are here at Grand Canyon National Park and we are getting used to the huge park. We are taking a bit of time to get familar with the park, and have gone into Flagstaff a couple of times so far. So I have made changes to the April expenses, as they have changed a little bit.
Big BIG News: I had not been posting in a while to get the news to be really true, now it is. While I love working at Canyonlands National Park, I received an offer from the Grand Canyon National Park in the middle of March. Because of vacation and off days of the parties involved, and with a possible government shut-down, the paperwork did not go through until April 8th or so. There was no way to get me in for this coming week, so I will start working at the Grand Canyon NP on April 25th.
Which is good for Canyonlands as they will have the Jeep Safari coming in this week (April 16th-24th), and I will be able to help them out. Then we will make a quick dash to the Desert View district of the Grand Canyon where I will start working. I am so excited! I had hoped to one day work at the Grand Canyon, but I just did not think it would be this early in my career. This is only my third season working as a seasonal park ranger so it is a thrill.
Also, it was great to have Bo here once more. He came in on April 11th, went hiking with Sasha on a great hike, and then had to leave the next day. At least I got to see him in the evening and morning. That was cool. Someday, I will put up the pictures and their route.
The expenses of March are also up, as well as the April expenses up too, soon. I am hoping that the April expenses will be really low. I am hoping for less than $1,000 this month. That would be nice after an expensive winter. And May will be expensive as we have to pay for health insurance for the both of us for six months. Health insurance when we are not sick. And not preventive care. Oh well, you know my views on this...
I know I am very late on some of the pictures, but this is pretty good timing (HAHA!) I have April 2010 pictures up. These pictures will be of Chesler Park in Canyonlands, Needles District. I will try to get a bunch more up real soon. Plus we had pictures when we went out together, on a beautiful April 9th day. We also had pictures of when Sasha went out alone to Peek-a-boo trail.
New Picture of our rig on the 2011 pages! We will have a new picture of us on the expenses for 2011 as soon as we can find a good one. We are having to go into town a little earlier than expected because our small space heater is not working properly and we have been in 32 and below degrees weather for the evenings. A small heater will keep our bedroom warm enough when sleeping.
March 12: We are at Canyonlands National Park! Yahoo. It only took about 2 hours to get into our site. Even though my boss drove over the sand to pack it down, it is still a pain in the yazee to get the wheels on two very thin concrete strips. And having to worry about where the water and sewer lines are, plus not hitting the outhouse and the left-over junk from years past. But we are in and are loving it. We stayed out for a little bit and saw a few stars, saw the Winter Hexagon around the moon. So beautiful. Even though there are clouds, getting to see that is pretty cool.
March expenses are up, even though March is not yet over, just so you can see the running total. We are hoping that it will be less than February's expenses.
March 1st: We have finished up the expenses for January and February. Check them out! We are spending a bit of time getting the truck and everything else ready for moving back to Canyonlands National Park in March. My first day back in March 14th!
Happy Birthday to my Mom, February 27th!
February 2 - Groundhog Day and spring is on its way. Of course most of us are getting cold weather so who knows for sure!
Been super busy, working on two classes: one is for Sky Rangers - Learning about the night sky, the stars, planets and the cosmos; and the other is an Eppley Advanced Class called Informal Visitor Contacts. Plus, I am doing a couple of talks and hikes here at Lake Mead, so it has been very exciting. Plus we are trying to hike at least three times a week, plus doing the volunteering during the weekends. SO lots to do and less time with the site. But As you can see, I at least have the new navigation up, just have to make it work. HAHA.
February 1st: We went on a 5.36 mile hike close to Horsethief Canyon. The wind was blowing and gusting at ~45-60 mph. Sun was shining, grit was blowing and we bagged the hike just before the road gave out. All uphill going in, and all downhill going out. But while our faces look red, we at least got some good exercise. Now to do it without the wind.
January 26th: We went on a nice hike today, 5.6 miles to Anniversary Mine and just a little bit past that. We decided not to go into the Narrows for today, but maybe soon we will be back. Loved the colors of that hike-the reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and purples. Beautiful!
January 21st: Down to the Strip we go!
January 19th: I led a Full Moon Hike at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Historical Railroad Trail.
January 15th: Off to go hiking - we will see how many miles this one is - Liberty Bell Arch, here we come!
January 13th: Going out for a walk in the half moonlight. I will be giving a full moon hike next Wednesday along the Historic Railroad Trail at Lake Mead NRA. It will be about a 2.5 mile hike. I want to see if we can use the red lights or if we need regular flashlights. We got back from the hike, we are now going to have dinner, improvisation dinner and watch a movie on our new TV. Hike was nice, saw Orion, the half moon and Cassiopeia. Lots of Light Pollution, but this is close to Vegas after all. Going through the tunnels was quite interesting - very very dark, until someone turned on his headlamp!
January 9th: My Thighs are Burning! After a 9.7 mile hike in five hours; on and in an igneous rock / gravel wash. First going down 4.5 miles, got lost for .5 miles trying to find a trail to hot springs, then a steady and gradual walk through the gravel/sand wash coming back up (4.5 miles UP!)
January 1st- Happy New Year Everyone!
January - New place and New Year, plus new pages on the site. I am trying to get this up-to-date, have the December numbers up as well as the End of the Year amounts.