May 2007

Where in the World is Wombat? Final Day

Day Eight: 222 mile – Lake Mead take out.
They are camped at mile 222 tonight. I know this because they called! Twice! The conversations lasted a bit longer this time, but not much. First conversation was with my Dad, the second was with Paul.
— They visited Pumpkin Spring (no, they didn’t drink the water) but climbed up to a ledge and jumped, all three of them together, into the water below. They can’t wait to see the picture of it.— They wanted to know where the helicopter pad was that we landed on in 2004. [Backstory: one of my Dad’s Naval Academy classmates runs a helicopter company out of Las Vegas. In May of 2004, all seven of us (Mom, Dad, me, Paul, Skip, Emily, and a six-month old Will) flew out to Las Vegas and took an all day tour. We had lunch in the Grand Canyon, flew over Bryce, and then over Zion… including an incredible fly-over of the Narrows and right over Angel’s Landing. It was spectacular.] I’d plotted the helipad the night before and was able to look on Google Earth and figure out the location for them. They’ll pass it tomorrow.
— Tomorrow, they raft to Separation Canyon, then get picked up by speed boats who will fast-track them to Pearce Ferry, where they will get the bus back to Las Vegas. They will meet the speed boats around 9am and then have another 2 or so hours until Pearce Landing.

Paul said that he’d missed the kids, badly, since about Day 3 or 4. I mentioned that Kate had just thrown up and Will had just had an accident… “do you still miss them?” This information didn’t deter his desire to be back here with them, though. Good thing, because I think my Mom and I are hopping on a cruise once we pick up Paul and Dad from the airport.

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Where in the World is Wombat? Day Seven

Last night, our floating fellas camped out beneath the overlook at Toroweap. I know, because at 10:12pm (our time; 8:12 their time) my Dad called and told us so. It was just about the only thing he told us before the satellite connection gave out. That beach in the picture below? We’re pretty sure that is where they camped.If you’ve been to my parents house and seen THE POSTERS, you’ve seen Toroweap. A huge photographic poster of Toroweap overlook hangs among the 7 million or so other National Park posters of all sizes hung in an incredible mosaic style within an inch of each other, filling every inch of wall, all the way up to the peaked, raised ceiling on two sides of the room. How they hung the posters is a marvel so impressive, it sits right up there with the building of the Hoover Dam. Delicate Arch, my Dad’s most favorite monument, holds the crown position at the top. But Toroweap is there, too, and hard to miss. Even in pictures, it’s a striking view.When my parents visited the North Rim (their words: “if you can only go once, skip the South Rim and see the North”) they hiked to Toroweap Point and hung around playing chicken with the canyon edge. (I’ve seen the pictures. They were crazy. One strong gust would have been very unlucky for them on that day.) At some point, they noticed rafts coming down the river and hiked down the side of Toroweap to watch the rafts at Lava Falls. They noticed the camps on the river and watched the leaders pull over the scout the rapids. My Mom says that you could hear Lava Falls from Toroweap, growing louder as they descended. Here is another account:

I looked over an edge and down into a 3,000-foot-deep chasm. I had never seen anything so large or so deep, and in my joy began dancing atop a slab of rock, inches from perdition. It was the happiest brush with death I’ll ever have.

At the overlook there, the Grand Canyon simplifies itself. Instead of the busy look the canyon has upstream, with dozens of tributaries cutting down to the Colorado River, and a tumult of mesas crowding around the inner gorge, here the canyon is a simple cut in the earth with some mesas and buttes back from the edge. The river flows between vertical walls that are twice the height of the Sears Tower in Chicago, and you can look straight down upon it. Depending on the wind and the day, you can hear the river, usually as a distant whisper. The irony of that soft sound isn’t lost on you: The Colorado at this point has Class 5 rapids, the toughest ones rafters can face. They flow over the remnants of a 600-foot-high natural dam created by a volcanic eruption thousands of years before. The dam backed the Colorado up and created a vast lake that lasted for years. But the Colorado eventually tore down the dam, eroding and wedging it apart, and slamming big boulders into it during floods. Yet from a vantage 3,000 feet above it, this ferocious natural force seemed placid and purring.

With nothing to obstruct your view into the inner gorge, Toroweap is probably the best place in the national park to get a sense of how big the Grand Canyon is. Further east at South or North Rim, you can sense its vastness in a more panoramic manner. The canyon sprawls before you, impressing with its horizontal size, but it never quite gives you an adequate sense of its vertical scale. At Toroweap, the drop is so deep and dramatic that you finally “get it.” There are bigger places on earth than Toroweap – the glaciers of Alaska come to mind, as well as the enormous mass of Mt. McKinley – but none can give a stronger impression of sheer immensity.

My Mom’s take is similar, although in her words, the sound of Lava Falls is a roar: “and I mean, hear the ROAR.” Last night, I imagine that Dad, Paul, and Skip fell asleep to that sound.

So, their day’s itinerary: “Day 7: 178-222 mile. Lava falls, last night.”This is a geologic explanation of Lava Falls:

Prospect Canyon is of particular interest. It has been filled several times with lava flows and is only just starting to erode a new canyon down to the river. Also, these lava flows sit right on the fault line, and each time the fault moves, it shatters some of the old lava. The watershed for the canyon extends some 20 miles further south, which means a large amount of water can come down the canyon during a flash flood. The combination of large amounts of water, shattered rock, and a steep drop to the bottom of the Grand Canyon allows large volumes of debris to pile up where it meets the Colorado River. The result is Lava Falls Rapid.

Most of the Prospect Canyon debris fan was deposited in a huge debris flow about 3,000 years ago. This river blockage is responsible for Lava Falls Rapid and also backed up the Colorado River for at least 20 miles. River gradient is still relatively low for 20 miles upstream.

Prior to 1939 it was debatable whether Lava Falls or Hance Rapid was the “baddest” on the river. Then another debris flow (estimated at 35,000 cu. ft. per sec.) down Prospect added to the debris fan and settled the issue. In 1966 a major debris flow down Crystal Creek created Crystal Rapid and once again there is a “baddest” debate. Prospect Canyon had another debris flow on March 6, 1995 that constricted Lava Falls Rapid again, but not enough to settle the issue. As to which rapid will become the worst – stay tuned. It might happen just as you start a future raft trip.

I have never rafted in white water so I really don’t have a strong sense of the experience. I do however, have a hefty amount of respect for what could happen, and enough fear to keep me in line. To me, all the pictures and stories just make it sound like a seriously good time. Reading this — riding with the same company Dad-n-Sons are with! — helped.

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Weekend Redux

Saturday: Lakeside Mall for errands. Realized that we really don’t go to the Mall very often when Will asked what “MALL” meant. After the mall, we took Mom to late lunch at Marina Grill as a belated Mom’s Day treat. Then we took the kids to the Amusement area at City Park, where a parent got up in Will’s face (with no cause), causing an attendant to make him go to the back of the line, and me to morph into Momma Bear. Rather than cause a scene, I took Will away (okay… I caused a little scene) and followed up with management. The attendant apologized and we got several tickets back as compensation.

Sunday: The kids and I went to the Zoo for a playdate with Ana and Elliot. In that beautiful way of New Orleans, we ran into about half of Abeona House and hung out with Gabby and Alex, too. Multiple adults and enough kids to entertain each other… complete win-win. The kids had a BLAST running up and down Monkey Hill… Emmy became the waterfall climber (read: watchful parent) with them and suffered a back injury as a result. Despite the pain, she was able to come to my rescue when Will had a tough time leaving the ‘falls, making a great learning moment for me and helping me when I was running out of tricks. My Mom enjoyed a quiet morning, which included scrubbing my pots cleaner than they have ever been and washing every piece of clothing, linen, cloth, and cotton in the house. Have I mentioned how great it is to have a Mom in the house?

Monday: Morning. My Mom admits that school is a fantastic thing; much better than staying at home. I feel validated. And tired. We take the kids to the Aquarium, after finding the Children’s Museum Closed. Late afternoon trip to Target, where Will snatches a Lighting McQueen bubble bath off a shelf (despite knowing better) and I get frustrated when my Mom wants to get it for him. End story: I take it away, let him cry, explaining that I have to do it so that he doesn’t grow up to be a self-entitled jerk. We have a longer talk later about store etiquette and how we ask for things.

The weekend’s biggest shocker: I could not WAIT for this three-day weekend to END!

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Where in the World is Wombat? Day Six

Day Six: Mile 140-178. Havasu Canyon hike.
Some notes about today’s river ride, starting at about mile 144:

The inner canyon becomes precipitous for the next 25 river miles as the strata containing the slope-forming Bright Angel Shale dips below river level. This brings the Redwall/Muav Limestone layers down to river level, and this combination produces a massive cliff. Another factor contributing to the steep inner gorge is the river’s canyon-cutting that has propagated upstream from the Toroweap Fault.

Havasu is well-known, and for good reason. Here’s a brief description of Havasu Canyon:

Havasu Creek is another popular hike for rafting groups. The canyon itself is somewhat like a green oasis sandwiched between vertical cliffs. Havasu Creek is usually a light blue color due to dissolved limestone.

A much more in-depth and beautiful description of the Canyon, the Havasupai People, and the marvelous jewels within is located here. What is most well-known are Havasu Falls, situated much further up the Canyon on the reservation of the Havasupai Indians. This is not a place easy to access: you cannot drive there and if on foot, must hike two days to reach the village. There is a helipad, if you’ve access to a chartered ‘copter. Once there, you can enjoy the falls. My Dad is already talking about hiking out to Havasu — maybe next year? — and I will not miss this one. Although I don’t know who we’ll be able to get to come watch the kids!?

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Where in the World is Wombat? Day Five

Based on the brief conversation I had with my Dad before the phone gave up its signal, they started the day about three miles east of Deer Creek and were going to hike the Creek and Narrows. (Narrows are falls are pictured below.) Here’s the gouge:

A popular hike for rafting groups is to climb up from the river at the base of Deer Creek Falls to at least reach the open valley above the falls (small green area near the lower edge). As the trail zigzags up out of the schist and Tapeats Sandstone that forms the cliff next to the river, a spectacular view unfolds. (“Throat clutching view” might be equally descriptive.) If you continue to follow the creek up to Deer Spring, you get to see another large waterfall where the stream bursts out of a cave system in the limestone cliffs.
The trail up from the river uses a slope that is the result of a large slump (very slow motion landslide). Water is able to seep down through the broken material of the slump while the underlying solid rock keeps the water near the surface. As a result vegetation (including one of the few locations that Poison Ivy exists in the canyon) is able to grow in areas several hundred feet away from the river.

The poison ivy part has me a tinsey bit concerned for Paul (he gets poison ivy out of thin air) but I don’t think there is any real reason to worry. How could you when you’re in the middle of all this??(Side note: this is of Tapeats Creek confluence with the Colorado, which they saw either early Monday or Late Sunday.)

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They Called! They Called!

In an extremely short conversation at 7:15am where I spoke with my Dad and heard Paul say “hey you” before cutting out, I learned that they:
— had satellite phone reception for the first time this morning
— are having an amazing time; beyond imagination
— did hike Elves Chasm (see yesterday’s Where in the World)
— were starting their day from a camp about 3 miles east of Deer Creek (which they were going to hike later in the day)

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Where in the World is Wombat? Day Four

The family’s City Slickers had “big rapid day” today. This is the complete description from the guide. They went from about mile 75-120.
I found this amazing website that helped piece together the maps below. Google earth actually picked up some of the white water from a few of the rapids, so here are so close-ups to check it out.
Map above — they passed by the main Grand Canyon National Park Visitor’s Center on the South Rim. Also, they went under the bridge that connects North and South Rims and allows visitors to travel from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch, which is located up Bright Angel Creek. When we descended the Canyon back in ’94, we did not go down as far as the Colorado (just a day trip) but we went far enough to see the river… taking Bright Angel Trail the whole way.
These two points off of Tonto Plateau are two of the most famous for big canyon views… pictures further below.
More of their trip today…
Views from Pima Point from NPS. Elves Chasm…I don’t know if they hiked here, but it is a well-loved spot along their path.
From Hopi Point
View of the River from Hopi Point.

Side note: Dad took a satellite phone on the insistence of work… we thought they’d call us at some point on the trip, if the phone functioned. My guess would have been that today would have been the most likely range for the phone to pick up a signal. No call!

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Should’ve asked for the pony

Kate is quiet, relatively still, curled up at my side. She looks up from nursing, smiles her biggest, sweetest smile, and reaches her hand up to rest at my cheek. If, in this moment, she were to ask me for a pony, she’d be saddled up the next day.

Instead, she looks deep in my eyes and says: “Da Da.”

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Where in the World is Wombat? Day 3

Day Three: 50-75 mile, possible stop at Little Colorado River or Nankoweap Indian Ruins (Anasazi Granaries).
(Picture above: Anasazi Granaries at Nankoweap.)

The Nankoweap and Little Nankoweap Creeks drain into the Colorado River at the Nankoweap Delta, one of the largest deltas in the Grand Canyon. Between 900 and 1150, Ancestral Puebloans built an impressive row of granaries and other storage structures 500 feet up the cliff face. Accessible by a recently produced footpath, the granaries stored corn, squash, beans, and other crops. Although the word “weap” is Paiute for canyon or wash, the precise definition of Nankoweap — “place where people were killed” or “singing or echo canyon,” depending on the source — is lost. Major John Wesley Powell supervised the building of the Nankoweap Trail, accessible from the North Rim, in 1882-1883 for a geologic expedition.

The Granaries are at mile 53. Beyond them is the confluence of the Little Colorado River with the Colorado… and the point where the Grand Canyon officially begins.
They are getting ready to ride some big rapids, because all the rough guide has for tomorrow is “big rapid day.”

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If Only Junior Walker had Known

Over the car radio, Junior Walker and the All-Stars start belting out, “What Does it Take (To Win Your Love)” launching my Mother into a ‘my generation made the only music that has ever been and will ever be’ moment. (Granted, she has a point, it being Motown and all.)

Mid-lecture on the lasting appeal of the song, she turns to rhetorically ask Will: “Will, What Does It Take to Win Your Love for Me?”

In a surprise move, Will answers:
“Lobster.”

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