Havasupai Trip

This past week has been one of the best weeks of my life. I spent the majority of last week at Havasupai which, for those of you who don't know, is located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon just outside of Kingman, Arizona. The following people went, my brother Shad, my sister Lori, her husband Brady, and all of his brothers, the wife of one of his brothers, and two of his best friends.

At first I was kind of hesitant about going but in the end I am glad I decided to go. We left on Wednesday July 23rd. Before we left we took my other sister to Tucanos for her birthday which, was fun. I love Tucanos. Anyway after lunch we took my sister back to work and we met up with the rest of the family and in-laws bought food that we would need for the road and food that we would be eating while camping. We then started the long drive from Orem, Utah to Kingman, AZ. The drive was pretty fun, we stopped in Saint George to drop off some electrical items at my brother-in-laws grandparents home then continued the drive. The next stop was at Wal-Mart in Henderson, NV to get some drinks, water shoes and a few other things and then it was back on the road. At 4 am, we finally pulled into the parking lot where the entrance to the trail that would take us to Havasu Village. We loaded up our backpacks and began the 8 mile hike in. It was still dark and the sun was about an hour away from rising so we used flashlights for the first few miles.  

The sunrise in The Grand Canyon, was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. It was so quiet and the only only noise were the bats flying over head and one of Brady's brothers and I conversing. Occasionally we would see a guy from the Havasu Tribe ride past us with a team of mules and horses and as we got closer they would tell us how much further we had left.  At one point we saw a guy asleep on a boulder.  My guess is he slept there overnight though, I doubt he was comfortable.







 

I finally realized how close we were when small streams started appearing.  These streams eventually turned into rivers and required bridges to get across them.  Finally about three or four hours later from the time we started hiking in, we entered the village.  We checked in and paid for the campsite and then hiked about another mile. We finally knew that our hike was at an end when we saw Havasu Falls, and let me tell you it was a beautiful site. After taking in the site and taking a few pictures, we went and found our campsite, set up hammocks, tents, and then changed and ran back to Havasu Falls and played in the water.  

I have never seen water so blue and so clear in my life it was amazing. Jumping into the pool of water was even better.  The water, to our surprise, was actually colder than we expected but moments after diving in it was all better. We jumped off boulders, and went behind Havasu Falls and jumped from a cove behind it, directly into the waterfall which was pretty cool and kind of frightening at the same time. There were some  water falls that were smaller than Havasu Falls that we jumped off as well. After playing in the falls for a couple of hours we headed back to our campsite, had lunch and then some of us took naps and some went back to play in the water again.  I was one who took a nap. When I woke up it was time for dinner.

After dinner we played card games and just conversed. I was pretty tired so I went back to my hammock and went back to sleep. I woke up at around 3 am to aching legs and an aching back.  The way I had set up my hammock was not the best position for my legs and back to be comfortable.  I rolled out of the hammock and while doing so almost fell into the river that was right next to me but I managed to catch my balance.  I then saw a dog that had fallen asleep close to my hammock. I guess my stumbling around woke him up to cause he stood up and watched move from the hammock to the table.  When the dog saw that I had moved to the table he walked to the table and laid down next to it.  I sat down and started playing the dog. This dog was pretty cool.  I played with the dog for about an hour and a half before sleep returned and I laid down on the table, covered myself from head to toe with my blanket, and went back to sleep.

The following morning my sister and her husband Brady, made pancakes for breakfast. They turned out pretty good but then again, I could eat pancakes anytime of day. After breakfast, we cleaned up and walked about 5-10 minutes to the start of the trail to get down to Moony Falls.

That trail will most likely go down as one of the most narrow and steep trails I have ever and will ever been on.  This trail was so narrow that only one person could go at a time.  The trail was so steep that you would have to hang on to a long chain and pieces of steel that the tribe had placed along the trail.  What was even more nerve racking, was the way back up when the trail was wet due to peoples wet shoes.  We had to wear shoes while in the water because a lot of the rocks were sharp.  That trail, at least to me, reminded me of life and how hard it can be. How one slip no matter how big or small can end up seriously hurting or killing us physically or spiritually. However we do have guidance.  The chains and steel grips that have been placed to help us on our journey down the narrow path can, in way, represent the gospel of Jesus Christ. As long as we  hang on to the principles of the gospel and trust in it and Him, we will make to the end of the trail no matter

how steep,narrow,or scary it maybe.

When we got to the bottom, there was this little island between two streams, we walked to the island and placed our lunch, cameras, and shirts, there and went swimming in Moony Falls.  There were some people who were climbing up the side of the falls going a good 25-30 feet above the surface of the water and jumping in. Moony Falls is 100 feet higher than Havasu Falls so the current it made was a lot stronger and made getting behind the waterfall almost impossible. We had to find  hand and foot grips along the cliff wall to get behind both Havasu and Moony Falls. Once behind them, it was almost impossible to see or hear anything and at some parts, hard to breathe due to the heavy water sprays. I honestly don't know what to compare that feeling too. After playing in Moony Falls we had lunch and then floated down the river and jumped of other significantly smaller waterfalls.  We eventually came to a rope swing and played on that for about 30 minutes.  At one point I almost seriously injured myself. Off to the left of the rope swing were some sharp rocks that were sticking out of the water. I swung out and left gliding over those rocks barely missing them. If I had hit I would have had several gashes on my legs and torso.  After playing on the rope swing, we were going to head to the next waterfall which would have been Beaver Falls but then we heard it was 4 miles away so we headed back to Moony Falls and played in that for about another hour and half. When we were done we literally climbed and pulled ourselves back up the narrow trail and went back to camp for dinner. Dinner that night, Friday, we had soup and stew which was pretty good.  After dinner I went back to the trail entrance of Moony Falls and took some pictures. I would have gone down the trail again but, seeing that I was alone, I decided against it incase I somehow slipped and fell.  There was no one at the bottom of the trail, no one playing in the waterfall, or no one at the top of the trail. I took a few pictures and headed back to camp.  It was there that also learned how the transport the full portapotties out of the camp grounds. Helicopters fly in and wench them on and fly them out and then then fly back in with new ones. I had never seen that before.  That night I slept in a tent and slept a whole lot better than I had the night before. Before heading to bed, my sister told us that when the moon is out Havasu Falls glows in the dark. So we went out to Havasu Falls but we went to early and there was cloud cover so we did not get to see that.

The following morning, Saturday, my brother and I made Oatmeal for breakfast and then we packed up camp and went and played at Havasu Falls one last time. When we were done there we hiked out to Navajo Falls which was the last waterfall we would visit on our trip.  Navajo Falls was amazing as well. To the immediate left of the falls was another waterfall, this one also had water running down a rock the emptied out into a pool that connected to Navajo Falls.  I walked up this rock and behind it was this awesome grotto.  I hung out there for a little while watching the waterfalls and then went back to where the rest of the group was and watched some of them jump off Navajo Falls.  





The plan was to hang out at Navajo Falls till 5 pm but for some reason people thought that we had enough cloud cover that would protect us from the sun during the 8 mile hike out. I was against hiking out at the current time which was noon.  I was out voted 2 to 8 and the hike out began after a quick lunch.  The cloud cover disappeared as we began the hike out and the skies became perfectly clear.  We looked for a spot to change out of our swim attire and ended up changing into our hiking clothes behind this huge boulder. 

When we reached the village we drank our water and refilled. I had a 1.5 liter bottle. I drained that once and refilled it and began hiking out again.  At the entrance of the village, there is a store where you can buy canned food, water, Gatorade, and all kinds of food stuff and it is not over priced. As we passed this store I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to buy two 32oz bottles of Gatorade. I stopped and then looked at my full bottle of water and thought, "I'm just being paranoid I have enough water."  I kept on walking.  Two of the other guys from our camp raced ahead and had something that we would need but not have later.

I walked with two of my brother -in-law's brothers. About an hour into walking I had not yet drank from my bottle of water and we came across a stream.  We were all pretty sweaty and hot from the burning sun so we dipped our heads in the stream and drank some of our water.  The next time we stopped is when the hard times would begin.  We kept on walking and making out way to the entrance. We stopped about 45 minutes later for a water break. It was there that we learned that one of the brothers had lost one of his water bottles somewhere along the way and the other brother was nearly out of water. By the next stop they were both out of water and I willingly shared my water with them but it was not nearly enough. We ran out faster than we expected and the guys who raced ahead had a water filter that we needed to filter water from the stream. We by the time we got to the top of the first switch back we were all dehydrated and on the verge of passing out. We did not know what to do. We started offering to buy water off of people that passed us but they were either out or had only a few swallows left. We found a shade spot and rested under there. The rest of our group with the exception of the two guys who raced ahead and were now at the entrance were behind and we did not have the strength to go and look for them. We asked each other what we should do.  

We all agreed that we need water but there was none around.  We decided to pray. We knelt down and prayed for water and that the rest of our group would soon catch up and we could figure out what to do at that point.  Not more than a couple of minutes passed by when out of no where, this man from the Havasu Tribe walked around the corner carrying two cold bottles of Gatorade and a cold bottle of water. We bought those from him and started drinking the gatorade. I was almost in tears when I saw this man come around the corner and my faith in the power of prayer was increased.






The rest of our group that was behind had not caught up yet and we were sure that they would be out of water as well so we saved the bottle of water for them.  About 30 minutes later, the rest of our group caught up and sure enough they were all out of water.  We gave them the bottle of water and then ended up buying a second from the guy who appeared out of no where.  He at that point was sitting on his own looking off into the canyon. The rest of the group asked if two other people from our group had passed us and we said only Matt and Dave (the  guys with the water filter) but there were two others who were still way behind and if we all had run out of water, we knew that they were out as well. Brady took charge and sent two of his brothers up to the entrance to get Matt and Dave and then he and my brother took the unopened water bottle and began the hike back down to find his other brother and his brother's wife.  My sister was scared because we were all drained and did not have enough water for four people. She began to cry and Brady comforted her. I hate seeing my family cry so after he and my brother went in search of the last two, I placed one of my arms around my sister and did what  I could to calm her down.  During that time another guy came running up asking if he could buy water or gatorade off of us. Between my sister and I we had almost no water and a 3/4 full bottle of Gatorade.  The guy said his girlfriend was dehydrated and was about to pass out.  We gave him the bottle of Gatorade. About 20 minutes later, my bother, Brady, and his brother and his brother's wife appeared. We sat with them for an additional 20 minutes. Then 3 guys from our group returned from the top with bottles of water. We drank those and the 3 guys relieved the weakest people in the party of their backpacks and we finished the hike out. At the top we bought more water from some people and then packed up our gear, took some pictures and started the drive back to Orem.  

The sunset was one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. We stopped and gassed up about 50 miles from the trail entrance and we ran into people who had just finished the 8 mile hike as well. We were all sore and we were all limping.





 

We stopped at the first town we saw had dinner at Whataburger and Subway. I love Whataburger, I wish they were more spread out.  They are all located in Texas except for one in Arizona and one in New Mexico. Eating there was like a little slice of home. Anyway from there, we drove across The Hoover Dam, had to take a detour in Las Vegas because the lane to go to Salt Lake City was closed on the interstate. That detour took us through the roughest parts of the Las Vegas ghetto. Luckily by that time it was about 2:30 am so everyone was pretty much asleep. The saddest part of the detour was going down this one street and seeing countless homeless people some with blankets some without, sleeping on the both sides of the sidewalk. Our drive that night ended in Saint George, UT where we slept at Brady's grandparents home.  

The next day we woke up and went to sacrament meeting there in Saint George and then had lunch with Brady's grandparents before starting the last stretch of our drive back home. The drive back was ok, I slept most of the way and in the end was glad that I ended up going on this trip. I love Havasupai and would go back again in a heartbeat. 

Finding Myself, My Purpose, and My Destiny

The past month, month and a half, I have been isolating myself not only from friends but from family as well. I apologize for that but here is the reason why I have been a ghost lately. During this time of isolation, I have been doing a lot of thinking. Here I am nearly 30 and what have I accomplished in life? I graduated high school, I am an Eagle Scout, and I have only one semester of college under my belt, and I work at a video store. I don't mind the video store, I have worked there nearly 5 years however I do not want to be there the rest of my life. As I have been contemplating these things, I have also been looking at other job options but don't see them being fruitful. A friend wants me to apply as a driver for an armored car service, and another friend wants me as a pistol instructor. As much as I would like to teach people how to shoot I don't see that happening for reasons I will not mention on here. I have always wanted to just pack a bag of clothes in a duffel bag and hit the road and see where it would take me. However, what would that do to help me progress in life and become a contributing member of society? It simply wouldn't. Hitting the road would not earn money for college nor would it help me get a better job. As I left work today I was feeling kind of down because when it comes down to it, I have nothing to offer the world. I was in deep thought in maybe an almost mental prayer like state. I was asking for guidance and direction in my life, I was asking what my purpose in life was.

When I looked at the road there were two Army recruiters walking towards me. Usually I hate confronting military recruiters but, I had this overwhelming feeling like I needed to talk to them. They walked up to me and introduced themselves and we started conversing. At one point in the conversation they asked if I was going to college. I told them no. They asked if I would like to attend college. I said "of course who wouldn't?" Then they said that college students who decide to enlist in the Army to have the government pay for college can have an option of not being deployed during their 4 years of school as long as they are continuously attending college. On top of that they offered 1,350 a month so that I would not have to work and can just focus on my schooling and to pay tuition. On top of that, there is the usual $20,000 enlistment bonus cash. I know I don't get it all up front. There is a 4 year commitment to the military and as an soldier in the Army reserves, I would only be required to go to training one weekend out of every month.

Upon hearing all this I actually felt really good and it was not because the recruiters were doing their recruiting script. I have always felt that I own a debt to my country and I have always in some way wanted to serve my country. I called up my Dad and he gave me his full support if I decide to enlist. We talked about the seriousness of the military. My father tried to enlist so he could fight in Vietnam but could not due to a very minor medical condition with his eyes. I told him that I know the risks and sacrifices that are involved and that I was not afraid of those risk and sacrifices. I feel like this is where I belong, this is what I am supposed to do in life. I served God for two years straight and though my debt to God will never be fully paid, I feel that it is now time for me to serve my country and repay it for all the blessing and success I have had so far.

Tomorrow I am meeting with recruiters in Provo. However due to seriousness of the commitment that is involved in being apart of the military, I am not going to sign any contracts, until I have had more time to think about this and make sure that this is my path and destiny in life. I plan on spending at least one month of thought before making any final decisions. I want to be sure that this is what I really want to do and not have any regrets later.

I will update this blog after the meeting with the recruiters tomorrow.

Independence Day Weekend 2008

This year I took a break from what I have done almost every year on Independence Day since living here in Utah. Usually the way I spend Independence Day is hanging out with one of my best friends and his family and watch the Parade then get some good Barbecue and then head out to the Stadium of Fire which, if you have not been, is pretty much one of the best firework shows and concerts you will see. I abstained this year due to the fact that I was invited to spend the day with my sister, my brother-in-law and his family and also because this years main performer was none other than Hanna Montana. Come on Provo, the majority of the city is not made up of 13 year old girls. Last years show was amazing, I mean really when it comes to country music, there's no one better than Brooks & Dunn who were last years main performers at the above mentioned event.



Even though I know I would have had fun with the Halladays, I wanted to try something new so here is what went down.I got a phone call yesterday (Thursdays) from my brother -in-law and my sister asking if I would like to spend Independence Day with them. It was something new so I said sure. We ended up going to Kaysville which is about an hour and 15 minutes north of Orem/Provo. There, they have their annual parade and then a huge community water fight between the parade floats and the parade spectators. This was by far the biggest water fight I have ever seen. Even the fire department and other city water trucks were in on it. They would spray the spectators with their water hose and the citizens would run up to the trucks and dump huge buckets of water into the firetrucks drenching the driver and anyone else inside. I took a few pictures and missed getting drenched by a huge bucket of water by inches. I stepped forward to take a picture just as someone flung the water in their 5 gallon bucket at me and it barley missed me and mainly got splashed on the legs from the water hitting the street. This water fight went on for two continuous miles. However the water fight was broken up due to some minor injuries. A couple of boys got their legs and feet slightly run over by a float. Everyone thought that one of the boys had been run over the torso so life flight was brought in as a precautionary. Thankfully they were just very minor injuries and the boys were released later in the day.



After the water fight, we headed to a park and played volleyball and Frisbee. Then we all went back to my brother-in-laws parents house and played badminton and barbecued. The badminton was fun. We played till one team reached ten points. One game lasted till the final score was 15-14. The following games final score was 10-0...I was on the losing side but it was fun. Following that we watched the firework show and then caught the tail end of the movie Independence Day. My brother would have joined us but he spent the day at Bear Lake wake boarding. Following the fireworks we pretty much called it a day, and my sister and brother-in-law dropped me off at my place before heading home. When I got home I reflected on the Founding Fathers and the great sacrifices they made and the sacrifices that our armed forces make as they serve and put their lives on the line so that we may continue to enjoy the freedoms that we have and more than often take for granted.



I think next year I will be more prepared for the post parade water fight. There were people who had lined the beds of their pickups with tarps and filled them with water. Others had rented trailers with high walls , lined them with tarps and filled them with water as well. It was pretty insane. I am looking forward to next years water fight.


On Saturday, I mainly chilled at home and got caught up on much needed sleep. Around noon I got a phone call from one of my best friends and was invited to hang out with him and his family at his uncle's house. His uncle lives about a mile from me so I headed down there around 8pm and got to visit and see Jake, his wife Lynn, and their new baby Annabelle, who by the way is the cutest, coolest, most awesome and chill baby I have ever met. I also got to visit with his parents. I really am grateful for Jake, his family, and my friendship with them. They have done so much for me.

Sunday I went to church and then spent the evening playing Risk with my brother and my brother-in-law. My brother and I formed an alliance against Brady ( my brother-in-law) because every time I attacked him, he kept on rolling pairs of 6 which meant that I lost the battles. So in order to even things out, my brother nuked Asia which is where a lot of Brady's men were stationed and then he attacked and wiped out most of his men in Africa. I caused minimal damage to Brady and ended up coming in last in the game. Over all it was a pretty fun weekend. I think one thing I learned from this weekend is that I need to be more social. Last Saturday was pretty fun too. I went to dinner with Andrew and his wife, Jolyn and then my brother, my sister, and her husband Brady, met up with us at a park in Provo and we played baseball for a couple of hours. It was pretty sweet.