More pics

A mine's eye view of Horseshoe Mesa, Grand Canyon
Hanging out at Zion National Park (nice boots eh?)
The Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park
Walking down for a closer look
A mescal cactus (agave) in the Grand Canyon (I didn't have time to make tequilla)

"Spent a night in Utah in a cave up in the hills..."

My tent all nestled in the trees
The path out to the small mesa (Grand Canyon)

Current location: Moab, UT
I'll try and pick up where I left off...Grand Canyon National Park is amazing. I have pictures to post, but you have to see it for yourself. It is so beautiful and with so many different vantage points you can never get the same view twice. It was a hot one. The rim was not bad, I camped there one night and the high was around 85 and the low around 40. Very nice camping weather. The inner canyon is a different story altogether. During the day temperatures were around 100 and at night only dropped down to 75. Quite the contrast. The first day I headed out to Horseshoe Mesa and made camp around some old copper mines from the early 1900s. As I headed out the next day there were several fantastic views, including one point where I walked out onto a small mesa off the main trail. There was a ten foot rock wall that you had to scramble down that led to path that was about 6 feet in width that had 1400 foot drop offs on both sides. Just like clockwork the wind begin to seriously pick up as I crossed the path (about 20 yards in length) to the small mesa. Once I got down there it was amazing. Views of the Colorado river to the east and to the west. The sun was on its descent and it lit up the cliffs to the east with a purplish hue. That kind of beauty resonates in your heart and soul and leaves you changed forever. I am not going to lie however that the trip was rather physically punishing. For much of the route I had to carry 6 liters of water with me, as well as 30 pounds of gear. With the temperature as hot as it was I did the tail end of the hike at night. This was much more agreeable but still warm. The only problem was that traveling this way you could not find flat ground when I was too tired to walk. So I just took my sleeping bag out and laid it down on the trail. I wish I could have taken pictures of the stars, but those are just for me! After climbing out of the canyon, I was filthy. I took a nice hot shower at the campground. My first one of the trip! Everything else was river bathing. Cleanly I headed north. I drove up to Zion National Park and did some hiking for a few days. They have some amazing trails, one called The Narrows is an 8 mile walk through a narrow section of sandstone cliffs with blue-green water as your path. You have to climb up some little waterfalls and do a bit of swimming along the way. There are also several falls coming down on both sides of you. From Zion I headed out to Bryce Canyon and checked out the Hoodoos, a unique weathering of sandstone creating these little towers of rock. I arrived in Moab yesterday and found a camping spot outside of town on a big cliff that overlooks the city (hey, it's almost a cave!). I don't know why but I always think of that Grateful Dead song when I am spending the night in Utah. Miss you all! God Bless! Jarod

Keep on a ramblin'

Location: Grand Canyon Village, AZ

After leaving Bandalier Wilderness, I spent quite a bit of time in the Jemez (prounounced HIM-ez) Mountains. The fishing abounds here, probabling explaining why I spent so many days there. There are a lot of rivers and some beautiful mountain ranges. I caught quite a few rainbow trout and enjoyed them over the campfire. The town of Jimez Springs (population 500) would make an awesome base camp if you wanted to spend some time here. Hot springs abound, and there is even one that people bath in located in the center of the town. After a nice soak in San Antonio Springs, I headed for Arizona. I drove through Cuba, then south down to highway 40 crossings into Arizona. It was quite a drive, but I arrived in Grand Canyon Village today. Tomorrow I head out into the great wide open for a 5 day trek from Grandview Point to the South Kaibib trailhead. Here is a map if you want to check it out: (click on backcountry use area map) http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/maps.htm

A few pics thus far...

Peaceful Easy Feeling

9/09/08
Location: Near Jimez Springs, Northwest NM

It has been a great week. I will include more a little later for I am out on my bike right now and came to a small town of about 500 with a small public library. I don't have any of my software or my camera unfortunately to upload any pictures. I crossed over into New Mexico on Wednesday and spent some time outside of Las Cruces, then headed north through Elephant Butte and ended up in the Pecos Wilderness inside of Carson National Forest. I spent a few nights backpacking up the Santa Barbara River and it was some gorgeous country. The river was very thin in most places, but quite a few pools in several spots that held some cutthroat trout. The best fishing was about 8 miles up river, where some beavers had dammed of the river creating nice wide pools to house some very nice fish. It had rainbows over twenty inches. I could not catch anything on flies, my only luck was on salmon's eggs. The only other people I saw up there were a couple of hippies in search of some mushrooms. I don't think they were looking to make pizza. The weather has been amazing. In Santa Barbara I was camped at around 9000 feet, so it dropped to around freezing at night. Trying to brush your teeth with frozen toothpaste is a pain! On Sunday I left Santa Barbara and headed to Taos to find a worship service to attend. I visited a nice Presbyterian Church, and sang some beautiful old Presbyterian hymns. What gets me about the Presbyterians is that the hymns never repeat themselves, I'm ready to sing again and everyone is sitting down! I was invited to a small picnic with the congregation at the park adjacent to the church. It was a time of great converstations and tremendous foods of homeade breads, pasta salads, and even homeade ice cream. The crowd was a diverse contrast of society. It seems that no one in Taos is from Taos, they are a menagerie of peoples from all walks of life. It seems ironic to me that because they are all so different, they exhibit social normalcy between them. Which seems the reason they may have fled their places of origin to begin with. Enough of that. I left Taos in a hurry after that, it was way too touristy for my liking. I headed southwest to Bandalier National Monument. After checking out the ruins, I headed out in the Bandalier Wilderness for a night of backpacking. This was desolate country. I never saw a soul except for an elk that I walked upon, early one morning. They are cutting me off the computer (thirty minute time limit), TBC. God Bless, Jarod

Tentative Route

The Mission: A solo trek by Jeep, foot, mountain bike, and snowboard spanning over 5000 miles and going as far north as the Kootenay Rockies in British Columbia. No hotel rooms, no KOA's- just God, open wilderness, and my backpack. My trip will begin in Kerrville, TX the first of September and conclude three months later in Round Rock, TX.

The Gear: Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, one man tent,a very warm sleeping bag, fly rod, fishing poles, mountain bike, ski gear, snow boots, hiking boots, hiking shoes, water purifier, lightweight fuel powered burner, Digital SLR camera with multiple lenses, point and shoot digital camera, 2 cases balance bars, 1 case powdered milk, grape nuts, peanut butter, large backpacking backpack, dried foods, sleeping pad, helmet, snowboard, small cooking pot/pan, books, headlamp, mag-lites, multi-tool, laptop, multiple knives, bivvy bag, daypack backpack, fishing tackle, first aid kit, hand held GPS.

The Route: Leave Kerrville, TX September 3rd. Travel 7 hours to New Mexico. Backpack Las Cruces, Chimayo, and Los Alamos. Onto the south rim of the Grand Canyon for a six day back pack from top to bottom. Then onto Hualapai Hilltop and Havasu falls for a two day hike. Then north to several national parks in Utah including Zion, Island in the Sky, and all around Moab for some mountain biking and off roading in the Jeep. Then further north to Grand Teton, then to Yellowstone for trout fishing and another weeklong backpacking trip. From Yellowstone takes me to Missoula, Montana, and then into Glacier National Park. That will segway me North into Canada traveling along the Canadian Rockies into Banff, Jasper, and Kootenay. Finally I'll cross the continental divide into British Columbia, head north then cut across North Canada to head back down towards North Dakota. From there I'll check out Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower. The snowboarding begins in Colorado as I attempt to camp and snowboard until I can't feel my limbs. I'll then head south back into to Texas ending up in Round Rock around cold time.