So sad to be back....yet happy at the same time

I am officially back from my expedition. I am sad and happy at the same time. Sad because I have thoroughly enjoyed spending a month with some extremely interesting people that I probably normally wouldn't spend much time with. Sad because I LOVE the canyon lands of Southern and Southeastern Utah. For our last week we hiked Upper Calf Creek Falls near Escalante, Utah; then spent 3 days in Coyote Gulch, which is a finger canyon off the Escalante Arm of the Colorado River. After that, we spent 3 days on a houseboat on Lake Powell, where we took our sea kayaks up some finger canyons to a special place called Cathedral in the Desert. You can find all of these places on Google Earth. CHECK IT OUT!! I only have a few pictures to post, as my camera took a dive into Lake Powell and did not survive. Apparently Ziploc bags do not act as the best dry bags when they have microscopic holes in them.

I'm happy to be back because I have so much to do this summer in order to graduate. I am still in the middle of my data collection for my thesis. I have been calling parents over the past 5 weeks discussing their family leisure. The calls have been going great. Unfortunately, I had to put them on hold for the last few weeks because trying to do calls and be an instructor on this expedition has been a bit overwhelming. One of our professors got sick the first week and found out shortly thereafter that he had a birth defect which affected the arteries and veins in his brain. The only reason he even found this out was because he was having such bad headaches that his doctor suggested a catscan. They found an "abnormality" and suggested an MRI. They determined that he has what is called AVM: Arterio-venous malformation. Where most peoples arteries feed into arterioles, then into capillaries, then into veins, etc....his malformation causes his arteries to feed directly into the veins. Apparently, veins can't handle this much blood and pressure. This increases his chances for a stroke by something like %100. He is quite lucky to have had this happen because they caught it early, before any damage was done by a stroke. His only option is to have neuro-surgery to re-route the blood flow...which will be happening soon. Needless to say, the doctors restricted his activities. I believe the exact words were "No backpacking, no houseboats, no kayaking, no canoeing, no camping, etc...". So I quickly went from the TA schlepping gear to the instructor on this expedition. It was a great experience! Too bad it had to happen under such intense circumstances. Keep Brian Hill in your prayers.

Here is a great picture that I took as we were hiking to the headwaters of the Provo River 2 1/2 weeks ago. Yes....just 2 1/2 weeks ago, we got a foot of snow in the Uintas. There were a number of people in our group who were not prepared for such a swing in the weather and woke up buried under snow. Good fun, good fun.

This is just about as close to the headwaters as we could get as it gets real steep, real quick. It starts as a spring bursting out of the side of a mountain and quickly turns into a gushing river. We collected bugs out of the river at this spot....something about stream ecology and studying the types and amounts of bugs in certain areas. I'm not sure what it was all about....I just wrote down numbers and used tweezers to pick bugs out of collection trays. Don't have any pictures of that yet.....After the Uintas, we headed to Bear Lake. We didn't actually get to camp there or play in the water. We drove there, stopped at the visitors center and had a history lesson about Lake Bonneville and Lake Thatcher. Both are ancient inland seas that covered most of Utah and Idaho in pre-historic times. Lake Bonneville, The Great Salt Lake, and Utah Lake, as well as a few others farther south in Utah, are the remnants of these seas. The amazing thing about it is that you can see the benches along the mountains that were the shorelines of these seas. The people who live on the high benches in Draper, Sandy, and Provo would have had ocean front property about 15,000 years ago. Now, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail is prime real estate for running and mountain biking trails. So interesting.........I remember going climbing in Logan Canyon when I was at Utah State. While I was sitting on the side of the mountain, I found some sea snail shells in the dirt. I couldn't figure out how they got there.....now I know. This is me at the Oneida Narrows Resevoir in Southern Idaho. This resevoir was created by a damn on the Bear River. There are natural hot springs here which were very refreshing. This area was also under water thousands of years ago. Ahhh....saved the best pictures for last. This is Cathedral in the Desert. This picture was actually taken 2 years ago when I was at Lake Powell on my C.O.L.T trip. (Refer to the swimming camera story above). When the sun shines down into the canyon, it sends millions of ripples reflecting onto the walls of the "catherdral". And the water!!!!! I've never seen such a color. The Cathedral is actually a series of waterfalls. Depending on the water levels of the lake, the falls are either non-existent, little trickles, or quite majestic. The water this year is about 15-20 feet higher than in this picture. If the water were 30-40 feet lower, this spot would be dry and the water fall would be about 40 feet tall. Because it was so much higher this year, we were able to kayak into the cove a bit further. We came to the smaller fall, where a handline had been placed (pictures below). This fall is about 20 feet high, with 3 different pitches to climb up. It was pretty intense, espcially because once you make it up the first pitch, there is a pothole full of water. If you fall in, you can't really touch the bottom, so it's hard to pull yourself up with just your arms. This is almost a keeper pothole (quite deadly). It would be if there was no rope to pull yourself out. Climbing skill was helpful at this point. Only a few of us attempted. But once we got up all 3 pitches, we hiked about 50 yards back to yet another fall. This one was only about 10 feet high and was just a trickle with a small pool. But it was amazing nevertheless. We were here at about 9:15 in the morning, so the sun was slowly making it's way down the walls into the cavern.

It looks like the upper wall is on fire!!

Here are a few pictures from Coyote Gulch. There are a few waterfalls in this canyon. We hiked up river the entire way. It's only a few miles from the drop in at Crack in the Wall to the exit at Hamblin Arch. And it was river hiking the entire way. We all opted to go barefoot as the river is quite shallow (only a foot in the deepest spots) and pure red sand. Only a few scattered pebbles here and there. This canyon is amazing for a million reasons....too many to list here. But one of them is that there are over 200 active archeological sites. Native Americans were numerous in this area. A friend took me down this canyon 7 years ago. He showed me a secret spot he and his dad found when he was a boy. It was an ancient grainery hidden against the wall, far away from the river and the normal beaten path. He said they found petrified corn cobs and other items inside it. After calling the BLM, those pieces were taken for safe keeping.

Yet another reason this canyon is so amazing......I feel like it carries the spirit of Glen Canyon (the area covered by Lake Powell). Coyote Gulch is a finger canyon off the Escalante Arm of the Colorado River. You can still access the Escalante Arm via Lake Powell. This is actually the way to get to Cathedral in the Desert. But Coyote Gulch is far enough back that the waters of Lake Powell don't reach it. This canyon is nearly identical to what Glen Canyon would look like had the dam not formed Lake Powell. I don't feel like I can take a stand as to whether the Glen Canyon Dam (and therefore Lake Powell) was a mistake. It provides resources in the form of water and electricity to millions of people. But at the same time, it is somewhat tragic to know that such beautiful places are now underwater....and will likely never be seen in their original state again. Hmm.....the spirit of Glen Canyon. I like that.

More pics as I get them.