Visiting the Rim of the Grand Canyon

On our way to the great GC we stopped at the almost as famous Lake Mead, which drains itself through the probably more famous Hoover Damn. our thoughts...

Damn this water is cold. Damn the air is hot. I'll just got halfway in.


Dam. No, Seriously.


Shaun did a massive cannonball off the side of the damn into the lake and subsequently the lake level dropped near 30 feet. We were asked to leave.


The backside of the dam with a huge bridge being built to divert traffic away from the dam itself


Jono pondering his good looks.


Shaun pondering Jono's thought and replying with a: "Na bro, get stuffed. Mine are better, just look at me". So Proud!

The Grand Canyon is a special place, especially this time of year when it seems that everyone and their mother wants to be there as well. We got to the GC and expected to dominate, it had to be easier to dominate than Yosemite since all you have to do is hike down instead of up, and down is always easier, right? Right!. As it turns out we got seriously denied. Our attempts to procure a back country pass to hike down and camp at the bottom of the canyon failed when we were told they were all taken and we would need to return the next day to get a lottery ticket for– assuming we won the lottery – passes starting 2 days from then. So licking our wounds and trying to salvage the day we picked out a good day hike, got our dominating uniforms on and proceeded to the trailhead. The trailhead of course could only be accessed by bus, so onto the bus we went. After stopping at 5 different scenic overlooks we were rudely informed that due to construction, the bus no longer went to the trailhead. Taking this in stride the 5 of us decided we would merely walk there – and then we were told it was 6 miles from where we stood. Fair enough, we would just walk towards the trailhead and enjoy a walk along the canyon rim…Denied, they posted a construction worker at the road closed sign and they wouldn’t allow us to walk past…bastards. So we turned around and walked the 1.5 miles back to the kiwi catcher (our van).

The "denied" view wasn't all that bad either though


Team Xtreme enjoying themselves

In the mood to redeem ourselves for what seemed to be a completely lost day, we drove around a bit and constructed a plan to walk a mile out to a point overlooking the canyon, bring all the necessaries to make a pizza dinner and spend the evening watching the sunset, drinking goon (bagged wine), and eating…It turned out great.

Hi My Name Is Pie


Hi, I'm Jacqui.


Cheers, Name's Chris


They Call me Gary, But my real name is Shaun


Hi, We're Gooned


So am I!


The wind shearing up the canyon walls was fast enough that if you peed into the wind it went up and over your head. Nice sunset too.

Fully satisfied with our efforts to redeem the day we continued the goon-fest at our campsite just outside the park. Deciding to have a fire in a part of the country that feels more like a tinder box than anything else is not only stupid but really easy to start, so off we were, prepared to dig to mineral soil and pee on the fire if it came to it, but also very happy to be standing around something warm (our water was still freezing each night). As the pine cones and branches burned down we realized we would need something with a little more meat to it to burn, something more like an entire tree. An entire tree you say? Yes, I’ll take 1 please. And as this perfect campsite revealed to us, there was one very dead very still-standing tree lurking just pass the fires glow. Shaun and I made quick work of its branches as I re-perfected my youth learned technique of climbing the tree, hanging from its branches and then bouncing until they broke sending me crashing to the ground victorious with a stick I my hand. With so much bio-mass still standing (the trunk of the tree) and us without a proper felling tool, we took to the van to “skid” out the tree. Locating the handy walmart rope and tying the tree to the vans bumper we had our tree horizontal in no time, root ball and all. We only briefly considered untying the tree and dragging it to the fire, but I was still driving the van (very carefully I remind you) and the van was still on, and the tree was still tied to the van so with the big thumbs up from shaun I inched forward with our wooden booty. This is where the disclaimer comes in – the boys thought this was all a fantastic idea – practical at its least and brilliant at its best. The girls on the other hand were very doubtful, somewhat disappointed and not overly amused to witness our shenanigans. Over riding the girls disapproval and carrying on anyways we were soon given the swift kick in the ass by mother Karma. On the way to the campfire which was only 50 ft away i failed to notice this little bugger of a stump sticking 6 inches out of the ground - lining it up perfectly with the sidewall of the vans front tire got a spectacular flat which took all of 0.5 seconds to empty itself - leaving the vans integrity wounded and my ego a bit shot - GAME OVER - but not really, more like a time out - so we went into action and an hour later the spare was on, the girls were glowing with "I told you so" as well as "You two are idiots" and although our heads hung a bit lower deep inside we were pretty satisfied with out mission. good time and happy days.

Our campsite with the amazing fire, solid wood supply and site of the mysterious tire popping


I recommend Les Schwab


Results of a day off

We were up early the next day and sitting managed to get hold of a backcountry pass for 2 nights down at Phantom Ranch riverside at the bottom of the canyon. With a day to waste before hiking began we got some odds and ends fixed, painted the roof box, lounged around in the sun, read, took naps, lived the easy life and got some things prepped for the following 3 days in the canyon.