A GRAND CANYONIANISTIC EXPERIENCE

It is rare in life that you have moments that are so GRAND that you never forget them once u live them.Life just gave me too many of them a few days back and I wont forget them ever in my life this Blog is just an attempt to capture the little moments that I just might forget. As Grand-cayonianistic the trip was, so is going to be this blog its going to be a big one but I recommend(as tim says it, you all will soon know who tim is) reading this till the last word even if it means 3 hrs of your day coz this is something really special and I want all you special people to feel what I felt for it! this is the least I could write about it.
I could have written all of it in one single paragraph but to make it more communicative lets divide it in some titles
1) The people -without whom this trip which is such a special collection of memories in my life would not have been the same.
2) The Journey -The places and the points we visited, each of it was a natural wonder and we saw a manmade wonder too. Hang on to read what that was.
3) Wild life and Avifauna- My favourite part of the trip some amazing experiences and first time encounters
4) Some special moments with some special people who will always be special to me.

So lets get started!!!
It was 6th oct about 5in the morning when Tim picked me up, with Rojhat and Schulle(I hope I spelled that correctly) already in the car we then picked up wendy (yundi shi) and then Sujata.and we were off to our destination "The Grand Canyon".
THE PEOPLE
To start with this is the most fanatastic group of people i could have possibly imagined

TIM (from the u.s),Wendy(from china), Rojhat and Schulle(Husband and Wife from turkey),Sujata and me from(India).
I just have to tell you about all these fantastic people in detail.


1st and foremost)Tim edgar- Yesterday i didnt even know how to thank him for the huge amount of effort he put in to make this trip a memorable one for us. Istill dont know how a simple thankyou can thank him for all these efforts.and what efforts m i talkin about??well he planned the whole trip from the scratch. The route, the vehicle, the paraphernalia, dinner and lunch ,basically everything. Always looked organised and in control of any kind of situation. I feel i got everything a first timer needs on trips like this.I had so much to learn from him. An adventurer himself he almost knew what all he needed to do and when. Like we do in India we never thank frnds as a sign of respect to their effort coz after all thankyou just has 8 letters for the numerous efforts put in by a friend. But Tim thanks man for everything .deserves a lot more than just the word thankyou .

2) Rojhat- Man from turkey one thing that really strikes u about him is his politeness. Really a good man he too like tim put a lot of effort arranging things like they should be. Has a close bond with his wife schulle,which is just what u look for in a happy couple. felt like being with a big bro with him around. really appreciative of every small effort I put in. He's surely got a lot of life in him. has a big big appetite ate like double hamburger at IN and OUT burger shop coz they were exceptionally good.haha!



3)Wendy- My FAV on the tour......"i dont knowwww" and "i m weird",,,,"i feel cold"....."i want to go to a bathroom".....hahahahaha i can laugh all day on this.One of her kind on this whole wide earth. really cool!!! I can write a page on her....i think i should do that....Good at skiing, does some mountain biking, at 23 shes already i guess 3rd year into her ph.d that itself speaks of how intelligent she might be , but shes very very funny at times. confused !!! for every question she has a very good answer"i dont know".....feels cold all the time...and is perfectly normal even if she has to visit the bathroom for like 5 times in 5 minutes hehehehe......but her 'i dont know' are so typically wendy words......she liked the eggplant we prepared and once when she had to adjust her sleeping bag. when she was in it she just sat upright and started adjusting it with herself inside it moving in it....which was so funnnnnnnyyyy!!!! wendy do u know something???and she would say......................guess!!!!

4)Sujata- one of the few strong indian girls i have ever seen she could canoe 11miles in the colorado with wind against her. A really sweet girl couldnt believe she was there the whole magnitude of being in that colossal piece of artwork by nature was really unbelievable.something that strikes me about her is that shes such a good listener.i bored her a lot with the birding probably she liked a bit of it but after a limit i could feel i was being cynical but since she was listening to me i kept on being so. and that helped a lot in getting the maximum info of the avifauna and wildlife there. Likes to be in the company of nature, appreciates everything good, loves her father. One thing i admired about her was she was ready to test herself.

5) Schulle- i hope m spelling it right..sweet lady. Rojhat's wife. the chemistry between her and rohjat is so strikingly positive. very much like an Indian girl and its was really a pleasure knowing her. She too canoed the whole 11miles which is quite a distance for a first timer.

6) Myself-i better not write anything....forgot spoon and fork wasnt too much of help in the process of makin it a perfect trip. But i guess i learnt a lot from Tim, Rohjat, Wendy, Sujata, Schulle.The only thing is i was pretty excited when i saw wildlife around me that might have been maddening for all . But i had no option, its not everyday that u get to visit places like grand canyon, black canyon.Sorry if i made a mess sometimes. :)

THE JOURNEY

It started on 6th and proved to be one of the finest 5days of my life. From salt lake city we started towards Grand Canyon which is in Arizona.The landscape changed so fast we could see the fall colours on our way out. the rocky canyons started and then pics can tell u the story better..

Once we were at the Grand Canyon we saw the desert view point which is what u see below


Then we camped for 2 days at the canyon. The first day was really chilling almost freezing temperature but it was fun wendy was feeling cold internally!! . This national park was so well equipped, well it had to be, but it had all the facilities. The second day we hiked in the canyon for about 3 miles and Tim and wendy hiked about 4.5 miles into it. Though not very difficult but yes it was not something that I always did so was not really able to complete it effortlessly but was pretty easy. loved the hike.
Its almost like we have Vaishno Devi in India. Here people go down to the river to get up close with the SHRINE OF AGES. Its almost a shrine. A 1840 million years old rock formation .and an interesting fact is the oldest stone has the name VISHNU ROCK. Its almost unimaginable to think how big this magnanimous river would have been it almost looks like it must have been an ocean flowing there.....the rocks look so beautiful red and deep and colossal and magnificent and many more adjectives to it. I felt lucky that I could see this huge part of history. We next saw the famous "HOOVER DAM" and it is really an engineering marvel i must say...just that a lot of electricity it produces is wasted for facade lightnings in Las Vegas. I also saw the construction crane which failed last year when all the 4 cables tied together snapped. Its a huge bridge and surely is going to be a landmark when completly constructed. Lot of people died when the bridge was being constructed and there is a memorial constructed in the memory of all those who died. This humongous marvel was constructed in just 4 years from 1931 to 1935...a major reason for this might be the huge amount of labour force available after the economic depression here in the U.S before world war 2 .
after this we reached our next destination Lake Mead. Here we camped for a night near the lake. There were coyotes around us in the night. I and Sujata prepared some baigan ka bharta (mashed eggplant) which our friends really liked. the sky at lake mead looked beautiful filled with stars. i saw some shooting stars too. In the morning after wrapping the tents up i went for a quick look near the lake and the morning was so beautiful there. Mesmerizing morning.We had to reach near a hotel to be picked by the agency renting the canoes.

It was a the first time for me wasnt sure about whether i will be able to do this or not. but with tim around and wendy had some experience too i felt i should try so we were off to the spectacular ride that it was going to be.we were off to explore the black canyon(which is the name given to the canyon through which the colorado flows We stopped near by for a point called the natural sauna cave. When the construction of the hoover dam was on they cane across this part which was very very hot. They just left it like that and is now famous as the "NATURAL SAUNA CAVE". In the cave its a 100%humidity and really hot waterand at the end of the 20ft cave is a nice hot natural sauna system working since ages. Amazing how nature treats you with something like this which is so relaxing.

We went further to the boy scout's camping ground. Where we pulled our boats so deep that a funny old man said if u take it half a mile you will reach vegas. But he was not correct. we went for a hike inside the beach and there were some nice hot springs and i had a view of some of the fantastic lizards here which u can read about in the next section. When we came back to say the least we were SHOCKED! the water level had risen sharply washing away one of our canoes. We could see the canoe caught in some stones nearby. So me tim and wendy hopped in one of the canoes and paddled fast to reach the canoe which turned to the other side giving us a kinda hickup! Tim leadership and experience helped us a lot in keepin our calm all the way. so we had our canoe now but guess what we were still missing a paddle so we went on looking for it along the way. and somehow found it floating on the water near the edge of the stream. Quite an adventure.

We then reached our camping ground. and there were hotsprings near that too. To start with they were relaxing and natural and so beautiful we all were ther for like 2hours and it got some much needed rest. after the dinner me and sujata decided we were goin to sleep without tents and Wendy as always was not sure! Kept on keeping her sleeping bag in and out of Tim's tent till she finally decided on sleeping outside with us. What a beautiful night it was huge mountains of rocks surrounded us with a sky full of stars as far as you could see. We were tryin to find the polar bear and orion constellations (the only two constellations i know about). Sujata was completly in love with this place. Wendy and sujata kept on searching for shooting stars while i saw about 4 of them. We were lucky the bugs didnt bother us that night. Though a group of mountain sheeps crossed us in the dark scaring us. Wendy did the funniest thing which u will read in the last section.

In the morning we were again off to the the hot springs.Relaxing when we met some of the old and enthusiastic people with us. They were all singles had thier own RV's(recreational van)(or caravan as we call it in India) kept on travelling all year around and exploring their surrounding much like nomads, rich ones though.I liked their lifestyle challenging one though. The enthusiasm these guys showed was really an eye opner as to how one should approach life after retirement. Fantastic people and I will never forget the funny old man.

So after packing up we moved further coz we had to cross about 6 miles in 4hrs. Which was going to be tough with the wind blowing in the opposite direction and the water slowing down.

Some how we reached the place we had to in time. But atleast for me it was quite a task towards the end as my hands started paining. But rojhat was a great companion. At one point the water also rushed in our canoe which was scary but nothing happened. With Rohjat appreciating my efforts and neglecting my silly mistakes we finally reached the bank safe and sound. Tim had sunburns, Sujatas hands were paining, schulle was tired so was wendy, and I was hoping i could use my rightshoulder again. But it was fun real fun. We then moved towards Vegas. for just a drive through the facade city as i would call it. Went to famous burger place in vegas the IN and Out shop which is known for its burgers and it really deserved its place we had a nice dinner there a Grilled cheese burger...rojhat had 2 double double(kind of big burgers)...hahaha u should see the size of one burger to imagine what m talkin about. Big man Big stomach..and he say hes always hungry..

So we drove through vegas watching some famous hotels like THE LUXOR,THE CAESAR,THE NEWYORK. They waste a lot of electricity on this city where there are professional gamblers and where what you show is what people think you are...

We reached salt lake in the night at about 3 with some thankyous shake hands and the next plan to meet for a dinner at the Bombay House.We parted!!! Which was kinda sad coz i already started missing the "I DONT KNOW" and "I RECOMMEND"!!!but it was something i will cherish all my life 5 golden days in a perfect group and in a perfect place. isnt it GRAND-CANYONIANISTIC??

WILD-LIFE and AVIFAUNA

To start off with we saw a turkey vulture riding the thermals and it was huge to say the least. then an american kestrel flew by.It was fast i m still not sure if it was a kestrel a merlin or a falcon. It was spotted and brown with a small typical raptor beak. At the grand canyon we saw a florida scrub jay pic below. the a host of warblers a titmouse,black throated gray warbler who was around our camp near the food all the time and they were so humanised u could almost touch them. some of the birds i couldnt identify which i will soon do

We also saw a coyote, A male mountain sheep vowing a female sheep who got very close to us. A common condor in the grand canyon,american crow boy they are really really big ,fish crow. A chipmunk which is smaller than a squirrel, the squirrels here are pretty big and have a diffrent coloration too. some of the unidentified raptors and lizards , interesting behaviour shown by one of the lizards was when it realised i was behind her she just flatened her body and lay in the sand trying to homoginise with the surroundings, and as always confusing warblers are in the pics below.

We also saw very friendly family of Mallard ducks,koots,a colony of cormorants on a rock i guess they were the greater cormorrants and guess what guys the biggest disappointment of the tour was I was waiting to see a peregrine falcon for five days and missed it by a frisker it was sitting some where between the cormmorants which i failed to notice and was told about it by a lady after we completed the canoeing. I wish I had seen that beautiful bird there..But on second thoughts i was happy i couldn't spot it. Coz if i couldnt spot him it means he is safe from the predators to some extent and from the human intervention in its daily routine and i also saaw great blue heron, little blue heron, and guess what i saw 2 OSPREYS huge ones just missed watching them hunting but the were beautiful in flight. I also saw a roughed legged hawk at the canyon and another unidentified hawk(probably red shouldered hawk ) also saw an eagle at the canyon which was too far to be identified without binoculars but was riding the thermals beautifully.....

Nature was in its purest and oldest form in most part of this desert. Felt very humble and lucky to be able to have a part of it for a few moments. though my enthusiasm must have been annoying for the group a bit but as i said i had no choice.

u can see the pics at the link at the bottom of this place.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

The fact that I was in Grand Canyon will really be a special one coz i never ever imagined being there, living there. The funny part of the trip, wendy in her sleeping bag attached to her sleeping pad tryin to adjust it with herself in it hahahaha!!!!The night under the sky was special coz it made me feel so humble about being able to share one whole night under that beautiful sky besides the colorado river and the black canyon stone mountains.The feeling of relaxing in those hot spring pools is so special.Me and Sujata sang Hindi songs in the hot water spring that was special. Tims way of handling things was special. Rojhat and schulle are special. The first canoeing experience was special. The meals were special we tasted marsh mellows,ground turkey with herbs,turkey bacon,scrambled egg the american way. To say the least the trip in itself was so special!!!!I couldnt believe I have experienced those days the next morning I got up.

I still feel i havent written much !!! But you have to be there to experience more guys!!

Now theres a degree above the superlative degree!!thats where the word GRAND-CANYONIANISTIC belongs!!AND that is how I can describe my experience!

Links to pics..

picasaweb.google.com/aghatole

http://flickr.com/photos/7269217@N03/