Prep Day

Well we woke up in Flagstaff today; it’s nothing like any story of Arizona that I have ever heard.  Tall pine trees grace the mountains, and the weather is cool and rainy.  It’s very confusing to me.  Soon after though we all loaded on a bus, and departed for the Grand Canyon!!  We drove through pine forests, shrub forests, and barren rock desert all in the matter of a couple hours.

 We arrived at the mouth of the canyon, there were huge rock walls rising up behind us.  We would occasionally gaze upon them as we blew up the boats, and began loading.  We had to put everything on board that we would use for the next sixteen days so it was mind blowing how much gear, food, and alcohol we were able to cram on to four rafts.

In stark contrast to Flagstaff, the put in was picture perfect Arizona.  It had cactus all over the place, with small brush along the river, and the sun scorched everything it touched.  The water, however, is released from the bottom of a dam so it was cold to the point of hypothermia.  Looking around, awe is the only word that comes close to describing my feelings of what is about to unfold.   

-SM-
P.S. I must apologize but no pictures were taken on prep day, tomorrow will bring about the first photos of the Canyon.  Please favorite or subscribe to the blog and friend spike on Facebook if you have not already.  His page is http://www.facebook.com/#!/spike.miller.106