Notes from the field

Found the CREC notebook I kind of used this year, so figured I'd write a little more about what happened from January til now for your viewing pleasure :) (warning: it's not all roses, especially the first entry).

Thursday January 21, 2010, Grand Canyon (camped at Phantom Ranch)

Was soaked. Rained all day. Skunk peed on my shoes last night...it's cold too. And my tent has a huge friggin' puddle under it (mostly the vestibule, where my pack was with an extra change of clothes, face-down!). Also, my secret snack (aka something each crew member tries to bring on spike to suprise and delight the other members, especially good in times of crisis) which was pumpkin bread got left out--my own fault since I saw it there when i went to get breakfast and forgot to pack it back--and when we got back to the site (early, like right after lunch because the weather was so bad--plus!) it was completely devoured by animals, not a trace left. I guess they thought it was good, so it's not too insulting. So anyway, no pumpkin bread. Oh, and I didn't bring enough clothes. Because we packed our food and I still haven't mastered packing foor for 8 days (this is the first backcountry for CREC that I've packed in food). BUT everyone is SO cheerful and positivethat it isn't the hell that it could be.

8:30-9p.m., same day

God, I officially don't like this rain. My tent is dangerously close to soaking through, and I hear this rain will keep going through Sunday. Seriously?!? Everything's wet--our clothes would still be soaked if park service hadn't let us use their dryer (thank you...) and I'm praying to you that we will all stay dry the next few nights...

Jan. 22, 2010

On a scale of 1-10 soreness, 10 being unable to move, I'm about at a 7.5 right now. I don't know how lifting rocks is going to work today. Plus, my tent is soaked. Any time the sleeping bag touches the sides of it it gets wet. At least it stopped raining. I'm wearing glasses today...just cant take it...

--7ish p.m.

In my tent after Cat's delish burrito night meal. Also it was NOT rainy til the hike bakc after work, we DIDN'T work with rocks at Tipoff Point like yesterday, and there was a full 5-10 minutes of actual sunshine today! And my sleeping bag liner smells good. And Greg (ACL) has his birthday tomorrow! He wanted ME to do the crew meal (pasta), yikes. Hope it works, my confidence in outdoor cooking= zero.
I don't feel like myself this week--I've been really quiet and kind of in the background, and I've felt clumsy and nerdy and dirty and lazy all since Wednesday. And my tent's still wet (inside and definietly out) and as lame as it is, I just kind of want to go home right now.

January 23

Beautiful sunshine today!!! Woke up, no rain--Cat made pancakes in honor of Greg's birthday (26 years old. Light snow up top that cleared by first break. Learned how to service a poinjaar and rock-stretchered at least 7 big-ish stones for check steps w/ Sam and Greg. Different hike down with Doc (from park service), was challenging for us. Tim busted out a funfetti cake mix and baked a birthday cake, mm!
Pasta didn't kill anyone :)
Still no rain, and stars! It's been better...goodnight.