The stretch of vitality

Today I drove about 140 miles to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It was a nice drive out with some cool rock formations along the way. Just need to avoid getting stuck behind one of the ubiquitous rental RVs. Upon arrival it became clear that this way very much geared toward power boating and very little toward paddling and swimming. However, I located the boat rental place, which was unexpectedly bureaucratic and international. They had a large round counter with LCDs and people who could actually issue the boat rentals. Prior to that there was a queue and a woman at a podium answering the same questions to everyone. Yes, a Jet Ski is $300/day plus tax and fuel. Most of the customers were European (I think mostly French). When asked how much the gas would be for a nineteen foot boat for all day, the “Information” lady gave the answer I love: “I have no idea, it could be anything”. Taxi companies pull this one a lot, too. Um, could it be $2? $9,000,000? Going to LAX in a cab, when asked approximately how much it would cost, my driver replied with the same “completely unknowable and beyond all estimation” response, but mentioned “we can stop at an ATM”. I said, “well, I have $80 cash on me, will that be enough” to which he immediately replied “Oh yes, for sure it will not be that much. I wish!”.

Anyway, so when one of the polo-shirted tellers behind the round counter was ready I engaged in my boat rental. There were quite a few waivers to fill out. It really did have a very DMV feel to it. I guess this is partly due to the fact that the whole transaction was taking place in an office about a half mile from the dock. In my other boat rental experiences, it’s generally right next to the boats, they take your $10 cash, give you a PFD and a paddle and point you at the dock. I asked the teller about where I should go and maybe where to swim. He took out a map and noted several interesting canyons off of the bay where the dock is. He also noted that a narrow passage to another big section of the lake was not always open, but today it was. After sufficient signatures, dates, initials, a $100 refundable deposit, and various receipts I was sent to the dock to obtain my boat. The dock was much more informal and I was quickly fitted with some gear and pointed at kayak number seven, and then the attendant left (I was still on the dock trying to figure out how to get my camera to display the time so I could be back by 5). In hindsight, the deck hand probably wanted to get out of earshot as soon as possible before I could ask any questions about where to go or what I should expect from the many powerboats on the lake. Why, because no one had mentioned the wind to me yet.

So even after being out west for nine months, I apparently still have east coast preconceptions of things that are small and easily accessible. Kayaking in the east on a lake is a leisurely thing. Again, I failed to account for the scale of things out here and that there’s a bigger expectation of knowing what the hell you are doing. Anyway, into the kayak I went and made my way out of the large area enclosed by a buoy net of giant bulldozer tires and out into open water. Not being a complete buffoon, I did know to head into the wind/current first, so off I went. I now come to the realization that I am out in a tiny one man kayak on a monstrous body of water during monsoon season with a strong steady wind in my face. The east coast “oops” moment occurs. I think to myself, well, it’s a good thing they pre-charged that $100 deposit, because I might not make it back. Water is splashing me in the face as my boat bounces into the oncoming waves. Now don’t get me wrong, these aren’t really waves, just choppy water, but all the same I was not expecting this. I realize that if I stop paddling for even a moment to get my bearings or enjoy the view, I lose twenty yards to the wind. So I paddle head on into the wind for about twenty minutes or so and make it maybe 150 yards from the dock, just around the first bend, staying close to the canyon wall. I look across the lake at the areas the teller had highlighted on my map and now I’m not sure if it is actually ever possible to get across on a kayak, or it was done entirely in mockery. It would be an all-day paddle for me to even come close to getting to the other side and I’d probably have to cover 5x the crow-flies distance to account for the wind. I also realize that if I stick to the canyon wall I have to head south a bit with the wind and chop on my right side. I try this for a moment and realize it is impossible. For a moment, I think my only option is to enjoy about a minute of drifting back to the dock and then turn the return the kayak twenty minutes after I rented it. I now realize why most men bring three hundred horses with them when going up against Lake Powell since nature is clearly winning this one man vs. nature contest.

As I float back I see another pair of kayakers making the struggle. I rest a while and watch them. The man is able to make some progress and get out about to where I was. The woman is paddling diligently and appears to be completely stationary. Within a few minutes they turn back, but I am motivated to make another go of it. I get out past where I had first stopped and spot a couple in a 2-seater kayak on their way back. I ask if it was this windy when they left and they say no and that they had been out all day and down to the end of this bay. I power on out and get to what I consider to be a respectable distance from the dock after about ninety minutes or so. But I still haven’t really gone anywhere, I just went out into the open water essentially due west from the dock. After considering the risk of water damage from chop splashing into my face, I carefully removed my camera from the water proof bag and snap a few shots and a video. Then I enjoy the easy cruise back. I would say I spent about ninety-three minutes paddling into the wind on the way out and seven minutes to get back.

So I made a google map of where I think the various points of interest on my map were as drawn by the boat rental teller. These are all the blue dots. The little blue line is about the path I took. You will have to zoom in a bit to even see the kayaking route line. Not sure if the points of interest are actually reachable without the wind of it was done in pure jest.

Here’s a silly video that might give you a sense of it:

After the kayaking I went to one of the few swimming beaches and took a nap then a brief swim, then headed home to Flagstaff.

As soon as I saw the very first vista walking up to the rim from parking lot A, I stopped breathing.

Today I hiked about four hours down into and back up along the Bright Angel Trail (listed in my Hiking Flagstaff guidebook as the most famous trail in the world ?). This is the first time I’ve ever really felt a desire to go camping. If I ever hike the Napali Coast of Kauai, Hawaii again, I’ll do it as a 6-day camping trip instead of a one day in and out. This hike made me want to bring a tent and stay a day or two down in the bottom. But since this was just a quick day trip and I didn’t even leave the house until eleven AM, I had to settle for just going about two hours or so down and two hours back. The guide books say you will spend 2/3 of your time coming back up, but for some reason (probably fewer stops to take photos), it ended up about even for me I think.

Anyway, whenever I hear the words “Grand Canyon” I laugh at this old Jack Handy Saturday Night Live sketch. I think NBC is pretty good at keeping videos off the Internet, but here’s a text transcript:

My Best List For 2001 by Jack Handey

Tomorrow, Lake Powell.

In other news, my landlords left for their cross country bike ride on the 18th. You can follow their progress here.

I also want to note that the clouds in Arizona are just dazzling and spectacular. You would think I had never seen clouds before given how stunned I am at how they are here. You can always see huge chunks of sky, and there’s always at least three types of clouds layered on top of each other. There are usually vast smooth bands of cloud that create a weird figure ground reversal affect with the sky. You can often see a small gray patch of rain off in one small area in the distance. I’ll be posting a lot of cloud pictures.

Another amazing thing about Flagstaff is the Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS). This is a network of wide dirt/gravel trails carved throughout Flagstaff including going directly into town. From my house in the Chesire neighborhood, I can bike down along Route 180 which includes both bike lanes as well as separate paved paths next to the road, or I can take the FUTS trails straight through Thorpe Park into historic downtown. It’s fantastic. It’s a little tricky to navigate back in the dark via bike headlight, but I’ve done it.

I’ve got at least two new sax pieces from my recent shopping that are good and a few books of nice etudes, so there’s been some good variety in my practicing lately. I’ve also been able to play up to about ninety minutes before my chops give out, which is a big improvement. Now as long as I keep up a steady practice schedule, I don’t have to have nightmares about having to stop a performance saying “I’d love to play you the final two movements of this piece, but I can’t play that long”.

If you are so inclined, check out the rest of the Grand Canyon photos

OK, I have done my first official mountain bike ride ever. There are miles and miles of fantastic trails right near the house. It was a lot of fun even though I had no idea what I was doing. Allow me to introduce the Red Machine:

And yes, that’s the house I rented in the photo above.

I bought a mountain bike! It’s the first bike I’ve owned since college. I don’t have a photo yet, but I’ll take one shortly. I got it used from craigslist of course, and my landlord/roommate Mike was kind enough to apply his bike repair expertise and supply of spare parts to get it into working order. I learned a few things about bike maintenance including how to change out the tubes, what tubes with slime are, that you can actually adjust the spokes of a bike wheel individually to make the rim straight (who knew!), and so forth. I’m now very pleased that I can bike the 4.5 miles into town where the rock gym is. I got the whole nine yards of accessories too – helmet, front and rear lights, and a lock (which altogether cost about as much as the bike itself). I have successfully ridden back home from the rock gym at night, so I plan to be doing a lot of biking. Of course, the neighborhood I live in in NW Flagstaff (Chesire) provides the best access to the copious mountain bike trails, so pretty much every house here has six or more bikes in the garage.

Last night they had a movie being projected in the main town square, and it was a good opportunity to take a look at the locals. A fairly motley mix of folks, and lots of tweens running around and chasing each other. Today it was a very rare (I’m told) day of on and off rain all day, so I did some shopping around town. I visited Bookman’s used book store as well as Cedar Music, wherein I was pleasantly surprised to find a large selection of classical saxophone music. I left with $70 worth of music for solo saxophone.

Tonight my roommates/landlords and I had Thai dinner in town and I picked their brains for things to do while I’m here, so now I have a good sized list.

Oh my God, you guys, Imogen Heap has a video blog. I just want to say that it is way cool that these days you can get a totally casual “what I did this week” video from musicians you like. But besides the music, she’s just dreamy though, isn’t she?

Today so far has been fantastic. I went to Thorpe Park and jogged/walked a good long ways up the trail there. When I lived in NYC I had all these amazing urban resources that were just there for my use. Now that I’m out west I’m just loving all this natural stuff there is just sitting there. I mean, I did probably well over an hour out there and saw about six other people total. It’s as if I had my own private mountain forest in which to run. It was a great day weather wise, too. Perfect temperature and sunny but with enough clouds and haze that I didn’t have to hide indoors. While running I listened to Gustav Holst The Planets and Debussy Petite Suite. I had a few great moments of elation as I moved through the forest, Claire de Lune playing crystal clear through my high end headphones, the trees advancing steadily toward me from the horizon, the only sounds outside the music the soft crunch of my shoes against the dirt and gravel and the quiet whoosh of my breath. There is no loop needed on this trail. You just head straight into the woods as far as you want and then come back.

After that I went to the local rock gym, Vertical Relief, did my pre-climb yoga, and then climbed a bit. It seems with three weeks off I didn’t loose too much ground climbing wise. Unfortunately I doubt that will be the case for my saxophone chops. I haven’t played sax since the first week of June. This is the longest I’ve gone without playing probably since before high school. I’m anxious to get back into it either tomorrow or Monday.

After a long day of flying from South Carolina back to Los Angeles, on Saturday night I decided to get a head start on the eight hour drive to Flagstaff. I made it to Needles, California and then stopped for the night. I would need all the time available on Sunday because despite trolling craigslist and the local newspaper site, I still hadn’t found suitable housing. I arrived around lunchtime Sunday and set out exploring downtown on foot a bit and then driving the entire residential grid looking for posted “For Rent” signs – having completely exhausted the online ads. Things were starting to look pretty bleak, and I began formulating numerous alternative plans including staying until the Independence Day long weekend and the heading back to Boulder and skipping Arizona entirely.

However, eventually I did find a great house that will be for rent while the owners go bicycling from San Francisco to Philadelphia in July and August. They aren’t leaving until July 18 though, so I’m going to hole up in the fantastic Quality Inn with the sign reading “No train noise. Martians welcome” until Sunday, then move in with my landlords from July 6-18, then they leave for their trip. So the plan is for me to be here through the end of August. With so many fantastic national parks in the area, I think I’ll have plenty of outdoor weekend activities to keep me interested.