November 29, 2009
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I do not have much news from home this week, but we have plenty of other news!
This morning as we stepped outside to go to church, we looked toward the mountains. We saw a thick brown haze. The wind has been blowing for a couple of days now (a Santa Ana condition), which comes right off the high desert, over the mountains, and down into the Los Angeles basin. Although the winds have not been fierce, they are much more than a breeze. The winds have kicked up the dust and ash left from the fires earlier this year. Mama’s car was just covered with dirt when we arrived home Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening, I washed my truck. During the night, the wind blew again, and we had just a smattering of rain drops. My truck is all dirty again. The dust and ash is so thick that when water from the hose hits the drive way, it forms black rings around the splash area as it picks up the dirt and carries it away. Since our house is not air-tight, we are likely to have more dust than usual settling in our house. Further, today in a combined Priesthood-Relief Society meeting, Bryn Oh and Gary Scott presented on preparedness for floods and mudslides this winter rainy season. Bryn gave a scientific presentation. The fire here was so hot it burned everything, including burning roots into the ground. The fire forced hot gases into the top few inches of soil, and the gas condensed as a wax-like substance. This makes the soil “hydrophobic”, meaning that the water does not permeate and absorb. As a result, the top layer of water becomes saturated and causes run-off – not just water but obviously carrying soil and debris. Last week, I think I mentioned in a previous letter, we had some scattered rain, but there was a heavy cell in one corner of La Canada where the rain came down heavy for 15 minutes, causing debris flow piling up 5 feet of mud in some back yards. Debris flows can travel 35 miles an hour. So they are treacherous and cannot be outrun. This treacherous geologic condition is likely to last 3-5 years until the vegetation can get a good hold on the soil again. We have a number of families in the ward whose homes are at risk. We’ll volunteer to be an evacuation home where people can stay in the event of an evacuation. I hope we have a lot of rain, which we need, but I hope it comes in gentle and frequent storms so that we do not have further tragedy.
This afternoon, Mama went to visit Jensine Phillips. You will note her report in her letter. You also remember that we would Christmas carol at her house. While she was gone, I went home teaching, visiting Carol Cotton and Roger and Lisa Anderson. Haley is now working toward a Master’s Degree at USC in History, and would like to teach High School European History.
Eva will have a busy week. She attended a Chamber Singers rehearsal this afternoon. The Christmas concert is this coming Friday. I wish it were two weeks later. So the women of the Singers are getting together for an extra rehearsal. I am looking forward to the concert. Then Eva will be back into the thick of homework, piano (she is practicing right now), cello, YW and life.
Now I’ll start with the Grand Canyon. Monday, I went to work early, and almost finished by noon. But at noon, I left my unfinished work and drove home, getting gas on the way. Mama and Eva were there and ready to go. I hurriedly packed and got my gear together (except my camera! – so I had to rely on the camera in my blackberry). We were off! We missed all the heavy traffic out of Los Angeles. My drove initially while I tried to finish some unfinished work relating to the Caltech MIT enterprise forum. (I volunteered to jump in at the last minute to organize a medical device program when the December nanotech program fell apart.) After phone calls and emails, we were somewhere along I-40 heading toward Arizona. At a brief rest, Mama and I traded places, and we kept on toward the Grand Canyon. At Kingman we stopped for gas, and then continued on to the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Red Feather Lodge again, where Christine had such an interesting introduction to our family 5-6 years ago (is it 5 or 6 years ago?) We arrived about 9:30 PM. After checking email and watching a TV program, we went to bed.
On our blog, you can see pictures of our adventure. http://christie-russ.blogspot.com/. We had a good sleep and got up around 7:00 AM. After breakfast of oranges and granola, etc., we packed our day packs and drove into the park. It was freezing at the top, literally. The temperature was below freezing. We parked the truck and walked to the shuttle. Fortunately, we were bundled up in several layers of shirts, sweat shirts, and jackets. We left the shuttle just west of Yaki Point at the trailhead of the South Kaibab Trail. We had never hiked any of this trail before. The wind was blowing on top, but as we dropped down below the rim on the west side of the promontory (east side of the canyon). The view was spectacular and the wind died down below the canyon rim. After a series of switchbacks, we started along the trail as it clung to the side of the canyon, sloping down, and heading toward the far end of the canyon wall. At that point, it dropped down steeply onto a ridge jutting out from the canyon wall and the wind picked up substantially. It was pretty cold. We basically stayed on the ridge or on the east side of the ridge for quite awhile. We were glad we had gloves, hats and neck scarves. On the South Kaibab Trail, as we started down we could see far to the west in the Canyon. As we started out onto the ridge, we could see far up the Canyon to the east. Across the way we had a great view of Bright Angel Creek. We passed back-packers who were heading down to stay in the Canyon overnight. We hiked on and on, going lower and lower. The wind eventually died down, and the air became warmer.
In the steep part of the trail, the trail was re-enforced every 10 feet or so by logs laid crosswise in trail and held in place by long steel spikes driven into the ground. You will see some examples in the attached pictures. This trail improvement keeps the trail from eroding, particularly with the mule traffic. However, it created many “stairs” to step up, which in many ways is hard on the legs. We crossed the Tonto Plateau, which basically goes from the base of the upper canyon walls to the inner gorge. We then dropped into the steep trail to the Colorado River. All the way down was spectacular scenery and the inner gorge was also spectacular. We arrived at the suspension bridge which is about 50 feet above the river. Just east of the suspension bridge is a cable with a cable car. It certainly reminded me about Brighty of the Grand Canyon. We crossed the river and made our way down to the bank of the river, a sandy beach where river rafters stop. We saw a number of boats at this spot as we hiked down, but they had departed by the time we arrived. The temperature must have been about 70 degrees, and a few people were sunbathing near the river. We stopped for 20 minutes and ate lunch and rested next to the river. You will see mama and Eva by the river in the attached pictures. We then walked toward Bright Angel Creek, passing an Anazasi stone dwelling. The we saw a number of deer right near the river. They did not mind us at all. It almost seemed that I could have reached out to pet them. We crossed over Bright Angel Creek and then recrossed the river at another suspension bridge. We then followed a path paralleling the river for about two miles until we reached the Bright Angel Trail where it descended to the river. We then started up toward Indian Gardens. The trail followed a delightful stream, which you will see in some of the pictures, as well as the foliage along the trail. We rested for a few minutes at Indian Gardens, a delightful spot. The thermometers showed the temperature in the upper 50s. We ate a couple of granola bars and drank some water. The trail from Indian Gardens is quite moderate for a mile and a half. Then the steeper switch backs begin. We took several pictures along the way. We stopped occasionally for short conversations with other hikers, including a couple from Poland (German Wife) with two younger children who are commencing a two year stay in the US. However, we did not see or hear nearly as many non-native English speakers as we would during the summer vacation season.
As we approached the top of the Canyon, Mama’s natural fast hiking pace began to put some distance between her and Eva and me. Eva and I rested occasionally, and took a drink of water or ate another piece of a granola bar. So Mama finished 5-10 minutes before Eva and me. Although the upper part of the hike is the very scenic, the last mile is the longest mile. When we passed above the thick red sandstone layer, I kept think we were finished just around the next switch back, but we seemed to always have several more. Finally, however, we emerged about 4:45 pm on to the south rim at the top of Bright Angel Trail. We caught the shuttle back to the Visitor’s Center on the east side of the developed area of the South Rim. The shuttle ride seemed to take 45 minutes, a good deal of which I spent standing since the shuttle was so crowded with holiday visitors.
We then drove back to Tusayan, and stopped to find out the time of the Imax movie on the Grand Canyon. We went back to the motel, and showered, but we were too tired to really hurry and get out again to see the movie. Mama fixed instant mashed potatoes in the electric frying pan that we had brought with us and we ate other food for supper. Mama and Eva soon crashed into bed. I stayed up reading until about 10:30 or so when I could no longer stay awake. I lay down on the bed and slept 45 minutes with my cell phone next to me. Finally, Christian called and they had just pulled into the parking lot.
The next morning, we left the motel about 8:30 am, I think. We drove to the visitors center, and enjoyed the Mather Point overlook. We then caught the shuttle to the trail head of the South Kaibab Trail. The boys and I hiked down 5 minutes (with Christian and Benjamin running quite a bit ahead of me. Then we turned around and just made it back in time to catch the shuttle to the west rim shuttle transfer. We enjoyed a couple of stops along the west rim, admiring the great vistas. Finally, we headed back to the truck and left the park about 1:00 PM.
We drove through the beautiful country between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, which is about the same or a little higher than the South Rim (depending on which part of the South Rim). Flagstaff looks like a fine community. Would I enjoy living there? After buying some fast food at Jack in the Box, we were on our way to Phoenix. Eva and Christian rode with me, and listened to the Broadway satellite station. After putting gas in our vehicles, we left the rental car at an LDS church building near downtown Phoenix – an attractive building built in the middle of a circle in the street, with the parking across the circular street. The church was the only building within this small circle. As we drove out of Phoenix, we hit rush hour traffic. But we were enjoying each other’s company enough that it didn’t bother us much. We finally arrived in Benson at Grandpa and Grandma Hansen’s house. We admired the solar powered lights around the house welcoming us, including lights in the form of humming birds and turtles that changed colors. We enjoyed seeing them. Grandpa said that when we were ready, he wanted to show us the turkey that had been roasting over mesquite branches in the roaster all day just outside. (You all know what it looks like.) So the boys and Eva and I went out. Grandpa opened the turkey, and we just dug our fingers right into the turkey and pulled off the juiciest succulent tasty turkey imaginable. That is the true way to eat a turkey. I need to learn how to do it here at home. One cannot eat one’s fill of that turkey, because one can never get a fill of that turkey. Mama knew, however, when I should stop eating it. After talking, watching Ben Abbot’s video, and checking email and following up a bit on some Caltech matters, it was time for bed. Benjamin and Christian enjoyed sleeping on the roof of the gazebo. The temperature was just fine. Eva had the pull-out couch all to herself.
Thursday, Grandpa cooked us a delicious pancake breakfast. Then we soon left for Thatcher. We stopped by the Olsons’ ranch for a brief visit. Eva went out to pet the horses with Kaylie, and Benjamin and I went with Grandpa to talk to Shane, the husband/father/rancher. He was busy installing a chute for his cattle – but a high-tech chute. It had about six different parts that could be moved hydraulically to take into account small cattle, large cattle, etc. a lot more high-tech than the old wooden chutes with headlock that we used to use on the farm.
Then on to Thatcher. We really enjoyed Thanksgiving with Kim and Jan, with Jacob and Sally. We finally found their house after a couple of turns on the wrong streets in Thatcher. Before dinner, Sally took us on a guided tour of Thatcher, pointing out the house where Spencer W. Kimball lived, driving by Eastern Arizona College, and viewing the nearly complete Gila Valley Temple.
Back at Kim and Jan’s, we watched a bit of football (no soccer on TV), then enjoyed dinner together. In the afternoon, we talked more, I read some, and the kids played a fun game. Finally, the day was over. The kids went to the now movie – “New Moon”? – from Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series – and Mama and I drove home with Grandpa and Grandma in their car. I stayed up until 10 pm reading to make sure the kids returned home safely.
Friday morning, the boys and I hauled a few wagon loads of mesquite wood up to the house for Grandpa to use in the stove to keep the house warm. Benjamin enjoyed driving the small dune buggy to pull the wagon down in the wash. Then grandpa took all of the kids and me on a dune buggy ride. Mama did house cleaning, and Eva helped her before she went on the dune buggy ride with us. I helped a bit in the afternoon as well. Then Mama and I took the kids to a great rock climbing place east of Benson just off the freeway. You will see pictures on the blog site of some of our climbs. It was great fun. I generally kept up with the kids. We saw a beautiful sunset, and my pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the sunset. We finally returned shortly after dark. After more food and a movie (I watched part of it), we went to bed.
Saturday morning, Benjamin was the first one up. I got up about 6:00 am. We finally left about 6:50 AM, saying goodbye to Grandpa. We had such a wonderful time. On the drive to phoenix, Eva tried to sleep between the boys, who were working on the computers. We stopped near Gilbert to pick up a cat as a favor for one of Mama’s seminary students. (We experienced some frustration as the girl’s mother delivering cat was 30 minutes late, despite our several calls beforehand). We finally made it into Phoenix, and the boys were soon on their way back to Provo. We stopped in Phoenix for breakfast with the Jardines. It was a delightful hour with them, and delightful to see Jonathan and Rachel again. On the way back to La Canada, Eva got to have the whole back seat to herself, which she enjoyed, using it to sleep. There was heavy traffic all the way from Phoenix, with a majority of the cars having California plates. Fortunately, on our way home, we only slowed to a crawl a couple of times. I noticed that the outside temperatures never reached 70, and occasionally dropped into the 50s near Palm Springs, and all the way into Mt. Baldy, we could see snow on the mountains. In Palm Springs, it came quite low on the mountains. The ground was wet with a pretty good storm. However, past Mt. Baldy, the snow disappeared, as did the precipitation. At home, we found the car covered with dirt from the wind, and a smattering of rain drops. But no substantial moisture at all.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
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