The Grand Canyon!

Well, this trip certainly was eventful. Im going to describe it now, because I missed it out before but it is actually part of the southern Utah trip which was before theTetons and Yellowstone.

Well, we got to the Grand Canyon and decided that we were up for a challange. We decided that it would be fun to hike all the way down to the Colorado River and back up again in the same day. This totals to 16 miles. 16 miles...doesn't sound too bad right? Well...add 44.4 degree celcius heat (112 Farenheit) and that makes it a little harder. Also, it is really really steep going down so that when you get down there, your knees and ankles are painful and THEN you have to go back up the extremely steep acent back to the top. Sounds like fun! Well everywhere we looked there were signs saying (DO NOT HIKE TO THE RIVER AND BACK IN ONE DAY) and then going on to say that we will get dehydrated/heat stroke/we will die/blah bla blah. Anyway we figured that if the National Park Service was going to give a reccomendation, they would HAVE to tell people not to do it otherwise the amount of people that they would have to pull out would be huge due the the level of obesity in america, and people who had NO experience in hiking, would just think "I can do that" and then they would get into trouble whilst down there. Anyway, so we went to a expert to ask for tips and she said that she had to tell us not to do it on the parks behalf, but she persoanlly thought that with the right water/food we looked like we were up to the task. She told us that yes you have to drink alot, but you also have to eat LOADS as well. The reason why most people get stuck is that they dont eat enough and do not have enough energy even though the drink alot. (and let me tell you now, that heat drains your energy fast!) So I took with me about triple the amount of food I would normall take and 6 litres of water. I figured 6 litres would be enough to get me down there to Phantom Ranch where there was a refill point and there were regular refil points on the way up. Our plan was to take the South Kaibob trail to Phantom ranch at the bottom the other side of the Colorado, and the take the Bright Angel Trail bck up to the top, passing Indian Gardens (a back-country camp site half way up the trail where we could refil) and a few other refil points/reshouses on the last and hardest part of the trail near the top! We had everything figured out, we were going to walk 45 mins and then rest for 15 so to let the lactic acid come, and then go again. We were going to eat somthing evey time we rested. I took loads of apples with me, peanut butter sandwiches, peanut cereal bars, peanuts, chips (crisps), and loads of oter stuff.

So we started off down the trail, it was very hot but BRILLIANT! We left at 4:30 am to watch the sun rise and to miss the heat in the middle of the day (11am - 4pm) It was such a fun trail! The views were amazing!!!! We hand fed squirels on the way down which was cool aswell. There were no refil points on the way down. But that was fine. i got through my 6 litres easily. And we kept to all of our rules. We got down there fairly easily although we were tired at the bottom. We arrived there are about 10:30am. There was a small places where you could buy drinks and stuff at the bottom so we all bought lemonade and sent postcards to family which said "carried by mule from the bottom of the grand canyon - Phantom Ranch." so that was cool! We sat outside in the shade for a while and it was so so so hot. 44.4 degree C!!!!!!! Also it was humid because of the Colorado River. So that was unbearable. The energy was drained out of you just by sitting there! We waited at phantom ranch till 4pm (6 hours) till we left as we didnt want to hike in the main heat (thats what we were told to do, and it is DEFINATELY the right descision). We Went to the Colorado so we could say we went to the VERY bottom and we got ourselves wet with the river water. I bought a rock from the colorado back up with me which is cool. We also jumped in a stream and lay ander the water to cool off.

The Acent - the acent was hot and tough, but fun. It didnt feel too bad. We would keep on having to stop and eat to get energy and we all were drinking regulary as we had camelbacks. (little water pouches that go in your bag with a long straw that you can drink out of whilst you walk) so they helped alot. We passed indian gardens and re-filled all of our water. It started getting dark, infact it got very dark and the moon wasnt up yet so there was only starlight. Our torch had broken so all we had no light, but none of us were really worried about that. We carried on about 1.5 miles up the trail. This is where the fun REALLY begins haha. Un-known to me and Nathan, Britney had been pushing herself extra hard to increase her pace so we could get out of the cayon quickly. So her heart beat was at a higher rate. As we were walking along, she was in front whilst me and Nathan were just behind here talking and not really worrying about anything. Suddenly Britney jumped back and shouted RATTLESNAKE!! just we heard the loud and scary sound of a rattlesnake right on the path infront of us!!! Nathan grabbed Brintye and yanked her back whilst I jumped back myself, Brintye then said, "Its coming this way" so Nathan yanked her again! Whilst I as scared as it was dark and I couldn't see the snake, onces we knew it had slithered off to the side, I was fine, and so was Nathan. Britney on the other hand had gone into shock, was shaking, and feel like she was about to pass out. She couldn't stand and we had to sit her down on a rock with her legs elevated and calm her down. We the talked about what we were going to do. On the one hand, we could go up to the top which was still 3 miles and the hardest part of the trail, or we could go back down to Indian Gardens which was 1 mile down hill and stay overnight. Either way we had no light and Britney was finding it hard to stand. We called 911 and spoke to the Canyon rangers thingy. We wanted to see if they could send a ranger up from Indian Gardens to help get us down with Britney. 911 proved to be not very helpful as after much conversation, they said, "you can either go up or go down" which we knew. So we stopped speaking to them. We decided to go down to the ranger station, however we needed a light. Just at that moment a lone hiker came along the trail. He had a torch. We told him our situation and he offered us his torch. We refused, saying it would leave him in too much danger from snakes as they come out at night. He agreed and said he would come down to Indian Gardens with us and stay the night. He was about 22, and was a kinda hippy guy. He was hitch-hiking the U.S and so had no real commitments so it would be fine for him to come down. We thanked him and went down the trail. On the way down we saw another snake, I dont know what it was but it was black and white and looked cool.

When we spoke to the ranger, the first thing he asked was how much we had drank. When I told him I had drank 15 litres and Nathan and Britney said somthing similar, he asked how much we had eaten, again we said ALOT and he asked if we had been going to the toilet and we all said yes. (he was asking me and nathan to, although we didnt really feel bad, we probably could have carried on up to the top but with Britney in that condiditon we couldnt) In the end he put it down to physical exhaustion and and already high heart-rate which induced the shock at the sight of the snake. We ended up camping overnight at the station on picknik tables with out ANY sleeping equipment apart from hard thin foam mats (rollmats) and Britney had a sleeping bag. But that was fine with me I still slept 6 hours or so.

The next day it was very cool to wake up in the grand canyon! We walked up to the top without too much trouble. Britney was still feeling weak so me and the person who hd the torch went ahead so I could pack up our tent as we had to check out of camp by 11am. We definately make the right descision to go back down the trail the night before, the last 3 miles were the steepest and hardest. Getting to the top was a nice feeling. Think that we had gone all the way and and back up again. even if we didnt do it in one day, I know that I COULD have but we had to go down due to the circumstances.

That was probably the best hike I have ever been on! even though it wasn't a moutnain (although it was much harder than any mountain I have ever done, includeing the 3,541m one I did the other day). I enjoyed every single second of the hike and I got to see and do stuff most people NEVER get the chance to. It is a very extreme and harsh enviroment and you have to be equiped/prepared and fit enough. I would definately do it again. And I would recomment it to anyone who is able bodied enough to do it...but it is VERY hard...well...in the mid-summer it is anyway. We all felt very proud with ourself and happy to have done it. I cant wait to do it again!

Tetons and Yellowstone!

Well, I have just returned from another successful trip. This time the Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone national park. Both of which were stunning!

Day 1 - Having spent a long time stuck in traffic, we finally arrived at Flag Ranch which is situated between Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We sety up our tents, made dinner, and went to bed. That night I didnt sleep well. This was because we were in real bear country and bear regualry were caught going in and out of campsites! I didnt know this at the time but a woman was paid to patrol the campsite in a pickup to detur and bear that may be found wondering....she had to scare off a big grizzly only 2 weeks ago! Elk, moose, cayotes and bison also regulaly wondering into the camp, but they do not pos such a threat. Anyway, I eventually did get to sleep but woke up throughout the night and eveytime I heard anything I started freaking out. So I listened to my Ipod and that helped.

Day 2 - We decided to go on a hike to 'Hidded Falls' in the Tetons. We met up with John and Kary an their family (John is Britney's brother) and we hiked around Jenny's Lake, to Hidden Falls and then up to Cascade Canyon. It was about a 5 or 6 mile round trip, so not too long which was nice as I hadn't slept well the night before. Hidden Falls was really beautiful. They were these really high and powerful waterfalls flowing with glacial meltwater. Nice. We sat and ate our lunch (a cooked chicken we had packed) by the falls and then split off from John and Kary so carry on further down to Cascade Canyon. When we got back we went back to the campsite and made pasta and took showers which was nice. :D I slept better than night for some reason, I think it was because of my Ipod again.

Day 3 - Today we went to yellowstone. It was very nice, but becuase it was so big it meant that we had to spend alot of time in the car to get to all of the different places. We went and visited old faithful and some nice hot thermal pools. We also drove throught a massive Bison heard and saw lots of nice rivers and woods. Old Faithful was very crowded and busy, but it was still nice. The thermal pools was also really nice. You can always check my facebook for more pictures.

Day 4 - Today we climbed dissapointment peak. It is 3,541 meters high. That is very high. This was the highest mountain I had ever climbed. On the way up we ran into a mother black bear in a berry patch. This was a very scary but also really really cool. Bears get very protective of their cubs and also of their food so it is very lucky that she didnt seem to mind us too much. We were all very shaken up afer that.We took some photos of it which are also on my facebook. We hiked up to ampitheatre lake which was covered in ice. Me and Nathan left Reid and Britney there whilst we did the final few step and scary miles up to the top. We had to climb up this chute through a tiny narrow gap after having kick-steped up icy snow with a drop at the bottom. We then climbed up a route meant only for rock climbing. It had a big overhang with a 90 foot drop underneath us onto jagged rocks. But we did it without ropes and carried on along the long steep scramble to the top. When we hit the top the view was amazing. We were 3,541m up looking out over the flat valley floor and we could look out at all the other rugged mountains and the grand Teton which was just across a huge raviene. That was really nice. I have loads of photos of the on my facebook if you wana have a look! :D It was cool as we came down as we ran out of drinking wwa ter and we had to fill up from river and purify it which was fun.

Day 5 - Tday we wetn white water rafting! It was SO SO SO SO fun. The waves were huge and we were on the boat for about 90 mins which was cool. On the biggest rapid (The Big Kahuna) Nathan and Reid fell out! We struggled to get them back in before the next big rapid which was coming up soon and that would NOT have been good if they had swam that one. We also saw LOADS of Bald Eagles and Ospreys which was really cool!!! I will put up some river rafting photos and video soon as we are getting them sent to us by a company which took some as we went down.

Day 2 - Delicate Arch and Devils Garden.

(Sorry about the weird layout of the photos, i was experimenting and couldnt undo it!)

Today was AMAZING! We went to Arches Nartional Park and Delicate arch which is a world famous big sandstone arch (you will probably have seen it before, have a look at the photo) and then to a place in Arches called 'Devils Garden' which is a cool name for a cool place.

Delicate Arch - We set off up to Arches national park. There were tons of cool rock formations as you can see in the photos. The whole place is a desert and is very hot. Its cool as there is loads of cacti around and lizards/snakes and other stuff that you get in deserts. The trail up to Delicate Arch was about 1.5 miles each way. So it wasnt really a hike, but it was very hot, and the trail was more about seeing Delicate Arch than going on a hike. On the way up to Delicate arch we saw loads of Toads and Lizards, and I managed to get like 1 inch away from a lizard to get a photo (look at the photos I put up). We saw the toads jump to catch dragon-flies as well which was cool.

So we carried on in our efforts to get up to delicate arch. We followed a rock trail all the way up and walked past lots of cliffs, arches, washes and so on. We ended up waling along a ledge and going round a corner and suddenly, Delicate Arch was right there in front of us! It was spectacular, magnificant, awesome, and HUGE! Much bigger than I had expected! If you look at the photo of it, you should be able to see me standing underneath it! It helps you get some perspective. We sat there for ages! Thankfully it wasnt so hot underneath the arch as a cool breeze was blowing to give us a little escape from the extreme heat. After a while everyone else up there left and we had the whole arch to ourselves for about 10 miniutes which is really lucky and rare as that never happens. We took TONS of photos whcih will soon be uploaded to facebook! :D

On the way down we saw a load of old native Indian Petroglyphs on the rocks which was very interesting. W hen we got back to the car, we were all very tired out!

Devils Garden - Devils Garden in a trail in a mixture of rock formations.It was very very cool but we were all ready tired so we didnt go too far as it was very hot. We ended up waling about 4 miles on that trail. It was nice though. Ill put some photos up on facebook soon. i cant be nthered to write about it now as its 1am and I need more sleep. I keep on staying up way too late!! Argh!!

Anyway - maybe ill say more about that tommorow! :d

C ya - There is still TONS more to come! :D So keep checking! :D

Day 1 - Travelling there

Today was quite kool. It was the day we travelled to Moab in Southern Utah. Today we picked up our rental car in the morning (which was a huge S.U.V) and packed it full to the brim with camping gear, hiking gear and food. We had SO much stuff. Anyway, it was really nice because it had A.C and was nice and roomy. We filled up with petrol and were on our way! The drive down to Moab to about 4/5 hours. It was nice though. First we drove past all the Salt Lake Mountains in the Wasatch Range, and then we hit the really arid desert where is was a little non-descript but It was cool as it was so baron! We headed down furthur south were we suddenly hit red rock country! It was so cool! So much red rock everywhere! You cant describe it only that everywhere you lok there are massive cliffs and huge red rock geological structure and arches and pillars and so on. Its cool. We got to Moab where we set up our tent and unpacked all of our stuff. We drove around and saw the area a bit but it was allready late when we got there so we didnt to too much. I bought a pretty cool map though! The tent at night was VERY hot! And me and Britney found it so hard to sleep, We both woke up during the night absolutely sweating! And I wasnt even using a sleeping bag! Nathan loved the heat though. He found it really easier to sleep in the heat. It was very hot though, I am not sure how hot it was at night, but during the day in Moab it ranged from 97 degrees to 105 degrees! Phew!

So that was that day. Pretty much a travelling day really, but still cool!

:D

Update!

Ok. I have just got back from my 10 day trip and it was AMAZING! It was so brilliant and I have never done so much cool stuff in one holiday! The great thing is I still have 3 more trips to go on! Anyway, I want to write about it all in detail and put lots of photos from each day on here, so I am going to make a seperate post for each day and I'll include the Dates and what we did in the title. I have ALOT to write so I might not be able to write about all 10 days at once but Ill try and get it done quickly! There were some really good things that we did and I have LOADS of really cool stories. So watch this space.......

=:~)

Monday 6th July - Leaving For Southern Utah And The Grand Canyon

Hey! Nothing exciteing to write as I have just got up, but thought I would let you know that I am about to leave to go on a 10 day trip to Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon! Woo! So I wont be able to update this blog regularly (if at all) but I will try to whenever I get the oppetunity such as a hotel WI-FI of somthing. Anyway. Yes..its going to be goood! HOT, but good! The forecast for the next few days says 97 degrees, 98, 100, 97, 100, 100. I dont know what that is in celcius but I know its hot! Anyway.

Cya!

=:~)

4th July 2009 - Independence Day

Hi. Today has been....interesting. I woke up a about 5am feeling terrible. Really really sick. And my stomach kept making really loud and stange noises. Anyway...turns out the Sushi I had eaten the night before might not have been so good after all, as I think it gave me food poisoning. So I was throwing up and the works all morining. Anyway, after I finished, I felt really exhausted and sick for the rest of the day. I think I slept in till 2:30pm, and went back to bed again at about 7pm, and then didnt wake up till 7:30 Sunday morning. So..alot of sleep. I didnt really take any photos (except this one of the chair that i like lounging around on in the back garden) yesterday as I felt to tired to move or do anything. I was a little gutted that I missed all the independance day celebrations, but I guess I dont really celebrate that anyway.

So yeah...Have had better days, but at least being sick in the U.S is better than being sick in the U.K.

Friday 3rd July - I-Hop, Antelope Island and Many Other Things

Ok. Well let me start off by saying I am writing this at 00:45 and it is only the packet of lovely 'Sportsmans Warehouse' beef jerky that is keeping me awake, so if I keep this breif..its because I want to sleeeeep!!

Today was a very interesting day. We got alot done! I woke up early fairly late this morning - 9am! (Still have a little Jet lag so 9am is late for me at the moment, I have been waking up at 6:30/7am up till now) Just after I woke up but as I was still laying in bed, Nathan came in with my morning Green Drink. He said...."This one may be a little worse than normal, because I havn't got any spinach, only brocolli, kale and cabbage,".....'A little worse' is an understatement! It was one of the most foul things I have ever tasted. Britney and Joslyn were in the doorway watching me to see my reaction. When I gagged Joslyn quickly said (half joking, half not) "Dont you dare throw up over that bed!" Haha. It was warm, lumpy, thick, and emitted and putrid and pungent smell of somthing horrible. :( Need to get some more spinach....and soon.

Anyway - Nathan then told me that we were all (Me, Nathan, Britney, Reed and Joslyn) were all going to go to I-Hop (International House Of Pancakes) so I should get up soon. I was rather happy about this as I was hungary and had been really looking forward to getting a goold ol' american style stack of pancakes with maple syrup, butterscotch and the works. So I got up, and we left.

I-Hop was goooooood. Very good. I was actually tempted to get a cooked breafast or an omelette as they looked so good but I thought I had better go for the Pancake Experience. I got 5 think pancakes with cream, maple syrup, pecans, buterscotch and an orange juice. When I left however...I was so full I felt like I never wated to eat again! Still..it was nice.

We then went home and relaxed a little. Nathan and Britney went to get Nathans hair cut and go ot 'good earth' to get some bits for Nathans food whilst in Southern Utah. Whilst they were out, I though it would be a good idea to try to get rid of some of my tan lines that I had aquired the day before on Lewis Peak. I took the book I am reading (The Kite Runner) out into the back garden with a bottle of water and a bowl of chilled watermelon and sat on the hammock/chair/swingy thing and read for about 2 hours. It was HOT! Now, bear in mind that this was around 12:00 noon and the hottest part of the day. I had put on a thin spreading of factor 50, but I didnt want it to block the sun out too much. Anyway, I came back in 2 hours later and began to realize that I had got a little red. As the day went on it became more and more burnt and now it is very saw. So I have the two things I didnt wana get..Sunburn and Blisters. Ah well....they will have both gone by Monday which is the day I need them to have gone by.

After this, Reed took me out to a ranch the other side of Antelope Island. Its a kool island in the Great Salt Lake with lots of Buffalo/Bison, Antelope, deer, cayotes and mountain lions. We managed to see buffalo, deer and antelope which was very kool. We then drove up to the beggining of a train on the island and found that the trail went up to the top of the highest peak on the Island (around 2300m). We are going to hike that at some point. After this we drove up to the visitors centre on the island where there was a great view of the lake!!!! Ahhhhh. Some american girls in the visitors shop were talking to me about my accent and where I am from again, which was funny. Antelope Island is very baron and deserted, Well, not deserted becuase no-one ever lived there who could desert it! Still, there is nothing!!No-one! Its kool though, I got bitten to death by mozzies and the island has some of the oldest rock on the earth!!!

When we got back, Me, Nathan and Britney sat in the garden and had 'Young Coconuts'. Its nice. Its like a unripened coconut - except its better as it has more milk and the flesh is better to eat! Very refreshing on a Hot day!

Britneys Friend Kristen then ame over for a while. She was kool. She was really nice and very funny. She is a musician and is trying to get her halloween music heard more! If you wana look her up, its Kristen Lawrence. She has played in some nice bands too. I showed her our bands songs and she really liked them.

Me, Nathan, Britney and Kristen then went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies for next week. I went to the cereal isle and was amazed!!! Ahhhh! Its soo good there!!! I took alot of photos and a video of it as well. I'm and sure all the other customers saw me taking photos of cereal and speaking into the camera and though "Hmmmm....Weird englishmen." I also bought some beef jerkey, butterfingers, sausage things and blister plasters! That was G-good.

We all then went out to 'Osaka's Sushi' to eat sushi! Its was goooood. Very nice! I had a spicy Tuna roll. It wan very nice indeed...expensive though!

We then came back and sat outside in the chair watching an amazing storm for almost 2 hours. It was very nice. When we did this, I went to run inside to get somthing. I saw the open door and went to run through it...little did I know that there mesh msquito net was still there and went straight into it. Everyone laughed. As we sat outside, Me, Nathan and Britney decided that at some point on this holiday we are going to camp on top of Ben Lomond peak (2797m) That will be FUN!!

So yeah....Some good stuff!

Oh yeah - I also tried my first every mountain dew today. Not badm just a bit better than sprite. Anyway gota go o bed now...I'm falling asleep.

Thursday 2nd July - Lewis Peak

I have blisters. 2 very painful, very annoying blisters. But it was worth it, because today was a fantastic day!

Me and Reed (Britney's dad) decided to climb a mountain called 'Lewis Peak'. Its 2,447 meters high (8,031 feet), the highest I have done before now is Scafell Pike and that is only 978 meters. Anyway, we decided it would be fun to do.

We set off early this morning. I had to get up at 6:30 am (I woke up naturally at EXACTLY 6:30am strangely) and then we got ready and packed our bags. We packed Chocolate chips, fruit, nuts and alot of water as it was going to be a hot day. I had another lovely bowl of Lucky Charms and a green drink before we set off, to get me full of energy.

(Green drinks are these things that Nathan and Britney have introduced me to recently with consits of spinach, broccoli, kale, and other greens...all blended up in a blender to liquidise the greens. It creates a rather potent smelling and tasting, luke warm liquid which isnt nice, but you feel great for the day after having it! - I'll post a photo of one when I next have one)

We drove up to the car park where we were going to start from which was in a canyon call the North Ogden Divide. On the way Reed informed me that we would be hiking in Cougar country and that there would be a fair few snakes around (there are alot of rattlesnakes here). However, we didn't expect to see bears, elk or moose as we were in the wrong area and too high for that, although, there was always the chance that we could bump into a stray one. He also told me about the time when a moose charged him in Wheeler Canyon (where we were 2 days before) whih must have been terrifying! So we started the hike....I didnt really feel too worries about the cougars though.

On the first setion of the hike, the trail consisted of a lot of switchbacks that went through a pine forest. This was a pretty nice place and was quite a steep first acent. Anyway, as we were going up I thought I heard a noise coming from the dense 'off trail' forest and the thought occured to me that it could be a cougar. This was when I realized that i was actually very scared about seeing a cougar, or even a bear or a moose face to face as a sudden wave of paranoia came upon me and I got genuinly scared about meeting cougars. However, this didnt last and I soon forgot about it.

We got out onto the top ridge and It was a very nice view! We could see Ben Lomond Peak and Mt. Ogden (both of which we plan to climb) and Snowbasin Ski Resort which was very impressive! Reed mention for me to watch out for sun-basking snakes at this point. From here it was just a series of ups and downs in a horseshoe shape untill we got to the peak. It was 5 .5 miles each way so 11 miles all in all. I didnt really feel tired but I could feel a difference in the altitude from that in England.

On top of Lewis Peak we ate out chocolate chips and nuts and drank alot of water. We also took photos and so on and so forth. We came back down the same way. We had to get down fairly quickly as there were some big thunderheads coming our way! We didnt want to be on the mountain in that.

As we were driving back, a big storm broke out and it was raining hard with alot of thunder and lightning. We stopped of at Carls Junior again which was great!

In the evening, Me, Nathan, Britney and Reed all watched this movie called 'Mall-Cop' which was rubbish! But then we saw this good one which was a documentry about Alaska. That was amazing!

So yeah. A pretty good day. My first American Mountain and my highest ever mountain (although that'll soon change as we are doing some much bigger ones soon).

Might be doing Ben Lomond peak tommorow...depends on my blisters.

See you later

=:~)

P.S - I thought it was funny as when we were up there, we met these guys on top of the peak. One of them looked at the sky and said "They-re's a storm comin". Pretty typical american phrase. Haha

The Last few days....

OK. Im going to start by saying that I will try to make a post in one form or another MOST evenings (except for when I am camping or somthing), because every evening I'll be uploading photos onto my laptop and stuff so I'll have a bit of time just to write about the day. I dont know if anyone is following it, but....may as well...just in case.

So seeing as i havn't written about the last few days, ill give a breif recout of each day up until now.

Monday 29th June (Flight Day) - The big day. This was the day I was due to leave England, and begin my long and tiresome jorney to The States. Well, the flight wasn't actually a bad as I had anticipated. It turned out to only be 8 hours from Gatwick to Cincinatti which was good. The service on the plane was great and the american air hosts/hostesses were really nice (much better than Ryanair!). I saw Ireland for the first time and we saw huge icebergs off the cost of Nova Scotia which was extremely cool! I didnt really wath an of the movies being shown. The journey got a little bumpy at times whih was scary but fun. So all in all...pretty impressed by Delta. Even the food was OK!

When we got to Cincinatti we had only 2 hours to make out change-over from Cincinatti to Salt Lake. Luckily we all got through customs fine (even though the customs agent was like "Why are you here"? "Why are you here for so long"? "What are you doing whilst your here"? "Where are you staying"? and so forth) although, Nathan and Britney had it easy as they could just go through the permanant residents bit. The plane to Salt Lake was smaller but it was still OK, it actually had a fair amount of legroom which was nice, although, my bum was very numb from sitting down for so long! On the way to Salt Lake we flew over the Unitah mountains, Colorado, Southern Utah and all the red-rock canyons, The Dinosaur National Monument and we had to change our flight path so that we didnt fly into a Tornado over Nevada. That was kool. The decent from 30,000 feet into Salt Lake was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. We flew level with the Wasatch Range which were snow-capped and I could see so many amazing mountains, lakes, canyons, Salt Lake City, temples and much more. Truly breathtaking.

When we got off the plane the exit from Salt Lake was very easy as we had already cleared customs at Cincinatti. We got our luggage, met Reed and Joslyn (Britneys parents) and went to Britneys home (where I am going to be staying for the next 6 weeks, except when we go away camping and road-tripping and such like). Utah is AMAZING! The mountains are huge, there is about 10 fast food places on every street and they are GOOD! There are NO roundabouts, there are drive-through banks, and its so hot! Ahhhh. Very kool place. We stopped off at Carls Junior on the way back (best burger place ever!). It was so big i couldnt even finish what I ordered! Anyway, we went home and got unpacked, only to find that my brand new bottle of aftershave had leaked during the flight and had completely emptied all over my luggage. Ah well, at least now all my stuff smells good. Then it was off to bed to recover from jet-lag.

Tuesday 30th June - Ok. Well today was a good day. I woke up at around 6:30 am due to jet-lag. We got up and got dressed and then went into town to run some errands. We got to a chiropracter to get Nathan and Britney's backs crunched, then went to the Social Services office to get Nathan a number. We then went to Jahso's which is this really kool chilled bak restaurant when is realy good. I had this thing called a French Dip Sandwich which was very nice. And I had Unlimated free root-beer refils!

We then went to Wheeler Canyon. That was absolutly spectacular! The massive rock formations there were incredible. We saw plently of Golden Eagles whilst we were there as well. As it was so hot, We stopped fo a while and dipped out feet in a little creek which rand down the canyon. Took lots of photos!!

We went to Wal-Mart on the way home. It was really kool! It was my first time in a Wal-Mart and it was HUGE! I mean really really really big!! There was everything there. I bought a load of stuff you cant get in the UK such as Reeses Peices, Wonka Nerds, Polar Ice Gum, and other stuff. I didnt get any of the amazing cereal because Reed and Joslyn had already bought me a big box of Lucky Charms so I didnt need any cereal......yet. I did however, stand in the cereal isle and fell into a trance like stupor. I was in heaven! Ill definately take my camera into Wal-Mart and take a load of photos to show you of the cereal isle. It really is somthing else!

We then went home and went to bed. Still gota catch up on the Jet-Lag.

Wednesday 1st July - Today was very much a laid back kinda day. We went to another chiropracter appointment for Nathan. He should be ok for Southern Utah next week which is kool! We went to Carls Juniors again (Oh how I love that place). We ran a load of other errands such as going to 'the mall' where plenty of the shop assisstant seemed to like my accent AND I managed to find a really kool T-shirt for $4!!!!!!!!! Nice! I also discovered my new favourite shop. "Sportsmans Warehouse". It really is....amazing. I could quite easily spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars in there. Its the kind of place that makes me want to move to Utah. Imagine the size of Sainsbury's, and times it by about 2, and that how big it is (but with 2 levels) and instead of grocerys, there is everything any outdoor enthuiast/hiker/traveller could EVER wish for!!!!! It is simply amazing. SO much better than Millets or Mountain Warehouse.

Anyway yeah, tommorow we are climbing Lewis Peak. We were gona climb Ben Lomond Peak but Nathan and Britney want to save their energy for Southern Utah and I know how much they want to do Ben Lomond Peak so I thought I would rather save Ben Lomond and do it with them. Tommorow it is just me and Reed going up. Ill take lots of photos. Early start though! And on that note, im going to go to bed.

Goodnight.