Category: Trail Journals (Page 2 of 5)

Well, it finally happened. All the effort I have put into getting a professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders started here in the Springs has come to fruition. We adopted a drinking water and sanitation project for a remote Aymara Indian community in the Andes Mountains last fall and have been raising funds and making preparations for a site assessment trip in the Spring of 2009. In mid-May I led a team consisting of three members of the professional chapter and three members of the Air Force Academy student chapter to Suncallo, Bolivia. What follows are the notes I wrote up on the plane coming back. It consists of many observations and side notes on the trip. There was a great deal of adventure getting there and back but overall we accomplished our mission and brought back lots of data and pictures which will help us in our engineering design work. Note: if you click on the pictures you can see a larger version.

Our trip was delayed by a day due to an American Airlines requirement that all travelers must provide proof of yellow fever vaccination. The American Airlines policy contradicts the guidance given on the US Governments Center for Disease Control (CDC) website which indicates that travelers proceeding to No-Risk areas in Bolivia may sign a waiver at the point of entry.

Our pre-trip research into the vaccination requirements on the CDC website clearly identified the project site to be in a No-Risk area and to keep the costs down and eliminate the risk of introducing a live vaccine into our bodies four of the team decided not to get the yellow fever vaccinations. It is worth noting that the US Air Force declined to provide the yellow fever vaccination to the members of EWB-AFA for the same reasons.

The last thing we expected was for the airline to deny us boarding our aircraft. Regardless of our justifications and documentation supporting our position American Airlines refused to allow us to board the aircraft. Other EWB chapters should be made aware that the airlines have this authority and that the airlines policy may differ from the US Governments. It should be incumbent upon the travel agency to make the travelers aware of any requirements levied by the airlines. Apparently, the $360 in “fees” we paid the travel agency didn’t include this small courtesy.

Fortunately, we were able to locate the required vaccine and proceed the following morning on a direct flight from Denver to Miami and thence on a direct flight (overnight) to La Paz from the Miami airport. Visa fees were paid, Immigration was cleared (no they didn’t ask to see our yellow fever vaccination certifications) and Customs was cleared effortlessly. Continue reading

Three men went camping in the Puma Hills, an area in the Pike National Forest. What made this particular camping trip unique was; they were all Grimes men. Three generations in fact. Now that may not seem like a big deal but surprisingly, this camping trip took a long time to organize. I’ve been camping at various times over the years with both my Dad and with my Son but never at the same time. It seems like a simple thing to organize but with all of us serving in the armed forces at one time or another it just never made it past the good idea stage.

I’m the middle generation now but I remember trying to make the same scenario happen when I was a young man. We lived in Iowa at the time and the goal I had envisioned was making a trip up to the Boundary Waters in Canada. Dad was retiring from the Air Force and moving back to Des Moines but my Grandfathers health began to fail before I could make it a reality.

Time passes swiftly and I began to realize another opportunity might easily slip by so I got a commitment from everyone to make it happen this summer. Dad caught the train to Denver and slipped through the “Gestapo” as he called them [Denver was hosting the Democratic National Convention at the time and the Secret Service were all over the place to include boarding the train in Ft Morgan and checking everyone’s “papers”.] and rode the bus on down to the Springs. Continue reading

The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) has a section that runs through the canyon. We drove back down the river to Skull Bridge and parked. Once you leave the road you are in the Chama River Canyon Wilderness. The trail heads out through the Ojitos Canyon where cattle are being grazed on the grassland. The walls of the Chama Canyons are a striking variety of colors from yellows to maroons marking the distinct sedimentary layers of rock. We hiked several miles across the canyon and then the trail headed up a side canyon and began to gain some elevation. We continued to follow it and it eventually started paralleling a small stream.

The clouds settled back in but they were high and did not seem to be threatening rain so we continued for awhile until we got tired. Didn’t see any wildlife to speak of but the canyon walls were quite interesting throughout the hike. We thought we might get to the point where the canyon narrowed down but decided we had best turn back. The hike back went pretty quickly and by the time we got back to the car we had covered eight miles. We hadn’t planned to go quite so far but it felt good to be out and about and not cooped up by bad weather. Continue reading

I’d been planning on a camping trip to Utah’s Canyon Country after the wedding in the hopes of getting out into red-rock country. There is something I find fascinating about this beautiful but desolate area and I was looking forward to the warmth, photo opportunities, and no responsibilities. However, in the end we opted out of the long drive and decided to try something a little closer to home. A little research on the Internet turned up a similar area in the Santa Fe National Forest. Located in north central New Mexico, the Rio Chama Canyon became our destination for an extended Memorial Day weekend.

The forecast was a bit dubious but we headed out and worked our way south through high winds and rain arriving at the Coyote Ranger station a few minutes before they closed. We snagged a map of the area and located a nice lookout point on the map at the end of a 4WD forest road that promised extraordinary views of the canyon and river. It took another hour to get there but the view did not disappoint. The only problem was the stinking weather! The winds were still kicking up and it was hinting that it might snow. We decided that setting up camp on the exposed lookout was not the best idea and retreated back into the forest where we pitched the tent among a bunch a small trees.

Misadventure #1: I forgot to pack the sleeping mats. Doh! Rhonda came to the rescue and created a comfortable bed out of the materials we had on hand.

The wind died down and I made a nice campfire but after supper the big old fat snowflakes started coming down. It was pretty but we didn’t linger too long after such a long travel day. We crawled into the tent and quickly realized we should have brought our winter bags. The down blanket and vests we always bring saved the day, er…night, and we managed to stay warm. At least for awhile. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering why the dog was sleeping on my legs. It wasn’t the dog. Continue reading

This is the last Saturday that the three of us ‘at home’ will all be here before Kristina leaves for California next week. We decided that was reason enough for an adventure so off we went to Einstein’s Bagel shop for breakfast to get a good start on the day. It was a somewhat cool morning so we skipped eating out on the terrace. We chatted over breakfast about Daniel, the military, school, and of course, California. It was great to hear Kristina share some of what is taking place in Daniel’s life, how God is working and how that affects her future.

Taking Abby a little snack from our breakfast, we headed off to Glen Eyrie, a part of Colorado history, owned by the Navigators. It is an awesome facility down in Queen’s Canyon, named after Col. Palmer’s wife, Queen. He built a castle for her in the Canyon before Colorado Springs was founded. It is now utilized as a seminar facility for Christian seminars of all types. A truly beautiful place, the grounds are often frequented by part of the Big Horn sheep herd that makes its home in the canyon and on the adjoining Greg Francis Big Horn Sheep Refuge. The canyon is no longer open to the public on the weekends but one of Kristina’s perks as an employee of the Navigators is to have access whenever she wants it. Flash her employee ID badge at the gate and we are on our way.

The canyon was arrayed with reds, golds, and still a fair amount of green foliage as we drove through to the far end parking lot. We are hoping to see some of the Big Horn sheep in the canyon so we were constantly looking up the canyon walls for any signs. The cloud cover provided great lighting for my two photographers. Josh recently gave Kristina his old 35mm and so she is shooting today as well as her Dad. We have written previously about the trail and posted pictures so I will not go into too much detail as you can read the old post for a more in depth description of the trail. The trail doesn’t go very far in to the canyon before it crosses over into the National Forest and begins a continual, gradual increase to a tall waterfall. The trail was a magic place today – the leaves were falling and the stream that supplies water to Glen Eyrie was babbling as we followed along. Continue reading

Well – yesterday was pretty darn awesome!

I had a midterm exam to deal with on Saturday but Sunday was supposed to be really nice in the weather department and we decided to take our new snowshoes and head for the Continental Divide. Wanted to get an early start but hooey! bad timing on the spring forward thing. Still, we managed to get headed out by 7:30 or so and were eating breakfast in Buena Vista, CO a few hours later.

After a hearty breakfast at the Roosters Crow we headed up towards Cottonwood Pass to find the Denny Creek Trailhead. What we found was around thirty or so trucks with trailers and snowmobiles all over the place. They were having a blast roaring up the road to the pass which is closed for the winter. Nevertheless, we did find a parking space and got our gear on and headed up the trail. The snowmobiles were quickly forgotten as we headed up through the forest, around the bend, and entered the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness.

The trail was nicely snowpacked and we were able to make good time as we worked our way up the valley. When we did venture off trail we found the drifts were quite deep but were able to stay on top of them for the most part. Abby quickly decided the trail was a better choice for her. A little over a mile or so up the trail we found the sign pointing the way to the Mt Yale summit (14,196 ft) but did not think we were in good enough shape to tackle that. We continued up the trail towards Browns Pass taking in the awe-inspiring beauty of the Rocky Mountains in winter. We were surrounded on all sides by the Collegiate Peaks.

The sky was that deep blue color and there was not a cloud to be seen. The temps were climbing along with us and the layers started coming off so we did not overheat. After another mile of trekking we made it up to the junction of Hartenstein Lake trail which is in a large meadow-like area and rested for a while. Our goal was to make it to the top of Browns Pass. So far we had gained about 1,200 ft in elevation and my leg was starting to complain. We decided to push on anyway and see how far we could make it. The trail shortly disappeared and we found ourselves breaking trail as we went. In about a half a mile it became apparent that my leg was not going to make it and we were forced to turn around. We were at 11,250 ft elevation and still had another mile to go topping out at 12,000ft.

The trip back down went quickly and was much easier on my leg. Back in the Jeep and stop at Cottonwood Hot Springs on the way down. Aaahhhhhhhh! Geothermal hot springs. What a way to finish off a wilderness adventure. There are three outdoor pools ranging in temp from Too Hot, Hot, and Warm. We stayed for an hour then drove back into Buena Vista, stopping by Bongo Billy’s coffeehouse for some nourishment and then headed for home.

I’m here to tell you…I slept GOOD last night.