Cap'n's bLog

Today we visited Monument Valley near the Arizona Utah border. It is entirely contained on the Navajo Reservation. We were led by a Navajo guide Will and shown the spectacular monuments and numerous iconic film location sites. Will knows his way around an iPhone pano. https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/arts-entertainment/12-movies-shot-in-monument-valley-on-the-navajo-nation/. Clare recreated an iconic Marlboro Man shot on horseback at John Ford's point. So we didn't get it exactly correct. I like it better. Tofu Woman > Marlboro Man. We also visited native Navajo homes called hogans. They have a log skeleton and are covered in dried mud. The women's are round and the men's slightly elongated. Both have a fire in the middle and a door facing the east. When the sun enters the door in the morning it marks the month on the wall and the time of doing different things such as planting or hunting. We especially liked the rock formation called &

This is going to be more of a photo journal than a blog post. Clare, Patrick and I just did a 3 day backpacking trip off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at Grandview. We hiked and camped with a guide and a father and son from Oklahoma. It was an amazing experience. The Canyon is massive in scale. That point is driven home as you hike down into it. The hiking was strenuous but we had been forewarned. An email from Wildland Trekking Company 4weeks ago asked how our training was going. That caught my attention but still wasn't enough to move me to perform the suggested training of 2-3 hours of stair climbing with a loaded pack. In retrospect it would have been wise. On day one we hiked off the South Rim to Hance Creek, a five mile hike that lost 3,500' in elevation. When someone tells you it's all downhill don't necessarily think that it will be easy. We camped under some Cottonwood trees and were serenaded by a choir of frogs as we Cowboy camped under a clear star fille