Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
home!!!
Bad karma
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Battle!!
Leave no trace.
Native style fire.
here we go..
Saturday, May 10, 2008
off I go!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
A Grand Canyon Near Death Experience
I was searching my desktop computer for something and tripped over this Text File.. not sure where it came from.. I must have written it and then forgot about it... I just had to post it! Written April 26 2007 according to the file stamp..
---------------
Analog B&W film shot & printed by me, and scanned with an old skool scanner in the dark ages.
I'm Tim.
I've got really really REALLY itchy feet. I'm not quite so happy unless I'm on the go, seeking new experiences and seeing the world.
I'm sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon.. 1989-90(?) Getting ready to do something really, REALLY dumb.
My bro and I. I'm in the Grateful Dead shirt. So, we set down the steepest trail we could find, after perusing a highly stylized representative line drawing map printed on the plate mat that was under our breakfast plates at some tourist trap.
We figured, it won't be so bad. what, 18 miles down and then up in a day? Cakewalk. It looked so easy on that plate mat map. So we stuffed it in our back pockets, and started hoofing it.
I had a liter of water on me, so did Art. We're all set.
That was the day I nearly died at least three times.
We have no excuses. We were seasoned outdoors men even then. Young and stupid is the only possible explanation.
So anyway, we're busting our ass, and we finally reach the bottom to Colorado River. It was 115 degrees down there, and we had already run out of water LONG ago. Fortunately Phantom Ranch, a little village that is stocked only by mule trains and the occasional Helicopter delivery.
Art and I had no food and barely any money so we scraped together 5 dollars between us for a single bagel. $5 bagel. Cream Cheese was $2 more. So, we each had half of a bagel.
It was already about 2:00 in the afternoon, so we decided we should press on and start going up. We started hoofing up Bright Angel trail after filling our 1 liter water bottles at Phantom Ranch (and drinking about 4 liters in one sitting!)
It wasn't supposed to be a long trail, we figured we'd be out of the canyon just when it's getting dark. (hah)
So, of course.. we didn't.
We walked walked walked walked, ran out of water, of course... And in desparation, Art filled his canteen from a little brown murky stream running by the trail. He chugged from his canteen while I wandered thru the water, and found a sign that had fell down... "Hey Art, looky this!" I held up the sign *DANGER: CONTAMINATED WATER , DO NOT DRINK* (I've got a pix somewhere....)
So we keep walking and walking and waaaaallllkkkkiing and it's just getting dark.
We later come across a sign that says: ""DO NOT ATTEMPT to hike to the river and back in one day!" and, "Carry a MINIMUM of 4 gallons of water per person". Something like that.. Memory is foggy.
Uhhhh that was the halfway point going UP when we saw that sign.
So, it got dark.
Now, an aside.. I'm Deaf. The way I became deaf from Spinal Meningitis left me with virtually no sense of balance when it gets dark. I depend on my eyes to gain a point of reference to orient myself with. So... I'm stumbling and weaving like a total drunk fool. A dehydrated, starving drunk deaf fuck to be specific.
My poor brother, he exhausted himself holding my backpack and steering me from behind to prevent me from walking right off the cliff, which I DID nearly do a couple times, tripped and found myself flat on my chest, half hanging over looking at a half mile deep abyss.
Of course we didn't have any light on us. Of course it was a new moon night.
So, we're walking/stumbling along, and then all of sudden he shoves me forward, and takes a huge leap forward and starts dragging me up the trail.
I had almost stepped on a rattle snake that was madly rattling his rattler. My foot was JUST above him.
We kept going a bit further, then I nearly fall off the damn cliff again.
Fuck it, I'm NOT moving one more step.
Now, by then, we're on one of the steepest parts, and the trail is just about 2 feet or so wide, one being the cliff wall on the left, and then on your right is a half mile or so drop straight down to your death.
So we huddled right on the dust, in only our T-shirts, freezing, dehydrated and hungry. I hallucinated all night long.. I kept seeing stuff in the stars, and the stars kept moving. Praying that I wouldn't fall completely asleep and freeze to death or roll off the trail and die.
At the first light, we got back up... we were so exhausted we would take two or three steps then rest, then take two more then rest... We did that all morning until we somehow by miracle of the gods, reached the top in the early afternoon.
It was horrible horrible HORRIBLE, but I had a kick ass time. I would do it again. with 4 gallons of water, and over 2 days ;-)
Then I watched this buff Asian dude with a super big smile on his face, carrying a camera in one hand, and a 6 pack of Pepsi cans in other starting down the trail we just dragged our sorry asses up on.
I bet he died.
The last of the blisters finally healed completely about 6 months later.
So yeah, hi, I'm a fearless dumb fuck.
---------------
Analog B&W film shot & printed by me, and scanned with an old skool scanner in the dark ages.
I'm Tim.
I've got really really REALLY itchy feet. I'm not quite so happy unless I'm on the go, seeking new experiences and seeing the world.
I'm sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon.. 1989-90(?) Getting ready to do something really, REALLY dumb.
My bro and I. I'm in the Grateful Dead shirt. So, we set down the steepest trail we could find, after perusing a highly stylized representative line drawing map printed on the plate mat that was under our breakfast plates at some tourist trap.
We figured, it won't be so bad. what, 18 miles down and then up in a day? Cakewalk. It looked so easy on that plate mat map. So we stuffed it in our back pockets, and started hoofing it.
I had a liter of water on me, so did Art. We're all set.
That was the day I nearly died at least three times.
We have no excuses. We were seasoned outdoors men even then. Young and stupid is the only possible explanation.
So anyway, we're busting our ass, and we finally reach the bottom to Colorado River. It was 115 degrees down there, and we had already run out of water LONG ago. Fortunately Phantom Ranch, a little village that is stocked only by mule trains and the occasional Helicopter delivery.
Art and I had no food and barely any money so we scraped together 5 dollars between us for a single bagel. $5 bagel. Cream Cheese was $2 more. So, we each had half of a bagel.
It was already about 2:00 in the afternoon, so we decided we should press on and start going up. We started hoofing up Bright Angel trail after filling our 1 liter water bottles at Phantom Ranch (and drinking about 4 liters in one sitting!)
It wasn't supposed to be a long trail, we figured we'd be out of the canyon just when it's getting dark. (hah)
So, of course.. we didn't.
We walked walked walked walked, ran out of water, of course... And in desparation, Art filled his canteen from a little brown murky stream running by the trail. He chugged from his canteen while I wandered thru the water, and found a sign that had fell down... "Hey Art, looky this!" I held up the sign *DANGER: CONTAMINATED WATER , DO NOT DRINK* (I've got a pix somewhere....)
So we keep walking and walking and waaaaallllkkkkiing and it's just getting dark.
We later come across a sign that says: ""DO NOT ATTEMPT to hike to the river and back in one day!" and, "Carry a MINIMUM of 4 gallons of water per person". Something like that.. Memory is foggy.
Uhhhh that was the halfway point going UP when we saw that sign.
So, it got dark.
Now, an aside.. I'm Deaf. The way I became deaf from Spinal Meningitis left me with virtually no sense of balance when it gets dark. I depend on my eyes to gain a point of reference to orient myself with. So... I'm stumbling and weaving like a total drunk fool. A dehydrated, starving drunk deaf fuck to be specific.
My poor brother, he exhausted himself holding my backpack and steering me from behind to prevent me from walking right off the cliff, which I DID nearly do a couple times, tripped and found myself flat on my chest, half hanging over looking at a half mile deep abyss.
Of course we didn't have any light on us. Of course it was a new moon night.
So, we're walking/stumbling along, and then all of sudden he shoves me forward, and takes a huge leap forward and starts dragging me up the trail.
I had almost stepped on a rattle snake that was madly rattling his rattler. My foot was JUST above him.
We kept going a bit further, then I nearly fall off the damn cliff again.
Fuck it, I'm NOT moving one more step.
Now, by then, we're on one of the steepest parts, and the trail is just about 2 feet or so wide, one being the cliff wall on the left, and then on your right is a half mile or so drop straight down to your death.
So we huddled right on the dust, in only our T-shirts, freezing, dehydrated and hungry. I hallucinated all night long.. I kept seeing stuff in the stars, and the stars kept moving. Praying that I wouldn't fall completely asleep and freeze to death or roll off the trail and die.
At the first light, we got back up... we were so exhausted we would take two or three steps then rest, then take two more then rest... We did that all morning until we somehow by miracle of the gods, reached the top in the early afternoon.
It was horrible horrible HORRIBLE, but I had a kick ass time. I would do it again. with 4 gallons of water, and over 2 days ;-)
Then I watched this buff Asian dude with a super big smile on his face, carrying a camera in one hand, and a 6 pack of Pepsi cans in other starting down the trail we just dragged our sorry asses up on.
I bet he died.
The last of the blisters finally healed completely about 6 months later.
So yeah, hi, I'm a fearless dumb fuck.
Friday, May 2, 2008
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