Scoutmaster Musings

Quinn and Frank are the current LNT.org traveling e-Tour trainers and I was privileged to have them 'camp out' in our guest room last night while they are rockin' their way through Minnesota. They spend months traveling the country in their way-cool Subaru, presenting at Scout events, National Parks, schools, and any place else where they can leave a big impact about leaving no impact. They were just in Bemidji, Crosby, St. Croix, and Inver Grove Heights, and are now on their way to a conference in Mankato. After a couple days in Illinois, they zoom back east to DC, MD, NJ, PA, and NY. Quite an adventurous way to spend a few months, huh?

Quinn and Frank's visit was a ton of fun for me. I learned more about good ways to share the Leave No Trace message and got to form ideas about my LNT stories from the trail. I'm now really looking forward to my next LNT workshop that I'll be presenting to a backpacking youth group and scouts here at the end of the month.

Whether on a short hike or a long backpack trip, keeping the seven LNT principles in mind is good practice. Picking up a candy wrapper, skipping a campfire, keeping your dog leashed, and staying on the trail are all great, easy ways to minimize impact.

I was surprised that these traveling trainers spend most of their nights camping - I would have thought they'd be at people's homes more often. So, check out their calendar and consider attending an event and seeing if they need a place to rest if they're in your neighborhood.

Scout On

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I've been quietly resting my legs and putting together my Arizona Trail Journal for the past week.
You can read all about my trek Right Here. I've included pictures from the trail, information about my homemade gear, and a daily record of the hike. I hope it provides you with helpful information, some tips, a little humor, and maybe gets you thinking about doing a longer hike yourself or with others.
A GoogleEarth map of the trail with pictures will be available pretty soon.

Scout On

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Now that my little 800-mile hike through Arizona is over, I get to move on to other things. I plan to take a couple weeks to mostly rest up and ensure my leg is ok - probably need to see a doctor about that when I get home. Here's my list of things to do over the next few months:

• Present my story at District Roundtable. Show my gear and some pics and then answer questions from other Scouters. Hopefully I'll get them thinking about lighter weight backpacking possibilities with their scouts.
• Present Red Cross training. I've got a backlog of Scouters needing certification so they can go to Philmont, Seabase, and Northern Tier. Since I've been gone 7 weeks, I'm adding a couple more training sessions to make sure everyone gets training that needs it.
• Write my first book. This is the big one. I plan to write a handful of short stories from the trail for children. They will demonstrate human/nature interaction and include discussion outlines so teachers can use them for nature lessons. I'm very excited about this and look forward to working with my niece to make it a reality.
• Rest, then keep hiking. I have to make sure my legs are whole and secure and then I can start back up walking each day to keep in shape. I'd hate to just sit and eat and lose my fairly good heart/lung/leg development I received from walking every day for the past couple months.
• Let the local papers and TV know what I did. They might be interested in a short story. I'd also use that exposure to promote the ScoutStrong program a bit more.
• Catch up on my hundreds of emails that have accumulated while I was on the trail.

So, I won't be bored. :-)
Scout On

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I walked 54461 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 28 miles today.
I'm Done!
I reached Utah at 2pm today and PapaBear was waiting to take me to Phoenix - we're on our way now.
I overdid it the past few days and my legs really hurt, but nothing serious. The actual hiking today was fairly easy and the painted desert at the end was beautiful.
If someone from troop 479 reads this, please tell Benjamin M. to take a look.
This pic is of me at the end of the trail holding a solid silver 1961 quarter that Benjamin and his dad gave me for my trip. They said it might come in handy for trading since it is silver. I carried it the whole way and it often reminded me of everyone back home that I would see soon. It will forever remain one of my favorite things I've collected over the years. It's extra special because it was made the year I was born.

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I walked 56314 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 28 miles today.
PapaBear drove me to where I hitched a ride. I walked back up to the trail and hiked it Jacob Lake. Now I just need to do 28 more miles tomorrow. Kind of like the farm animals getting close to home and getting anxious to finish up.
I saw a small herd of 8 or 9 deer. Other than that, most of the day was spent walking through this big burned out area.
It was fun to top and have lunch at a trailhead with PapaBear, then off hiking through the afternoon.

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With the expected bad weather and my legs being so worn out, I decided to take one last rest day here in Jacob Lake. I got dressed and filled water to do the 24 miles I need to backfill but walking around the parking lot didn't feel good so I wimped out. I did walk a mile to a lookout tower for a cell signal but no t-mobile yet again. So, sorry for the flurry of posts all at once.
Hey, I ate lunch and stepped outside and someome hollered at me. It was 'Happy Feet' nearly done with the trail. I bought him lunch and swapped stories. He's heading back down the trail and will finish tomorrow and get picked up on Saturday.
PapaBear is around here because Happy Feet saw him at a trailhead, but I've not run into him yet. Hopefully, he'll show up at the hotel today. I know he was going by my plan which has changed daily, if not hourly.
I feel bad about changing things, but Hey, it all works out.

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I walked 44426 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 27 miles today.
After a very warm night down in the canyon, I hiked out the north rim. Simply spectacular scenery the entire way. The trail was terrific and the hike went quickly even though my left leg is nearly shot.
On the north Kaibab, there is usually still snow this time of year. There's less this year, so I took off on the trail - immediately hitting some drifts. To get water, I dropped off the trail to the road where there was a small lake. That's when Marshal, the biker, caught up to me so it was fortunate I did that bit of road walk. I rejoined the trail at the Natl Park entry station, heading east back into the forest. Immediately, I hit more snow and saw only 1 set of footprints through it. I followed for almost 3 miles over mostly clear ground but some knee-plus deep drifts.
If it was sunny weather, I would have continued but it was sprinkling all day, temp dropping, and forecast of fairly severe storm coming. With no GPS, I knew I couldn't follow the trail the next day if it snowed. Being a wimp and opting for safety, I bailed off the trail and walked 10 miles down some forest roads to the main Hwy 67. I walked it for a few miles until a couple guys doing work on the rim stopped and gave me a ride to Jacob Lake. They were 2 Navajo men heading home to NM and were great to stop and help a stranger. Thanks, guys!
So, when I got to Jacob Lake, I phoned Marshal from the lobby, got a burger dinner, and then a great bed and shower.
All in all, not a bad day even though I will not hike the whole trail due to snow. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

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I walked 36103 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 14 miles today.
So many things keep coming together and working out on this trip, it's amazing. I got to the Back Country office for a permit so I could camp in the canyon. Everyone I met said I 'might' get one for the next day, but no way for today. A bunch of people didn't show up to get their permits so I DID get one. Not only that, it was for Cottonwood Camp up the north side so it shaved 1200 feet off the next day's climb.
There was a campsite perfect for me.
I got plenty of water - which I didn't have to filter.
I got to rinse off my shirt.
The big rattlesnake some people startled right by my site didn't bite me.
It doesn't take much to make a hiker happy. :-)
The Grand Canyon is much more than you see from the paved paths on the South Rim. An astounding amount of work has gone into the trails and structure. I did finally discover where all the dust from our vacuum cleaner bags goes - they pour it on the South Kaibab trail to make it soft for the mule trains.
This is me on the bridge at the bottom of the canyon. I rocked going down, and then it was HOT at the bottom. I have a parcel of pics I'll post in a bit.

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I got my permit for today at Cottonwood so I have a 14 mile hike with a late start. It will probably be the hottest day of hiking down in the canyon. Since I'm hiking more than 10 miles, I had to fill out a waiver with emergency info. I guess a bunch of folks have keeled over in recent years - don't want to be a statistic.
So, I'm waiting for the Disney shuttle bus back to the campground to wash up, pack up, buy some food, and get into the canyon. I have all day so I plan to take it nice and easy.

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General Springs snow

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I walked 70000 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 35 miles today.
Made it to the South Kaibab trailhead by 6:00 this evening. That is the starting down point for the Grand Canyon. Then I took a free shuttle back to Grand Canyon Village to figure out camping or hotel. The silly GC Visitor Center closes at 5pm - how dumb, so no help there. Finally found Mather campground which is just $6/nite for a tent - cool!
I met two guys, each doing their own bicycle tour around the country - one has been going 11 months, the other 13. Makes my 6 weeks seem paltry.
Today's hike wasn't too excitin, but I did see my first antelope and a bunch of elk. Sprinted (well hobbled) into Tusayan and got a chicken sandwich at McD's. Met a couple cool NPS employees at the park entrance and they said, 'Hey, anyone ever tell you that you look like...'
I said, 'Yep, all the time.'
Met a guy from Michigan, a Bulgarian couple living in Chicao, and a couple from Ontario. I'm getting better at starting conversations with strangers, obviously. :-)
Tomorrow hopefully sees me getting a permit to hike the canyon or else I wait here a day.

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View from the top of the GrandView lookout tower! I climbed to the top but the trapdoor is locked, so it's not QUITE the top.
There's been a swarm of helicoptors heading east, maybe tours or maybe something more serious. I'm heading to Grand Canyon Village now and should get there this evening.
"

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