Day 28 - Grand Canyon - Easton's Ranch, Lake Powell

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I was up at 5.55am and by 6.45am I had already showered, dressed, packed and had taken my tent down. After everyone else finally woke and had breakfast, I decided to give work a call, and ended up speaking to Karl before talking to Andi. She admitted that she was wanted to speak to me, especially as she wasn’t there the last time I called. I told her about all the incidents and injuries I’ve picked up, to which she responded that everyone at work felt that would happen to me! We talked for a good 10 or 15 minutes as I looked on at the others packing and loading up, before we finally ended the call. It was great to speak to Andi, and it seemed to have lifted me up more.

Anyway, once we were all loaded up, we left the Grand Canyon behind, but not before all posing at the Grand Canyon sign. Everyone apart from me and Mark, who was listening to the Holland vs Brazil World Cup match, left to pose, and at the last minute I changed my mind and flew out of the van across some plantation, losing my flip flops in the process and almost skidding into a pose at the base of the sign. Todd later told me that I looked like an ostrich when I ran in my flip flops!

We then headed on to Page, Arizona for a ranch owned and run by a former Trek leader called Easton Tolley, who allows Trek and SunTrek groups to stay at this ranch. This had been billed up since the beginning really, but especially in the last few days, as everyone was looking to really unwind, and have a good time.
Before then, we stopped off for a quick hike down to Horseshoe Bend, a section of the Colorado river. It was pretty and peaceful to look out over, even if the hill of sand and rocks were hard to walk in flip flops!
Our second stop was at Lake Powell, the second largest man made reservoir. It was created when the Glen Canyon Dam was built. There were only a few other people there when we arrived, but we made our presence known when we reached the water front. Sadly I didn’t wade that far out in the water, only letting it get to my hips before stopping. Everyone else apart from Zoe and Sumi went in further, and soon ended up throwing some water ball at each other. Sumi in the meantime went into hiding under her towel, to get out of the sun completely. It was a little funny to see her uncurl from under her towel still wearing one of her large sun hats.

After a couple of hours we left Lake Powell behind and headed off to Easton’s, but had trouble getting across the state border, before stopping to load up on some fireworks for the ranch.
We finally reached Easton’s and made our way into the bunkhouse at the base of the yard. At the top are 3 buildings, for showers and toilets, the main kitchen and dining area and the Barn for after hour’s tomfoolery. As was almost traditionally recently, another group were already there and were set up in the tents on one side of the yard. As they were a SunTrek group, Graham decided that some pranks will have to be played before we left.

Inside the bunkhouse are 4 or 5 three tiered bunk beds occupying most of the space, with a small kitchen area to the right of the door, and a small sitting area to the left. All the food boxes were unloaded into the kitchen area and all the beer and alcohol was packed into the fridge. Before I knew it everyone had chosen their beds, leaving me with one of two beds on the top tiers of the bunks. I don't do climbing well, especially on bunk beds. The last time I slept in a bunk bed was when I was much younger and I had the bottom tier. So I decided to join Mark outside and decided the couch on the porch outside was suitable for sleeping.

There was also a carrol out of the way, which Easton soon showed up and drived those of us who wanted to go horse riding over to the corral. Graham, G, Sarah, Kylie, Becca, Jess, Mark and I went along with 3 or 4 of the SunTrek gang. I ended up getting the horse who doesn’t like to be tied up to the post for long and who is smart enough to know if his rider can handle him or not – ‘King’. He had also survived a cougar attack, so I know he would be tough to handle, especially when his reins are much shorter than everyone else’s!
We headed out across the flat land around Easton’s land, and apart from Mark getting kicked by the horse in front (somehow!) it was similar to Moab, although these horses wanted to try and go on trots, which we could control, but not before experiencing some uncomfortable moments down below!

When we reached base again, we were soon called to dinner, and I ended up racing Todd up to the top, just about winning, and almost running into Kylie on the porch. We were all served the biggest rib eye primes you will ever see, and naturally I ended up finishing 3 other people's as well. Our chef, Bruce, entertained us and was not put off by our large group. I think he was also a Trek veteran, like some of the other workers on the ranch, so would be used to groups like ours.

After the awesome dinner, we headed to the bunkhouse for the fireworks and after a quick warning from Easton to be careful (he has been visited by police about fireworks before), we could only set the smaller ones off. Easton even allowed his 5 year old daughter to light one, which I thought was a little weird, but I seemed to be the only one. In the end the fireworks were ok, but nothing like I had hoped. They barely left the ground and most fizzled out quite quickly. I know that they weren’t going to be anything like Disneyworld, but I thought that they would still be impressive. Maybe they were, or maybe the place we got them from, a ice cream van on the side of the road, supplied some pretty poor ones!

Anyway after the fireworks, that only left one thing – the drinking in the Barn. When we got there, some SunTrekkers were there already, but we still occupied the seats and the pool table. A game of Jenga was started with each person having some silly dare on it. I spent most of the night on the pool table and even get taught American pool rules, which I still won (I think!). Whilst I was at the table I looked on at everyone else getting more pissed, playing silly Jenga. Todd and Neal were the worst of them all.
Eventually I tried to join in the game, but my first go I had to swap tops with the person next to me, Jess, and almost ripped her top in trying it on. Then Jess had to suck a body part of mine, and chose my left nipple, but instead of sucking for 10 seconds, she bit down on it for 10 seconds. Man did that hurt!

It was getting late into the evening now, and it was beginning to get a bit out of hand, especially with Todd and Neal, so after midnight I headed back to the bunkhouse for some sleep. Sadly I wasn't asleep for long. After an hour or so, most of those still awake decided to gather on the patio of the bunkhouse near to where I was sleeping in the dark and proceeded to talk quite loudly. Naturally I was woken, which was acknowledged by two people, and I tried to get back to sleep, but they continued to be loud – without seeming to consider me trying to sleep nearby.
I eventually got up and headed up the slope to the toilets. Kylie chased after me apologising, but I was in a bad mood now to accept anything and just carried on walking. After going to the toilet, I sat on the patio Zoe of the main building, looking on at the others on the bunkhouse patio still talking.

Now the barn was free I decided to head into to let some steam off playing pool. I was there for 40 minutes or so, and actually played some good pool, even if it was against myself, when Tanya came in saying that the others had either taking the talking elsewhere or had gone to sleep. I carried on playing though, and at times hit the balls really hard. A few minutes later, Todd came in to get something he left behind and tried apologising for the others, before leaving again.
I finally decided to head back to my sofa and has I tried to sleep I was thinking about how I will react the following morning. I normally would play it all down and say ‘don’t worry about it’ etc, but part of me wanted to give a tongue lashing if the chance arose. I don’t normally express my anger, so I wasn't sure how well it would go.

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Comments

[Jeanie and Randy]

Awesome Journal
I am enjoying your journal. My husband and I have visited most of the places you are seeing now. We LOVE the western part of the USA! Hope you had fun and I can't wait for the rest of your story! (Jeanie and Randy) http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jeanie-and-Randy/

[AdamBest20]

Hi there Glad you are enjoying my blog so far. On looking at your blogs, you have been to places I have (including some on the second half of my trip!) as well as others I haven't. I can't wait to see what you've been up to as well. Adam