09 January 2011

Rubber at 7000 ft

Yes, here is the conclusion of my tale of rubber adventures at that enormous canyon they call grand. We arrived in the afternoon in time for sunset and took a good long look. I wandered down the rim a bit and when noone as around, striped of my outer-ware and was my friend photographed me in full rubber with the gaping chasm in the background. Did that the next day too. For sunrise I got into my blue latex pants and black jacket and wandered around soaking up the early morning vistas before heading to a nice rim-view breakfast.


High altitude gear

On the third day I headed down the semi-frozen muddy trail for a short hour-long hike down one of the trails to the bottom (which I had done in its entirety several decades earlier) in full rubber gear: blue jeans, black jeans jacket, shirt and black rubber arctic (micki mouse) boots. I'm no fool though, so I also wore a pull-over to ward off the 45 degree cold. My boots got nice and muddy and if I had been alone on some secluded part of the trail I'd have been stomping and rolling in it. Met some some nice young japanese ladies (in tennis shoes on the muddy trails in spite of the advice to the contrary) on the way back up who told me I was "cool," and I got a kick out of that. Another thought I had on a nice exposure suit! Not really, the rubber was no insulation at all so that pull-over worked out just fine. On the way up I got rock hard for about 15 minutes, producing a very prominent outline in the blue rubber and came close to messing the inside of my blue jeans (I'll be posting some of those pics on my profile sites later). Fortunately I didn't meet any guys on the way up who might have been inclined to push me over the edge. Too late, I'd already gone over the edge long time ago. All in all, a little harmless fun next to the big pit.

Hiking the muddy trails

Back on the rim