life – kristilynk

Grand Canyon – part one

The day started at 345am. I ate a boiled egg and a banana. Built my pocket burritos out of precooked, shredded chicken and avocado smashed up. Next up, filling hydration packs. I had brought one 2 liter and one 3 liter bladder bag plus 2 12 oz collapsible water bottles for my from ouches on my day pack. The collapsible bottles I filled with water and electrolytes, I use LMNT sooooo salty.

Time to go! We left the hotel a little after 430am. I called the taxi on the way to the visitor center, packing lot 4, so they could scoop us up to take us the south Kaibab trail. The shuttle service doesn’t start until 6am at this time of year and we wanted to start the hike earlier to make sure we were out of the canyon by 2pm. Rain was predicted to roll in around that time.

When I called the taxi they actually told me the taxis were so busy they would need to call me back in an hour! This was 430 in the morning 🤯

At the parking lot we waited, got out of the car and actually were a me to sneak on to someone else’s taxi ride. Score! From the parking lot, south kaibab trail is 2 miles so we were there in no time.

My second time to the Grand Canyon. 1st time going IN the GC.

I was a little nervous going in but once we got going my confidence soared. I thought, I got this. The downhill is pretty steep, and it’s a long way down. I would recommend prepping with a LOT of front lunges.

From Kaibab, we headed west to the Tonto Trail

The farther west we went it was cool to see green lush tree lines, you know what that means! Water! 😍

This is around the time I realized… I forgot my pocket burritos!! Not good.

Super rookie move. Remember, I had only eaten one boiled egg and a banana. Luckily my hiking crew member was a hero and thoughtful and brought 2 bagels, so I gratefully scarfed it down.

Just after this rare shade finding, there was a little creek I didn’t take any pictures of because there were too many people rest here and I wanted to keep trekking. I did dip a plastic sandwich bag in the creek to fill it up with water to soak my neck cooler in for 30 minutes, it was getting hot .

There was very little shade in this trail. Having a hat is very important. Anytime I found shade it felt so great to take the hat off to let my brain breath.

I’m really not a fan of hats, glasses or things – like neck coolers – around my neck. I wore them when needed but as soon as I could those items were OFF.

Around this time we stopped and I collapsed my trekking poles. I like to have my hands free and I was tired of carrying them.

The old water line busted so they just replaced it. I think the construction is fairly new. I really hope they bury the line or cover it with something more aesthetically pleasing because this is not what I want to see.

Off to Havasupai Gardens

Another stop around here to sunblock and dip the neck cooler in the stream again.

Next up! Off to bright angel.

But first, I met Phantom, he’s a canyon mule and so sweet

Not gonna lie. I was scared. I’d never met a mule

We LUCKED out. Just before the over 3500 foot ascent, the clouds starting rolling in so the sun was GONE! I could not have been more thankful.

I ate an RX bar, 200 calories.

It didn’t last long.

This is about where I started to question my judgement. I was losing steam and fast.

Pitt stop for a peanut butter and jelly snack. Only 170 calories. Up up we go.

This was – what they said to be 1.5 miles left of the trail. It was miserable.

Wow, I made it.

The walk to the shuttle was painful. The rise in the shuttle bus was amazing. It felt great to sit after 7 hours of walking.

Back at the car, we grabbed a fresh stash of clothes, socks, shoes and some body wipes to clean up before the ride home.

Pit stop in Flagstaff for a burger and fries and Diablo Burger. I had the Blake and it was sooooo good.

In 3 weeks we plan to hike the south rim to the north rim. Lessons I learned that will be applied to the next trip.

I must drink a shit ton of water the week before and especially the day before the 25 mile hike. I will need to pack way more calories for this next trip and NOT forget the pocket burritos. I’ll need to eat more frequently. I’m positive I can do the rim to rim. I know the hike up was so hard was because I did not fuel my body enough to make it and this made the ascent more difficult than it needed to be.

Until next time! Happy trails 😁

February 2024

Feeling a little off today. Disconnected may be a good descriptive word for my head space today. I’m not going to try to analyze it or fix it. Just recognizing the feeling and sitting with it for a moment.

Sitting with it, prompted me to stop scrolling through IG and start scrolling and remembering the past 4 months. Here’s my Feb.

Lilou, the cowGIRL corgi came to meet Mork before we went away to cabin in the woods for a weekend. They did great. Lilou is only 1year old so she is pretty rambunctious. Mork tolerated her, when he was done, he put her in check and she submitted. Thankfully, they were good together.

This was a bit after Mork escaped and we had to run around the mountain for 15 minutes playing catch me if you can. I did but oh my goodness! That boy was so happy to be running free, I captured him about 25 feet down a hill, picked him up and hiked him back up the hill. I think I died.

We stopped for coffee at the strawberry inn in the way home.

The weekend was super chill, we played games, listened to music, walked the dogs and talked.

Back home and the rest of the month consisted of work, walking Mork & trying to stick to the training plan for the 1/2 marathon in May. I was in track around this time.

Stay tuned for more possible updates 😅

January, what?

Gah! I can’t believe you’re almost gone. I wanted to do something fun with you, like get out of town.

Weekend in the pines or a day trip to the snow, a hike somewhere new. None of that happened.

I did start training very early for a half marathon and have stuck to it every week running 3 days a week and increasing mileage according to the Hal Higdon training half marathon training plan for a novice.

I bought myself a pair of sweet new running shoes. Poor associate at the shoe store, he worked hard for his commissions. I swear I tried on 8 pairs of shoes, 3 different brands. I wanted Saucony but they didn’t have my size in any fun colors. Hoka was next but same… no fun colors. I broke down and got the Brooks. I was reluctant because for some reason I think of old”er” people when i think of Brooks. I thought they were along the lines of New Balance 🤣 but look at how cute they are!

Ask me how fast I can go in my new shoes!

Not only do I love the color but they are the most comfy fluffy running shoes I’ve ever worn. I’ve out 21 miles in them so far.

Dry January has been super easy for me. Today marks day 34. Interesting to note I have not dropped a single pound 🤨

Last weekend I went to a bar to watch some live music and hang out with a couple of friends. On the way to the bar I drank a CBD drink. I swear by these, Mad Tasty

I feel chill after I drink one of these and I can hang out for like 4-5 hours in one place! Unheard of, for me anyway. I wonder if I can buy stock in this. 🤓 I get them at my local Total Wine, I grab 2 every time. I stayed up way until 1am- who am I? 🤣🤣

I went out for pizza and I didn’t get my basic pepperoni. I tell you this Holy Shitake Mushroom from Mellow Mushroom was unbelievably delicious. I may have had a slice for breakfast the next day.

So although I did not get out of town this month I did manager to do some things not in my usual routine.

I’m ready for February.

Happy New Year!

Hi! Are people still blogging in 2024? I am surprised at myself for not taking my question to Uncle Google.

I started my day 1, 2024, hang over free. Quite possibly for the first time in decades. 🫣

I feel great. . I have had a pretty great day too. Slept in until 7am, finished a book. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros ~ kind of along the lines of Harry Potter and Hunger Games. Right up my alley so of course I had to get to Target to pick up the sequel, “Iron Flame”.

I got a 2.5 mile run in, took Mork for a walk around the neighborhood. Took down Christmas and did some laundry. Very ordinary nothing special day and I enjoyed it. ☺️

Here’s to the New Year

Looking forward to dry January.

Looking forward to training for my first 1/2 marathon!

Lake Day

I love water. The ocean, the river, a pool, a hot tub – or is it a spa? Are all hot tubs spas? Are all spas hot tubs? – I love water.

I don’t love the lake. I mean, they’re beautiful, because its water but…to me, it feels… germy. Especially in Arizona. Its HOT, the water is just floating around, not really going anywhere. Kinda gross if you really focus on it.

With that said, I am trying to get past this. So, me and my friend and our mens met up at Lake Pleasant in AZ., the mens sat at the restaurant, on the water , had drinks and snacks while me and the friend putzd around on the lake with our paddle boards.

Rule #1 carrier your blow up paddle board down to the dock.

Rule#2 get comfy and don’t complain, it’s going to take about 5 minutes to blow up the board.

Rule#3 don’t be afraid to ask for help getting into your board from the dock.

There was some shade, thankfully, it was still hot 🥵

Once

On the water it was my bliss 😍 even though I did forget sunblock!

Thought I’d stop by

May! So far so good but lets travel back in time a bit all the way to April, like 2-3 weeks ago.

I’ve done some moving and shaking, but just around Arizona.

April was Tucson for a show in downtown. We stayed at the historic Hotel Congress and had too much wine so even if there were any ghosts to be seen I would have been stone cold sleeping.

The following week we headed up to Crown King. A couple of our friends are getting married up there this coming October so they wanted to check out the venue. Crown King is another historic location, old mining town = dusty and dry. The little hotel we stayed in was a different story, many flowers, green grass, horses and really felt like we were in a little magical place.

Cut to..Jasons birthday week. There was a huge damper on celebration due to the sudden, unexpected, devastating death of a good friend. Good friend in the sense of chosen family. I won’t say any more…because, Hi, I am Kristi. I tend to bury my head in the sand when reality smacks me in the face.

Last minute decisions and phone calls were made to gather a group of our close friends and celebrate the life of Scott and Jasons birthday. Scott would have wanted it that way. It was a good night.

Fast forward another week, this trip brought us up more north to Whitehorse Lake in Williams, AZ. It is not often we camp in a for real campground. When I say “not often” I mean like I am pretty sure there have only been 4 times we have stayed in a for real campground. Whitehorse is the absolute coolest of all of the campgrounds of the 3 I have visited. Three sites because I have now been to Whitehorse 2 times. That’s all the math I will do tonight.

We rented the group site, there were 7 spots and a gazebo for us all to hang out, drink, play games and grill. I didn’t play games and I didn’t grill so I drank.

Amy brought all the ladies lil champs and OJ for mimosa for mothers day – bubbles and branches

Muppet babies, yes this is in AZ but it was like 35 degrees at night and COLD. Our 78 year old dogs get cold.

Renting out the entire area is the best way to go when camping in a non-wild manner. We were here for Saturday, Sunday and came home on Monday. The trip was not perfect, there were issues which were out of our control. WIND..oh my goodness, so..much..wind. This was my 2nd time here, neither times was I able to get the paddle board on the water. It was too windy this time. The last time I had just had 20 stitches from my hand removed and I didn’t want to chance getting lake water in my newly healed wound. As I was typing those words, I was making myself sick to my stomach just thinking about that. Sorry if that disturbed you.

The tiny dog, Larry, decided to try to end his life by jumping off the tailgate of the Tacoma. It didn’t work, he survived but he was sore.

Chubba Wubba, Ollie, had a scary seizure in the middle of the night. She too survived but was also sore and tired.

Our brand new, out of the box, Coleman sunshade broke because it is a 150.00 piece of garbage. The metal things snapped in the wind. We had to throw it away. I need to have a word with Mr. Coleman please.

We were all good and tired by the time we got home Monday afternoon but really in the end…a weekend in the woods, even with a series of unfortunate events, will always be a good idea. There will always be beautiful moments in nature. I’ll hold those moments closer.

You can’t really “make”time.

There are so many things we (humans) want or need to do. It’s said…a lot… you want it you have to MAKE the time to do it. There is no way to MAKE time. You have to change the way you use your time. This will take sacrifice or a game of if I do this I can’t do that. Example. I want to wake up an hour early to workout. I won’t because if I do, I can’t get that extra hour of sleep.

I’ve had a great day of “self care”. Yoga, manicure, putting around the house (ok really I was smudging the house with sage), took a stroll on the treadmill, did some journaling. It was lovely.

To do all of the things today, I had to sacrifice chilling at home with Jason and the muppet babies, my dogs for those of you who don’t know me. To write this random post, I’m sacrificing time. It means I’ll be late. We are having guests over and I still need to shower. I don’t want to so… here I am.

So I started this workbook called, “the artists way”. It told me to write three pages, long hand, each morning. It basically garbage. Not the idea, the idea is pretty cool especially because I’m writing about nothing. Only random thoughts, it’s pretty freeing, you wake up and write a few pages of all of the nonsense rolling around your brain first thing in the morning.

Some of the exercises are pretty intense if you want them to be. I don’t so I will cherry pick and sugar coat the things I don’t want to address in my mind. It’s week one. We’ll see how far I get. 😆

Stupendous San Diego

My girls and I packed up, and by packed I mean threw some things in a backpack, and drove to San Diego for a fun filled day and a half.

We left pretty early so we could make the paddle out memorial for a local San Diego girl who succumbed to a rare brain tumor just a few weeks prior. Fuck cancer, by the way.

But praise be to all of these folks brave enough to paddle out to pay homage to their homie . The weather was amazing, it could not have been more perfect. There was something in the air I cannot place with words but I felt surrounded with love and peace.

After we paid our respects we took a walk through the cute little downtown area of Encinitas for a little shopping.

Then on to the hotel for a little pre-game and dinner before the “big ass party” to celebrate Kiras short but amazing life.

We stayed at the Hilton in Del Mar, within drunk walking distance to the venue of course.

The big ass party was just that! There was music and a bar and dancing and so many good people. I bet Kira would have been super happy to see such a turn out, such a moving experience. We could all be so lucky to have a celebration of life like hers!

I never met this firecracker of a girl but it sure felt like I had. (My friend and me were there to support my sister in law, she is friends with the family).

It was a long but great day and into the night great fun was had.

Cut to, yes I’m leaving details after 9pm out of this post, the next morning. 😊

We peeled ourselves out of bed and got ready to meet our friends for brunch.

Delicious. Not much is better than brunch on the patio at the Bernardo Winery with your bestest friends! 🥰

One more stop before we geared up for the five hour drive home.

Our friend, Tracy Sekhon, has started an awe inspiring non-profit research and treatment facility in Rancho Bernardo for those on the Autism spectrum. It’s truly phenomenal and the facility is gorgeous. I’m not just saying this because there are massage chairs that I’m pretty sure were put there just for me. 😂

I strongly encourage you to dig into her website , they’re going to do wonderful things!

https://www.artcsandiego.org/

We were treated to an in depth tour of the facility and I can safely say, all five of us were beyond impressed.

Having said our goodbyes, the girls and I hit the road! Oh but there was one more stop! Quick stop off at Chuparosa winery, in Ramona, to grab a few bottles.

The end 🏄🏼‍♀️🏄🏼‍♀️🏄🏼‍♀️

Captivating Colorado

My last post was from a trip too long ago for me to remember completely. I am going to give this one a shot ~ Our journey in Colorado was only a month ago. Here we go!

We flew standby courtesy of Southwest Airlines ~ Lucky us! We got the golden ticket on the first flight out of Phoenix! Did you know Delta Airlines does not fly direct to Denver from Phoenix? Bizarre. Anyway, we arrived took a jaunt over to the rental car facility and we were on our way. Just that easy.

OH! Sidebar regarding looking for car rentals, seems super shady but here’s a little story. Obviously, I went online to look for car rentals a couple of weeks before our planned trip. I went to Budget’s website, plugged in the details and the internet spat out a number I didn’t really like, it was somewhere around 350.00 – not terrible but – I thought I could do better. I went to another website, (I don’t remember which one but something along the lines of Kayak or Priceline) their prices were like 10.00 more so I went back to Budgets website and the price had jumped to like 375.00!

Something triggered, in my wine induced, brain…open up a new “incognito/private” browser. I did and went back to Budgets website, I got the car reserved for 188.00! for 3 full days. Tip – when looking for car and airline reservations, do so in a private/incognito window. 🙂 You’re welcome. You may know this but I feel like I just discovered a new planet.

We had a ton of time to waste before checking into the airbnb so we decided to get lost in search of food. Well, getting load was not decided but it happened anyway. By the way, Denver smells like weed and dog food. Please don’t be offended Denver people, it’s not meant to be a dig, just my observation.

Finally we found a cute little breakfast spot in City Park called Syrup ~ The staff was super nice ~ the breakfast was delish and the scenery of the park area was mellow. It is a little hipstery though – no problem for me – but just a heads up.

Check in to the airbnb was easy and there was parking behind the house – thank goodness because when we drove down the street there were cars parked the length of the entire street not one space for me.

The outside of this place and all the other houses in the area look all historic mansion types and that I love.

With that said…This place is located in Capital Hill.. I think the whole house has like 8 (complete guess) units most with their own entrances the inside of the unit we stayed in was completely remodeled and in great taste.

Here is the parking and entrance area of the little dwelling.We dropped the car and our belongings off and headed off to the record store through the piss riddled alley. Sorry, girl from the suburbs here..it smelled horribly bad.

We spent some time rifling through the solid collection of vinyl records this store of over 40 years has, Wax Trax Records . The website is not great but the store is awesome. Did I tell you how much I love brick buildings??

After the records store, we NAPPED before heading out to the Red Rock Amphitheater!

This place is THE place to see live music. Bucket list item crossed off. Seeing live music at the Red Rock should very well be on your bucket list too.

It is a little tough to see the greatness from a cell phone photo, I wish I had brought a wide lens.

The above photo was taken a couple of hours before show time, once the music started the place was packed.

Head up! It’s quite the hike to get up there from the parking lot, at over 6000 elevation..bring an oxygen tank. 🙂

When the sun goes down, the moon comes up, the city lights, the stars combined with the music and people..it is surreal.

The next morning we drove up north. The plan was to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and make a pit stop at Estes Park. Come on now, we had to visit the Shining Hotel! AKA The Stanley Hotel. So majestic, so cool and I bet so haunted 🙂

They offer tours, we did not partake but we did some good exploring and off course had a redrum latte.

They use key cards now but these are the old creepy keys they used back in the day.

I bet there is a ghost in there somewhere…

As I mentioned, the plan was to go up to the national park but we saw some clouds up there that made us Phoenicians nervous. So we made the decision to be safe and head back to town – off the aunts place for dinner and drinks. Jasons aunt lives outside of Denver and his other aunts, from Holland, just so happened to be in town the same time. It was great to connect with family while out of our element.

On to the next day! Another breakfast spot worth mentioning in the capital hills area is called Jelly ~ This place was our favorite eatery. I want this shirt if anyone is asking, you can order it on the website 🙂 Screen Shot 2019-11-18 at 7.48.26 PM

Belly’s full of delicious brekky we drove to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, strolled around there for a good few hours – I feel like it is geared more towards kids but it was cool anyway. I would not say it is a must see but it was still a good day. I mean, look at that view.

Olifant!

The following day was a travel day. Not a good day for standby, delayed and cancelled flights due to wind ~ we chose to fly to Albuquerque otherwise we would have been stuck in Denver for another night, who knew Phoenix was such a hot place to fly into. I ended up leaving Jason in Albuquerque and he didn’t make any flights until the last one so it was a shit of a day but we made it home. Safe and sound and ready to start planning the next adventure.

Glorious Utah

Sunday afternoon NFL means to me, doing some laundry, getting ready for the work week and becoming side-tracked by looking at old photos.

In looking at said old photos I realized that I have not shared some superb exploring!

A lot of months ago, 7 months to be exact, Jason and I took a little 3 day trip up to our neighboring state of Utah. I am not sure what took me so long to make this short hour and 10 minute flight from Phoenix, this place is beautiful and this is how I felt the entire time.

Free and peaceful.

Being this adventure was 7 months ago, I will not be able to give you specific details but know this….If you go, rent a van and camp or bring your own camper van. We stayed in hotels and drove around a stupid Dodge Charger, this was the only disappointment. I requested a tiny little compact car, the rental place was out of them so they gave me – what they thought – was an upgrade. The whole purpose for me ordering a tiny little compact car is because we are time little compact people and I do not feel comfortable driving anything bigger than my Jetta. Rant over. 🙂

So, yeah, basically, I don’t really remember the details to write an amazing blog about it but I bet these photos will convince you to GO!

Our first stop: Kanarra Falls (Thank goodness I took a photo otherwise there is no way I would have remembered this).

Kanarra Falls is a slot canyon and requires a permit of 12.00 per person. There are four points to this hike totaling almost 2 miles to the end (round trip 4 miles) Prepare to get wet, we only hiked up to point 2 and were hiking through water up to my knees. Going beyond point 2, I probably would have had to swim (take into account I am only 5’2″ so my knees, may well be your ankles) 😀 . It was April, the water was cold, I was not going to go there and neither was Jason.

Next stop…ZION! This place is WOW. You must get to the park early if you want to find a spot to park. We were lucky and ended up parking in the lot where the buses shuttle you to each of the trails throughout the day. There were a few trails closed and one that I was way to chicken to try. Angels Landing. You guys…click on the link (tip, the word Angels Landing is pink, click on it) and watch this video. Would YOU do this trail? I’m getting anxiety just thinking about it again, also a little regret because how badass would it be to conquer this fear in such a magical place?

A little snacky poo after our wanderings.

Sadly, I did not bring my DSLR and sadly I did not take as many photos as I should have but i encourage you to visit, take many more photos, document and also google pictures of Zion to give you ideas of photos you may want to have as a part of your own adventure collection.

Last stop, Snow Canyon. I wanted to go here because I thought it was where that canyoneer guy cut off his arm. It was not, he did that in Blue John Canyon. Whatever, it was still beautiful. See?