Grand Canyon :: Indian Gardens to Plateau Point

This is the third installment, before continuing you might want to read the first and second parts of the story! For whatever reason, most likely just plain tired, I didn't get any pictures of our campsite. Like all of the sites at Indian Gardens it had a picnic table with a shelter over it along with metal boxes in which to store your food and toiletries (the odors will draw the critters). After a brief rest we ate our lunch of pita bread sandwiches, protein bars, and trail mix. For some reason it tasted quite good!

Then it was off to our second destination of the day – Plateau Point, which lies 1.5 miles north over a relatively easy trail. The trail to Plateau Point can be seen in the second photo of the second post in this series.

As we were coming off the last switchback and down into the canyon at Indian Gardens we had noticed a change. More trees, brighter green, and glorious Red Bud trees in full bloom! Just beyond the campground, alongside the stream, there was a grove of Red Buds. Their flowers contrasted brightly against the green of the surrounding trees and the grass growing beneath their branches.




And the little cactus plants literally covered the ground in some spots. And they were nearly ready to burst forth into bloom! On the way out to Plateau Point, we saw just one cactus in bloom with gorgeous deep red flowers, but it was too far off the trail. However, on the way back, Fred spotted another blooming cactus, just a few feet away. I just had to stop and get a few pictures of it. Amazing color. And it wouldn't be long before the desert floor was carpeted with their color. It had to have been an incredible sight.



The view of the Colorado River from Plateau Point, looking east.

Looking west.

We spent several hours at Plateau Point. Much of the time we were alone and it was so peaceful and quiet. People would come and go, make noisy chit-chat, then leave us. For a while we watched a group of six Condors riding the air thermals until they disappeared into the distance. You could occasionally hear the water tumbling over the rapids far below. Ravens soared and swallows flitted over and around us. Sitting on the rocks, on the edge, yet in the middle of the Canyon is indescribable. As the sun lowered in the sky, the air took on a chill, and we reluctantly left Plateau Point.

We thought about staying and watching the sunset, but we didn't have any lights with us. Instead, we went back, got our lights, then walked to a point that provided a decent view. We knew we wouldn't be able to actually see the sun drop below the horizon but thought perhaps it's waning rays would add some color to the Canyon. It wasn't spectacular though it was quite nice. A fitting end to an incredible day. One that started out a little “iffy” but turned out great. We really couldn't have asked for a better day to make the trek into the Canyon. Quite memorable.

Internet Connection sees 2nd ascent

Yesterday I made plans to climb with my friend and health/rehab advisor, Andy Shriner and his friend Brad from Morgantown, WV. Andy is a motivated rock and ice climber who moved to Morgantown from Cincinnati, OH this past year. Andy has been chomping at the bit to get out on the local ice I've told so many stories about. Actually Andy is fortunate to be climbing any ice this season after having been caught in an avalanche at the base of Pinnacle Gully in NH earlier this winter. Luckily he walked (limped) away with experience, a banged up knee, and a story to tell. Laura, my girlfriend/climbing partner decided to take a rest day Sunday, so I took a long shot and called Tom Thomas, a climbing friend from here in SWPA to see if he wanted to join our crew. I figured he'd already made plans with others and was going to decline. Either way I know he loves harder mixed climbs and called to invite him. The phone conversation went something like this... Hey Tom it's Tim, what's up? TOM: Tim, great to hear from you. I've been climbing a lot, like the last 6 days. ME: Awesome, glad you've been getting out. Want to climb some cool mixed stuff tomorrow? TOM: HELL YEAH! Where and what time do you want to meet? ME: How about Valley Dairy in Connellsville at 9:30? TOM: Perfect, see you in the morning... What do I need to bring? Never mind, I'm coming with you, who knows what we'll be getting into, I'll bring lots of shit for anything! Cool...




So the day was set. We met at the SWPA climber meeting spot of Valley Dairy Restaurant in Connellsville. Introductions were made and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast telling climbing tales and getting stoked for the day ahead. After breakfast we went outside to pile into vehicles to head for the crag. I followed Tom to his car to help shuttle his gear over to my car for departure and I received my first glimpse as to what Tom meant by "I'll bring lots of shit for anything." Let me just say, he was truly prepared. In addition to a normal "kit", his car contained multiple boots, ropes, racks and bin full of pins, bolts, shuts, drill, etc... Kudos Tom for some true climbing preparation! Although we didn't use much of your massive pile this outing, we'll be needing it for establishing new test pieces when things come back in.

Andy and Tom getting ready for the long approach

We made the short 10min. drive to the South Connellsville Rod and Gun club from the restaurant. Everyone was amazed as we pulled into the shooting range and the ice appeared in front of us. The Pistol Whipped Wall was looking even better than a few days prior. As much as I want to get on these they getting plenty of sun and were about ready to crash down as we were leaving. More for future outings as usual (not a bad thing in my eyes).

The Pistol Whipped Wall, before the sun

We walked down range to check out the lines and develop a game plan. Everyone was stoked with the appearance of the climbs and we opted to climb in the Internet Connection area. We went back to the car and loaded up what was needed for the days events (a very nice luxury at The Gun Club).After packing up and walking back over to the climbs, Tom was debating whether to get on Internet Connection for a send or just top tope it. With 6 consecutive days of climbing behind him, I could easily understand his serious debate. Internet Connection WI5 M7is an intimidating line that starts with overhanging moves and a heel hook off the ground to get established on thin ice which is followed by many heady and powerful moves all the way to the finish. I'm not sure I'd want to get on it without feeling reasonably fresh. After discussion with the group and himself aloud, Tom opted to tie in and give it a go since it has only formed twice since 2007.

Tom and Brad weighing the options

Good thing he did... Tom put on an impressive display of climbing, both mental and physical. He inched his way up the line through sections of delicate moves, followed by powerful moves that involved verbal displays that would make Chris Sharma proud. In the end Tom put in effort and got the job done. He successfully sent the line becoming the 2nd ascentionist since Laura and I first sent the line back in 2007. Here's a photo recap of Tom sending the line while being belayed by Brad.

Mixed start to thin ice

Exceptionally fat ice through this section

Nearing the top of the "Gully"

An airy, overhanging traverse to thin ice

Tom Thomas says "You really have to try this"

Working up delicate terrain

Great work on a proud send, Tom Thomas on Internet Connection WI5 M7

After Tom's great send, Brad who is relatively new to ice, but a seasoned, veteran outdoor athlete and longtime New River Gorge local; had the opportunity to second this exciting climb. Brad put in great efforts and made his way up the line. With a little practice and experience Brad will be a sending machine as well. Here's a few photos that Tom snapped of Brad going up after his climb.

Brad on Internet Connection, photo T.T.

Brad on Internet Connection, photo T.T.

Brad on Internet Connection, photo T.T.

After watching Tom lead Internet Connection, Andy and I walked over to climb the Alpine Ascent Gully M4 in the fattest conditions I've ever seen. This normally boney line reminiscent of the 2nd pitch of the Black Dike, had fat ice on it. Andy took the sharp end and led this short, but sweet line up to the ledge. From there we dropped a top rope on a rare former I've eyed over the years. We all took turns trying this new line and having a great day filled with sunshine. Despite my newly injured right shoulder, I managed to join the fun and climbed Internet Connection and the top route line without hurting myself further. I even managed to get some more mileage on my Lowa Ice Comp GTX "fruit boots." It was a great day with friends. Tom snagged the 2nd ascent of Internet Connection, Andy and Brad swung picks into some of the best SWPA ice of the season and I had the luxury of a fun day with some good friends.

One of the many options at The Gun Club yesterday, photo T.T.

But, the story doesn't end there... Long time friend and local legend, Ray Burnsworth showed up with his pal "Stink" the dog. I called him early Sunday telling him of our "crew" heading out to the club and invited him to come hang out. He showed up and met the guys hanging out and helping to guard us from those coming to shoot and not seeing us on the wall downrange. Thanks Rayman for keeping us alive from additional dangers most ice climbers don't have to consider... Well there's a story after the story. Ray not only had to protect us today, but another friend of his. "Ig" Read Ray's recap of our climbing day and his additional craziness on his Wildfilm Blog.

Local icon Ray Burnsworth, "don't mess with IG"

Visitation Totals for Mount Rainier Park

The last graph got me wondering, what was the general visitation totals for Mount Rainier during the same period, 1991 to 2005. As you can see, there has been a decline overall. I gathered these stats from here.

It's Looking Better...

One day this past week was spent at the Allen County Public Library attempting to determine the validity of the statement made in an article by Carrie Bray in 1949 that her great-grandfather (my 3rd great-grandfather) John Bray had arrived in Indiana on March 5, 1816.



An affidavit by Daniel Bray in the Revolutionary War pension file of his father John Bray, stated that “Some time in the early part of the year 1816, he went to the land office of Cincinnati to enter the North East quarter of Section No 25, town No 2, range 3 West. That owing to some mistake in the land office he could not effect an entry and he was obliged to return home and that his father John Bray, then went to the office and entered the said quarter...”



So the “problem” was: When was the land actually purchased and why did Daniel state that it was in Range 3?



The book “Indiana Land Entries Volume I” by Margaret R. Waters, published in 1948, contains the records for Indiana that are from the Cincinnati Land Office. It covers the area known as the “wedge” in the southeast corner of the state.







The map above shows the status of the Indiana Territory in 1810 with the four counties in existence at the time: of Knox (Kn), Harrison (Har), Clark (Clk), and Dearborn (Dea). The “wedge” mentioned in the Waters book was the area known as Dearborn county in 1810 as well as neighboring portions of Clark County.







By 1814 there were a few more counties in the Indiana Territory. Franklin and Wayne counties were created in 1811 while Switzerland was created in 1814 from that Dearborn “wedge” area as well as from portions of other counties. The two maps above are from the Genealogy Inc. website.



In the introduction of her book, Margaret R. Waters states that the records were copied solely for genealogical purposes to enable a searcher to learn if an ancestor located in Indiana and if so, where and when. To save time and space the acreage and final certificate numbers were omitted. A minimum amount of information is given (name, property description, date of entry) but enough to determine if the person of interest entered land in what would become the state of Indiana.







At the top of page 79 was the entry for John Bray showing that he entered the “NE 1/4 of S25 on 3-5-1816”. The line just below John, includes the name of Edward Ray who may be the same person who married Jane Bray, daughter of John. The previous page (78) showed that the land was in Switzerland County in T2N, R4W of the 1st PM (Township 2 North, Range 4 West of the 1st Principal Meridian).







The map above (from the Waters book) shows the “wedge” area of land from the Cincinnati Land Office included in the book “Indiana Land Entries Volume I”.







This enlarged portion of the previous map shows the townships that comprise Switzerland County. The dotted lines show the boundaries of Switzerland and Ohio Counties. (Ohio County was created in 1844 from Dearborn.) The land that John Bray purchased was in T2N R4W, which is in that tiny red triangle bordering Range 3 West.







Portion of a Switzerland County Map from the My Indiana Home website showing the location of Braytown in Craig Township.



Luckily for me, the Allen County Public Library has a series of microfilms called “Ohio Land Records” which includes the records of the Cincinnati Land Office. Film OLR-110 contained “Cincinnati Land Office Entries, 1814-1829” and it was even indexed by page number. Most of the page numbers were missing or illegible but it didn't take long to find his entry since I had the date he entered the land.







Cropped portion of the page showing the entry for John Bray (last entry on the image). The date at the top shows the transaction was made on March 5th 1816. The text in the column on the right states “John Bray of Franklin County applied to enter the North East quarter of Section 25 Town 2 Range 4 West - Containing 159 44/100 acres and produces the Receiver's Receipt No 30668 dated this day for $79 72/100 amt [?] being the one fourth part of the purchase money of said quarter Section of Land.”



So it seems that the date of March 5, 1816 as given by Carrie Bray in her 1949 article correlates to the date of purchase of the land. It also confirms the statement made by Daniel Bray in his affidavit that he went to the land office in Cincinnati “some time in the early part of the year 1816”.



But there was a surprise in the land entry document - the statement that John Bray was “of Franklin County”.



In searching the web for information, I came across the site Cincinnati Land Office Records, which appears to be a part of the Ohio Memory project even though those records are not included in their list of collections. The site contains images of the original land patents issued to the purchasers. There are only a little over 300 documents currently online but it is going to be an awesome site when they get more documents published. Anyway, at the bottom of the second paragraph of “About this collection” it states

“In certain instances it has been impossible to determine the correct state of origin of the purchaser; generally this is due to the fact that both Indiana and Ohio have identically-named counties, such as Franklin County. In these cases, both Ohio and Indiana have been listed as the state of origin.”

So that might present a little problem. However, Franklin County, Indiana is so very close to Switzerland County while Franklin County, Ohio is further north and east, closer to the central part of Ohio. Since we don't know the whereabouts of John Bray between 1805 and 1816 (as mentioned in The Evidence at Hand) it is possible that he could have ventured further north, but I don't think so. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking on my part. If he was “of Franklin County, Indiana Territory” then that would be evidence that he was actually residing in the area and would definitely be eligible for membership in the Territorial Guard Society of Indiana.



We have the record of the land entry on March 5, 1816 and the statement by Daniel Bray that he, then his father John, went to the Cincinnati Land Office in the early part of 1816. Does that constitute enough evidence to be able to say that they were then residing in the Indiana Territory?



What other records exist during that time period that can be used to help substantiate the claim that John Bray resided in the Indiana Territory in 1816?

Beachcombing #1

Padre Island National Seashore
Corpus Christi, Texas
February 17, ..

New Beginnings

Earlier this week I finally made it to 12 Channel Street in South Boston - the new home of Royal H. Cycles, Geekhouse Bikes, Hubway Bikeshare and a number of other local bicycle-related ventures.





Organised by the intrepid Marty Walsh of Geekhouse, HQ Boston is a new collective space in an industrial waterfront area dubbed the "Innovation District," and its acquisition has been the talk of the town among bikey people. It is big news. The space is big (24,000 sq ft), the commitment is big (10 year lease), and the scope of the project is big. The move shows there is growth in the local small scale bicycle industry, and implies a collective faith in this growth continuing.






Seeing the venue for the first time - an entire second floor of a warehouse-type building, still mostly open floor space - I was overwhelmed by the sheer blank canvas potential of it. Anything could happen here. Many things will, soon.







All morning long there was energy, movement. Planks scattered, walls going up. Men at work. At the same time it was oddly peaceful for a place with so much going on. The size of the space diffuses the construction noise. The light coming in from the outside casts a soft white glow over the debris.






The floor space occupied by Geekhouse and Royal H has been set up and operational for months.There are beautiful machines, jigs, tools, frames and wheels suspended along the walls.





The presence of the framebuilders is there.





Oh yes.






Walking through the space, I admit to feeling some nostalgia. The new venue lacks the personality of the oldGeekhouse shack in Allstonwith its famous graffiti mural. It lacks the charm of the tiny old Royal H workshop in Somervilleby the railroad tracks, just minutes from my house. There is no small neighbourhood feel here. Huge industrial buildings greeted me as I looked out the window, blocking the view of the Harbor. But even as I thought these things, I knew that it was the sentimentalist in me talking. Any place can become a neighbourhood once filled with neighbours, and the Innovation District is attracting new creative small businesses every day. Murals will be painted in due course. The personality of a space takes time to develop.





This place has the potential for growth and collaboration that was not available to either of the occupants beforehand, and the excitement of this is almost tangible.







The spirit of working together is in the air. Though I came to meet with Bryan of Royal H., I later encountered Shane - the man behind BostonBiker. I've corresponded with Shane in the past and I thought that we'd met before, but obviously we haven't because this was a totally different person. It took me a bit just to wrap my head around that and readjust my mental image of him, but soon we were giddy with talk of joint projects involving Shane's skillz and mine.






But back to the main purpose of my visit: I am working on a new mixte prototype with Royal H. Cycles. I sold the mixte Bryan made for me in to finance this, and although this was difficult I don't regret it. The new collaboration will be my design and Bryan's framebuilding. If the prototype works out and is cost-effective, the idea is that it would become a model available to order. I am not thinking of this as my personal bike and not getting attached to it. Very possibly I will sell the prototype, particularly if we end up having to make another. There is so much to say about what I hope this bicycle will be, but in these early stages I am too nervous and excited to talk about it too much. As far as form, I can say that it will be a low-trail 650B mixte with curved twin lateral stays. Fully lugged, with lots of modified lugwork. As far as function, my hope is to make a bike that will be suitable for both urban and long-distance transportation, including over hilly terrain, optimised for women who ride in their everyday clothing. There are lots of details regarding what this involves in my mind and why, and I look forward to sharing them.






In the meantime, it looks like I will be paying these gentlemen more visits over the summer, which is certainly not a bad thing. It will be wonderful to watch HQ Boston develop. If anyone local is interested in joining, there is space available and rent is cheap. Things are happening in Boston. Here's to new beginnings.

Raleigh Lady's Tourist: Two Generations

As some might recall, I own two vintage Raleigh Lady's Tourists. Being in the midst of a major bike upheaval right now, I've retrieved these from storage and took the opportunity to photograph them together. The bicycle on the left is a 1973 DL-1. It has been refurbished and modified over the years (aftermarket chaincase, tires, rack, dress guards, pump, saddle, grips and rear wheel), a very ridable bike but definitely not a collector's item. The bicycle on the right is a 1936 Tourist. This one is inoriginal and unaltered condition, including an intact chaincase, rotting grips and tires, cracked frame pump and dilapidated saddle. In the future I would like to have the older Tourist restored professionally, and until I can afford that I will continue to carefully store it. The newer Tourist I've decided to use as a transportation bicycle again, having now sold off most of my other bikes (a topic for another post). In the meantime, I'd like to share some observations while I briefly have these beauties side by side.






I am not very good at lining up bikes and comparing them properly, but I'll try. Despite the older Tourist appearing smaller to the naked eye than the newer model, their wheelbases are near-identical - as are their bottom bracket heights (300mm), the lengths of their chainstays (500mm), their front-center measurements (680mm), and the lengths of their seat tubes (540mm center to center, or 560mm center to top - a.k.a. the 22" frame size). The seat tube angles look identical. The headtube angle on the newer bike looks like it could be slightly steeper, but I am unable to measure precisely. The forks line up identically. The virtual top tube on the older bike is a little shorter (570mm compared to 580mm on the newer one, measured center to center). But the most glaring difference is in the height of the head tubes.






The headtube on the 1973 Tourist measures 185mm from the very bottom of the lower lug to the very top of the upper lug. On the 1936 Tourist, the headtube measures 265mm. That's a considerable difference, placing the older bicycle's handlebars quite a bit higher. Combined with the slightly shorter virtual top tube, the rider is overall more upright.








The quadrant shifter on the older model is on the top tube.





Notice also that the handlebars used in the '70s are different than those used in the '30s. The older ones were narrower, and angled straight back with no forward sweep to them.





On the older bike, the pump is behind the seat tube and there isa lugged connection between the down tube and the looped top tube. On the newer model the pump sits between those tubes and there is no lugged connector.





Overall I would say that the two bicycles are more similar than not, and it's interesting to me that so few changes were made between those 4 decades. I would love to see how a 1950s model compares to these two.