The most interesting thing to happen to Hannah and I over the past three weeks was also one of the coolest things I've done in my entire life. Over Halloween weekend, we and 11 other friends/family members went on a hike to Havasupai Falls. Our group consisted of me and Hannah; her siblings: Emily, Heather and George, and Brian and Terrisa; her dad; our friend Patty; family friends Brent and Kyle; and Dave and Ashley, who are friends of Brian and Terrisa's. We departed on our three-hour drive on Thursday evening and spent the night in a motel in Seligman, which is a little town about a 1.5-hour drive away from the start of the hike.
Friday morning we drove to the rim of the canyon to begin our hike, which was ten miles long and took us about six hours to complete (we were in no hurry what with the gorgeous landscape). It really wasn't too grueling, though Hannah tripped and rolled her ankle about halfway into the hike. She was in good enough condition to continue hiking on her own, though several of us took turns carrying her backpack in addition to our own, so that she wouldn't have to hike with any added weight.We arrived at the campsite just about an hour or two before sundown, so we quickly pitched our tents and then went on a short walk back to one of the big waterfalls. Originally, only Patty, Brian, Brent, and I actually jumped in the frigid water at the base of the waterfall, but eventually we were able to convince every single person to join us, one by one!
On Saturday, we went on an eight-mile (round trip) day hike out to Beaver Falls and back. It was quite an adventurous trek! The very first section consisted of a climb down a very tall cliff, using "ladders" build into the sides of the cliff face. I say "ladders" in quotation marks because, in reality, it was mostly just rugged rock with stakes and chains nailed into it to use for handholds; there were actually only two fifteen-or-so-foot ladders. Though it was a bit scary, it was definitely worth it, as it was the first leg of our journey that followed the river all the way down to Beaver Falls. We hiked through all sorts of terrain, from rivers to dusty desert to more forresty scenes to a terrain that more resembled a giant, overgrown garden! It was tons of fun.
Sunday was the hike back out of the canyon. Since people had places to be that evening, we hiked out at a much faster pace compared to our Friday hike. Ultimately, we shaved about 1.5 hours off our Friday time and completed the ten miles in about 4 hours and 15 minutes. It was probably one of the most grueling things I've ever done; all our legs were screaming at us on that last section hiking up the switchbacks. But we rewarded ourselves with an enormous and delicious meal at a little diner back in Seligman called Lilo's. Overall, it was one of the most memorable weekends of my life, and I'm sure many others in our group would say the same!
The only downside to our weekend was that we missed one heck of an ASU football game against Utah. It also happened to be Homecoming weekend, and ASU won 19-16 on an overtime field goal. Thankfully, I was rewarded with an even better game this past weekend, against Notre Dame. Our defense really won it for us; we had three straight takeaways in the first quarter that resulted in touchdowns, along with a game-sealing pick six in the fourth quarter to hold off the Fighting Irish's impressive comeback. We won 55-31, sending Todd Graham and the Sun Devil football team even higher in the College Football Playoff rankings. We're currently ranked No. 6, and if we win-out the season, we'll be in the playoffs for the first time in I don't know how long! One of my friends put it quite nicely in her Facebook status: "Did you know that leprechaun tears are part of a balanced Sun Devil diet? Graham's boys sure do."
The following day, Hannah and I went over to our good friend Stephanie's apartment on the other side of campus to make pizzas with her and her fiancé, Kyle. We then walked over to the new AMC theaters on Mill Avenue to catch a showing of Interstellar. The movie was fantastic, and the seats were literally the nicest theater seats known to man. They were these comfy, red leather, electonicaly reclining seats that reclined so far back that you might as well have pulled your king-size bed into the theater to watch the movie with your friends. A very fun night, indeed.
I think that about sums things up on our front... Though school continues to be challenging for the both of us, fun moments and weekends like these balance it out to turn this semester into one of the best years of college so far!
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