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The Government trail, from the floor of Grand Gulch up to the rim of the canyon is scenic and well built, but it does have a few steep pitches, so my wife (and me too), were anxious to get on up to the top of the Grand Gulch canyon.

This was an easy backpacking trip. Only the very short pitch up and down the rim of Grand Gulch gave us a chance to really "test" the merits of our new lightweight internal frame packs.

We had a lot of fun together on this little excursion and there is nothing like sleeping beneath the desert stars in a mile high slickrock canyon, with somebody you love. Fun!

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4. Thursday 21st of April 2011
This was a test run for some new lightweight internal frame backpacks, my wife and I had purchased for this trip. After 40 years of using our comfortable, easy to access, Kelty Tioga external frame backpacks, we decided that for “off trail” canyon hiking, that some new light internal frame backpacks might be better suited (and besides I had a 20% off coupon and my 2010 REI refund dividend burning a hole in my jeans pocket at the time).

So I bought an REI Flash 65 and the Flash 50 for my wife. Not only would these work better for the overhangs encountered with off trail canyon hiking, but they stored in our pickup truck almost flat, when not in use.

To get to right to the point: We both LOVED these new packs. I still think we will use our external frames on most occasions when we are hiking a well established trail and balance and narrow low profile is not a consideration. But when we want to go light and have any plans for off trail backpacking, the new internals are here to stay.

You really need four wheel drive and high clearance to get all the way down to the stock pond trailhead for the Government Trail into Grand Gulch. Our old 1994 Toyota pickup truck with high clearance, low and high range “shift on the fly” four wheel drive, and adequate skid plates underneath, was just the ticket. We ended up parking next to a ranger’s pickup truck.

The Government Trail is easy hiking. It is an old Jeep trail so we could hike side by side for the 2.5 miles or so from the stock pond to the Grand Gulch canyon rim. The next half mile is steep in places and there are a couple of overhangs if you happen to have a high backpack. We had no trouble at all getting on down to the bottom of the Grand Gulch canyon. At a leisurely pace it took us an hour from trailhead to rim and half hour from rim to canyon bottom at Grand Gulch.

We hiked up Grand Gulch and took several “side hikes”, the most fun being to the “Big Man” pictograph panel. The stars of the panel are actually a Big Man (with modest male features) and a Big Woman. So why they don’t call it the Big COUPLE panel, I don’t know. Left over and hard to extinguish male chauvinism I guess.

We met a lot of nice people on this road trip and at the bottom of Grand Gulch we met a fit couple with two energetic young girls, camped near the mouth of Polly Canyon. The wife was preparing camp meals (toasted fajitas), that to us, seemed gourmet and outstanding camp cuisine. The next day the man would turn up as our hero of the road trip as the “Good Samaritan”.

Though the weather was good (nice temperatures and no rain), wind gusts hit pretty hard throughout the afternoon and into the evening. We were lucky that the “nice family” told us about an out of the wind camping location under a big bent cottonwood tree. The camping site was perfect for us.

We slept with the rain fly off of our REI Quarter Dome T-3 tent that night and enjoyed watching the big dipper, shooting stars, and a bright moon through the mesh canopy of the tent that night. We really slept well.

5. Friday 22nd of April 2011
We ate breakfast and watched the morning sun illuminate the sandstone canyon walls around us. The wind was gone and it was a perfect day. We took our time hiking down Grand Gulch and then back up to the rim of the canyon. Here we found a lady lying down under a juniper tree and her husband with a large backpack sitting on the slick rock. During our discussion we were told that she had badly sprained her ankle down in Grand Gulch (her husband didn’t tell us how long ago), but they had obviously made it to the rim together, leaving only the easy 2.5 mile “Jeep” road section to hike to the trailhead.

I asked the husband if they had a vehicle at the trailhead or had they had to park up the road above the four wheel drive section. He said they were at the trailhead. He showed no signs of needing our help so we continued on hiking toward our truck. Along the way we passed three backpackers, heading down government trail, and then along came the “Good Samaritan”, without any pack at all hiking down towards us. To be honest I didn’t recognize him as the father of the two little girls and husband of the good camp cook (the family who had told us about the good camp site). My wife, who is much more observant and attentive than me in socia

This is the Galo de Barcelos, the national symbol of Portugal, symbolising honesty, integrity, trust and honour.

The town of Barcelos is celebrated for its pottery, handicrafts and earthenware. One of the most typical baked clay items is the renowned rooster of Barcelos, with its crest well reared up and with its spurs standing out.

The origin of the cult of the rooster can't be pinned down with accuracy, but people at Barcelos keep worshipping the rooster, and an ancient legend has been passed on from generation to generation.

Once upon a time the inhabitants of Barcelos were quite alarmed with a crime, and this was even more alarming when they couldn't discover the criminal. One day a stranger from the neighboring Spanish province of Galiza, appeared in the village. Suspicion fell on him at once.

The authorities resolved to seize him and in spite of all his oaths of innocence nobody believed the stranger. Not one villager, and no one in authority, could believe that the man was on his way to worship St Tiago, the patron saint of a nearby town. Finally the hapless stranger was condemned to death by hanging.

As a last request before his execution, he asked to be brought once more into the presence of the Judge who had condemned him. The request was granted and they lead him to the residence of the magistrate, who was just banqueting with some friends.

So you are innocent, are you?” laughed the Judge.

“Yes Sir, I am. Before God, I swear it,” answered the stranger.

“Ah, but you have been accused and sentenced to death, and I can’t change the sentence on just your word without proof. How do you think you can prove your innocence, my good man?”

“But Sir, I swear that I am innocent,” the man insisted.

He looked around the banquet room in desperation, seeking some way, some help. His eyes fell on a servant carrying in a large platter of fowl, steaming with seasonings. He fell to his knees.

“Lord God,” he prayed, “as Peter, your servant, denied you at the cock’s crow, would that you show my innocence as your humble servant by this rooster’s crow…”

All eyes turned to the platter of steaming cooked fowl and widened in wonder and amazement as the rooster got up, ruffled his feathers and crowed loudly.

“The Lord has indeed spoken,” the Judge said in awe, and rising to his feet, he proclaimed, “Let this be a lesson to each of us never to sit in quick judgment of our fellow man. The rooster, henceforth, shall be a reminder to us and to our children after us, of this, the Lord’s message. So shall it be in our land forever!”

To this day the Galo de Barcelos is the national synbol of honesty.