yesterday in the grand canyon

or the last two days, either way. i have spent my time hiking. lets start at two days ago.

two days ago i went to the bright angel trail head and descended into the canyon. i have trouble finding places to start, with writing, not hiking, so, let me rewind a bit. all over this place are signs and warnings about the people who die in the canyon each year. the most frequent sign says that more than 250 people die in the canyon each year and it has a picture of a 20/30 something fit young man and underneath his photo it says "most of them look like this."

the first time i saw it i was talking to a ranger about some caves that i had seen on the cliffside and i wanted to know what they were. he said that they were not man made, they were most likely just washouts. so i asked him if i could go check them out, emphatically he said no and pointed the sign out to me. i told him that the person in the photo was much fitter than me so i had nothing to worry about.

anyhow, i didnt try to get to those caves, it was quite treacherous to them. and i am not the idiot i pretend to be. so, two days ago i went to start the bright angel trail, and right at the beginning of it is a placard/warning sign. it has a young lady on it running the boston marathon. it explains that she finished the boston marathon in under 3 hours (27 miles!) and wanted to hike to the river and back in one day.

she and her companion ended up getting lost somewhere along the way and didnt have adequate food or water. once they realized they were in a desperate situation, the split up and tried to find the way out. the marathon lady ended up dying of dehydration in the canyon and her friend made it out alive. these are the warnings they give you at the trailheads.

although it is a mile deep and about 10 miles across, the depth doesnt take into account that when hiking you dont go straight down. with that warning, i started the trail and had in my mind to go to the three mile mark and turn around. i figured three miles wasnt so far.

well, getting down the trail wasnt so bad, it was all switchbacks downhill, a wide trail at an agreeable angle, no problem. i was going pretty fast and it was a bit overcast so i wasnt getting very hot. and i just kept going. i watched the people coming up and they were mostly a mess. sweat drenched and dripping, barely moving, and i started to second guess myself.

it took me about a half hour to get to the first rest stop, a mile and a half from where i had started. it seemed like i hadnt gotten anywhere, just past the first level of rock, heading into the red rock areas. i talked to someone who was coming up, and he said that it was about 6 more miles to the tip of the trail where you start to descend to the river!

i consulted my better senses and decided that it didnt make much difference if i didnt go to the 3 mile mark, becasue it would be the same-ish as where i am now and it would be that much longer to get out. i made the right choice. coming back up was a huge pain in the ass! it took me almost two hours to get back out, i was pacing myself and stopping every five switchbacks or so and resting. i would read about 10 pages of my book and drink some water. let me brething return to absolute normal and then move on up again.

i enjoyed it, but i would really like to have been able to hike to the river.

yesterday i went out to hermits rest. hermits rest is the "end" of the grand canyon village area. that is where the bus makes its final stop, there is a trailhead to go into the canyon. i didnt do that again. instead i took to bus to the end (almost an hour bus ride -- with stops) and started to hike back to the lodge area. about 7 miles.

it was pretty good, i was on the rustic trail right on the rim for most of it, and for about two hours, there was a storm brewing and threatening just to my west and north. it rained off an on, but never very heavy, there was lightning in the distance and i hoped for a flash flood. no such "luck."

i only hiked about 5 miles back, it took me about 3 hours. after that i was pretty beat. i took a number of photos, but my camera batteries were dying, so i didnt get all the shots i wanted. upon returning, i walked around the lodge area a bit and just hung around watching the crowds.

for a large part of the day i ruminated on this question: when do human beings stop being part of nature? because, we are nature, natural beings, right? but our presence also disrupts nature. the paved roads, the helicopters and planes, people talking on cell phones, etc. because we are nature, is all that stuff natural? clearly not, so at what point is our existence no longer natural? when are we no longer part of nature, and just something else, spectators or something?

anyway, after awhile i got in my truck and starting driving toward the market/restaurant near where i have been parking to sleep and the traffic was just a snarl. i thought about honking my horn, but then i realized why. there was a huge elk just in between the roads and people were stopping to take pictures. i swung around the cars to a smaller road and parked and just stood there snapping photos and watching it for nearly an hour.

a ranger came up in the middle of it and i had to move my truck, so i parked in a lot somewhere and walked back and on the way ran into a pack of deer just foraging hear the elk. it was pretty neat.

by then it was getting dark and i went to the restaurant had some food and then parked to sleep.