As some of you may know, Jeanne Harrison & I have signed up for a 5 day hike in the Grand Canyon. Starting April 9 we'll hike with Jeanne's cousin Kris and a few other folks. We're both "Canyon Virgins" and I haven't been back packing since Yosemite 12 years ago. Needless to say, we are totally stoked about the trip but worried about training. Luckily, Jeanne is the wealth of camping/hiking knowledge. All the books say the best way to train "for" the canyon is to train "in" the canyon (Not much of an option while here in the Balto-Wash corridor.) Instead, we've been wandering around some local parks, climbing rocks, eating gourmet GORP, reading Grand Canyon guides, and hoping like heck we've done enough so we don't embarrass ourselves. There's no way to imitate the altitude; as I learned during last year's Eastern Sierra cycling trip. Last Friday we hiked just under 10 miles at Great Falls which is where we took these photos. So far, we've succeeded in having a great time and eating like we earned a Grand Canyon feast.
We'll be hiking from the S. Rim to Indian Gardens for 2 nights, then up the trail and over the suspension bridge to Phantom Ranch for 2 nights. We get to put our backpacks on the mule train and hike out without our backpacks. Bugs be damned - it's going to be BEAUTIFUL!
3 comments:
Sounds great!!!
You may remember that Dara and I took the mule trip down to Phantom Ranch, over that suspension bridge. That would have been 1979, on the big trip we did before I went to work in Cincinnati. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience we've often thought about making a twice-in-a-lifetime experience. Neither of our kids have even seen the Grand Canyon :-(. There is absolutely nothing like being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and seeing all that geological history go by on the way down. The hikers hate the mule-riders almost as much as skiers hate snowboarders.
I was never so glad to see a shower in all my life. The whole trip was amazing. I believe the hikers hated the presents the mules left on the trails, not the riders themselves.
Love the pictures. I am trying to imagine Jeannie posing there. She must be saying something like, "My god these boots are huge. Missy, get a picture of them. They're as big as Great Falls!"
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