We parked the car, put our packs on, made sure we had everything, and started down the trail. It was windy! Which made it a little colder than expected, but I believed the wind would die as we got lower and lower into the canyon. I discovered that I had a sore upper back/neck and couldn't turn my head to the right without pain. In my life the word for this is "quasimodo" (from the Hunchback of Notre Dame) which came from my brother John's tendency to wake up with a stiff neck and be unable to turn his head - requiring that he turn his entire body to look at things - generally while on vacation. So I was quasimodo with a 35-lb pack. Awesome.
Jesse and I had to walk single file because the trail was narrow (all of them are). And it was downhill the WHOLE way. Big steps down. With weight on your back. For seven relentless miles. In our trail description papers it said "at the Cathedral Stairs the descent becomes unrelenting" but I'll tell you that the descent is unrelenting the entire seven miles of Hermit trail. We saw a tarantula! I didn't try to touch it even though it looked soft. Those things are awfully big for not having any bones. I tried to keep songs in my head and my mind off the muscle strain, but it's difficult when you have to pay attention to each foot placement. One song that got stuck was Carpenter by Huckleberry Flint. Jesse and I took turns leading depending on who had more stamina at the moment.
When we finished the Hermit trail at the Tonto trail junction, we still had 1.2 miles to go. And the wind didn't die down as we got lower and lower in the canyon. And there's another thing I forget to list off that I have learned about backpacking. It doesn't matter how far you go, the final mile of the day is ALWAYS the most difficult. We felt a few drops of rain... I just remind myself that my mom would give anything to experience the pain of the last mile; then it doesn't seem quite so impossible.
We pitched the tent and climbed in. This was our first night in our brand new backpacking tent - and we had a place under the rain cover to put our packs while we sorted all of the food out of them. You have to suspend the food so critters can't get it. More soon...
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