grand canyon day four: bright angel

We hiked and hiked and hiked in the brownie mix. Blowing my nose often because of the dust. The trail wasn't too busy even for a main corridor trail, but still I didn't drink much water because I didn't want to have to go to the restroom along the trail. On the corridor trails they provide restrooms every several miles. I don't mind the wilderness stop though; as I learned on this trip, I can squat and relieve myself with my pack on! I prefer to have a tree nearby to assist me in NOT tipping over (and of course to shield me from the eyes of anyone who might be looking) but I am perfectly capable of handling the process under my own power - with a fully-packed pack strapped to my back. Maybe too much information but I'm proud of it.

There was another young couple hiking out in the same timeframe as us. They moved faster than us, but rested longer. We were slow but steady and as a result we leap-frogged back and forth several times. As we got close to the top there was a guy yodeling. Yes, yodeling. It echoed and felt very appropriate for the setting. Another older couple saw the Bike MS logo on my shirt so we stopped to talk to them for a moment. They were from the east coast - he had ridden in Bike MS a few times and his wife had volunteered.

Even nearer to the rim there was ice and icicles. Colder and colder. And then we saw her. This young girl with a pack headed down in to the canyon. She was singing... and as she moved past us, we noticed a hula hoop and plastic daisy hanging from the back of her pack. Very useful tools in the Grand Canyon if you're of the cosmic mindset. Wow.

We made it to the rim and hopped on the shuttle back to my new car, which was still there. I expected it to be there but I guess I was still a little relieved. There was no snow on the rim at that time (thank goodness because my car is not equipped for weather), but it was cold. In the car we checked our cell phones and I had a message from Rich Sarko to call him. I was expecting news about the job with the National MS Society's home office in Denver. We pulled up to the cafeteria and I called Rich back. He said he wanted to schedule a time to talk, but that 'it's all positive.' Which to us meant that I got the job! We went in to eat and tried not to let the Denver news overshadow our backpacking celebration.

grand canyon day three: tonto west

We woke up and made our oatmeal, actually dumping out some of the water that had been SO heavy to carry the day before since we had too much and didn't need it.

We got on the road, moving quickly. I had been wearing my stocking cap non-stop since we arrived at the canyon (yes, even at night) and my forehead was starting to itch. It made me think about a description of torture I had read about in the book 'The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' in which they strap you to a chair on the roof in the hot sun and then take a thick, wet rope and knot it around your head. As the rope dries, it tightens and you know the rest. People didn't come out of that one the same. My fleece hat is no comparison.

I first started reading about the Dominican Republic in the book 'In the Time of the Butterflies' about the Mirabal sisters who were part of the revolution against Trujillo who ruled 1930 to 1961. I started telling Jesse about it, and about the fuku (foo koo) which is a kind of curse. I was telling Jesse that Trujillo was terrible. And that if you crossed him, you'd end up with a fuku, which is a curse that stays with your family forever. Oscar Wao's family had a fuku, and the author's illustration of the depth of fuku was that Kennedy supposedly ordered the assignation of Trujillo and look at the sorrow that plagues that family. Fuku is creepy.

Anyway we trucked along for miles and miles before lunch. Which was a nice warm lunch, black bean leftovers and more on stove-warmed corn tortillas. After lunch Jesse led. We got closer and closer to familiar territory - the well-traveled corridor of the Grand Canyon. You could tell by the girl in jeans and sneakers with make-up on.

We tromped in to Indian Gardens and pitched our tent. It was busy there, and cold. We were determined to eat all our food so we wouldn't have to haul it out of the canyon in the morning.

grand canyon night three: indian gardens

We pitched our tent and settled in. Jesse spent an hour or more messing with his camera on the tripod (because if you're going to haul it down in the canyon then you better darn well use it) while I did some crossword puzzles. We like to work on crosswords together while we're camping but for some reason this book's puzzles were REALLY difficult. No fun. Maybe my brain was too far separated from letters and words at that point, but honestly I don't think so. One solution for 'Tiger's goal' was 'GRANDSLAMOFGOLF' and I only know that because I cheated and looked at the back of the book. Really? No indication that it was multiple words even? Really.

Nothing much more to say about the night other than that the mice were very busy. Climbing up the tent between the screen and the rain cover and scurrying all over the place. Oh, and the composting toilet had a huge cold breeze coming up out of it which gave me serious stage fright.

In the 'morning' Jesse's watch alarm went off well before light and we both dozed off for 45 minutes prior to actually getting going. It was cold and tempting to stay in the warm sleeping bag. Anyway we got packed up and had our oatmeal and coffee then started up the Bright Angel trail. Mules are allowed on this trail. I love mules, but they are hard on trails. They create a lot of dust - it's like walking through two-inch deep dry brownie mix.

video about my mom

I just finished my video about Mom (that I began last summer with the intent to boost my 50-mile Challenge Walk fundraising but then ended up not needing it because people were so generous). We're playing it tomorrow at the MS Dinner Auction in front of 500 guests... I'm a little nervous! View it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqH668Kz3lU

~Beth

grand canyon night two: salt creek

We each had a backpacker meal (1.5 servings) and were still hungry so we cooked a third meal of black beans. We shared about half of it before we were stuffed. I was thirsty but didn't drink much because I didn't want to have to tinkle during the night. I tucked all of our food and smelly stuff into the ammo box since there were plenty of big-eared furry friends at this place too.

It was SO quiet. We thought we heard other campers coming in... but when I went up to use the pit toilet just after dark there was no one there. We're still not sure if we had company or not. Creepy.

That night we traded blankets - I got Jesse's sleeping bag and he took my sleeping bag and blanket. His sleeping bag has a hood - like a parka - that I turned in-side-out over my sleeping pad. Our tent was a little tilted so our feet were downhill and I felt like a baby marsupial hanging in my sleeping bag from the inverted hood. It was quite warm and cozy. A couple of times during the night I thought the wind was going to pick up (radioactive Santa told us the wind was so strong that it had torn his tent the night before) but it didn't.

we're moving to Denver!

I actually accepted the offer over two weeks ago! Starting a new position in online marketing on December 14. Didn't want to announce it before it was real (without the offer in writing) even though there was no reason that it wouldn't happen but you know better safe than sorry.

Now just where to live and how to get there...

grand canyon day two: tonto west

It was chilly that morning and my toes were a bit numb but they warmed up. I led for the first couple of miles and I just kept a song in my head to keep my feet moving. I think I recited every song I EVER played in high school marching band as well as jazz band.

I was so excited to get to our half-way point which was Monument Creek. It was calling me... I'm not sure why considering we were going to load up with water because our night two site didn't have drinkable water. Any way when we got to Monument Creek, we came across an old guy who looked like Santa in the off-season. Jesse recognized him as a guy we saw in October 2008 at Phantom Ranch. He was alone; he asked where we were going and told us his itinerary as well. He was missing one top front tooth, and in the space there was a little peg or something hanging down that I thought looked like the remnants of an implant. Jesse thought it looked like what was left of his tooth. Anyway, he said that thought the water really tasted "salty" at Salt Creek this year. Salt Creek was the night two stop we were headed for, and you are NOT supposed to drink the water there because it's radioactive! And this guy was telling us that it was saltier than in previous years!

After we finished our conversation with radioactive Santa, we plopped down at the edge of the mostly-dry creek bed to have some lunch and start collecting water. You have to pump the water through a filter (which takes time) and then put iodine tablets in it too. After loading up with 6-10 liters of water each, we trudged on. There was no pep in my step with that additional weight. And I had the song Whistle While You Work in my head. Isn't that what the dwarves in Snow White sing? And that hi-ho song... and somehow they turned in to Frosty the Snow Man. It was a tough time for me.

Towards the end of the hike, I let Jesse lead. When I get worn down while backpacking, my emotions become highly dependent on the trail in front of me. If I can see tough trail coming up, it takes a toll on my state of mind. When Jesse leads I just look down at the trail and try to follow in his footsteps. We trudged in to Salt Creek and found our ammo box in which to store our food that night. We picked a flat spot for the tent and pitched it. It was cold so we climbed in and got our stove ready to cook dinner. There was no one else anywhere around us - not a soul.

grand canyon night one: hermit creek

We could see one little mouse scurrying around, with big Mickey ears and no fear.

In the tent, I begged Jesse to push on my back and pop a few bones back in to place. Which he did, and it popped. We boiled some water and rehydrated our backpacker meals and ate. Then we put all our food, trash and otherwise scented stuff in our mesh bag (like chain armor) and suspended it from the rack they provide. We put our rain poncho over the food so it wouldn't get ruined (by the few drops of rain we had felt earlier) and it looked like a ghost: leg-less, semi-transparent, floating.

We settled in, me in my pink sleeping bag and pink blanket, and Jesse in his gold and gray bag. Immediately our little mouse friend was exploring our food-free packs. We tried to spook him away, but he wasn't shy. We went to sleep almost immediately after it got dark. I got cold in the night, and Jesse got way too hot. So hot that he got sweaty and threw off his sleeping bag. Then he was damp and cold... no fun.

We woke up soon after the sun came up. Jesse discovered a little chew-hole in his pack, and quite a bit of the plastic insulation on his water hose was chewed! He was mad... We heated up water for coffee and oatmeal and started packing up. Miraculously, I was no longer quasimodo. Thank goodness. Our bodies were still exhausted from the day before but we headed out. We had nearly 7 miles to go this day.

On the way out we met a nice older couple who were scouting around the historic camp (where they had mules and such a hundred years ago). They were planning on 6 nights in the canyon with a friend who hadn't hiked in 30 years. They came down Hermit and didn't make it passed the Tonto trail junction - they just pitched the tent there!

backpacking grand canyon day one: hermit trail

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...

camping grand canyon

We spent Saturday night in Bullhead City at Jesse's parent's place. Sunday night and Monday night we car-camped in the campground at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It was cold, but we had plenty of blankets and built a fire each night. There was a forecast for snow on the rim Tuesday night. We cooked big breakfasts and suppers, and enjoyed a couple of drinks in the evening. Sunday night I stayed up late reading a book (with my headlamp) that I picked up at the Denver airport called Now & Then which I have to say I was disappointed in. It was supposed to be about a dog, but the author did a better job selling the sub-plot about the character's glossy white teeth... disappointing.

Anyway, Monday night we went to bed early in an attempt to prepare ourselves for a big hike down into the canyon on Tuesday. I was nervous about the weather (cold), the trail (difficult and unmaintained), the timeframe (my first three-nighter), and my condition (I didn't train much for this) and had a tough time falling asleep. Of course in the middle of the night we both woke up and had to go to the bathroom, so we had to get all bundled up and climb out of the tent. By the time we were back in the tent, we were both wide awake. If it hadn't been 3am, I would have started packing up to get on the trail, but it was. Shortly after we both finally fell back to sleep, the alarm on Jesse's watch sounded and we got up. It was still dark, but we packed everything up, ate and then drove to the Hermit trailhead where the car (not winterized) would sit for the next few days.