Miracle

Miracle. One word describes our Rim-to-River journey at the Grand Canyon on Friday, March 18. Miracle.

OK, maybe perfect (as in weather), beautiful, rewarding. No, miracle is still the best.

A few quick examples of miracles:

• We get to the Canyon early enough on Thursday evening to see the Canyon from the South Rim. A blessed introduction to the Canyon for someone hiking who's never seen it before.
• We, the guides, tell our hiker friends to meet in the hotel lobby promptly at 4:45am. Then we sleep in and end up rushing, yet thankfully make the lobby at 4:50am.
• We drive into the park and find the perfect parking spot in front of Bright Angel Lodge for car #1.
• We quickly join together in car #2, while a shuttle bus anxiously waits, and make our way to the visitor center/shuttle bus terminal. We arrive in plenty of time. Whew!
• Waiting for the shuttle, we realize we're in the wrong location, start walking and make it to the pick up point just as the bus arrives.
• The disorganized guides realize that, in our haste to leave car #1 and get into car #2, we leave our trekking poles behind. Thankfully we arranged for all four hikers to have two poles so we split up the ones available.  Thank you Dan and Ron!
• We make great time on the way down and enjoy a relaxing break at Phantom Ranch.
• The weather is absolutely perfect for hiking:  32 degrees at the start, 80 degrees at the Ranch, and 45 degrees when we got out.  Beautiful blue skies, a light breeze just enough to cool but not so strong as to inhibit progress.

The biggest miracle for us, unbelievably, is that the day after the hike we are not sore. Seriously. We have a little tightness in the calf muscles if we sit for awhile, but nothing that limits our ability to walk or move in any way. We've hiked the Canyon twice before and suffered serious hiker hobby for a few days after. We are totally surprised, and very pleased, by this miracle.

We have now hiked each of the three corridor trails of the Grand Canyon twice.  Although we can't say that we'll never do it again, we can say that we're focusing on other feats to continue to explore, stay healthy, and have fun.

Below are a few of the pictures from this journey.  The complete set of photos is available on Picasa.

Start - South Kaibab Trailhead

First milestone - Cedar Ridge - 1.5 miles

Sunrise behind Brahma & Zoroaster Temples

Unanimous decision to go for it.
Phantom Ranch adds an extra mile or so, but it's worth it.

Just over the Colorado River, Black Bridge

Refreshed after break at PR canteen. Time to go up.

Looking back at Silver & Black bridges, Brahma & Zoroaster Temples.

 

Celebratory break after Devil's Corkscrew (switchbacks)

The beauty of Indian Garden

On Sat. we reviewed our journey from East Rim:
Started by going around O'Neill Butte,
down to River, back up to Indian Garden near
Plateau Pt., then out. Yup, that is a big accomplishment.

Guys at Desert View Watchtower

Final picture on the Watchtower steps.
Journey complete. Well done.

Yes, we can hike the Grand Canyon but we, apparently, have difficulty getting the time/date stamp on our camera set correctly. Last July when we hiked, the time was 12 hrs. off. This time the date was two days off.  *Argh*  Maybe someday we'll conquer the great feat of setting the date/time stamp on the camera.