It’s a Small World

A Dream

It all started when I was a small, square headed kid, listening as my dad told stories of hiking Bright Angel Trail down to Phantom Ranch and up again in one day. The talk of butchered feet, hot weather, stunning scenery and mules was enchanting and I vowed in my little heart that someday I’d do it.

Fast forward to age 39 and dreading hitting the Big 4-0. Suddenly, the brilliant notion of making a stab at the Canyon to celebrate seemed like a fantastic way to turn a nasty event into a fun one. The first try at winning the backcountry lottery didn’t work out, but we got the second chance win, and managed to nail down June 21-22. I know. Hot. Slightly stupid, but also a delicious challenge and great reason to get fit.

And so began the prep. Getting friends to join us, ordering itty bitty camping supplies to pack down, spending hair tearing hours at Potters Shoes trying to find the “perfect” hiking shoe and most of all, exercising. Up and down stairs til you poured sweat and were bored almost to tears. Interval runs that were the joy of my heart and then the Saturday rucks that found us power walking around local walking paths with heavy rucksacks on our backs.

Arizona Welcomes You

Jared and Carla, a youngish couple from around here, our boys Seth n Zach, and a great friend, Andrew from Louisiana joined our expedition. We met in Phoenix late Wednesday night and partook of the luxury’s of life like long hot showers, elevated beds and Air Conditioning.

The next day was Provisioning Day. Or more like How much can we actually cram into the Ford Flex Day.

7 people, all their gear, food for 2 days and a small bottle of wicked hot hot sauce that caught Zach’s eye.

It was cozy.

We rolled into Grand Canyon village around 7:30pm and felt great surges of anticipation as we peered over the Rim. So incredibly exciting to think that in less than 24 hours we’ll be way down in the Canyon, sweltering hot and knowing we have to get back out eventually.

Night, such as it was, was at Mather Campground in GC Village. The showers were dirtyish coin operated affairs, but they were warm and refreshing. Everyone repacked backpacks and hoped like crazy they had the basics covered. The moon was almost full so it never got very dark. Add to that the constant campground activity and the inner surges of excitement and you can guess how well most of us slept. Oh well, we came to hike, not rest.