2014XC: Day 21, July 2 – Grand Canyon, Arizona (Mather Campground)
Since the temperature easily seems to hover near 100 where we are, we wanted to get up and out early to start our hike. By 7:30am, we were already making our way down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon (I know, that’s not really very early but give us some credit here for trying!). It was such a different hike than any other we’ve ever done since you start out going down to your destination instead of up. It was a nice hike for the most part – not paved, but the edges were lined with larger rocks while the trail was either sandy or a little rocky, and there was an occasional “tunnel” to pass through. It was also wide enough in most areas that you didn’t feel like one slip and you would be rolling down the canyon walls to the bottom.
It was peppered with squirrels who paid no mind to the hikers passing by or to the pack of mules on their way down also.
The plan was to do at least the 1.5 mile hike down into the canyon (3 mile round-trip). Majority of the people we were passing as we were going down weren’t looking like they were enjoying the hike back up much. One woman we talked to said she started her hike at 5:15 that morning. Oh boy – losing my confidence here with the heat and the thirst and the dusty red trail. I was starting to feel like “Pig Pen” from the Snoopy cartoon, with the cloud of dust surrounding my feet and following me wherever I walked. All of our shoes and ankles were dusty red. Did I mention it was really hot too??
We reached the 1.5 mile trail rest stop where we could hit the rest rooms and refill our water containers. I kept thinking about the hike back up and that likely Gabriel was not going to be gung-ho about hiking back up too quickly, which always translates into me feeling bad for him and his little legs so I carry him. Oh, and did I mention that it was really really hot? Steve wanted to go on to do the full 3 mile hike down into the canyon and Christian too, so Morgan, Tyler, Gabriel and I headed back up the trail. I was a little worried about Christian but he’s a tough one. So the rest of us headed began the hike back up. I had to carry Gabriel on my back for the last 2/10ths of a mile or so as I expected, but we made it back ok.
The boys and I went to the back to the camper to wait for Steve and Christian. They passed to more elk on the way back and arrived at the camper about 2 hours after we did. Christian was stoked that he did something his older boys chose not to, and he rode that out for the rest of the day. He deserved to – Steve and I were proud of him.
A storm was on the way, so we played checkers and had some dinner, then planned to visit the Yavapai Geology Museum and the Visitor Center. The storm hit while we were in the Geology Museum and the rest of the day was cloudy and drizzly, but it was still a great day.
