Monday August 16th
4.30am wake up call,5am pancake breakfast. Wren moving slowly and creakily due to painful hips-thighs-knees. Asked if there was a spare mule (for a ride up to the rim) or a spare bed that night (to give her a day to recover) -- negative on both counts.
Took us 12hrs in all to get back to the South Rim, creeping along with many a pause along the way. Don't know what was worse for Wren - pain in the joints, or the heat. At Indian Garden, 6.6 miles up the canyon (and still another 4.7 miles from the Rim), it was 80F in the shade, 120F in the sun.
August is monsoon season in the Grand Canyon, did you know? It's something I learned from Ranger Emily. And experienced first-hand around 1pm. Torrential downpour. Thankfully we were already sheltering (from the sun) at the rest station above Indian Garden. Drops like bullets. Temperature must have dropped 40 degrees and it felt downright chilly. Steps built into the pathway transformed into puddles, if not lakes. Miniature waterfalls of red mud water sprang to life at cliff edges.
Flagging spirits restored, we set off again around 1.30pm and got to the top by 5pm, cloud cover still in place. Rejoiced as we made it to the top, the encouragement of colleagues of 'Dorothe' ringing in our ears (about 700 members of a French advertising company were on a US roadtripn together -- and we must have crossed at least 500 of them on the trail).
Brief visit to the Kolb brother's photography studio (now a gift shop and gallery),then blue shuttle bus back to the parking lot and our car; got sworn in as Junior Rangers (and got the treasured badge) at the Visitor Center by Ranger Schenk; and raced over to the Yavasupai canteen for a large helping of spag bol.
Drove the 75miles back to Flagstaff in the dark (amazing sunset off to the West); overnight again at the Grand Canyon Hostel, arriving about 9.30pm.
This is a very interesting entry!! Sorry Wren was so weary. I lived on the South Rim, worked in the restaurant from Jan to April 1971. I was 5 monthes pregnant, so did not hike down the canyon. It was a bit snowy on the rim, and green down below. We saw the very tired hikers coming up. Thanks for the blog. Linda Denberry
ReplyDeleteSo you must tell Wren that I have an excellent physio who will fix up her knees and hips whenever she is back in London!
ReplyDelete