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- Apr 27, 2011
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Friday the Wife and I hit the Canyon.
18 months ago we did a Rim-Rim-Rim in two days... appx 53 trail miles, +/- a vertical mile down and a vertical mile back up. It was September, so the bottom of the Canyon was 100F-plus. I was grinning at the end of it and felt like a million bucks.
That was then. This is now. I trained for this particular sumbich by doing one 40-minute hike a week ago and spending the last 18 months since our previous GC trip eating ridiculous amounts of Mexican food and drinking vast quantities of beer. Hell, lunch on the Thursday before the trip was fried pork intestines and rice. I was, as they say, underprepared
Because of this, I figured I would just go halfway down to Indian Gardens. Wife, who works out every day and has great discipline with regard to diet, kept going while I lolled under a cottonwood tree for an hour before beginning my meander back up. 3000 vertical feet, 4.5 trail miles. Didn't actually hurt that much, which has turned my hike preparation world upside down! We're doing a big hike in Tucson in May and I'm thinking Xbox and twinkies to prepare.
So anyway, pics.
Me 'n Wife getting ready to hit the trail. Pretty chilly.
There is a deer (or elk, or moose, or whatever... don't ask me, I'm no taxidermist) in this picture. I did not leap on it, skin it, and eat it like I'm sure every other patch-bearing WSS would have done. In fact, me 'n Wife talked to them in baby talk while they looked at us with a serious lack of interest.
Heading down to appx the center of this photo:
The flat part between the steep and Indian Gardens. Not my favorite part of the hike as it gets no wind and tends to bake a bit. Quite warm by now. At least they did a great job fixing up this part of the Bright Angel trail, which used to be beat to heck.
Knife content! Great Eastern Cutlery's bullnosed work knife, aka their variant on the sodbuster, which I'm kinda loving right now. I took a nap leaning up against this tree.
This is sadly quite true.
Ooooh.
Aaaah.
This is gonna hurt.
Ouch. Here's the switchbacks up.
This is a cliff. It's quite cliffy.
Left of the frame near the top. Getting late, getting cold, feeling okay but kinda wishing at this point that my rear didn't weigh quite as much as it did!
Right of the frame, then out and to the bar! A dozen hot wings and a Stout, then I was right as rain.
The Grand Canyon is something else. Been in it a bunch of times, and truly feel that every human being needs to experience it at some point. Hope everyone can get there and get down in it.
18 months ago we did a Rim-Rim-Rim in two days... appx 53 trail miles, +/- a vertical mile down and a vertical mile back up. It was September, so the bottom of the Canyon was 100F-plus. I was grinning at the end of it and felt like a million bucks.
That was then. This is now. I trained for this particular sumbich by doing one 40-minute hike a week ago and spending the last 18 months since our previous GC trip eating ridiculous amounts of Mexican food and drinking vast quantities of beer. Hell, lunch on the Thursday before the trip was fried pork intestines and rice. I was, as they say, underprepared
Because of this, I figured I would just go halfway down to Indian Gardens. Wife, who works out every day and has great discipline with regard to diet, kept going while I lolled under a cottonwood tree for an hour before beginning my meander back up. 3000 vertical feet, 4.5 trail miles. Didn't actually hurt that much, which has turned my hike preparation world upside down! We're doing a big hike in Tucson in May and I'm thinking Xbox and twinkies to prepare.
So anyway, pics.
Me 'n Wife getting ready to hit the trail. Pretty chilly.
There is a deer (or elk, or moose, or whatever... don't ask me, I'm no taxidermist) in this picture. I did not leap on it, skin it, and eat it like I'm sure every other patch-bearing WSS would have done. In fact, me 'n Wife talked to them in baby talk while they looked at us with a serious lack of interest.
Heading down to appx the center of this photo:
The flat part between the steep and Indian Gardens. Not my favorite part of the hike as it gets no wind and tends to bake a bit. Quite warm by now. At least they did a great job fixing up this part of the Bright Angel trail, which used to be beat to heck.
Knife content! Great Eastern Cutlery's bullnosed work knife, aka their variant on the sodbuster, which I'm kinda loving right now. I took a nap leaning up against this tree.
This is sadly quite true.
Ooooh.
Aaaah.
This is gonna hurt.
Ouch. Here's the switchbacks up.
This is a cliff. It's quite cliffy.
Left of the frame near the top. Getting late, getting cold, feeling okay but kinda wishing at this point that my rear didn't weigh quite as much as it did!
Right of the frame, then out and to the bar! A dozen hot wings and a Stout, then I was right as rain.
The Grand Canyon is something else. Been in it a bunch of times, and truly feel that every human being needs to experience it at some point. Hope everyone can get there and get down in it.
