Wednesday May 1st

Having a hotel room on the second floor (no elevator), and making several trips up and down the stairs yesterday evening and again this morning was really good for our aching calves and quads!  Really helps to loosen up the old sore muscles!  We were on the road early this morning, excited to be meeting Tom "Snake Hips" and Sue "Spud" at Zion National Park today.

 I met Tom and Sue while hiking the A.T. in 2011. They are both retired Doctors; Tom/Family Doctor, Sue/Rehab Doctor.  They are now living in St. George, Utah which is very near Zion National Park.  I am so thankful that they are taking time from their busy schedule to come and meet us today.  Tom is currently planning a "world trip" which he will begin at the end of the month in Reykjavik, Iceland!  Sue will be meeting him in August in Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrim's path across Spain.

As we neared Mt. Carmel Jct., we came around a bend in the highway, and we saw a large number of horse trailers camped out and realized there must be an Endurance Ride here!  (Years ago, I rode my horse in Endurance Rides.)  What we are seeing is the Mt. Carmel XP 5-day Endurance Ride.  Five days of 50 miles each day!  To complete that is true endurance! (Several years ago my friends, Sue and Patsy, convinced me to go to New Mexico with them and do a 3-day, 55 miles each day, Endurance Ride. Amazingly, we all completed all three days!  The horses did better than the humans!)  Anyway, we stopped in the convenience store at Mt. Carmel Jct. to fuel the car and get a Utah Road Atlas, and while in the store I met Ann Nicholson, the Mt. Carmel XP Ride Manager, and she said that today is the first day of the 5-day ride.  What incredible scenery here for the riders to enjoy!

From there we headed west, and soon we are on the Zion-Mt. Carmel Hwy., a 12-mile scenic road that connects the South and East Entrances to the Park, traveling up steep switchbacks, and through the historic, 1 mile long, Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel.
This our view as we entered the tunnel.

This is our view as we are exiting the tunnel.

Soon we are in the small town of Springdale, Utah, where we have hotel reservations tonight, and there is Tom and Sue patiently waiting for us!  After checking our hotel reservation and parking our car, we caught the free Town Shuttle to the Zion National Park Visitor Center, where we boarded the free Park Shuttle.  We stayed on the Shuttle all the way up Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, to the Temple of Sinawava stop, the gateway to The Narrows.  We then walked the trail, along the Virgin River, called the Riverside Walk, to The Narrows, where the Virgin River flows thru the narrow, soaring canyon walls.

 Tom "Snake Hips" and his wife Sue "Spud at The Narrows.

                             Sue, Tom, (unidentified tourist looking on), & Flame

 Birds soaring high above us!

 Tom is framing a great shot of the Virgin River flowing thru the canyon walls.

We then boarded the free Park Shuttle again, then exited at the Weeping Rock stop.  We walked the nice trail to Weeping Rock, where dripping springs create hanging gardens.

After enjoying the coolness and the beauty surrounding the Weeping Rocks area, we boarded the Shuttle once again to go to the Zion Lodge, a historic Lodge/Restaurant/Bookstore, where we accessed the Emerald Pools Trail.  Following the Emerald Pools Trail we are able to continue on along the Grotto Trail as we made our way back to the Shuttle.  Along the way we were afforded great views of the Virgin River far below us as we walked along.

When we reach the River, it is nice to have this great footbridge to cross over!

It is also great to have the free Park Shuttles that run continuously throughout the day for Park visitors.

  
We  then took the Shuttle back down to the Zion Lodge, where we enjoyed a great lunch and conversation with our friends, Tom and Sue.  The weather today has been picture-perfect!  Clear blue skies, mild temperatures!  Just an awesome day to enjoy the great outdoors with friends!  Thank you to Tom and Sue for making today in Zion Park truly memorable for us!

We will thouroughly enjoy living vicariously thru Tom's and Sue's adventures via his blog:
http://brickthomasblog.wordpress.com

Tuesday April 30, 2013

There is nothing like a comfortable bed and good night's sleep to refresh our tired bodies following our hike of 12.4 miles yesterday, down into Grand Canyon and out to Plateau Point, then turn around and retrace all our steps all the way back to the top!  We are feeling pretty good this morning, except for sore calf muscles and sore quads.  We sort of resemble a feeble 100 year old, the way we are hobbling around!  But "life is good"!  We are thankful to have had this opportunity of hiking into the Grand Canyon, and so glad my brother Don joined us here for the adventure!

You know how most hotels who offer breakfast along with your stay, just have a rather small area for eating and not much variety?  Well, this hotel that we have stayed in for the last two nights, the Best Western Grand Squire Inn, really goes over-the-top in serving their guests an awesome breakfast meal!  There are two buffet lines, with a wide assortment of fruits, sliced and ready to eat, along with several fruit dips;  also eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, several kinds of breads for toasting, pancakes, oatmeal, cold cereals, coffee, milk, fruit juices, and on and on!  Wow, what a great way to start our day!  And we are seated at a table in a large dining area that probably will seat more than 100 guests! 

We drive back down to Flagstaff to drop Don off at the airport, since he has a flight scheduled this morning, and will go back home and to work in the morning, while Tom and I continue on our vacation.  We have enjoyed Don's company so much and are so thankful that he took the time to fly out here to meet us for the difficult task of hiking into the Grand Canyon, even though he had already done this same hike two years ago with three of my sisters (Norma, Donna, & Ginny).

Our plans are to travel north from Flagstaff on U.S.Hwy 89 for 109 miles to Bitter Springs, then follow the scenic route on Alt.89 for 86 miles to Kanab, Utah.  This will be a leisurely day after yesterday, which we think we will enjoy.

Well, after going only 66 miles, thru some pretty desolate landscape, we find we have to take a detour.  It seems that U.S.Hwy.89 has a "cave-in" somewhere in the 43 miles between U.S.Hwy.160 and Bitter Springs, therefore we have to take the detour onto U.S.Hwy.160 eastbound for 50 miles before taking State Hwy.98 north for 66 miles to Page, Arizona.

As you can see by the flags blowing straight out at that abandoned "flea market" beside the highway, it was very windy today!  While traveling on U.S.Hwy.160 (the detour), we passed thru Tuba City, population 8,611; Red Lake, population 100; Cow Springs, population 40. We then turned onto State Hwy. 98 (still the detour) and about halfway along on this 66 mile stretch is the small town of Kaibito, population 1,522. Now this "cave-in" happened last year (November 2012), so I can imagine how these small towns along the detour must really be benefiting with all this added traffic passing thru their small towns, and stopping to buy gas, food, etc.! 

We had not planned on going to Page, Arizona, but here we are!  This town was established in the 1950's, during the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, which forms Lake Powell.  We stopped at the Visitor Center after crossing over the bridge that spans the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam.

 This was a nice surprise at the end of the "detour".  We are glad we got see Glen Canyon Dam and tour the Visitor Center there to read about and see how it was built and all the benefits to the area through providing electricity, irrigation, recreation, etc.

Now we are back on U.S.Hwy.89 for the last 64 miles to Kanab, Utah for the night.  It is still extremely windy, lots of blowing sand, desolate and sparsely populated landscape, passed several Native American hitchhikers.

If you are ever in Kanab, Utah, I would not recommend staying at the Rodeway Inn.  It is a little "dated and tired"!   I guess I should not have expected much for $80 per night?  Remember the extravagant breakfast we had this morning at the Best Western Grand Squire Inn?  Not going to be like that here in Kanab, Utah!  Our room at the Rodeway Inn was fairly clean, but the limited breakfast selection served in the tiny lobby (with only a tired sofa for seating), furnished trays that we could carry our breakfast on back up to our room to eat!

Tomorrow we are heading to Zion National Park, where my hiker friends, Sue "Spud" and Tom "Snake Hips" will be meeting us for the day!  Really looking forward to that!

Monday, April 29th (cont.)

Here is the mule train arriving at Indian Garden Rest Stop (in a cloud of red dust!).

The first 1.2 miles back to Indian Garden (from Plateau Point) is not too difficult, however the sun is bearing down on us and it is now 80 degrees (in the shade)!  We will definitely be searching for any little bit of shade as we leave Indian Garden, since it is 5 miles and 5,000 feet elevation to the top!  The views going back up are just as breathtaking as they were on the way down!  Around each bend in the trail we look around us and are overwhelmed with the incredible majesty of the Grand Canyon!  There is no other place in the entire world quite like the Grand Canyon!  It is difficult to capture in mere words how truly "Grand" it is!

We encounter many foriegn visitors on the trail from countries all around the world; actually we Americans seem to be the minority on the Bright Angel Trail today.  Perhaps we Americans do not fully appreciate all the natural beauty that is so close to where we live right here in our own country.

The uphill trek is just as difficult as we had expected it to be!  I am worrying about Tom, since he seems to be struggling right away.  We are very conscientious about staying hydrated and resting and snacking.

It is amazing to see so many beautiful flowers blooming in this rugged environment in the Grand Canyon!

It seemed to take forever to reach the 3-mile Resthouse, but we did finally make it there.  Tom and I sat under the "roof" in the shade and commiserated with all the other hikers (tourists) who were struggling the same as we were to get back to the top of the Canyon before dark.  Don found a large rock to sit on in the shade of a tree next to the Resthouse.  We refilled our water bottles before heading out (and up) again to make it 1.5 more miles to the last Resthouse before the top.

 

As we began climbing the switchbacks leading away from the 3-mile Resthouse, I could feel myself "hit a brick wall"!  I had been so confident in my own ability, and so worried about Tom, but Tom seems to have gotten "his second wind" and he is powering up the hill, going out of sight around the next switchback, and I seem to be struggling with each footstep.  I'm feeling lightheaded and very "unsettled".  We stop frequently at every little bit of shade, sit on the ground a few minutes, then push on.

 

It seemed such a long, long, long way to get to the 1.5 mile Resthouse!  Along the way we talked to a young gal who works for the Park Service.  She had passed us on the way down, just before Indian Garden, carrying some flattened cardboard boxes.  Now she was passing us again going back up.  She tells us that as a part of her job with the Park Service, she has to do this same trek  (down and up) at least once a week!  She also said that after doing this at least once each week for the last three years, it does not get any easier!  (and she is probably less that half my age!)  No wonder we are stuggling so!

 

We finally reach the 1.5 mile Resthouse, fill our water bottle, hydrate, snack; but mostly we just sit on the ground, in a slight daze, dreaming about being done for the day!  Tom and Don seem to be doing much better than me!  I'm suprised by my own inabilities and so glad to see Tom and Don pushing on rather strongly.  I must keep pushing on, only 1.5 more miles, up, up, up, switchback after switchback.  All I can think about right now is how awesome it will feel to be done, to shower all this red dust off my body, crawl in between the cool sheets on a very comfortable bed and lay very still for a long time.  I want this lightheadedness and slightly nauseated feeling to just go away!  Tom and I both tried to prepare ourselves for this trek.  Tom has been going to the gym four days a week for intense workouts;  I've been walking with my friend Mary Ann twice a week for seven miles each time.  Don has always managed to stay in pretty good shape.  It is nothing for him to ride his bicycle for 50-100 miles!  However none of us are prepared for this relentless elevation gain of 5,000 feet in 5 miles!

 

It is a little after 5:30 p.m. when we eventually reach the top of the South Rim, where we began this trek at 6:30 a.m. this morning!  What an incredible day this has been!  Memories that will last us our lifetime!

 

 

We wasted no time getting back to our car, and driving the three miles back to our hotel!  We stopped in at the McDonalds for a quick sandwich and a large ice-cold soda, although none of us really felt much like eating, especially me!  I got first dibs on the shower and I was in bed and asleep by soon after 7:00 p.m.
I'm not sure what Tom and Don were doing, but when I awoke at 10:00 p.m. and rushed into the bathroom before throwing up (a lot), they were both sleeping soundly.  I actually felt better after my late night "party" in the bathroom, and slept pretty well the rest of the night.

The next morning, all three of us had a severe case of "hiker hobble"!  We all did O.K. as long as we kept moving, but if we sat down for awhile, then it was hobble, hobble again for the first few steps we took.  It was mostly my calf muscles that were sore but Tom and Don said their quads and calves were sore.

My next blog post will be about our adventure the day after our Grand Canyon hike.

Our 13th Wedding Anniversary! 4/29/13

What an awesome way to celebrate this special day in our lives!  I am so glad that Don is here with us, since he did the same hike with three of my sisters (Norma, Donna, & Ginny), in 2011.  So I,m thinking "How hard can it be??  My three sisters did it!  I'm sure I can do it!"

We awoke early, grabbed a breakfast sandwich from McDonald's (across the street from our hotel), stopped at a convenience store for Don to buy himself a new cap (he left his at the Mexican Restaurant last night), and by 6:30 a.m. we began our descent into the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail.  It is 30 degrees, brilliant sunshine, a great day for this adventure!  There are many others who are also hiking down on the Bright Angel Trail this morning.  The trail is well-maintained, approximately 3-4 feet wide in most places, with wooden timbers installed across the path at regular intervals to create water bars, helping to eliminate erosion.

Going down is relatively easy, the views are spectacular everywhere we look!

BooBoo is having "Grand" time today!  If you look beyond the big rock where BooBoo is sitting, you can see what looks like a flat point of land, with a "tiny" trail going out across it.  That is Plateau Point, where we are heading to today, before turning around and hiking back to the top!

We reached the 1.5 mile Resthouse/Water fairly quickly.  It is great to find a faucet here to fill our water bottles.  The Resthouse is basically a roof supported by 4 stone posts with built-in benches to sit on in the shade while resting.  We drink a bottle of water and refill it here, even though we do not feel thirsty on this nice cool morning, we know we need to stay hydrated.

We begin our descent once again, and are still meeting more backpackers who are heading up out of the Canyon, who began there ascent at 4:00 a.m. this morning from the Indian Garden Campsite (5 miles from South Rim).  Some of them said they have been out here for 5 days hiking in the Canyon!

Yippee!  We can see the 3-mile Resthouse/water just ahead!  Again, we drink our water bottle and refill it here.  Another nice thing about these Resthouses along the Bright Angel Trail, is that there are "composting" toilets here also!  How awesome is that!

We head down once again, switchback after switchback, until we are near the five mile mark and the trail levels out for the remaining distance to Indian Garden Resthouse/Water/Toilets/Campsites,  which are beautifully nestled in the trees alongside a small rushing stream.  We find a picnic table under the shade trees and sit and rest and to enjoy a snack break. Don's wife, Beth, has packed him enough snack foods in his daypack for him (and enough for several more hikers!). So we share with each other some of the good things we have each packed for our hike.  

Just after we arrive here there is a mule-train coming down the trail also into Indian Garden area, stirring up a cloud of dust as they pass.  Glad I am walking when I see how dust-covered the mule riders are!  All of them have a bandana covering their nose and mouth to keep from breathing in all that dust!

Before we even get away from our picnic table, we see this little guy cruising around looking for any left over crumbs, totally oblivious to me taking its photo!

We leave Indian Garden to hike the 1.2 miles out to Plateau Point, which overlooks the mighty Colorado River, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which by the trail is another 4+ miles from the Indian Garden Reststop!

We gaze down at the incredible views of the Colorado River far below us!

 

We have walked 6.2 miles since we left the South Rim at 6:30 a.m. this morning (when it was 30 degrees);  It is now 10:30 a.m. and it is 80 degrees (in the shade), as we begin the arduous task of hiking back to the top!  We know it won't be easy, however we feel confident that we can make it out before dark.

 My next post will chronicle our hike back to the top!
I will tell you that it took us only 4 hours for the 6.2 miles going down, however it took us more than 7 hours to do the same 6.2 miles going back up!!!