Hikin' the Canyon with Jen

Just a quick note to all our fellow Yogi's to let you know that Jen and I successfully hiked the Grand Canyon yesterday......from Rim to River to Rim in a day!

It was my fourth time doing that, and Jen's first. I am so proud of her fortitude in doing this....

It took just under 10 hours. And we had one good scare in the desert section before getting to the river, but we got through.

Today we have sore calves, and a feeling of calm fatigue and happiness, and that is about it.

We are going to spend the rest of today tooling around a rainy Flagstaff AZ where we are staying for a few more days. I love this town.

Our scare was a result of not being sure we had enough water to get us through the desert-like section of the canyon, coupled with fatigue setting in and not being sure exactly how much farther we had to go until the bottom. The trick is this: when you reach the colorado river, you can only use that as a water source if you have purification tablets with you..... I WILL ALWAYS HAVE THESE FROM NOW ON WHEN I HIKE THE CANYON!

We would have had to hike along the river for two miles before coming to the next drinking water. Rather than do that and risking too much fatigue ( we still had to hike up the canyon!) we opted to go down to the river, rest, split an apple and a gel-energy pack, have a little water and then hike three miles up to the nearest water station going back up the canyon. Once we got there, I knew we would be fine, no matter how long we took to hike out. There's more water the further up you go.

Weather wise, we were lucky, the top of the canyon was a mile 60 degrees, and the bottom only got near 90, which is not bad. I have been there when it went over 100. And it was overcast. If we had had a hot day, we might have been in some trouble.

But that "trouble" is one reason I love the canyon. At least once each time down, you recognize your mortality in relation to the life span of the earth and everything that created the earth. you hike into this amazing chasm, and it looks like a snapshot of an avalanche that someone has frozen just long enough for you to sneak into and get out of. you see huge boulders that are so close to tumbling down on you, but the are frozen because our life span is only a blip in the life span of the Canyon. you see how short our lifetime is in relation to our world.

And when you are in the depths of the desert, the reality is: you see that your death in the desert won't be a big deal in the eyes of the Earth.

But we didn't die! We got out, exhausted and happy. We returned to our normal understanding of life, but with a new appreciation of the Earth's time. But we didn't get too profound....we went and ate pizza at the most awesome place in Flagstaff!

More later......but for now....I'm still spent!

Love to all,

Rob