Peg and Russ: Five Years Ago This Month

I spent many days in the fall of 2016 training for a Grand Canyon adventure with three friends over New Years. My training goal was to be able to hike down and up the 232 steps at Devil's Millhopper State Park near our Gainesville home 10 times in a row to build the leg strength I figured I'd need. It worked. It took several weeks to build up to the ten times in a row, but I did it.

Going Down

Heading Back Up

Over New Years week 2017, four of us who were members of the board of directors on American Pilgrims on the Camino hiked the Grand Canyon. What an adventure. We stayed on the South Rim on New Years Day.

On the Rim, Getting Psyched!

Nice Rim Accommodations

The View

We ventured down the South Kaiban trail the next day in the snow, with crampons strapped to our hiking boots to gripe the snow and, after a couple miles, the sucking mud. We trusted our trekking poles from the Camino to help us keep weight off our knees on the descent. Beautiful!!

The Colorado Rive, At the Bottom

First View of the River From the Trail

Too Much Beauty to Take It In

Snowy at the top

Hello Canyon!

We Were Not Alone

We stayed in a CCC-built cabin for 4, with the world's tiniest toilet room (if you did not stand straight up from the seat you bumped the door open with your head), at Phantom Ranch for a day at the bottom, sleeping in bunk beds (thankfully I was the oldest and thus assigned a bottom bunk). When we arrived, no one's legs were strong enough to climb to the top bunk so we collapsed, in resounding laughter after Yosmar and Cheryl tried to climb to the top bunks, two-by-two in the bottom bunks for a be-kind-to-our-muscles rest. We spent a day enjoying Phantom Ranch before the climb back to the rim.

The River Ran Through the Ranch

The Dining Hall -- Great Steaks!

Peg, Cheryl, Yosmar, Cindy

The Ranch as We Approached

Tiny Toilet Room - Much Better than an Outhouse

Tight fit for Two Bunks - Cozy

The Ranch and Cabins

Sunset. Or Was that Sunrise on Day 3?

At dawn the day 3, wearing our head lamps, we started up the Bright Angel Trail. We used every minute of daylight and arrived at dark, cold and super tired. But we did it and it was awesome!