21. October 2006 by admin.

Today I woke at dawn. As I stepped out of my tent I found myself staring directly into the eyes of a deer only several feet from me. The deer was as startled as I was and I believe we both jumped several feet into the air. It however bounded off in an instant, leaving me to gather myself and start my morning routine.

I am not used to going to bed at 7:00pm and getting up with the rising sun. My father has always told me that it is the most beautiful part of the day and I believe he is right. I woke with mixed feelings. I did not want to leave the peace and tranquility that I have found in the canyon, but I was also excited to be finishing the last challenging leg of the hike, which was the ascent of the South Rim. I did not know how challenging it would become.

Because I did not want to leave, I decided to hike once more to Plateau Point to watch the effect of the rising sun on the ever changing colors of the canyon. When I arrived I was surprised to see four Asian men walking about the large table rock that hangs at the edge of the inner canyon wall. I asked them to take my photo and one of them told me in broken English that they were all priests. I assumed that they were Buddhist and I noticed them setting up an altar for a service. In fact, they were Catholic priests and they conducted a mass entirely in their native language. Many of the words and phrases of the service were sung, and I was very impressed by the beauty and sincerity of the service and how it seemed to blend in perfectly with the grandness of the canyon views. At the end of the mass a most amazing thing happened. As the very last words were sung, two enormous condors suddenly appeared over our heads and circled the table rock we were standing on. They flew so close that you could here the air rushing through their giant wings. After several minutes they flew off together down into the canyon and as suddenly as they had appeared they were gone. I took that as a special sign. I felt as though I had been blessed by both man and nature.

In the Grand Canyon life takes hold in the most improbable places. Flowers blossom and trees grow from the dirt filled cracks of boulders and sheer rock walls. A wide variety of animals has adapted to this unique environment, making the inner canyon come alive with their presence. One of the amazing aspects of the canyon is the way the colors change throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky. There is a harmony of nature that bursts forth with the rising sun in an array of purples and greens and yellows and reds. Throughout the day these colors seem to dance across the walls and floors of the canyon in a timeless rhythm. It is this rhythm of nature that makes the canyon a vibrant, living display of time and life. It was these colors that were imprinted in my memory as I turned from the table rock and began the climb toward the South Rim.

I felt good and was ahead of schedule climbing toward the rim when I heard the sound of distant thunder. I was approximately half way toward the top and very suddenly it started to rain and hail and the temperature fell dramatically and the wind was gusting strongly. The Bright Angel trail gets many day hikers and many of those people were caught unprepared for the change in weather and were struggling to get back to the top. I helped a group of three nurses from Tucson and I felt good about being able to do that. When I reached the top I saw my uncle and father and we had quite a happy reunion. I greatly enjoyed that they were there to meet me and to listen to my stories about the hike. They took me to their room and I enjoyed perhaps the longest and hottest shower that I have ever taken. We then went to dinner at the Arizona Room at the Bright Angel Lodge and I had the best steak dinner that I have ever tasted. I could not have asked for a better ending to my adventure than to be with two of the people that I admire and respect the most.

My hike across the Grand Canyon exceeded my expectations. It has reached the goals that I was hoping to meet as a fund and awareness raising event, and on a personal level I have gone beyond what I had hoped to accomplish. The ultimate goal I believe, is to help more children and families through the expansion of our unique housing services. If anything, my adventure has helped me to believe more than ever in our programs and the power within each of us to change the world one step at a time.

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20. October 2006 by admin.

Today was the first cloudy day and it is currently raining lightly. I was on the trail early this morning headed for Indian Gardens. It was a pretty hike on the Bright Angel trail as I climbed out of the Inner Canyon to the base of the South Rim. Indian Gardens is pretty, with a number of cottonwoods and aspens. You usually do not think of the Grand Canyon as having lush vegetation but where there is water, it is very green. And where it is green, there are generally Indian ruins, thus the name of this camping area. I arrived here around 1:00pm and soon took off on a hike along the Tonto trail, which I had read about. The Tonto trail follows the Tonto Platform, which is part of the broad expanse between the inner canyon and the outer canyon walls. It is a beautiful trail with great big dramatic views. I hiked 3 miles to a place called Pipe Springs on the Tonto Trail and I was completely alone, as one of the park rangers had told me I would be. I do not believe that there was another person within a several mile radius. I sat on a large rock and could look behind me to see the spot high on the South Rim canyon wall where I had begun my hike 6 days ago, before me I could see the North Rim far in the horizon, and in between was the deep gorge of the Inner Canyon. As I sat there I could imagine each of my footprints along the way that had left an imprint in the soft red desert sand. Each of them had been filled with a special memory, and now they were slowly disappearing in the canyon wind and the inevitable passing of time. In my mind, however, I know that I will retrace those steps over and over again, and in doing so I will keep those memories alive.

Today I also saw my first condor. It was high overhead but still looked huge. It also was very graceful, which surprised me due to their enormous wing span.

It’s funny, but after walking for six days I am feeling better than ever. I have not had any blisters and my legs are no longer sore. My only use of the extensive medical kit I have been carrying has been to place a bandage over a spot on my lower hip where the backpack belt has been rubbing.

I have now developed a good routine of setting up and taking down the tent, packing the backpack and putting it on and off. I have also developed “trail legs,” as I rarely slip on the loose trail rocks anymore and I can move pretty briskly up or down hill. There are things though that I will admit, I baffle myself by my slowness. I am wearing zip off pants, and every morning I start with the whole leg zipped, and as soon as I warm up I stop and take my boots off to unzip the lower half and turn them into shorts. Just today I noticed that there are zippers running up the lower leg so that they can be unzipped and pulled over your boots. How did it take six days for me to see that? Another moment of brilliance was after having spent a day wondering what kind of animal made the little holes on the side of the trails. After a great deal of thought about it, I looked at the trekking poles that I and every other hiker was carrying and realized that the animal was human.

My meals generally have been limited but good. The very best meals have been the packets of instant flavored mashed potatoes. After dinner tonight I hiked a mile and a half to a place called Plateau Point, which overlooks the Colorado River, and has an incredible 360 degree panoramic view of this part of the canyon. I returned in the dark and am now laying in the tent with the rain falling softly on the shell. The sound of the rain is comforting and I am tired.

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19. October 2006 by admin.

I again slept like a child, I fell asleep around 7:30p.m. I woke a number of times to look at the stars and tried to stay awake but never could. I finally awoke at 6:30 and because I had nothing to eat but two freeze dried dinners that I did not want for breakfast, I was on the trail by 7:00. I did have some power gels and such to drink, which I did. It was a great day to walk through the inner canyon. Along the way, I met a group of six pediatricians from Salt Lake City. They were doing a rim to rim hike and one of them was having a very difficult time. I again hiked to Ribbon Falls and took one short walk up a side canyon. I learned once again that sometimes the simple pleasures in life are the best. I had a roll of cinnamon certs, and I greatly enjoyed each one as I hiked today. When I reached Phantom Ranch, I went immediately to the canteen and bought about every candy bar and bag of peanuts they had in stock. Actually, I was not really that hungry. After an apple, peanuts and a candy bar, I felt uncomfortably full. I was lucky enough to get the same campsite. At 8:00pm the canteen bar opened and that is where I am now. I have had three Tecata beers and am sitting by myself working on this journal. Most of the people here rode mules down and are staying overnight at Phantom Ranch. After being by myself all week in the more secluded parts of the canyon this seems a little odd. Not bad odd…..just different and a little out of place. It is around 9:15 and I am headed off to bed. Tomorrow I leave for Indian Gardens.

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18. October 2006 by admin.

Yesterday I made it to the top of the North Rim!!! The scenery was spectacular and the hike was pretty difficult both mentally and physically. The North Rim is much higher than the South Rim and actually in a different vegetation zone. It is a beautiful alpine environment with lodge pole pines and aspen trees. It was also very cold and all of the facilities were shut down for the winter.

When I reached the top of the trail, I had to hike another mile to the campground. I do not think I have ever been more physically exhausted in my life. For me the difficult part of the hike was that there were at least three times when I thought I was close to the end, only to realize each time that I had much further to go. When I finally reached the campground I was completely alone and I picked a spot to set up the tent. While doing so, a van pulled up and dropped off two hikers that were also camping. There names are Jim and Jack, and they are from Denton, Texas and they are doing a rim to rim hike with their starting point at the North Rim. When I asked them where Denton was they said, “that’s funny, we were just about to ask you where Maryland is.” Jim works for WalMart Trucking and Jack is retired. Their hobby is hiking the GC together.

I had heard that I could possibly get cell phone reception if I stood on the front porch of the North Rim Lodge which was located another mile and a half further along the rim. I hiked there with Jim and Jack and when we arrived, even though the lodge had been shut down, they happened to notice that a door had been left unlocked. We went in and walked around and took some photos. Unfortunately, the only thing we found, in the bar, was a bottle of lime juice.

I did get cell reception on the patio and while I made a call Jack and Jim hiked back to the campground. I was so excited to be there, and to be watching the sun set over the North Rim of the canyon, that I never thought about the fact that I did not have a flashlight with me. This was the worst situation I could have been in. It got dark very suddenly, and there was no moon, making it pitch black within minutes. It also became very cold. We had followed a trail to the lodge and I knew trying to hike through the woods along the edge of the canyon would be a disaster. I found the road leading to the lodge and followed it knowing that eventually I would have to pass the campground area. I was becoming pretty concerned and then I heard something big moving in the woods next to me. I assume it was a deer or an elk but really do not know except that it was crashing through the woods about 20 to 30 feet from where I was on the road. At that point I became even more concerned, if that was possible. I did have a knife with me and I walked as rapidly as I could with it open. There was one car that passed me, perhaps a maintenance worker, and I tried to flag them down but they kept on going. I then remembered the open knife in my hand and understood. I finally found the campground area but could not see my tent or Jack and Jim’s tent. I was not sure that I was even in the right campground. I started calling their names and too my great relief they answered from nearby. Getting back to my tent had taken over an hour. I boiled some water and made one of the freeze dried meals and went to bed. I am not sure that I really slept last night because I was so cold. I shivered all night and slept for what seemed to be only minutes at a time. At 5 am I packed everything up and at the first sign of light headed for the trailhead. I believe I half ran the first mile trying to get out of the shade of the forest and into the canyon.

As soon as I came out of the forested section at the rim and started the descent, the most beautifully warm day started to unfold. The sun has never felt so good as it has today. For some reason I felt very energized and was so happy to be going back to the bottom of the canyon. I was completely alone almost the entire way and stopped several times just to sit and enjoy the view and the sun. It’s funny that sometimes it takes something extreme to really amplify your senses. Today, everything looked, smelled, sounded and tasted so good! That is, perhaps, except me. I realized that after four days I needed a bath. I found a stream flowing from a side canyon and walked upstream to an area that was very remote. The water was freezing but the sun was very warm and the bath felt great. I imagined that I was being baptized by nature into the inner sanctity of the canyon.

I am now back at Cottonwood at the same campsite that I left two days ago. Jim and Jack have arrived and said they could not believe that I had left the North Rim so early. The sky is again filled with stars. There are so many stars that can be seen from the floor of the canyon that they almost look like clouds of twinkling lights. If you look up for only a minute you are guaranteed to see a shooting star. I guess that the complete lack of artificial light and pollution are what makes the sky so clear.

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17. October 2006 by admin.

I did something extraordinary last night. I slept like I have not slept since I was a child. I fell asleep as soon as I finished my second journal entry at 7pm and with the exception of waking at 4am, I did not wake again until about 6:30a.m. When I woke at 4, I looked up through the screen roof of the tent to see a number of shooting stars within several minutes, but I could not stay awake to watch longer.

It is 7am and I am about to leave to start the hike to the top of the North Rim. It is seven and a half very steep uphill miles, and the temperature will be much colder at the top. It is another beautiful sunny day with temperatures already in the upper 70’s.

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16. October 2006 by admin.

While yesterday was a day of wonderment, today has been more a day of wonderful reflection. I did make an error today that may prove to be a bit of a challenge. I camped beside Bright Angel Stream and did not sleep all that well considering how tired I was. It was my first night in the tent and the stream, which was about 10 feet away, was a little loud throughout the night. It was also a little cold, and I did not remember until later in the day, my son Ryan’s instructions to wear a wool hat at night. I woke at about 6, took down the tent and packed the backpack. Before I left I gave Megan and Kate, the two young women I had met on the way down the Kaibab trail, two of my Carrot Cake Cliff bars. They had commented the day before how much they liked them but could not afford such luxuries (at $1.50 a piece). I had ordered a sack lunch from Phantom Ranch to be picked up on the way out, and thought that would more that make up for giving away the Cliff Bars. About three miles into the hike I realized that I had forgotten to pick up the sack lunch. What made it worse, before leaving the South Rim, I ditched some of the planned meals to try and reduce the weight of the pack. I had planned it out, or so I thought, that I would eat less but still have just enough to get by on. A big lesson learned but I have decided to just have fun and not worry about it.

Today I walked across the canyon floor following the Bright Angel Creek. It was beautiful to see the creek, which is an average of about 15 feet wide and fast flowing, winding along the base of the sheer cliffs of the canyon. For most of the 7 mile hike to Cottonwood Campground I was completely alone, giving me a great deal of time to just enjoy the moment and decompress from the day before. Along the way I saw a family of mule deer standing in a smaller side creek that I later learned was Phantom Creek. I watched them for some time as they slowly walked up the stream into a side canyon, completely out of reach of any form of human existence. It seemed like life must be pretty good for them up there. It seemed as if every step I took sent small lizards scurrying for cover. The braver ones would jump onto rocks and watch me pass by. I went off the trail briefly to climb up and explore what looked to be the remains of an ancient waterfall. The rock had been warn as smooth as glass and there were giant bowls with markings that looked as if they once carried swirling water into the canyon. I also explored a beautiful waterfall named Ribbon Falls and was able to hike to a place behind the falls to see the water cascade into the canyon.

I chose this particular adventure because I have been fascinated with the GC since I was a teenager and I have long dreamed of hiking it. Not just a brief excursion down a trail and back, but a hike that would immerse every sense and allow myself to literally walk through a representation of time itself. It seems somehow easier to evaluate our time here on earth when surrounded by a land that was sculptured by time over the period of millions of years.

Sometimes, we are presented with certain opportunities that may only come along once in a persons life. Our lives are so brief, and we move through it so quickly, that these life changing opportunities sometimes pass us right by and we do not even notice them. Or, if we do notice these opportunities, we are often too afraid to disrupt the flow of our lives to explore the pathways that they may create. If I had not taken this trip now, I very well may never have. As a teenager I could not have comprehended my lifetime. Now, 30 years later, I hope that I do not delay other opportunities. The human lifespan is simply not that abundant. I feel a greater sense of urgency now for many things in life. Building more Believe In Tomorrow housing is one of them. The families that stay in our BIT houses are having struggles against time far greater than I have ever experienced.

I guess that a full and satisfying life is knowing at the end that you have followed the path of your hopes and dreams to the best of your ability, and that you have along the way taken more right paths than wrong ones.

I am quite certain that today I heard a rattlesnake. As I walked along the trail I heard what sounded like a baby rattle moving away from me. It frightened me so that I did not know what to do and I wondered later if just standing there was the right thing or not. Maybe it was just a cricket and my imagination…..

At Cottonwood I found a perfect campsite about 50 feet from the creek with a very sandy base to set the tent up on. It has been much warmer at the bottom of the canyon. Today was in the upper 80’s or low 90’s. The weather forecast posted on the Rangers bulletin board here shows temperatures going into the high 90’s in several days. My dinner was instant mashed potatoes and I have rarely tasted anything as good. My tent is in an open area with views of canyon walls on all sides. I have kept the rain fly off as it is a clear and rather warm night and there are a zillion stars in the sky. As I am laying here I have already seen several shooting stars. It is 7p.m. and I am going to bed.

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15. October 2006 by admin.

Today has simply been unbelievably inspiring. Every step I took on the hike into the canyon was an experience that I will remember and cherish forever. What started as an effort to explore the inner workings of pledge driven adventure events, and to raise funds and awareness for a new initiative to serve the critically ill children of military families, has become much more personal to me. For me, it has become a challenge to test my own commitment to our mission, and, on a more personal note, it has become a quest to examine my own life. Perhaps, if I am lucky, I will leave here with a clearer personal inventory of knowing where I have been and where my life is going from here.

Today started at 5 a.m. Although I had slept rather restlessly I was eager to get on the trail by daybreak. I was also looking forward to the opportunity of my father going with me to the trailhead along with his brother, my Uncle Bob. They are attending an Elderhostel educational program on the South Rim. I know they would be giving anything to go with me on the hike, and in an earlier day they would have. We arrived at the South Kaibab trailhead at about 6:30. Although I did not see them, my father said he saw two young women getting ready to also go into the canyon. It was very cold, perhaps in the upper thirty’s or low forties, and after a very warm and heartfelt goodbye I started down the trail.

The South Kaibab trail drops about a mile to the floor of the GC. The first mile or so of the trail was very steep and I was in the shade the entire time. For several hundred yards, I could hear the voices of my father and uncle and eventually they tapered off leaving me in total silence except for the slight sound of wind blowing through the canyon. The trail was rocky and several times I slipped as I tried to get used to the 50 plus pound weight of the backpack. I was also perhaps a little too excited and moving faster than I should have been. About 3/4 of a mile down the trail I rolled my ankle on a loose rock and for several seconds thought I had sprained it. Moving forward I slowed down and made a mental note that this would, at times, take all of my concentration, and concentration has always been my biggest challenge in life.

Entering the canyon via the S. Kaibab is a dramatic experience. Around every turn along the swithback trails grand views unfold before you. The view is so grand that you have to stop to take it in. At the first rest stop I met two young women who were hiking to Phantom Ranch. Along the entire way we leapfrogged each other down the trail and it was fun to have someone to share the excitement with. They also had a lot of hiking experience as both had recently completed college and were working in outdoor leadership programs. The hiking was hard but the view was stimulating and kept me amped up the entire way. Along the way I spotted a number of bighorn sheep clinging, what seemed like impossibly, to the sides of canyon walls. By the time I got to the bottom at Bright Angel campground I was pretty tired.

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