Stock Site at Cottonwood Campground. Thursday May 24.

Stock Site at Cottonwood Campground. Thursday May 24. 

[From Mile 697.9, Bright Angel Stock Site, 2507 ft to 705.3, 4059 ft. Walked 7 miles, ascent 1500 ft. ]

The Miracle of Morning

Dear Trail Friends,

Again I got up at 2:30 and started walking at 3:30. Even then the air was not cool. 

Photo 1 shows the gradual transition as I walked between 3:39 and 4:45 from darkness into light. I found myself thinking about it as the miracle of morning. Every day the world emerges out of darkness, I thought, as I walked toward the sacred Zuni site where the people emerged out of darkness. 

Photo 2 is my first rest stop. I had the trail mostly to myself until about 6:30am when I began to meet hikers, mostly coming down from Cottonwood. 

The first hikers I met told me that I could bypass a fairly steep up and down section of the trail by taking an unmarked trail to Ribbon Falls and looping back via the marked trail. They assured me it went through (I tried to follow the same trail last year and got lost). This time I discovered I had to ford a stream (which honestly I should not have done - had I fallen it is unlikely another hiker would have come along on this particular trail and I did not bring my satellite SOS device on this hike.). The good news is I made it across and enjoyed the adrenaline rush. Photo 3 is looking back at the stream I just crossed. 

To my disappointment, the trail to Ribbon Falls did not bring me close to the falls. I could make out three hikers who found their way to the falls but as I watched them inch along a narrow path above the precipice, and tried to imagine the route they followed (I guessed a very steep hike with no shade), and made the hard but wise decision to continue to the campground without getting as close to the falls as I had hoped to. Photo 4 shows Ribbon Falls from as close as I could get. 

I arrived at the campsite before 8am and while the temperature was pleasantly cool. (It cooled down early in my hike as soon as I left what one hiker referred to as the “hot box” of the Canyon bottom. ) But all shade vanished from our campsite within an hour or two so Barry and I spent most of the day in a common area near the creek. We ended up meeting and interacting with several hikers who cane there to cool down or get water. 

Photo 5 shows the two small water falls and the play of light on the water, as well as my happy feet resting in the cold flow. I thought a lot about Bright Angel creek during the day as I hiked along it and in the afternoon as I sat beside it, soaking my feet, listening, watching the ripples and waves of light below the surface. When I was here last year I had hoped somehow to find inspiration in the creek for my prayers and thoughts about my my sister Judy’s daughter Angel who was seriously ill. Instead the water was murky and mud-colored, which apparently happens during the raining season. The rest of the year it is crystal clear as it’s name. As most of you know, Angel died last August. As I looked into the clear bright water I tried to imagine her spirit now clear and sparkling, released from the murkiness of her disease. May it be so...

We met a group of hikers who were hiking from south rim to north rim in one day. They were communicating with others in the group by walkie talkie and learned that a young man behind them had become overheated. One of the men went back, with a full bladder of water and electrolytes, to help. His daughter (who will graduate high school this spring) told us the group was Wacky Warriors against Cancer in Kids and Adults. They did physical challenges like this as fund raisers (collecting pledges) and the money went to a camp where cancer survivors and their families could go to have fun, to not have to think and talk about and be defined by the cancer. She also said that one of the things they did when they walked was notice when it became difficult, uncomfortable, painful and to imagine how much more difficult the ordeal of fighting cancer to focus on the beauty of the surroundings and the joy of being alive, and to imagine how challenging it must be to do so for their family members fighting cancer. I wish I could do a better job describing this ( you can google wacky warriors against cancer on kids and adults and get a better picture - I am writing this when I have no web access). I also wish I could convey the beauty and passion of this young woman as she spoke about  the organization and the meaning of her walk, and also mentioned that her mother is currently in remission. Photo 6 is Elyse. 

There were lots of sweet moments today. Lizards who came and posed for photographs (photo 7 and 8). An old fallen tree trunk with strange barnacle-like growths (photo 9 - I’m hoping one of you can tell me what they are.)

I’ve been having a good time getting to know and appreciate Barry.  Did I tell you he and his father,brother, and son are all pipe fitters in Michigan? He jokes that they form a voting block in the union. He also knows things like that a blue pipe means drinkable water (whether there’s a sign that says so or not). And he fixed my broken ziplock bag. He is a real teacher to me on his willingness to go slow, rest, baby his body, not get caught in competing even with himself. It’s partly that he’s fine hard work all his life and abused his body and he wants it to last now. He also can fall asleep on the hard surface of a picnic table or bench. He taught himself that skill as a young pipefitter when he needed a nap at lunch and there were no comfortable places to sleep. 

The bad news is that my poop problems seem to be back - and they had been gone for so long I felt safe traveling without extra toilet paper and pads. Trying to rinse out poopy underpants at the drinking water spigot convinced me that I will always being a few pads and extra toilet paper in the future. Who knows? Maybe bringing them is what made me not need them. 

Oh - I forgot to tell you. The repair on my air mattress seems to have been successful. Now I have used an air mattress patch to try to repair my 2-liter Sawyer water bottle which a squirrel chewed a hole in. (The rangers tell us they have come to associate the smell of plastic with food so they have a Pavlovian response to plastic - so I have locked up all my ziplock bags in the rodent/proof box, but had no idea they could or would (but they did!) chew on my water bottle. By the way, from the Grand Canyon trivia game: squirrels cause more injury to humans than snakes, scorpions or mountain lions. So - I used a mattress patch to try to repair it. If I can buy a new bottle that will serve the same purpose at the general store on the rim I certainly will - it is going to be necessary to carry a lot of water and hope that the caches will still be there when we arrive (Deena is leaving water for both Barry and me). 

Let’s end with moonrise from our tentsite in photo 10. Barry pointed it out to me. 

See you on the trail tomorrow as we head for the North Rim. Thanks for your presence.