Relaxation Day- September 27

We woke up at 6:45, a late morning so far. Today we decided to take a rest day. Between the Hermit's Rest hike and the bike ride, a break for our flatland muscles was in order.

We had a nice breakfast at the Cafeteria and relaxed at the campsite for a little bit.

We then took the Blue Route to the Visitor's Center and caught the Orange Route out to the Yavapai Geological Museum. It was pretty interesting.

To me, the majesty of God is not lessened a bit if it took billions of years and the formation of the canyon took millions. Its still awe-inspiring in its majesty.

We had an Englishman (or at least spoke English natively with an accent) take our picture. He asked where we were from and we said Peoria, IL. He'd been to Chicago (of course) and asked how far it was.

We said about 2.5 hours. He laughed and said "You American's measuring things in hours. In two and a half hours I'd be out of the country."

We walked the Rim Trail, nice and paved and smooth, back to the Visitor's Center a caught the shuttle out to Yaki Point.

I sat on a rock and jotted some notes as a squirrel begged for food. (I didn't give him any.)

It was a beautiful view of the canyon. I'm not sure language, at least English, can capture the beauty of the canyon anymore than a camera can capture the true beauty of the sunset.

After doing some laundry and reading for a bit we caught the shuttle back to Yaki Point to watch the sunset. We walked out to some rocks and as we sat waiting for the sun to set some packrats kept attempting to get into our backpacks. They obviously thought something tasty was inside.

The sunset was gorgeous, though I get gipped with the whole "colors" aspect of it. Katrina learned a $200 digital camera can't begin to capture the beauty of a sunset.

We got back to camp after dark and I cooked up some Dinty Moore beef stew for supper. Its amazingly tasty when you are camping. Not really any other time though. Bed happened around 8:30.

The Bike Ride- September 26

This day we rented a couple of bikes from the rental place at the Visitor's Center. We headed out towards Hermit's Rest, a 21 mile round trip. We had the bike's rented for 4 hours.

It started out mostly downhill to the Blue/Red transfer and then greeted us with a 6% grade for about a half mile. After that, it wasn't too bad out to Hermit's Rest, this was a bit of a warning for the return.

I admit that I lied to Katrina when she kept saying "Won't it be harder coming back?" I said "No" knowing full well it would be. What were our options? I hadn't realized that she wasn't thinking that "relatively flat" routes at 7000 feet up on a plateau is different than "relatively flat" in Illinois.

Coming back was pretty brutal. The Haro bikes we were given were just 7 speeds, but it wasn't from a lack of gears that made things hard. It was a lack of oxygen and the fact we'd had a difficult hike the day before. Katrina was struggling but making it and it was far from a walk in the park for me.

We stopped at the Blue/Red transfer to rest and I inquired about putting the bikes on the shuttle buses as each had a rack in the front. It was allowed and we rode back to the Visitor's Center in comfort, exhausted.

Katrina kept trying to apologize for not making it, but I assured her I was not looking forward to the climb back. I wasn't exhausted, but I was tired.

All told we rode ~14 miles with plenty of hills.

We headed back to camp. cleaned up and had hot dogs and mac & cheese for supper. Katrina crashed out around 6:00 or so and I probably made it until 7:30.

I did have a couple of very tasty brews, Grand Canyon Brewing Co. of Williams, AZ, makes some wonderful beers. So far I can attest to the tastiness of their American Pilsner, think in the style of a Budweiser or Miller, except it tastes good, and the Sunset Amber Ale. Both are excellent brews.

The Nimbus Brewing Co. from Tuscon, Arizona, had a great English Style Ale called Old Monkey Shine. I didn't drink much of it as it was 8.2% abv (i didn't realize this until after I opened it) but it was delicious.

First Hike- September 25

We got up about 6am, make a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs and prepared for our first hike. We'd looked at the Guide and decided to do part of the Hermit's Rest trail. Walking up to the shuttle stop we climbed aboard the Blue Route shuttle and rode to the Blue/Red transfer below the Bright Angel trailhead.

Transferring to the Red shuttle we rode out to the Hermit's Rest trailhead and overlook. A cute little curio/gift shop designed by Mary Coulter sits there. She was an architect for the Fred Harvey company and while I didn't get any books on her while out there, I do want to do a bit more reading as she seems like a very interesting person.

The trail was exceptionally rough. Its an unmaintained trail, very rocky, both big and small rocks, and fairly steep. It changes 1000ft of elevation in 1.5 miles.

We pushed hard and did a 3 mile round trip in about 3 hours. We noticed that we descended about the same speed we climbed. Mainly because descending is harder on our joints while climbing is harder on our lungs and muscles. Lungs recover, muscles can be stretched, aching joints, well, those are just miserable.

We did a bit of shopping in the visitors center and at the General Store. I'm interested in learning more about the history of the canyon. Both the Native Americans who lived in and around the Canyon (the Havalupai for one lived in the Canyon, hence Indian Gardens rest area on the Bright Angel Trail) and the early white settlers to the area.

Hermit's Rest gets its name from Louis Boucher, "the Hermit." Who lived in the area apparently.

Its interesting, I'd say 40-60% of the people at the canyon are foreign. Its so cool hearing all the languages and accents. Germans were thick, but I could hear French, both France and Quebecois varieties, various Asian dialects, various eastern European dialects and even some Middle Eastern language. Plenty of various accented English speakers as well, England, Australia and probably other places as well.

Two English sisters in their early to mid 20s flew into Portland and drove to Las Vegas before heading to the Canyon. They were on their way to Phoenix see their uncle. The younger was going to be driving back to Portland to fly back so she could go to school.

A German couple flew to Phoenix and the biked up to the campground! It was interesting as their bikes had internal rear hubs. I hadn't seen touring bikes that used those before, but I suppose it makes as much sense. I'm just a luddite who is scared of internal stuff I can't fiddle with. Sure, if my rear derailleur goes out, I can't shift, but I can at least have one gear. If that breaks, you're sort of toast.

This night had the first fire of the trip. It was small, but nice.

The Drive- September 23-24

The plan was I get off work at noon, Katrina wakes up and packs the car, I get home and we leave.

Well, does anything ever go as planned?

Katrina had a million screenings the night before (actually both Wednesday and Thursday) and so things moved a bit slower than planned.

While, running to the store to pick up a few last minute food items, Katrina locked herself out. Fortunately work took pity on me and allowed me to leave at 11:30 instead of 12:00.

When I got home it didn't take us long to get loaded and we were on the road by 1:30. We forgot a few items, bowls, butter knife, can opener, sandwich bags, etc. but it was nothing insurmountable.

The drive was LONG. We drove straight through with minimal stops for gas and breaks. The longest stop was ~1 hr for breakfast in Tucumcari.

Breakfast was at a Denny's in a Love's Truck Stop. The pay at the pump was disabled so even with a credit card you had to guess how much fuel you were going to put in, and then they'd credit back if you went over. Strange.

Katrina caught a couple hours sleep in the back (4 hours total) and another 2 hours up front.

I caught about an hour's worth of sleep in the back and maybe one more up front After that point, I didn't get to drive anymore.

Prior to that I'd driven most of the way from Oklahoma, across Texas' panhandle, and through pretty much all of New Mexico. Since it was night traffic wasn't bad and there wasn't even too much road construction.

We got into Grand Canyon's Mather Campground about 3:00 and quickly set up camp. We were using my parent's tent that they were so kind to lend us and it was easy to set up. Its roomier than my tent and better suited for a week of camping. After spending $2 a piece for showers (8 minutes of as hot water you want) we went up to the Yavapai Cafeteria for supper as we were too exhausted to cook.

A young kid from E. Peoria was manning the register. What a small world it is!

Getting back to camp we headed to bed about 6pm and slept straight through until 6am. Nothing like 12 hours of sleep after a long long drive.

All told it was about a 27 hour trip. It would've been a bit less except for the extended breakfast and a little bit of time lost in Flagstaff due to missing a sign.

Vacation! Grand Canyon

The next few posts are going to be versions of my daily journals of Katrina and I's recent trip to the Grand Canyon. It was a wonderful trip, beautiful weather and traveling was great and getting to spend it with my lovely wife!

Pictures may be forthcoming, but some will eventually be up on Picassa or G+.