The Vertical Mile (or close to it)

No, Richard and I are not dead. Quite the opposite, in fact. I-I, I feel so alive! For the very first time.... (who can name the song and the band?)

Well, enough of the dilly-dallying, on to the meat of the post. We are quite sorry for how long it has been since our last post, but you have to realize, there really aren't many Starbucks between the Grand Canyon and Yosemite when you are constantly taking the "scenic route." But here we go.

There are some things in life that are just beyond words. One is God. Another, the Pyramids, and still another, the Grand Canyon. As Richard so aptly put it, the Grand Canyon cannot even fit in the imagination. Gigantic ridges, like giants' sprawling fingers bump and wind there way down almost a mile, from the canyon's edge to the freezing river at its core. At first glance, it seems an impassable crevasse, both in width and depth (deep, and wide; deep, and wide...). The fact that there are trails down into the canyon is truly impressive.

When we first arrived, we exited our vehicle at the main tourist spot by the visitor center to take a peek over the edge. Hordes of hawaiian shirt-clad large people, as well as snivelling younglings were gawking around everywhere we looked. After pushing a few of the more annoying tourists over the edge (hee hee), we proceded to a more secluded overlook right around eventide. One of the coolest things to see is the Grand Canyon at twilight, let me tell you. Since there were few people around, we decided to have dinner right there on the edge of the canyon, something of a miniature tailgate party. We busted out a camping stove and two cans of Stagg chili, watching the great orb slowly descend into its mystical abode in the West. The highlight of the trip for me so far has been skateboarding unclothed at sunset on the edge of this great abyss. :) Try not to get any visuals! And don't worry, in the picture on the right I am fully clothed (so you can stop trying to zoom in on it to check Melissa!). Just kidding ;)

That night we headed into a little hole-in-the-wall shanty town known as Cameron, AZ. If Tucson is the anus of Arizona, this for sure has to be a close second. We tried to find a decent place to camp, to no avail, and finally pulled into a Chevron to ask if there were any campgrounds around. The cashier said "$9.50". Dazed and confused, we were like, huh? Apparently they consider the back of the gas station a campground. With no other options, we said, whatever, and slept in the front seat of the car behind the sketchiest gas station in America. Thankfully we were only there for a few hours.

In the morning, we high-tailed it out of there around 5:00 to begin our adventure into the canyon. We got started around 6:30 to descend the 4400 vertical feet to the bottom of the canyon. The trail we took was called the "New Hance Trail," an unmaintained trail that we were several times warned against taking. Like that would stop us :). It starts with switchbacks on the nearly vertical wall near the edge of the canyon, quickly descending 1000 feet in a single mile. The quick descent quickly turned our thighs to jelly and we quickly thanked the Lord for Trekking Poles, the without-a-doubt MVPs of our trip. Temperatures for the day started at about the mid-sixties and briskly warmed up to about a hundred degrees. Thankfully, we descended to the nethermost regions of the behemoth canyon in a mere four hours.

I loved the bottom of the canyon. The Colorado River is surely one of the most impressive rivers that I have ever seen and our trail ended right at a rushing rapid. One of the great pleasures in life is getting to the end of a long hike and dipping your toes in some freezing, rushing water. This time proved to be no exception. Since we arrived fairly early in the day, we had a long time to just sit, read, journal, and just donk around in general.

Richard, not liking heat (weirdo), took the ground fly for his tent and created a makeshift beach umbrella out of two trekking poles and a few rocks. Such is the soul of an engineer, I imagine.

We also had the chance to see about seven or eight rafts come and shoot the rapids where we were camped, entering the rapid sideways and abruptly swinging the raft straight at just the right moment to safely navigate the narrow passages.

As we were in one of the hottest places in the Southwest, we were not thinking too much about the weather since we assumed it would be hot. Hot, hot, hot. So we did not bring a rain-fly for the tent, almost leaving us wet as large thunderclouds formed above us. Thankfully, God kept us dry for the night, although we were quite worried for a while.

The next day we hiked the 4400 vertical feet back up to the edge of the canyon. No small feat, let me tell you. A funny thing about the Canyon, where most places body mass increases the lower the elevation, here body mass increases with higher elevation. All right, that was not as profound as I wanted it to be, but whatever...shut up, I am not a loser. Nerds.

After the hike out, we enjoyed a lunch of tortillas, oranges, and tuna and headed on up to Zion National Park. And that is for another post.

Thank you for all of your prayers regarding my grandparents and us. The fire came within half-a-mile of their cabin, but was stopped at the point, thank the Lord. They returned to their home last Sunday! Many blessing on you all. We love and miss you.

Grace and Peace,

Josh and Richard