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Published: August 1st 2009
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The Bright Angel TrailJuly 31st HIKING THE GRAND CANYON!!!
What an awesome day!
WE DID IT! We hiked into the Grand Canyon and back out again. It about kicked my butt but it was oh so worth it!
We got up pretty early and had a good breakfast at the campground before heading back up to the park. Our plans were to hike the Bright Angel Trail. We wanted to go 3 miles down into the canyon and then 3 miles back out. The trail is actually 9 miles down to the bottom but they do not want you to do that all in one day-and I can see why.
The weather was reasonable-about 86 degrees but it gets hotter as you get lower into the canyon because of the heat radiating off the rocks. The walk down was not too bad although it was quite steep and there is a lot of step like features in the trail so it is a little jarring on the knees and back. It took us 2 hours to get down and they say you should plan on double the time toget back up. Of course it is not recommended that you hike between
10 and 4 because of the heat. What time did we start?-9:40!
We stopped a couple of times on the way down but not too much. We did notice how the people coming back up looked pretty beat. They do have a water source and a bathroom at mile 1 1/2 and water at mile 3. We brought 6 bottles of water with us that we had frozen and some food and we were glad about that. We had to get out of the way a few times to let the mules by. It took us 2 hours to get down.
After eating some crackers and apples at mile 3 we started back up and that is where the "fun"begin. Phil was doing fine but climbing those "stairs"to quickly took a toll on me. Who would have known that there are 3miles of stairs in the Grand Canyon! At one point I had to stop because I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out. I think my blood sugar dropped which happens to me occasionally. After a few tense moments and some M & M's I felt much better. The second half of the
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The Bright Angel Trail trip back up was much better than the first. I just took a lot of rest breaks and drank lots of water as well as poured water down my back. It was pretty darn hot and we were glad we had wore our handy dandy cowboy hats to keep the sun off. Phil did awessome!
We made it back up! 3:00. It only took us 2 hrs 45 minutes to get back up so we were very proud of ourselves. What an awesome feeling to have done that feat!
We drove the hour back to the campground and after showering we decided to get on the scooter to go into town to celebrate. Williams is an historic town on Route 66. We found a dirt road that took us there and we ended up at a sidewalk bar with live music, appetizers and drinks.
It was dark when we decided to come back. The locals warned us to take care to look for elk on that back road. So here we were two 50 year olds on a scooter in the middle of the desert in Arizona riding a scooter in the dark! We had so much
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The Bright Angel Trail fun! What a great ending to a great day.
So here we are safe and sound back at the KOA blogging on the internet at close to midnight-3 am eastern time. Tomorrow we head to Utah to find Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. I think it's another long trip!
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joan
non-member comment
where in the heck are you now?
Alright already! It's about time you get your butts home! I miss you guys!!!! Besides, there can't be anything worth seeing after the Grand Canyon. Love youns , joan