2007 Grand Canyon Adventure :: Day 7

Today we woke up brushing a layer of red dust off of ourselves and our belongings. The wind was strong during the night but had calmed down considerably.

Each of us seems much more relaxed today as the pressure of the North Rim climb is behind us. We cooked the fish for breakfast and packed and were on the trail by around 8am. The hike each day is strenuous. Some days are simply harder than others, but there are no easy days. With each day we are becoming more efficient at setting up and breaking down our campsite. There is a rhythm to our hiking, and to each day, that is becoming more in harmony with the environment surrounding us. There is something comfortable to me about the feel of this environment. The early sense of wariness and unfamiliarity is giving way to a distant feeling of longing to be a part of the surroundings. I wonder if those dreams that you cannot quite remember when you are awake are the remnants of the ancient dreams of our ancestors. Dreams of wind and water and blue skies must have filled their sleeping hours.

We arrived back at Phantom Ranch and continued on to the campsite to set up the tents. Scott and Dave hiked along the Colorado River and Doug and I took a side hike up Clear Creek Trail which rises above Phantom Ranch. We hiked to a point about 1,000 feet above the river and it was a beautiful view. While we were there we watched a helicopter evacuate an injured hiker far below. We later learned that Dave and Scott were watching the same rescue from the river trail that they were on. On our way back down we encountered a small group of the injured hiker’s friends who had hiked to a lookout point to watch the helicopter take off. In the group was a former Air Force pilot who was talking to Doug about fishing the Bright Angel Creek. He asked Doug if by any chance he had lost a small container of fishing lures along the North Rim trail. Doug had in fact lost the lures and they had been found by this man. The coincidence of it all was rather stunning. We were on a remote trail, in a remote canyon, within the very large Grand Canyon, and happen to strike up a conversation with the only people we encounter on the hike, that brings us to the connection of the lures. Perhaps the sequencing of such random events is due to some physical law of attraction enhanced by the desert environment. Perhaps it is simply a coincidence.

After arriving back at camp we hiked to Phantom Ranch where we had obtained a meal of beef stew, salad and corn bread. It was a wonderful meal and it was fun to sit and review the hike and to listen to the stories of other hikers who were there. After dinner we returned to the camp and promptly went to sleep. I believe that our average bedtime has been around 7:30pm, but tonight we far exceeded that. We did not get to sleep until 10pm.

Tomorrow we hike to Indian Gardens and the Tonto Platform.