Our Grand Canyon Adventure

In January 2008, my parents came to us saying that they wanted to take all the adults and maybe Jarom down into the Grand Canyon to hike/ride the mules March of 2009- it has to be reserved a year in advance. Ben and I were very excited to go, we love being outdoors, and a chance to go all together seemed like a blast. The girls would be riding the mules and all the guys would hike.

My dad loves to hike. In fact for the past few years (I don't know how many) he has hiked Squaw Peak 52 times each calendar year- once a week. Ben and Jarom join him occasionally. The past 5 months my dad has been helping Ben, Jarom and my brothers train for hiking the Canyon by planning hikes to Peralta Trail/Squaw Peak almost every Saturday. (We won't talk about how many hikes my brothers actually participated in.) About six weeks ago my dad, Ben, and Jarom were hiking Squaw Peak and Ben turned his ankle pretty bad on the way down. With doing just everyday activites plus Saturday chores, it took weeks for the swelling in his ankle to go down and he was still having to wrap it at the beginning of March. After seeing the doctor, we came to the realization that there was no way he could trust his ankle to get him back out of the grand canyon even if he made it down. (And, the emergency helicopter ride would be $5000.)

As I was packing Jarom and I to go last week, I was so sad Ben wasn't going to be there! I felt better when we decided that I will go back with him to hike another time.

We left early Thursday morning to Flagstaff. I dropped Evan at my sis-in-laws Melissa's, who couldn't go because she is expecting a baby boy in May, and Camille and Thomas went to Grandma Skinners. We drove up to check in at the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon. When the mule riders checked in we were weighed, (can't be over 200lbs to ride a mule) received our water bottle to use, got our 12x18 inch bag to pack our clothes in (perfect size to fit in a saddle bag), and string to tie our glasses/camera/hat to us, so they wouldn't fall down the canyon. After checking in we walked around a little on top.

A view from the top of some mules returning from a day trip up the Bright Angel trail.

We stayed in Tucayon that night, woke up early to pack what we would need to take with us and checked out of the hotel. I need to mention, that most of us were sick with either a cold/allergies or sinus issues. Our group was very medicated on Afrin, Sudafed and Advil and everyone was handing out kleenexs. Jarom had a bad runny nose and we never found any medicine that helped, I felt bad for him.

Mule riders had to be at the coral by the Bright Angel Trail at 8am for an orientation/what to expect, so the hikers came with us and listened too.

Notice the stylish string we used!

Before we saddled up on Cephas, Tank and Mister.

The hikers left us to catch a bus to the South Kaibab Trail they would be hiking.

It was about 32 degrees on top when we started down the trail. There was snow along the shaded spots on the trail near the top. It warmed up as we went down. Bright Angel is 9.3 miles long and it took us about 5 hours.

This was the short sighted view I saw for two days, Allison and Mister's backside, with our trail guide leading the five in our group. But the views of the canyon were incredible!! Seeing the Grand Canyon from the top doesn't do it justice. From every corner we turned it was a different scene. I loved being in the middle of one of the most beautiful places on earth! Our mules hugged the outside of the trail, to let the hikers pass on the inside. It was usually a huge drop off over the edge, at times we would tell ourselves that we were on a really long rollercoaster ride. For some reason that made me feel better. Our mules are trained to follow each other as long as we keep them within 3-5 feet of the one in front. I quickly learned that my mule, Cephas, was very lazy and I had to use my switch frequently to get him to keep up. Whip it, Whip it good!

The half way point was Indian Gardens, where we stopped for lunch. It was cool to see green trees and hear water running.

After lunch we passed through some pretty steep rock canyons- some of the trail names were Devil's Gate and The Furnace. That is where it hit me that the next day Jarom will have to hike up this same trail. I was seriously regretting bringing him, maybe this was child abuse making him hike up this trail! The scenery looked so long, steep and desolate before we hit the River Walk Trail along the Colorado River.

When we came to the steel bridge our trail guide was calling to some hikers to hurry across so we could go. They were our hikers! The two trails met up just before the bridge, we thought they would beat us down, so we didn't expect to see them.

You can see our six hikers on the far right of the picture.

We reached Phantom Ranch at the bottom and enjoyed seeing the river, taking showers, and playing Uno that afternoon. My dad and brothers stayed in a male dorm and my mom, Allison, Jarom and I stayed in a little cabin. We had a wonderful steak dinner at the lodge. The hikers seemed to have had a great day, although they moved around pretty slowly that night. Scott and Derek had sore knees, but Jarom did great going down. That was good news to me. Dad said he had to remind him just once to hike away from the edge. He did get some sunscreen in one eye and it was bright red and bothering him pretty bad. (He did it again the next day!)

The next morning Jarom and the guys woke up at 5:30am and had breakfast at the lodge. Jarom came back to the cabin complaining that his stomach hurt. He often gets sick in the mornings, and doesn't eat much breakfast. So he sits for a minute, then throws up the water and what little he had for breakfast all over the cabin floor including Allisons shoes. He felt much better after that and was ready to go! He did have to suffer through some teasing though.

Jarom with Allison's wet shoes! Yuck!

We wished the hikers luck and they left on the Bright Angel trail about 6:15 am, we expected them to maybe be out of the canyon at 4pm or so. We ate our breakfast at the lodge then got on the mules at 8am. We were going on the South Kaibab Trail which is 6.3 miles. We stopped frequently to give the mules a break from climbing. The lazy part of me was very glad that I was letting the mule do all the hard work, but I did fell like I was cheating just a little bit.

When we stopped my mule liked to go to the very edge of the trail, so I would try not to look where I would roll down to if he took a wrong step.

My mom had a little of issue with butter fingers and her water bottle. It was hung on our saddle horn and when we stopped we put our mule in "park" with the reigns also on the saddle horn. Once on the way down, and once on the way back she dropped her water bottle, so our trail guide had to get off his mule, go behind the rest of the mules, crawl under hers to hand her back her water bottle. She felt awful, but really it wasn't that big a deal. My favorite was listening to her behind me trying to get her mule, named Tank, to do what she wanted using her always quiet, calm voice. I did feel bad for her and the mule she got who wouldn't lift his feet high enough and kept slipping, once he even went to his knees- scary!

The last mile or two was the scariest to me. There were so many hikers that could spook our mules, the trail was so narrow and in one place trail crews were resurfacing a trail and it wasn't done, just loose stones. I got exhausted for being scared for my life. But we made it, we were done around 12:30pm! As we were walking back to the car to drop off our stuff and maybe get some lunch, we saw Scott coming out of the canyon. He said he, Jared and Brian were done, and the rest would be up in about fifteen minutes. They hiked those 9.3 miles, with a ten year old boy in about six hours. We couldn't believe it.

I am so proud of Jarom! Even with a cold he could keep up with my dad and brothers! My dad said that he was a pleasure to hike with and was no problem at all. I think some of the beauty of the canyon was lost on him, but I am so impressed that he could do it.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great, memorable trip! Love you!