DAY 20, Grand Canyon
Michael slept from 8:30pm (approx) to 6:30 a.m. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been feeding him after Nora goes to sleep, and once he gets comfortable, he doesn’t wake up again around 10:30pm, as he used to. We had just laid him down on the couch for the nap, figuring he’d wake again while we were playing cards, but he never did.
We had breakfast this morning and prepared for our next hike. We are going to start where we left off yesterday, Bright Angel Lodge, and head west several shuttle bus stops along the rim trail. Nora didn’t want to get dressed. David would hold up her shirt, and she would run away every time. So he just left her in her diaper. She stayed that way through breakfast and as we packed our lunches. Occasionally she would ask for her shirt, but she would run away again each time. I took the dogs for a walk, and by the time I got back she had decided it was a good idea to wear clothes, thank goodness. Of course it took a while to get going, even after that. Just when we thought we were ready, one kid would have a poopy diaper and we’d have to go back in. By the time we were really ready, we had already drank one bottle of water and had to refill it.
Today’s path is not paved, so we are just taking the backpacks and Snugli. That makes it easier to manage getting on and off the shuttle, too. We took the shuttle to Bright Angel Lodge, then started hiking westward. We ended up doing a total of about 5 miles, which actually is pretty difficult with kids strapped to you and carrying lots of snacks and drinking water. David’s ankle is feeling a lot better, so now I am the weak link, because I’m out of shape and losing some of my hydration and calories through nursing Michael. During the hike we decided that during our stay here, we may be able to hike the entire rim trail, a little at a time. We caught the shuttle at a stop called “The Abyss.” The last stretch after that to end of the rim trail is about 4 miles, so we can do that tomorrow or the next day. Then we will just have a short section to the east of the visitor’s center that we haven’t covered. The trail today followed the edge of the canyon. At first it was paved, then gravel, and then dirt. By the end, David would have to tell Nora to close her eyes because we were having to hike through some low branches of pine trees. It was beautiful, though, and you can see the Colorado River really well from some spots here. The canyon is so big, it’s easy to forget there’s a river at the bottom at all! But on this hike, there were several good glimpses. We also passed a mine that used to be the country’s richest source of uranium. In a national park, no less. The metal structure at the top of the shaft is still there and is quite unsightly. We met many nice people along the trail today. Some would just look at us and say, “You have a beautiful family there!” which is a really nice thing to say to total strangers. One man stopped us to say how great it is we are doing this, and what a good time of life this is, etc. Many people notice Nora on David’s back (“that’s the way to get around, right there!“ etc.) and don’t even see Michael on my front (his head doesn‘t clear the top of the pack yet), so I’m always happy when someone notices I’m carrying a bit of a load myself. The climate is really weird here. We will be hiking along, sweating and drinking tons of water. Then I will sit down in the shade for a minute, the wind will stir up, and I’ll be freezing. It’s hard to dress for it. We are trying to keep hats on the kids, too, but the wind along the canyon is fierce and we have to keep taking Nora’s off so it doesn’t blow in. David has been feeding her these rice snacks to keep her busy. She’s been a great sport, sitting in the backpack for almost 4 hours, with a few breaks. So she asks for “More snacks please, Dada,” and he hands some over his shoulder. Unfortunately she started stashing some of them. David stopped a couple times to ask me to remove rice snacks from inside his shirt. The first time he thought it was a strap that was rubbing wrong. “Is there something right here on my neck, about two inches down from my finger?” he asked me. Seeing a perfect square stuck between his shirt and his back, I said, “Yes, there is. Snacks.” I guess Nora is at the age where things just start turning up in strange places. There are rocks in the dogs food dishes, a magnetic doggie in the dish drainer and a rock in our bed.
At the first shuttle stop past Bright Angel Lodge, we ran into our new campsite neighbors. They were taking the shuttle to each stop, getting off and looking around, and catching the next shuttle onward. Well, we ended up seeing them at almost every single stop. So we were hiking at a good clip. I mean, they were waiting for the next shuttle, but they run every 10 to 15 minutes, so I felt we were doing good. It was getting pretty funny every time we would round a bend into a lookout point with a shuttle stop and there would be a crowd of people, and there would be our neighbors. On both of the long hiking days, Nora has taken a good nap in the backpack. The first day, David was wearing a cowboy hat and she made him take it off so she could lay her head down on the back of his neck. Today he just wore a baseball cap.
At the end of our hike, David said he could keep going, but my feet were hurting, so we hopped on the shuttle. Of course this was the longest shuttle ride we would have, since we were quite far from the campsite, and we had a most unpleasant driver. She would stop the bus if someone had so much as a pinky finger sticking out the window. She refused to move her handbag from the first seat, even though people were standing because the bus was so crowded. Her Eastern European accent probably didn’t help our perception that she was a bit too stern. When we transferred to the shuttle that goes to the campground, we realized we had been riding with our neighbors all along. When we got back to the Trailer Village stop, we hustled ahead of them in case our tent had blown over again and was resting against their camper or something. When we got back, it had come unmoored from the ladder but was still attached to the awning. It had spun around 90 degrees. So down it came. David put the awning up, too, because the wind was really catching it and blowing the whole camper.
It’s ironic that since we have been parked and not driving, I’ve almost been too busy to journal. There is a lot to do here, especially with our goal of hiking the rim trail. We are daydreaming about a time when the kids will be old enough to hike down the canyon to the river and stay at Phantom Ranch and hike back up.
It’s really nice having full hookups, but I can also see the advantages of staying in a primitive place like we did at Yellowstone. For example, on our way out of the campsite today we saw four enormous female elk. But I haven’t heard any of the elk bugling noises. I asked about it, and they do make the noises at night and in the morning. But since we have power to the camper, we listen to CDs or run the fan or other things that keep us from hearing them.
David went to scope out the hike he is doing tomorrow, seeing where it starts and what buses to take to get there. I put Nora in the stroller and Michael in the Snugli and we walked up to the General Store to get a couple things. When we came out, it was getting dark. Nora said, “Getting dark outside, Mama. See moon.” Mostly for her the moon is just an idea, because she’s seldom up late enough to see it. I wheeled the stroller around and pointed to the sky. She was elated. “MOON! Moon!” So all the way home, she was just staring at the moon and talking about it. She cracks me up.
Today we also learned that we have been on the wrong time zone for several days. I guess we got an hour ahead, somehow. I was sure we were keeping careful track of what time zone we were in. We changed the clocks to Central Time, then changed them to Mountain Time. When we were in Nevada, we didn’t change to Pacific Time, so when we got to the canyon, we should have been on the right time, but we weren’t. Puzzling.