How I Spent My Summer, Birthday That Is.

(This pic is from the rim trail's Walk of Time...)

Happy Birthday to me... 22 years and still keeping with tradition. I went down South Kaibab again today. As you remember, this is the first hike I attempted (trying for Cedar Ridge) my first weekend here. I made it not even halfway. It was windy in the shade with sun in your face around each corner. This morning was a different situation, now that we're firmly into monsoon season.


(Yes, this is rain over the canyon)

It's a welcome relief sometimes to have the sun hiding behind clouds. Especially today, where it qualifies as humid (more than the 3% we're used to).



There were only two other people (and one maintenance worker) on the trail when I went out. Which was a nice change from the bus loads that roll in at 7:00 and clog the trail. No one visiting the park for the day cares much about other people on the trail, especially when all they want to do is go down to the river and back--a death sentence on summer days. Literally.

The trail on South Kaibab is perhaps one of the steepest I've ever encountered. While Bright Angel has long, slightly sloping switchbacks, Kaibab has short, steep, stair-like slopes that sometimes are on top of a ridge and lined with rocks on both sides. This is both an amazing view and a startling realization as you're hiking on it and tourists are attempting to blow past you, as if the 2,500 ft drop isn't there.



I had yet to hike on a day like this, where it was raining just above you but evaporating right before it hit your head. The views were spectacular in a Tim Burton-surrealism sort of way. To be mostly alone, hiking on a ridge down to a plateau is an amazing feeling. It's not like hiking a populated slight slope, wide enough to pass and sheltered on one side by a high canyon wall. No, here was the true canyon.



When I got down to Cedar Ridge, I took a good look around. It was just this plateau, a randomly flat part of land on an outcropping you have to hike a ridge to get to. If you didn't know any better (read: that there was a 2,500 foot drop awaiting you on the edges), you could easily mistake this for flat land, like a field at home. It just looked so out of place.





I found myself a nice, big rock in the middle of the plateau and stared up at the now-clearing sky and wished I had carried my book down. It was a cool day and the rock was slanted like a beach chair. What a crazy place to be just hanging out, staring up at the sky. On a plateau in the Grand Canyon, far away from the population and 1,140 feet down from the rim.


(Just for perspective, I was on the very bottom left hand corner of this picture where there's that flat red land)


(me, on the rock, looking up at the canyon walls)

The hike up was steep and I poured sweat like I was back in Texas running a marathon. My shirt was soaked, my bandana pretty much useless because it too was soaked. People parted for me as I came up because I'm sure I looked like something you didn't want to get too close to. I had to stop and rest back at Ooh Ahh point because I was so uncomfortable in my now wet clothing. I took off my pack, sat down, and ate my granola bar. I gained about 500 feet of elevation in less than half a mile.

The trail was getting crowded now, and I seemed to be the only person hiking up and out. Families came running down the trail and I had no energy left to tell them uphill (read: my fat, sweaty ass) has the right of way. So I just used my hiking poles and thundered right through them.

By the time I could see the trailhead, I could also see the Interp-lead tourist hike. They'd be going where I'd just been, but at a much slower pace. What took me 2 hours to do will take them 5. This also meant the trail was completely clogged from the ranger standing there talking and no one paying attention to the other hikers on the trail. I waited a few minutes and then just went through. Manners be damned, I just climbed 1,130 vertical feet with 10 left to go. I could see the top and I just wanted to get there.

Taking off my pack and cooling off by the trailhead was momentarily enjoyable, until the wind kicked up the smell of the mules twenty yards off through the woods.

All in all, not a bad hike. 3 miles, 2 hours, 1,140 vertical feet. Perfect for a day when you have to be in at work by noon. I was such a bum when I got home that I didn't even shower. I threw my hair into a side ponytail, put on my SCA hat, my uniform and went to the office.

Welcome home, Wilderness Woman.