The Grand Canyon — Part 1
I hadn’t been this tired in a while. I found some shade under a big rock, threw my backpack down and lay dead and flat on the dusty Bright Angel Trail, like nothing else mattered. I was only two miles away from my destination — the Bright Angel Trailhead on the South Rim — but it seemed eons away.
People passing by would ask if I was doing ok, to which I would always lie — ‘Yes, I am’. Always answering a proud ‘Yes, I am ok’ whether or not that was true. Similar to real life, I suppose.
A few months ago, I had decided to do a backpacking trip of the Grand Canyon — my first solo foray. The plan was to hike 7 miles down the steep South Kaibab trail and hike back up 9.5 miles the “not so steep” Bright Angel trail, camping overnight by the Colorado river at the Bright Angel Campground. A total elevation change of over 9000 feet in July — the hottest month of the year — over 2 days.
Fly in on a Saturday into Vegas, rent a car, drive to the south rim, hike down to the Colorado River, sleep, wake up, hike out and rejoice. Or, so I thought.
But, fate, or should I say United, had different plans for me. My flight which was supposed to land in Vegas just past noon on Saturday, was delayed by over 2 hours. I got out of the plane as quickly as I could, picked up a rental car and started driving towards the Grand Canyon, knowing I was fighting a losing battle against fleeting day light. As I got out of the airport, I saw a billboard with time. It said 15:30, and then it showed the temperature. I made a mental note. It said 109 F.
I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was going to reach the South Rim by 8pm at the earliest, 15 minutes after the sun would have set. Maybe I should do the entire downhill hike at night? It’d be better anyway, I thought, since I wouldn’t have to deal with the heat. But then what was the point of doing this if I couldn’t see the grandeur of the Grand Canyon while hiking? Maybe I should find a place to sleep at the South Rim that night and just do the whole thing the next day. But that’d mean covering the distance I had set to do over 2 days, in just 1 day. Plus, I didn’t have a place to sleep that night, and finding it that late wasn’t going to be easy. Both options sounded equally crazy.
I had time to think about it — all 4 hours of the drive to Grand Canyon. So, I channeled my inner ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ contestant and called a friend — Imran, an avid backpacker. I told him my dilemma hoping what I hope when faced with all of life’s difficult questions — someone else tells me what to do. When Imran heard my story, he asked only one thing — “What do you want to get out of this trip?” It was a very good question and made me ask myself — what was it? Was it self-gratification? Checking a box? Flaunting it to other people? All of the above? The truth was I didn’t know. And, so like all questions I don’t know the answer to — I laughed it off, hoping laughter would cut through the hard questions life presented me, just as my rental cut through the scorching Nevada heat. Imran was clear in his message, both options were crazy, but if he were me, he wouldn’t be hiking down the canyon at night, all by himself. I thanked him, told him I would mull over it and hung up.
And, like we all do with all difficult decisions with 2 options, we add a third one — delay. And, that’s the one I chose.
*Read Part 2 of The Grand Canyon series here.
*Thanks to Sofia Puorro, Imran Rashid, Maria Eller and Madeline Weeks for reviewing drafts of this post.
