three mornings
tomorrow morning (on 07/07/07), at 7am, this sleepy chica will be getting on a van and heading for lees ferry to start six days of rafting, hiking and getting high off the overwhelming hugeness and beauty of the colorado river and inner gorge of the grand canyon. i've already been blown away by contemplating the immense views from quiet spots along the south rim, but i am very excited about looking up from the river and exploring some of the side canyons.
this morning, the older lady in the ranger booth at the entrance to the national park looked at my park pass and then handed it back to me with a kindly, 'there you go, young'un,' waving me in. round these parts, actual young'uns like waitresses who are a good decade younger than me consistently call me 'hon' or 'sweetheart.' love that.
yesterday morning at 7am, i went on a ranger hike down the south kaibab trail and got a seriously goofy but very knowledgeable and likeable ranger narrating the sloooow amble (his word) down. he picked his way carefully down the trail with hiking poles and stopped at almost every other switchback to talk story about the geology, history and ecology of the trail and canyon. at ooh-aah point* he let people decide if they wanted to continue with him or just hike on ahead, so i opted to go faster because my attention span was shrinking rapidly. the general rule of thumb at the grand canyon is to allow twice the time to climb back up as you took hiking down. so if you breeze down for an hour, you should expect to wheeze back up in two. but on this hike, it took two hours to walk down 1.5 miles to cedar ridge. i made it back up in 40 minutes and felt great. one of the most beautiful cardiovascular workouts i've ever had. for the rest of the day, i walked around dutifully making my observations and taking notes, trailing a cloud of dust like pigpen and thoroughly content with the world. but wishing you all could be rambling here with me.
*actual name!
this morning, the older lady in the ranger booth at the entrance to the national park looked at my park pass and then handed it back to me with a kindly, 'there you go, young'un,' waving me in. round these parts, actual young'uns like waitresses who are a good decade younger than me consistently call me 'hon' or 'sweetheart.' love that.
yesterday morning at 7am, i went on a ranger hike down the south kaibab trail and got a seriously goofy but very knowledgeable and likeable ranger narrating the sloooow amble (his word) down. he picked his way carefully down the trail with hiking poles and stopped at almost every other switchback to talk story about the geology, history and ecology of the trail and canyon. at ooh-aah point* he let people decide if they wanted to continue with him or just hike on ahead, so i opted to go faster because my attention span was shrinking rapidly. the general rule of thumb at the grand canyon is to allow twice the time to climb back up as you took hiking down. so if you breeze down for an hour, you should expect to wheeze back up in two. but on this hike, it took two hours to walk down 1.5 miles to cedar ridge. i made it back up in 40 minutes and felt great. one of the most beautiful cardiovascular workouts i've ever had. for the rest of the day, i walked around dutifully making my observations and taking notes, trailing a cloud of dust like pigpen and thoroughly content with the world. but wishing you all could be rambling here with me.
*actual name!
posted by a wandering eye at 12:26 AM
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