Berry Summer Adventure Part 5

We drove through the mountains on the way to the Grand Canyon. Again, I was amazed at how quickly the landscape changed from mountain to desert. We thought we would be able to see the canyon from miles away, but we couldn't. How crazy it ould have been for those first people who discovered it to find it out in the middle of all those trees. When we arrived, there we so many people, and the directions around the park were really confusing. It is always such a shock when we've been camping, just me and Shawn to suddenly be surrounded by people... and grocery stores! Forget it. That's too much sensory overload for someone who's only seen and smelled trees and mountains for two weeks. When we got into the park, we got out at Mather Point. It was great to see Shawn's face when he saw the canyon for the first time. There is so much to see, so much detail, that you can't possibly take it all in at one look. So we hiked around the rim trail for an hour or so. By then, we'd looked at a couple of maps, got our bearings, and were very tired of all the people blocking the trail, that we got back into the car and tried to find our campground. We did, and set up camp. Then we set about the business of finding out information about our hike into the canyon. I think we were both secretly nervous about it because it was so unknown. When we got into the park there were signs everywhere about people who had died hiking the Bright Angel trail. The same one we were to hike. So we asked a couple of rangers, looked at park maps, bought some maps, and eventually settled down to watch the sun set at one of the look out points. There weren't as many people then, and we heard and saw all kinds of peculiar things. People were opera singing, couples were toasting to their anniversary, and when the sun finally set, people clapped. Maybe they were just celebrating the end of a glorious day like we were. It got pretty cold on the rim last night, and when we woke up we set about the business of gathering everything we needed for the hike down into the canyon and cramming it into two backpacks. It seemed like they would fit a lot of stuff in them, but we had a hard time. It probably took the better part of two hours to sort it all out, pack, and repack the car. Now we wait until four or five o clock until the sun is down enough to hike the 9.5 miles to our campsite tonight. WE had intended to stay two nights down at bright angel campsite (all the way at the bottom) and another night at Indian Gardens (a campsite half way back up the canyon). However, we are tired and ready to get back to Burleson and relax before our conference for school, so we'll hike down all the way tonight, get there around ten or eleven. Sleep, spend the day in the canyon, and hike out the next night around 1 a.m. I'm especially worried about the hike back up. We have so much stuff to carry. It's 82 on the rim today, and it's supposed to be 102 in the canyon. As you descend, the temperature increases 20 degrees. Which is good because we don't have to carry our fleeces and blankets to sleep with, but still. That's hot! It's so crazy. You think you go camping to relax and be in nature, but it's really exhausting. Always moving from camp to camp, thinking about what you have, and what you need... always planning your next move. One of the things that has been on our minds a lot is keeping my extra vial of insulin cold. We've had to get so much ice and always worry that it's too hot for it. Thankfully, the clinic in the canyon has agreed to keep it for me in their refrigerator while we're in the canyon. But I can't really complain. My numbers have been pretty good throughout the trip, and having a pump instead of syringes has really helped. So... onward we go to the last leg of our journey.. and we'll see how it turns out!