Our hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon evoked the tragedy and despair of Macbeth but also the comedy and hope of Pi. For Macbeth, the tragedy of life is its meaninglessness so his tale is dark and heavy. Our adventure was marked alternately by despair and wonder. The steep arduous trails with endless switchbacks made our destinations seem to recede and recede … in a daze, Jeff donated his heavy wool Pea Coat to the ghosts of the Canyon. But there was always an amazing view just around the turn and we forgot our troubles for awhile.
For Pi the horrific slaughter of his mother and the terrible vengeance he exacted on the cook led him to construct the lighter tale for telling. The dark truth he discovered about life in the desperate condition of nature was transformed by Pi through the symbol of the adult Bengal Tiger into a better but no less-true story about life. For us, playing below the rim forced us to reckon with bare naked nature and the ravages of age. Not exactly like Pi, much less Macbeth. But death is death and we could have met a meaningless demise a thousand times. A little colder, a little more wind, and we may well have not made it back to the rim that dark night of ascent. With that, there are things we can’t tell and things we can …
When we made it back to the South Rim that night we remembered that the trail’s end feeds hikers right to the entrance of the Bright Angel Bar but Jeff and I clean missed it and wandered around the dark grounds for 10 minutes before stumbling inside. We had become delirious at the only safe moment to be so. We sat in the Bright Angel Bar for 3 hours with a thousand yard stare trying to figure how we made it back alive. About midnight, we got up to move but couldn’t. Our bodies had locked-up and we could only hobble in excruciating pain. It’s called the “Canyon Crawl” and we had it bad. For the next 5 days getting dressed, stepping into a tub, or up the stairs was next to impossible. The only thing we could do well was laugh. There’s no accounting for Jeff and I hiking to the floor of the Canyon and making it back alive. But we did.
Unless you’re under 30, in tip-top shape, and you respect nature, you shouldn’t do what we did. There are shorter, safer, sane-er hikes all over the North and South Rims. Should you decide to ignore my advice and survive to tell about it, you’ll walk on billion year old dirt and have the adventure of a lifetime. But like Jeff’s coat, some things are better left in the Canyon. The lighter tale is heavy enough.
Jeff came sauntering around the turn sans his heavy pea coat – the Canyon got it
Grand Canyon, January 27th – 30th 2014
Author Notes:
This was my first time to hike the Canyon though I had seen it from the rim a few months back while on a cross-country motorcycle trip … I assumed the trails to the bottom and back were as smooth as the trail heads you see from the rim so the arduous difficult barriers of logs, rocks, and dusty red sand were a total shock as well as debilitating
My friend Jeff had hiked the Canyon several times in his younger years – the last when he was 40-something but this time he was 60 and so was I … it’s fascinating how our memories play tricks on us … Jeff suffered mightily this time and I became terrified for his well-being on the afternoon of the first day … we should have turned-back right then … I’m glad we didn’t but we got lucky … real lucky
When we left Grand Canyon on Thursday, January 30th, the weather took a sharp turn for the worse … had it looked like that when we arrived on Monday we wouldn’t have been able to do what we shouldn’t have done
Jeff and I have hiked the Canyon for the last time
I may never go back … I can’t imagine returning to Grand Canyon and not walking through the ancient wilderness
You won’t believe your experience in Grand Canyon … but you’ll never forget it
To understand the meaning of life you have to play below the rim …
When I saw Grand Canyon for the first time, I was on a cross-country motorcycle trip and couldn’t stay long. Standing on the South Rim, I felt it. I’d walk on the floor of the Canyon one day. It may be better not to know your future but in a quantum universe the future is now and sometimes you get a sneak peek. Four months later my old friend Jeff invited me to take that walk. Thirty-five years earlier we explored classical Greek thought together and now we’d explore Grand Canyon. It turns out we were no more prepared for our encounter with the Canyon than we were the Greeks. But after two days in the Canyon we came to understand the incompleteness of life above the rim.
There And
After an arduous 12 hour hike down the 7 mile Kaibab Trail we stumbled into Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon in the pitch black night. We looked and felt like death. We had missed dinner by hours but the cook took mercy on us and whipped-up some camp food. It was awful. We didn’t care. We hurt too much to eat. We fell into our bunks and that’s the last thing I remember about the day we hiked to the floor of Grand Canyon. But our tale was only beginning.
Once we laid down in our bunks that was it – we couldn’t move … the next sound we heard was the breakfast bell … we hobbled outside, looked up through the trees, and saw the morning light bouncing off the rim Everyone at Phantom Ranch was custom-built and fine-tuned for hiking the Canyon … Jeff and I didn’t belong here At Phantom Ranch everything needed for operations is brought in by mules.This little guy came crashing down a cliff and popped-out of the brush catching me and him by surprise Grand Canyon is a wilderness This angle is seen only from the Canyon floor … photographers light is gone in a nano so you have to be in the moment The terrible power of the Colorado River is palpable at the river’s edge … fall in, you’re goneThe Grand Canyon biota has it all: rivers, forests, grasses, rocks, deer, birds, fish, bighorn sheep, black bears, phantoms, and sand dunesThe wilderness, yesterday’s tortuous march, and this smooth River trail caused us to underestimate the struggle ahead Loren from Luxembourg … we met him yesterday on the way down … he is ideally configured for hiking the Canyon … Loren took side trips all day long and lapped-us often … we saw him so many times we actually miss him The Canyon Wilderness even has beachesOur pace was like slow-motion only slower … faster going up, 1 mph vs 3/4 mph … but 12 hours each way We were told the 12 mile Bright Angel Trail going back up was smoother than the Kaibab … it’s a Canyon legend You find yourself looking up a lot wondering if you’ll see civilization againThe obstacles on the Bright Angel Trail caused Macbeth-ian despair in us … it’s a good thing we didn’t know about this ahead of time On the way up, the plateau is a major milestoneA sampling of the “smooth” Bright Angel Trail We finally breached the plateau … but we’re less than half-way back to the rim We’d have to corkscrew around that rock to get to the Canyon wall switchbacks that would take us to beer at the Bright Angel Bar There is no end to arduous barriers on the Bright AngelDaylight was waning quickly … we ended up walking 3 hours in the dark on dangerous switchbacks Rugged individualism and self-reliance were born in the wilderness and that’s probably where they belong … there is little room for empathy or compassion or lending a helping hand when one or the other can cost you your own life … it is a stark brutal fact of life below the rim … you must plan ahead and take care of yourself … our planning was inadequate but we took care of ourselves – and we made it back to the top at 8:15pm, 12 hours to the minute after departing Phantom Ranch
Back Again
Macbeth’s despair of life’s meaning in the face of contrived struggle became a metaphor for our dangerous march down but a young Indian boy named Pi became the metaphor for our hike back up. Macbeth never found the meaning of life but Pi did, trapped on a lifeboat with an adult Bengal Tiger. In the better version of the tale. The Canyon is like an adult Bengal Tiger: it has no empathy, no compassion, and though beautiful, it is not your friend. Grand Canyon is an unforgiving wilderness. It forces you to confront things about playing above and below the rim. Starting down, you’re like a giddy 12 year-old who just wants to see the bottom of the Canyon. But the Canyon has other ideas. It teaches things you never knew about yourself and reminds you of things you forgot. Like being 60. You may not discover the meaning of life in the Canyon but life above the rim will mean a whole lot more after you walk with the ghosts at Phantom Ranch.
In their quest for the meaning of life the ancient Greeks claimed to investigate the things above and below the Earth. That’s what they said. In spite of our encounter with the ancient Greeks and now Grand Canyon, Jeff and I still don’t know the meaning of life. And we freely admit it.
Jeff & me playing below rim – January 30th 2014
The Sweetness of Life
My friend and I are connected now in a different way than before. Whether we see each other again in 35 or a billion years we’ll hug, cry, laugh, and regale each other with memories of that contrived struggle in the Winter of ’14 … that long dusty march that could well have led to a meaningless demise, a tale told by two idiots, full of sound and fury signifying the sweetness of life.
Author Notes – Update February 5th 2018: The overtones of lament seem melodramatic in retrospect. But Jeff & I were unprepared for the difficulty and danger we encountered on our journey … I had a romantic notion of what it would be like … navigating the trails in Grand Canyon was arduous for guys our age (he was 58, I was 60) … when we made it back up to the South Rim on the second night, our bodies locked-up and we could only hobble for the next few days – we were told we had “the Canyon crawl”
The trails themselves were alternately hard-rock and thick mushy dust with all manner of obstacles that demoralized us … at any given moment we may well have fallen hundreds of feet to a grisly death, victims of a misstep, a stumble, or being lackadaisical … there is no accounting for how we made it back alive
Phantom Ranch is a working camp on the floor of the Canyon … for a small fee on top of your Park entrance fee, you can be assured a hot evening meal, a warm bunk, hot breakfast, and a brown bag lunch for the hike back to the South Rim above … there are several tent campsites where most people stay … it was 17 degrees that night, we were beat to death, and grateful to have a warm bunk … the breakfast bell came right before dawn and it’s a good thing it did – we ended-up needing 12 hours to make it back up the Bright Angel Trail, the last 3 of which were in pitch black darkness on treacherous switchbacks overlooking drops of several hundred feet
If you think there are safe places at Grand Canyon consider this – one month after we left, a man was posing for a photo with the Canyon as his backdrop when a gust of wind blew the hat off his head and into the Canyon … he reached-out instinctively to grab his hat and fell 300 feet to his death leaving his wife holding the camera while his 3 kids watched in horror … this happened right outside the Bright Angel Lodge restaurant on the South Rim in a tourist area where people pose throughout the day … no one is safe in Grand Canyon and each person must be responsible for themselves … it’s the opposite of civilization … and it’s wondrous
Jeff & I should never have hiked to Phantom Ranch but I’m glad we did
To dance with a billion year old ghost you have to leave some things behind…
The floor of the Grand Canyon was the surface of the Earth over a billion years ago and is the only place you can walk on Mesoproterozoic soil. It’s time travel without a way-back machine and we couldn’t wait to get there. But with the afternoon half-gone it was dawning on us that we weren’t going to make Phantom Ranch before dark. Phantom Ranch is a working ranch on the Canyon floor and holds the key to dinner, a warm bunk, and a big breakfast for the hike back-up tomorrow. The Canyon’s wondrous beauty and our insane struggle meant we might not make it to Phantom Ranch. Things were becoming dicey as darkness fell upon us. It’s not the first time a beautiful vision caused men to be late for dinner. Our steak dinner at Phantom Ranch would be a dish served cold. We were beginning to fear tomorrow and the 12 mile hike back up to the South Rim. The Kaibab Trail was only 7 miles and it had eaten our lunch after only halfway. Young hikers scampered past us like Jackrabbits and we didn’t know it at the time but one of us was beginning to suffer from hypothermia, the deadly killer of even the most experienced trekkers. Did I mention there is no water on the Kaibab Trail? The awesome views on the descent from the South Rim along the Canyon walls turned into a brutish ‘ignorant march’ through terrible breathtaking beauty. The tale continues…
View available only to those who descend below the rim The photographer’s light lasts less than 30 minutesColors are distinct mineral layers The plateau – less than half-way to the Canyon floor Treacherous beauty – one little trip, you’ll never be seen again A “Darwin Award” candidate in all his glory The first and last latrine stop on the Kaibab – it’s now or neverThis young woman was employed cleaning latrines by the National Park Service – some people will do anything to hike the Canyon every dayAt the latrine stop everyone gathers around and shares stories These young women were day-hiking the Kaibab – humbling Even dead things are beautiful in the CanyonAs we left the latrine stop to resume our descent, physical pain went with us … the pounding you take on the Kaibab is merciless We met this guy as he was hiking out … employed at Phantom Ranch as the water treatment engineer for the past 15 years he works one week on and one week off – he was headed up to the rim for a week of R&R The crevice into which we’d be descending shortly – or so we thought … everything is farther away than it seems We breached the plateau – we’re halfway to Phantom Ranch! Kaibab is arduous and brutal … each step sent shock waves up our entire body causing us to move at snail’s pace … young people bounded up and down like bouncing balls completely unfazed … we were awestruck by their performance but powerless to up our game even a little The linen and grocery mule team brought the demoralizing news that we’d only made it halfway at this point It was like a scene from a Cowboy movie … but these are real jobs with real people who love doing it The change in color marks the descent to the plateau but it only gets steeper and more arduous after that Our first glimpse of the Colorado gave us renewed hope and lifted our spirits The mule station below … Phantom Ranch is about a half mile up the Bright Angel Creek from thereThe bridge across the Colorado! But then we saw those wicked switchbacks and it killed our spiritFinally reaching the bottom we were seeing double … when he caught up to me Jeff didn’t offer a word, a nod, or a wink – he just kept staring at the ground and disappeared into a dark tunnel leading to the bridge entrance … I noticed that he no longer had his wool coat which weighed 5 pounds if it weighed an once and guessed rightly that he’d donated it to the Phantom of the Canyon at some point back up the trail, a fitting end to a coat that had made so many journeys here with him in younger times Jeff was frightfully catatonic when he entered this tunnel and I had to scramble to get my backpack on and go find him by following the tick-tack of his hiking sticks
Once we saw the light at the end of this tunnel leading to the bridge over the Colorado we knew we were going to make Phantom Ranch that night. It was a pitch black march over the last mile on the floor of the canyon and it was getting cold but our minds were preoccupied with tomorrow. Given the damage to our 60 year old bodies inflicted by 7 miles of hard-rock, would we be able to make it up the 12 mile Bright Angel Trail tomorrow and back to the known world or would Macbeth’s long shadow of dusty death condemn us to a billion years on the canyon floor? We shall see…
The long shadow of dusty death on the Kaibab Trail
Steel Wheels 