This morning we rose before dawn, made some oatmeal and chai, and then headed out to Bright Angel Trailhead. It was about 45 degrees this morning, so we dressed in layers knowing that the temperature would rise easily into the 90s by the time we were heading out of the canyon. Prepared with the adult sippy cups (aka Camelback Water Bottles) from my mother, we started our descent. We were, should I say, more than slightly uneasy about the trail as we peered over the edge to see the precipitous drop down thousands of feet. However, we plowed onward for about 3 miles before Maggie’s knee began to hurt and we decided to head back. Better safe than sorry. No need to pretend that we are more experienced hikers than we are….
We made it back to the top after many, many encounters with hoards of stinky mules that pushed by us, stumbling in a frighteningly unsteady manner down the trail. When the mules passed, we flattened ourselves against the side of the ridge. At one point, one of the leaders stopped the whole pack of mules and their riders directly in front of us and directed all the mules to face the canyon. This meant that we got a lovely rear-ended and very intimate viewing of the stinky mules for about 10 minutes until they started moving again. Sorry, no picture. I know, this is very disappointing.
Note: In the fourth picture above, look in the lower right corner for Tommy, who is dwarfed by the ridgeline. Wow.
1 comment:
Great photos!
Post a Comment