We awakened to the call of a wood thrush, like bell tones in a choir. He was announcing the temperature: low 20’s. Our water bottle left outside was frozen, except for a 1/32 layer where it was insulated by the ground. Inside the tent everything was coated in frost. We hunkered in our sleeping bags until sun finally hit the tent and frost changed states. Then panic struck as raindrops fell on our hydrophobic gear.
8:45 – Our latest start yet. It felt criminal to have missed the best hiking hours. All day the trail undulated between meadows and forests, 8500 and 9200 feet. Poplar and fir are most common. There have been numerous blowdowns and fires over the years. Other than a few Raven and deer, not many animals in sight. Clouds of aggressive gnats annoyed us all day.
There was a spectacular vista of the Kaibab plateau, and it was possible to envision the channeled rains gouging the Grand Canyon deeper and deeper.
Today was a short day. Cumulative stresses of the 6,000 climb out of the Grand Canyon and poor sleep had sapped our strength and collective will. Deb says Doubleshot and Fireball saved her.
Deb here. I spent most of the day trying to get a signal. At 1:00 I got a weak one and a text that Dominic had just gotten out of surgery. We walked up and past the East Rim of the Grand Canyon, quite a different view with an expansive desert stretching out beyond the Canyon. Finally I was able to get two bars and spoke to both Tony and Dominic. He had surgery yesterday. He had compound fractures of both his ulna and radius. The ulna was protruding under the skin. They tried to set them while he was under sedation, but weren’t successful. So they repaired them surgically adding a pin in both bones for the growth plate. He’s 12. I asked Dominic how he was and he said, “Fine. I guess.”
Mountain Peace 