This was the day I look forward to with dread and wonder. Seven miles of switchbacks up a wall. Which turned out to be magnificent. Terry declared that no other place was as beautiful. I said more beautiful. There were only two other AZT hikers but lots of other traffic: Americor workers, people hiking up and then back down to their campsites. And ten rim-to-rim runners going from south rim to north and then back in one day. Brutal.
Everyone was celebrating at the top. We were sore but proud. We had internet connection. Checked my text and Tony had just texted that Dominic broke his arm at school falling off the slide. I called him and they were at the hospital and his mom had arrived. He had a compound fracture. The bone was protruding. He might need surgery. They were just x-raying it. We were heading on, but I said I’d call within the hour. I thought we’d have service because we were still in the park. But we lost it immediately.
The trail continued on a relentless gradual uphill. For an hour I was deep in thought and worry. I felt like my pace was fast and we had gone about 3 miles, but we had only gone one. The trail was steeper than I thought. I was so discouraged. I worked hard to hold a faster pace but there were many fallen trees to navigate over or around. The trail ran parallel to the main asphalt park road, so we got on the road to make better time after about 3.5 miles. For another 6.5 miles we were on the road. It got ever colder. I had my windbreaker and my puffy, and my backpack on and was still cold.
Just before the park exit we rejoined the trail and set up camp at 6:30. We set up camp, ate a warm dinner, put on layers of clothing and zipped our bags over our heads.
Mountain Peace 