Sunday, October 28, 2007

Conquering the Canyon--the Grand One!

Yes, Jack and I are a bit crazy--we have actually already done this hike once a few years ago and we decided to go back for more torture--and we got some others to join us as well! (Thank you wonderful Heywood family for watching our kiddos for us!) Actually, this is even my third time doing this crazy hike--Will we ever learn? Probably not! The rush of feeling that you have beaten this awesome site of nature is AMAZING! This first pic is after we got out of the canyon--can you see the fire of adventure in out eyes? Well, we had one...


We started at 8:30 A.M. that morning at the top of South Kaibab trail with Brooke and Pat McBride and three of Jack's brothers--Trevor, Tyler and Jacob. See the smiles--yeah, we are a little clueless at this point.

Brothers bonding



The site of the Colorado river was so cool--we were almost at the bottom!



These studly men felt they had to touch the river to really reach the bottom of the canyon.



We reached the bottom a little before 12:00P.M. Afer some lunch and airing of our feeties, we were back up for the real hike out going up a different trail called The Bright Angel--There's no turning back now!




Gotta love the new skin for helping to prevent blisters--cute shot Brooke! Oh, and lovely sweaty back shot of you Pat! (It's okay--you earned it!)

Hey--the canyon is now getting smaller! The hike back up was sooooo pretty--tons of little streams and waterfalls--and by the way, the weather was really nice--however, we were still pretty tired I tell you! After this spot Jacob and Tyler basically left us in the dust--However, we all got out before 6:00P.M. and we were all out within half an hour of each other.


Even though this is a pretty cheesy, "Wow, look at nature" shot, it really was true that we all felt that way. I firmly believe that the only way to see this place is to at least hike some of it, and why not do it all the way? Well, now with our sore backs, knees, calves and whatnot, we just have to wait a few more years before we forget the pain and do it again! Any takers?????






4 comments:

Jennie said...

Love the bonding pic.

Oh and the one of Jacob at the river, what a pose!

Trevor is super sore too, but loved every minute of it! I'm so sad to have missed it, but I can easily recall how much it did HURT afterwards when I did it 7 years ago.

Meghan and Randy said...

Y'all look like everyone had so much fun and everyone looks great, too! You guys looked exhausted at the end of the trip, as I can see in the picture. I've never hiked the Grand Canyon much less been to it so when I do visit it (and if it's the last thing I do before I die, then so be it), I'll have to hear some tips from you!

Anonymous said...

I probably won't be taking you up on your offer to hike but it looks like you all had lots of fun!
Miss you!
Jocie

Jacob said...

OK...two things. FIRST, you simply must destroy all evidence of that photo of me at the river (why didn't anybody tell me my socks were cause of such a fashion faux-pas - nearly as serious as the Spice Girls' of the nineties.)

It's a shocker that 14 miles and nearly 12 hours didn't kill me...but almost more of one that I didn't get killed by the fashion police after such length! ok...moving on.

Second...isn't it funny...in the group picture at the top we all have (minus a few) sincere smiles...but in the group photo at the end we are all clearly faking those sonrisas? HA HA...fun trip.