The Grand Canyon is truly an awesome natural wonder, it beckons you to capture it on film or .... memory. Sometime, not in summer, I should spend a month or two exploring it.

Am back at the Grand Canyon, since last Jan, doing last minute training hikes before our adventure, next Saturday 19th Jun, from the North Rim to hike down 5900 ft on the N Kaibab trl to the river, 14 miles, stay at the Phantom Ranch 2 nights, then hike out to the South Rim up 4400 ft on the Bright Angel Trl, 10 miles. Yes, the North Rim is at higher altitude than the South Rim. The North Rim is at 8400 ft, the South Rim is at 6900 ft.

Yesterday, I hiked down 3 miles on the Bright Angel Trl, that took 2 hours; then hiked back up 2000 ft, that took 6 hours. I have never taken that long to hike just 6 miles. The heat was bad, the gradient was brutal. After all the training hikes I have done in the heat, I surely did not expect the climb to be so brutal. And actually, the downhill hike was also slow going, the trail has what seems like many miles of steps. Steps result in making it a slow downhill hike and very hard on your knees, and the steps going uphill makes it hard on leg muscle. Imagine climbing steps for 3 miles, and carrying a daypack weighing  around 20 lbs of which around 10 lbs is water.

Was doing a hike on the South Rim Trail, passing Bright Angel Lodge, ran into this creatures; when ever wild creatures come close to where people hangout, the rangers show up to stop people from doing dumb things.

3 of my girls on this adventure have hiked Peru’s Inca trail to Machu Picchu, at 14,000 ft. I wonder how this adventure hike will compare physically. Who are the hikers on this adventure? We are from left to right:

Jenna, Vickie, Sandra, Elaine, Cindy; and me.

It is going to be a mean adventure, but an adventure never the less !!