Day 4 –
Rest Day
September 6, 2008
I wake up stiff and sore. My downhill muscles are starting to heal and my uphill muscles are sore. All in all, the keyword is sore. How can someone as fit as I am get so sore? It must be genetics. It certainly is frustrating. Nancy is a little tired; her biggest concern is her feet – no boots will touch her feet on our rest day. We both put on our Tevas and go to the Lodge for breakfast. We get the buffet – Nancy because she wants another shot at their famous homemade granola and me because I want a little of everything. Sara is our wait person – she’s great – a born leader – sure of herself, perfectly in tune with Nancy and me – she’s an early morning treat.
After breakfast we head back to the cabin to figure out what we want to do and grab our day packs. I can’t remember what it is we were going to do but as we walk across the street we see a crowd of people gathered around a Park Ranger who is giving a walk/talk. We decide to tag along. Why not? We have all day. So we hook up in the back and quickly realize that we can’t walk that slowly, so we move up to the front. The Ranger talks about the Ponderosa Pines – their special vanilla scent and their ability to withstand fire. Fire is a big deal in this area – I see lots of signs of fire – some fires are caused by lighting and some are deliberately set by the Forest Service – but the Ranger makes it clear to us that there is no such thing as a controlled burn – you try and contain it, but there is no control.
We see some lightning damage and insect damage and how if the cambium (that’s the inner layer just under the bark and the only really alive part of the tree) is damaged, usually the tree dies. Fuel for more fires. I love the Ponderosa Pines. They look like they belong there. I feel like I’m really in the west when I see them. We walk along the Bridle Path and stop at an area where there are lots of rocks with fossils in them – the ranger talks about some of the geology and I admit that I don’t listen closely. We finally move along and find ourselves overlooking Transept Canyon – the North Rim Lodge overlooks this canyon and it feeds into Bright Angel Canyon which is the canyon we hike through to do the rim to rim. We listen to the Ranger speak and answer questions – he’s a pretty opinionated guy – and impressed with his own self. Kind of a turn off, if you ask me.
We walk back to the Lodge and sit on one of the terraces facing the Canyon, feet up, side by side, the warm morning sun bathing us and the stunning beauty of the Canyon before us and as far as we can see. Nancy isn’t content just to sit – she’s been talking about the idea of begging, borrowing or stealing a car to go see some of the north rim vistas. We haven’t found that vehicle yet so she decides to go ask the front desk if there’s any kind of tour bus or shuttle to take hikers to these viewpoints. She is driven – it’s like she just has to do this – has to try everything – can’t give up. Tenacity, that’s what I call it. Nancy is nothing if not tenacious. I sit in the sun and wait and wait and wait and wait. I’m content and my usual hyper vigilance is far from consciousness so I don’t really start to wonder until maybe 20 minutes has gone by, and even then it’s more of an idle, “Wonder where she is,” than a full fledged, “Where the hell is she?”
When she returns she’s out of breath and excited – I listen to her story. She’d gone to the front desk to ask about possibilities and was told that nothing existed, but she could go check at the Ranger Station. She went there and they told her there was nothing, not enough hikers to warrant a shuttle, so she left and walked out front. That’s where she overhears some folks talking about Imperial Point. She walks right up to them and steps into the conversation to listen. I can see it in my mind’s eye – Nancy standing there, looking interested and not feeling to the others like an intruder, but there for a reason, as if she belongs there. She introduces herself to a guy named Mike who it turns out is the trip leader and field geologist for an Elderhostel Trip out of Northern Arizona University. They immediately hit it off and Nancy finds out the tour bus is taking some of the Elderhostel folks to Imperial Point for lunch and views. Nancy asks if we can come along and Mike says, “Well, let’s see how many lunches we have on board – come help me count them.” They open the belly of the bus and count the lunches – there were two extra – Mike turns to the driver, Chuck, and asks if he thought we should be invited along and he responds by saying, “As long as they don’t mess up my bus.”
So it’s done – the magic works and we’re going to see Imperial Point and get a free lunch. We wait for the Elderhostel folks to board the bus then get on. As we travel down the aisle, people welcome us in such a kind way, I can’t help but grin and feel incredibly blessed. Nancy did it – Nancy knows what she wants and doesn’t give up – she keeps looking and she finds a way. Amazing tenacity. People on the bus ask us questions – where we’re we from, how did we get there, and are impressed by our courage and strength to hike a rim to rim to rim.
On the way to the point, we stop along the road and everyone gets out of the bus and walks into a meadow – Mike asks if we know the Latin name for the tree he’s pointing at. We all shake our heads and he says, “Populus tremuloides”, or Quaking Aspen. Why Quaking Aspen? He asks us each to pick a leaf off an Aspen tree and look at it – what is different about it? I can’t tell and he tells us that what is unique about the leaves on this tree is that the petiole is long and flattened on one side – normally the petiole (the stem of the leaf) is round so the leaf can twist and turn on any axis. With the petiole flattened on the opposite axis of the leaf, it can only move in two directions – back and forth – and when the wind blows, the leaves shiver back and forth giving the illusion that the tree is trembling. Wow! What a cool thing to learn. Then we stand in silence with our eyes closed and listen to the sounds – wind through the Aspen leaves, wind through the meadow grasses, some birds – an exquisite moment.
It’s hard to break the spell but we don’t have to because a helicopter flies over us and helps change the moment in a big way. We troop back into the bus and arrive at Point Imperial some fifteen minutes later. At 8,803 feet in elevation, Point Imperial is the highest point on either rim. From there we see some majestic views of the Painted Desert to the east; of Mount Hayden to the southeast; and of Saddle Mountain to the northeast. I take a ton of pictures but feel that my feet, because I’m only wearing sandals, are starting to burn. I step away from the crowd listening to Mike talk about the geological age of the Canyon and into the shade. His words are fascinating – if the age of the Canyon can be thought of as one year, the dinosaurs were only here for 10 days – that gives you a small idea of how old the rock at the bottom of the Canyon really is. 1700 million years. Truly beyond my ability to comprehend.
We are all given a bag lunch and choose different places along the rim to eat – some at picnic tables, some sitting along the rim with a view. After lunch we pack up and drive back to the lodge, first stopping at the North Kaibab Trail to let off those hardy souls who are going to hike down to some of the views. Not me – I’m still nursing my muscles and know we have a big day ahead. Back at the Lodge we drop off our day packs and go to the Gift Shop and buy…nothing. I’m lying. I buy four packages of trail mix for tomorrow’s hike. We eat one in the store. Then we walk out to Bright Angel Point – a deliciously beautiful walk with places to climb and dizzying views down down down. Falling is not an option. And there it is, so close. Right there.
Our dinner reservation is for 6:30 pm so we check in early since we can’t find any seats out on the terraces during the sun set. We sit inside the lodge looking out huge 12 x 20 foot picture windows. Our dinner is delicious, but our wait person is humorless and droll. Blah to Ed, is all I can say. Nancy has tilapia and I have a steak. We finish without indulging in dessert and walk back to our cabin to pack and prep for tomorrow’s early rise. We set the clock for 4:30 am, knowing the Saloon opens at 5:00 am for coffee and muffins, and the bus to the trailhead leaves at 5:45 am. It takes a while to get ourselves ready, but once we’re done and crawl into bed, we’re asleep almost immediately. Dreaming about doing the walk all over again. Whoo hooo!