Hiked the Grand Canyon!

[Pedal Wench]

my boss wants to do it this coming spring. I wished her luck. She's not in that great a shape, just does yoga here and there. I think she'll be in for a shock by what you guys describe!!

We've seen people airlifted out - to great expense and risk to the rescue workers. Please stress how important it is to train and be prepared. Once down in the canyon, there are absolutely no bailout options.

We do months and months of training, and we're very fit people, and it's still a really hard trip. I just hate to see people getting into trouble in a place I think of as paradise.

[bmccasland]

My last trip to the Canyon was to hike down to Indian Gardens, get some samples from a river trip, hike back out. On my birthday. As I recall it was 90 degrees at 9:00 AM at Indian Gardens on my way back out (I left the rim around 6 AM). At the time I was in great shape, did a lot of back country hiking (I was paid to hike ). Got heat exhaustion anyway. An RN playing hookie from a conference hiked me out, the Parkies were looking for me - didn't help that I was in uniform. Finally crawled out at 3 PM. So instead of having a birthday dinner in Flagstaff, I was in the ER being treated for severe heat exhaustion. Lets say the ER Doc was not amused that I knew I drank 6 liters of water, but no electrolytes. No, I didn't drive myself to Flag, a colleague hitching a ride from the same river trip drove. If we were smart, HE would have had the samples and I wouldn't have had to hike down so far. I think the elevation change from the rim to Indian Gardens was 3800 feet in 4.5 miles.

Not the way I planned to spend my 40th birthday! The RN (my canyon companion) said she spent her 40th in the the first Gulf War, which wasn't her plan either.