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.