June 11, 2003
Day 2
Distance: 4.7 miles
Destination: Indian Gardens

Last night was a chilly one, with temps in the low 40's, and me in just a sleeping bag liner, a long-sleeved shirt, fleece vest, and shorts. I should have been better prepared for the often chilly nighttime and early morning air on the rims.

Oo, a little bird just landed not three inches away, on the edge of my unzipped tent door, and stayed for most of a minute. The animals that live in these high-use areas of the Canyon are very habituated to humans, who are equated with meals. The Park Service provides large ammo cans at each campsite for food and trash storage, though both must be packed out by the one who brought them in. Ground (or rock) squirrels, ring-tailed cats, mule deer and stinging ants are the most common campsite raiders in the Canyon.

In previous journals, I've often talked about my fears. But that's not the case in the Grand Canyon; I feel very comfortable here. I'm so relaxed right now, lying in my tent after a mid-afternoon nap at Indian Gardens, where we'll spend two nights. I just heard the ranger tell the folks at the next campsite that the temperature today is 110 degrees in the sun at this level of the Canyon, but I don't feel especially hot here in the shade of a cottonwood tree, with the warm breeze blowing into my tent and a damp bandanna around my neck. Looking out, I see white, puffy clouds peeking over the edge of the South Rim, where we began hiking at 8:30 a.m.

Our 4.7-mile descent was rather eventful. Not long after beginning the switchbacks, a woman on the trail pointed up toward a cliff. A California Condor! What a treat. It wasn't all that long ago that the only Condors left were in captivity, and there were few of those -- 22 individuals in 1982. At present, there are only 34 of these highly endangered birds living in Grand Canyon.

Russell and I watched the vulture-like, black bird, until it took off and glided gracefully on a thermal. Nearly ten feet of wingspan. As we followed the Condor with our eyes and slowly resumed hiking, a sound coming from the eastern sky made us stop again. Whup, whup, whup! And moments later a helicopter landed on a cliff, maybe a hundred yards down the trail.

We soon learned that a Park employee had been thrown from a mule. Despite a fractured collar bone and severely injured hand, the man had managed to climb the slope back up to the trail, and was soon sitting in the doorway of the helicopter, being treated. Russell and I were several long switchbacks down the trail before the helicopter took off. Kim and Scott were behind us, nowhere in sight.

As expected, there were many people on the Bright Angel Trail this morning. Russell and I often had to step off to the side to let ascending hikers or descending mule trains pass, turning our faces away from the dust stirred up by the latter and exchanging a few words with the former. I'm more of a greet-n-walker, as opposed to a stop-and-talker, when I'm hiking. I like to stop now and again and look around, but not so much for conversation. Funny how many people are much more chatty with passing strangers on a hiking trail than they are on a street. Not funny-bad. Just ... funny.

Anyhow, Russell and I hiked together today, his first time wearing a backpack. From rim to campground we listened to what sounded like millions of tiny castinettes. After a minute spent looking up into the branches of a tree, I caught a glimpse of the insect making the sound -- a winged little critter that looks like a ciccada. Ah, okay: Della, the ranger, just confirmed that's what they are. I'd always known ciccadas to make a constant, high-pitched hum, but Della tells us this is a different type of ciccada and that they haven't had the humming kind here for at least ten years.

I did a lot of smiling today, by the way, but not only at other hikers. No, this place just does that to me. I think I still have trail dust in my teeth. So I guess I'll dig out my toothbrush and, after that's taken care of, go for a short walk to the creek to dip my feet and commune with the water bugs. I plan to get up early tomorrow for a 3-mile round-trip walk to Plateau Point. Just some me-time in a place where I feel at peace.

--Ramkitten