May 5
Mileage: 9
650 miles hiked

It’s amazing what a body can do when one simply keeps taking steps, even very slowly. Even when you feel like you’re getting nowhere at all.

We’re at the top of the south rim of the Grand Canyon, looking down. We just climbed up all of that. From the murky green Colorado river, up to Hance Creek with its secret groves of cottonwoods and riotous nighttime frog noise, to the old mineshaft in the cliffs above it, to Horseshoe mesa like an island between high canyon walls, and now here. We’re sitting in the cool pine shade on the south rim, listening to the birds, safe from the heat. I have never worked so hard in a section of the Hayduke, as this last one. I have never had such slow miles. I have never sweated so hard- I smell like a dead animal that’s been pulled from the sea and left to roast in the sun. I love the Grand Canyon. I love it!

And now we get to take a day off. And then, back into the canyon for another week, wherein we’ll hike the hardest section of the entire trail.

As soon as we reach the parking area at the top of the Grand View trail, I have reception- there are three voicemails from my bank. Apparently, my debit card number has been stolen- someone tried to buy $800 worth of stuff from WalMart in New York with it and now the card is frozen. I knew our overly-eager young mormon server in Jacob Lake was up to something! Ha ha, just kidding. It probs wasn’t the mormons. Or was it… Luckily, this is the future, so I call my bank and within 20 minutes they’re sending me a new card, general delivery to my next town stop.

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is overwhelming. Swarms of people who walk in unpredictable ways, clutching unblemished manufactured goods, looking as though they live in a constant state of grooming from which they take occasional five minute breaks. Maybe I’m just jealous, though- I really want a shower. The overwhelming places are where the food is, tho, so that’s alright. We get right down to eating, then pick up our boxes from the post office in an overstuffed haze. We decide to get a room for the night, expensive as it may be. Yolo, fuck it, whatever. The campground is full and It’ll feel so good to get out of the crowds and lay in a bed.

We stay up too late flipping between nature-themed reality TV shows. There’s a really soothing one set in the Alaskan bush, where ppl pull whitefish from holes in the frozen river without drama or happily cook porcupine over an open fire. All the rest of the shows are terrible.

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