Thanks Goodness!

It’s a good thing that my fingers were left intact despite Mother Nature’s attempt to freeze them off.  We have survived the Grand Canyon hike and I am confident that all three of us will be able to walk normally again sometime in the future. 

The Grand Canyon is seriously amazing – words cannot describe how beautiful it is.   It wouldn't be fair to compare it to Cambodia because they are so different...but should you get any crazy ideas about cycling through Cambodia, could I suggest you first consider the Grand Canyon?

We started out the hike by making our descent which wouldn’t have been so difficult if there hadn’t been ice everywhere (and I suppose the giant packs on our back didn’t help either).   Thankfully our 25 year old guide was carrying the tents and food.  It’s slightly embarrassing to admit that she was the smallest one of all of us and carried a pack nearly three times heavier than ours…but that’s why she makes the big bucks.

Our packs were around 30 Lbs and the guides was 65 Lbs

You can see the difference in pack size here (the pack in front of Betsy is our guide's and is sticking up about 4 feet over her head)

Going down was an icy and slippery affair!

We made it down to Phantom Ranch by mid-afternoon giving us plenty of time to be beaten at cards repeatedly by my dad.  After 30 years of losing, my sister and I are used to this, and our chipper guide seemed OK with joining team loser.

Here is our camp and tents...

Our guide made the best food ever - everything she made tasted like a piece of heaven.

Betsy was very happy with her head lamp and tent.

We were in our sleeping bags by 6:45 PM and I was asleep by about 6:45:30.  This may seem early, but the options were either:

1. Try to sleep on hard, cold ground. 

or

2. Stay outside in the freezing cold and listen to a park ranger talk about the famous Kolb brothers  (Never heard of them?  Us either.  We promised to google them and went with the sleeping option instead).

When morning finally rolled around 11 hours later, we had all had a lot of time to think. 


My sister thought about how much she wanted to drink water, but wouldn’t allow herself because that might result in her having to go to the bathroom.  I wondered why I would dream about buffalos and champagne and if that might mean I really am crazy.

While we were thinking such interesting thoughts, my father had been plotting a new attack against the Grand Canyon.  His new brilliant plan was to finish the upcoming 2 day hike in 1 day. 

What was astonishing about his new plan is that none of us had predicted this outcome!

Betsy and I certainly weren’t surprised with the new plan of attack, and actually thought it was a little piece of genius.  But it was up to Dad to explain our new plan to the guide (as the guide, technically she was supposed to come up with the program, but there was a new boss in town). 

To help set up the introduction of the new plan, Betsy and I explained to the guide our history of Mommsen family traveling.  Some of the highlights:

• My parents visiting my sister in Germany and conducting a tour of 7 countries in one day while still having Betsy back in time for her 4 PM class.  The class ended up being cancelled and my Dad was pissed because they could have made it to Luxembourg too.
• My sister and I touring Rome in 4 hours.  This involved running in 95 degree heat and my sister yelling “Roman Ruins!” a lot and pointing.
• Mount Rushmore.  The only reason we were allowed to get out of the car at this visit was to have some breakfast, otherwise it would have been a drive by.

After providing the historical context, the guide seemed open to the new plan, but suggested this be “Plan B” and sticking with Plan A for the moment.  But all the Mommsen’s knew that Plan B was the new Plan A.

So as we hiked the following 5,000 feet back up we marveled at how gorgeous it was – and it was so gorgeous! – and took turns exchanging ideas for annoying songs to sing in our heads.  We had a lot of good ones including:  “Meet the Flinstones” “ Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go” “We’re off to see the Wizard…” and the unfortunate song that has not left my mind since “Kukaberra sits in the old gum tree”

Water crossings were my least favorite.

The Colorado river was amazing. 

 And folks, we made it!  We finished the 5,000 feet and 9 ½ miles in 7 hours and were so happy (especially because it meant we didn't have to sleep in the freezing cold for another night).  It's worth noting that as we made our ascent, we passed many, many day hikers with little itsy bitsy packs on their backs making their way up.  This speedy forced march was all a crucial part of Plan B, and had my father been in the lead instead of the guide, the hike would have been finished in 6 hours flat (no stopping for food or water).  

Finished!  Yay!

I’m not going to dwell on our ride back to California which was supposed to take 7 hours but took…a  lot longer.  The point is that we got home in time for Thanksgiving.  This is the first time in about a decade that our entire family has been together for Thanskgiving…and the first time in 33 years (as far as I know) that we had the traditional TG dinner.  The dinner was great, it’s wonderful being together with the whole fam, and we are all stuffed, happy and still hobbling around.

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!  Thinking of you and sending lots of love from California!

These mules bring mail and garbage up and down the canyon every single day....