WFRV

We all sleep late this morning; it must be the fresh mountain air. We head
to the Lodge for breakfast and the 35-minute walk gives us all an appetite.
From breakfast we take a short walk along an overlook trail where I meet a
woman who actually has a worse fear of heights than me. She's clinging to
the rocks on the far side of the trail and won't even edge out to see her
family who've decided to climb up a ledge on the inside edge of the trail.
My family's up there too but I'll at least step out to look up at them.
Briefly. The trail progresses and gets worse; at one point the trail is
about five feet wide with sheer drops on either side and an eight-inch wall
to keep you from falling. It's right about here that I think to myself "I've
had enough of this." But onward we go and eventually get to the overlook.
Another cliff jutting out over nothing, another guard rail that you could
easily fall over, another stunning view of the canyon, and another bout of
dizziness and nausea for me. Wahoo!

Finally everyone's satisfied with the view and we head back; Mike takes the
longer trail back to the campground with his camera, and the kids and I head
for the gift shop and the shorter trail. He makes it back to the RV 55
minutes before we do. It's hot and sunny but there are thunderclouds
overhead and the occasional rumble of thunder. We rest for a while in the
RV before going on our last hike of the day.

Our last hike is to the Coconino Overlook; it's only .6 miles but pretty
much straight down; it was originally an escape route from a severe winter
storm on the North Rim. Now it's a well-tended slightly rocky trail that
crisscrosses the canyon wall and it's the only access to the canyon from the
North Rim. But we're not taking the day-long hike all the way down which
has all sorts of warning about the death and destruction that may befall the
unwary hiker. As we head out of the campground it starts to thunder and as
we start on the trail that connects to where we're going it starts to rain.
It's only water, we say, and continue on. By the time we get to our trail
it's raining somewhat harder but we're wet anyway, so we forge ahead. To
our dismay we realize that "mules share the trail with hikers" means "you
will be dodging mule poop the whole way". The stench is quite bad and we're
glad it's at least cool from the rain but thankfully not yet wet enough to
make the trail Manure River. As we head down we have to step off to the
side, such as it is, three times for mule trains to pass us on the way up.
The first group is comprised of three grizzled men in chaps and cowboy hats;
their mules are loaded with giant boxes and they look like they're out of a
book from the 1800's. The next two groups are people who are coming back
from mule rides that the North Rim offers, and the leader of the last of
these groups tells us "it's going to be pouring in about five minutes".
Undaunted, we carry on, although we notice that all the people we see are
heading up rather than down. Also we know that every step we take down is
one we'll have to take up, in the rain, dodging tennis balls of mule manure.
We continue down for about twenty minutes and the rain gets harder; thunder
rumbles overhead and we start to see cracks of lightning. Taking refuge
under a tree we discuss the situation. Mike wants to turn around; the kids
want to continue. I'd like to continue but those bolts of lightning are
disconcertingly close, and we're on the side of a cliff where all the trees
are tall pines. We see a young couple coming up and ask them how far to the
bottom; they manage to convey "fifteen minutes" in Italian, and after they
slowly shuffle past us Mike points out that Sam is not exactly an alpine
climber, and so we decide to the kids' great disappointment to head back up.
Mike thinks it'll take us an hour; I say half an hour. The bet is on and I'm
steaming up the hill, not even wanting to stop when the kids ask for water.
Of course Mike will stop for anything, but even still we reach the top in
twenty minutes. "You were way off," he says.

Now we're tired, wet, and cold, and the walk back to the campground is a
long one. We're disappointed that we didn't make it to the overlook but
very happy to be heading somewhere out of the rain. After we change our
clothes we pop them in the campground dryers and take quick hot showers for
$1.50 - the best showers we've had on the trip. A quick dinner and fairly
early to bed; we have a long drive ahead of us.

# posted by LDW @ 11:21 PM