It's a Long Hike, Better Pack Two Kineys.

The best explanation (or excuse, take your choice) for being gone from this blog is that I just have not felt like writing. My job required me to generate a lot of reports. By the time I got home at night I just did not feel like writing anything else. But now I am retired and the urge to let the world get a glimpse into what's going on in my head has become too strong. It is time to blog again. 

This post was written over a few months. I should have posted it much sooner, but I was embarrassed by my procrastination. I mean this past summer I experienced a profound adventure and I never let the world in on it. 

I am rectifying that now. There are pictures to go with this story. You can see some of them on my Facebook page. I may post some here, who knows. 

It has been quite a summer. I managed to take down another pig and shoot a fish. Both of them with my bow. The highlight of the summer was the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim Hike that Kelly and I went on.

This expedition was the ultimate Daddy-Daughter Date. Just the two of us planned to hike from the North Rim to the South Rim over  four days. We worked on the plan for the trip for about a year and a half. Hiking the Canyon in July is not the best time, but it was the only time we could go together.

We left the Farm about 6:00 pm on July 2, 2014. We drove straight through to Flagstaff, Arizona, stopping only when we needed to. It took us seventeen hours to do so. We arrived just before lunch which we had at the Crackerbarrel. After that we did a little shopping and crashed at the hotel for a much needed nap.

Just by luck, my nephew, Scott Duesterhoft, was passing close to Flagstaff and decided to swing and visit us. We went to the Beaver Street Brewery for pizza. The visit was too short, because we had to get up early to make our connection with the shuttle that would take us from the South to the North Rim.

We drove to the Park, secured the van, and reported to the van that would take us to the North Rim. Mike, our driver, kept us informed about what we were seeing outside of our windows. We made some stops all the way, the best being the Navajo Bridge. There are actually two bridges. The older one which we got to walk across and the new one which we rode across. The bridges are 467 ft above the river.

After about 4.5 hours we arrived at the North Rim campground. And that was a feat. Mike was a good diver and kept us on schedule, but there were several times when I thought we were not going to make it past  the oncoming cars when we went around other cars.

At the campground we were assigned the site closest to the edge of the canyon. We set up camp as quickly as we could because it was threatening to rain. We accomplished that and we were in the general store when the rain started. It was a good to be in a dry spot.

When the rain stopped, we went for a walk. We followed a bridle path towards the edge of the Canyon and wandered to the Canyon Lodge. On the way we came across a Fourth of July parade. It was a simple affair, but fun.

We completed our walk by returning to the campground area. We had tickets to the Grand Cookout Experience. It was a buffet style meal that featured barbecue. We had musical entertainment by Woody and Cleatus June Cochran. Very entertaining.

Because of the rain it was a cool night. A little more warm clothes would have been nice.

We got up the next morning, broke camp, had breakfast, and stepped off the edge of the world. That is, we headed into the canyon. I will not even pretend that I can describe to you how the canyon looked. I am not that good of a writer. With each step, each shift in the sunlight, and each passing cloud, the view changed. We walked, we talked, and we were constantly amazed. The day got hot and the miles got long. But as Kelly said, "Yes, but they are dry miles!".

We hiked continuously the entire day. Late in the afternoon we stopped for about two hours to give the shadow of the canyon shade our side of the trail. Then it was an easy hike into Cottonwood Campground.

Along the way, we met two sisters. One an experienced hiker and the other a near death I wish I was anywhere but here first time backpacker. Once when we came upon them, the one was sitting on the side of the trail and we were afraid she was going to pass out and roll off of the trail. But her sister, who was near by, assured us that she was okay.

Before we set up camp, the hiker sister caught up with us and told us that she had left her sister at a pumping station and that the park rangers were going to fly her out the next day. We asked if she wanted to share a campsite with us, to which she agreed. We had supper and went to bed. It never got out of the 80's that night.

The next morning our hiker had gotten up early to go check on her sister. She came by later for breakfast and to break camp. She wasn't about to let her sister ruin her hike. Soon she was headed down the trail.
We continued with our breakfast and getting ready to move down the trail. I remarked to Kelly that I didn't seem to have any energy. While taking down my tent, I had to stop and rest every little bit. But we got the job done started our day's trek.

We had planned to take a side trip to Ribbon Falls, but when we came to the cut off, I told Kelly to ahead, I would wait for her on the trail.

After a short time, she came back and we moved on. The trail took an uphill turn and I could not make it to the top. It wasn't a long stretch of up. But I could only take about three steps and I had to stop to rest.

At this point I began to worry about my condition. It was about seven miles to the next campsite in open country where the temperature was already 110°. Kelly joined in my worries and we decided to hike back to Cottonwood. It was only 1.5 miles back. I didn't make it. We found a shady spot by a creek and I stopped while Kelly went back to the camp where there was an emergency phone. After about 1.5 hours, she returned with two rangers. They checked me out and decided that I was able to continue on my own.

Back at Cottonwood, they continued to monitor my condition and called headquarters. It was decided that they would fly Kelly and I out of the Canyon.

A short but beautiful flight later found me in the Park's clinic. It was determined that my problem was due to too much stress on my one kidney. The doctor said that under normal conditions he would fill me full of fluids and send me home. However, since I have only one kidney and home was over a thousand miles away, he recommended that I check myself into the Flagstaff hospital.

Kelly drove me, stayed with me till I was in a room, and then checked herself into a hotel.

I spent two nights in the hospital. Flagstaff has the best hospital I have ever been in. Mostly they pumped me full of fluids. There was talk of doing a stress test and heart catherizations. All of that because I mentioned at one point that my chest was hurting. That why I was in the cardiac ward being tended by a cardiologist. After awhile, they were convinced that I wasn't having heart problems, just kidney problems. The final diagnosis was rhabdomyolysis. Go look that one up. Finally, my "numbers" improved enough for them to let me go home.

Kelly and I got into the van and took a slow trip home. We did stop at Meteor Crater.

Let me go on record so that the will have no doubts about my feelings on the subject. My daughter is an amazing person. I do not know what I would have done without her. She never lost control of herself or the situation. She knew exactly what to do and when to do it. And she always had my feelings in mind. She constantly assured me that the whole thing was not my fault when all I could do was blame myself for ruining our trip. SHE IS AWESOME!

So was our trip a failure? In the words of Kelly, "It was a great trip except for one part in the Canyon." I have to agree. I had a great time. I enjoyed Kelly's company the whole time. I just regret not finishing the hike. Technically, we did a Rim to Rim hike. We just cheated a little bit on that last part.