Following the two nights and one full day Robert and I spent at Phantom Ranch, we prepared for our climb back up to the South Rim on the Bright Angel Trail. This 10-mile long "corridor trail" starts out relatively flat, crossing the Colorado River on the Silver Suspension Bridge, paralleling the river for a couple of miles, partly through loose sand, and then climbing up through side canyons 4,460 feet to the rim. On this map, it's only a couple of inches long...
We had an early breakfast at 0530 - all the eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes you could eat. I would need every calorie on this hike. I left promptly at 0600, in the dark, using a headlamp for light. Robert would follow a couple of hours later on a different adventure - a mule train. He thought it would be a unique experience. Being a cheapskate, and having an intense dislike of mules (based on a previous "adventure" when the mule I was riding stopped to graze over the edge of a 500 ft cliff), I opted to use my own feet, but told him that if he found my body on the side of the trail, just sling it over a mule and haul me out.
I hiked alone for the entire duration of the hike out. It was a little spooky hiking in the dark, hearing only the occasion owl and coyote, and the distant sounds of the rapids on the river a few hundred yards below the trail. Half an hour later, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Two miles after leaving Phantom Ranch took me to the River House shelter, where I left the river and started climbing.
I climbed steadily over a rocky trail for the next few miles along Bright Angel Creek. The scenery was barren, but beautiful. The trail got steeper as I hiked higher.
Bright Angel Creek wasn't running very high - it hadn't rained heavily in months - but the vegetation was relatively lush, compared with the arid, rocky desert that surrounds the creek.
The reddish cliffs towering above the trail are composed of sedimentary rock called Redwall Limestone, from the Mississippian age, about 350 million years ago.
Reaching Indian Garden, I stopped for lunch, and met a young woman who had been out alone for five days and nights, camping off trail and away from established campgrounds. Tammy works at one of the lodges here, so is acclimated to the elevation, but her pack was the smallest I have ever seen a backpacker carrying for a 5-day outing. The advantage of a light pack is being able to move faster and farther than someone carrying a heavier pack. The disadvantage is that you have to be very selective about what to carry. Tammy was living on water and beef jerky so she wouldn't have to carry heavy food, stove, fuel and utensils. She did admit that she was going to splurge on a big steak when she got back home. Oh, and she was wearing Keds, not hiking boots!
After Indian Garden, the trail steepened, and entered what seemed like unending switchbacks. But the view... my God, the view was awesome! Cameras and cell phones just cannot duplicate the magnificence of the Grand Canyon. This area is called Jacob's Ladder, named for the connection between earth and Heaven that Jacob dreams about in the Book of Genesis.
Another hiker from years past is shown here on Jacob's Ladder. History buffs may recognize President Teddy Roosevelt, who visited here in 1903. He declared the area a National Monument in 1908; National Park status followed 11 years later.
This was Second Tunnel, only 500 feet below the rim, with about 3/4 mile to go. I could hear the whistle of the Grand Canyon Railway down here, and I thought that Suzanne's dad Bill was giving me encouragement "from the other side".
The trail's final pitch was the steepest, a climb of about 750 vertical feet. At this point, I just wanted to finish and have a celebratory beer.
Finally, 7 hours and 20 minutes after leaving Phantom Ranch, Your Faithful Correspondent reached the South Rim and the end of the Bright Angel Trail. I felt surprisingly good, even better than when Suzanne and I had hiked down to Indian Garden and back in one day, 20 years ago. But then, I was carrying a 40 lb backpack for training purposes... I know - it makes one doubt my sanity.
I'm glad I made it to the top without having to be rescued by a mule; since I didn't know when Robert was arriving, I hiked up to the El Tovar Hotel and tried to check in and get a shower, but alas, they wouldn't give me a key until 3:00 PM. So I hiked back to the trailhead and waited for the cavalry to arrive. About two hours later, a mule skinner and four turistas arrived. Here is Robert after almost 5 hours in the saddle. Hate to say it, but he walked kinda funny for the rest of the day...
My closing trip photos show the dawn's early light on Grand Canyon as we prepared to depart for our flight back in Las Vegas the next morning. Hard to believe that we had checked off one of our most important "bucket list" items. If you haven't been to Grand Canyon to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, you are missing out...
Shortly after returning from Grand Canyon, Suzanne and I loaded Rudy and Gretchen into the coach and headed north to visit Hilton Head, SC. Our dear friends Tony and Irene Vouvalides visited us in the coach at our campground with party hats. Tony's birthday is 2 days after mine (although he is much younger - a mere kid), and this is the second year we have gotten together to celebrate jointly.
Suzanne had ordered a special birthday cake to be shipped from Joe Gambino's Bakery in New Orleans for our joint birthday. Bev Garlipp had conspired to put it on her credit card so I wouldn't see the bill. For those of you unfamiliar with New Orleans cuisine, one of the city's signature desserts is doberge cake, comprised of six layers of white or yellow buttermilk cake separated by custard filling, and frosted with buttercream and petit fours fondant icing, in this case half chocolate and half lemon. It is one of the World's Truly Evil Desserts. One 12 inch diameter cake weighs about 10 lbs. It is "To Die For"...
Tony gave me the most amazing gift. He had personally made this beautiful, hand-crafted model of my destroyer, USS John Rodgers (DD-983), which I had commanded for two years. It was a touching moment when I gazed upon my old ship, and brought back many fond memories.
Here is a close-up of Tony's exquisite model. He is a master craftsman - he has built his own wooden sailboat and many ship models that nautical museums would be proud to display.
On the morning of my birthday (Suzanne says it's my 70th, but it's really only my 35th), she made me go for a 70 minute run around beautiful Moss Creek in Bluffton. I actually wanted to lie in bed and bask in the delight of the 2 pounds of cake I had eaten the night before, but she is a cruel person. Irene led the way on her bike, probably to ensure that if I collapsed and needed an ambulance, she'd be right there. Along the way, we met Susan Carlson, whom Irene had alerted as a witness to my misery.
While in Hilton Head, we made a day trip to Savannah, Georgia. Tony parked on the north side of the Savannah River, and we took a water taxi across the river and walked around downtown for a couple of hours. Here we are, with Rudy and Gretchen, on a cool, sunny day in one of our favorite Southern cities. (Apologies to Linus, Tony and Irene's cute goldendoodle, who couldn't make the trip.)
As we reach the end of 2017, we look ahead for an even better 2018. This sunrise suggests the optimism that sailors have always had at the dawn of a new day. We wish you all fair winds, following seas and exciting adventures in the year ahead.
One of my all-time "bucket list" items was hiking down into the Grand Canyon, spending a night or two at the bottom, and hiking back up to the rim. I was able to check this item off recently when Robert Hunter, a retired US Air Force colonel, and I flew out west from The Villages for a week.
On the way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped and had dinner with our great friends Jerry and Karen Facciani in Las Vegas. Jerry had selected Table 34, where we enjoyed a delicious meal of Colorado lamb chops and some excellent wine.
Then on to the Canyon! Back in March, I had made reservations at the El Tovar Hotel (regular rooms preceding and following our two-day hike) and the iconic Phantom Ranch (dorm-type bunk houses for two nights near the Colorado River - dorms because all of the private cabins had been booked for over a year). Originally, Jessica and Suzanne were supposed to go, but nighttime temps in the teens discouraged their participation. I called the reservation desk and spoke to a 20-something woman about cancelling the girls' dorm reservation. She really surprised me when she said, "Oh, don't do that! Those reservations are so hard to get that you could go into the bar at the Yavapai Inn and pick up a couple of girls who would die to make that trip with you!" I replied that Our Lovely Brides might not be so understanding, and she just snickered... sigh...
We spent a day doing some short hikes around the South Rim and Grand Canyon Village, reconnoitering the area, especially the South Kaibab Trail (our route down) and the Bright Angel Trail (our trail back up). These two corridor trails are the principal access routes from the South Rim. (The North Kaibab Trail is the access route from the North Rim, but it's about 100 miles away by car.)
The South Rim averages about 7,300 ft. elevation, while the Colorado River is at 2,500 ft. I have been to the Canyon at least six times, but its stunning beauty and grandeur always leaves me breathless.
During our day hike, we saw a group of ten desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) on this outcropping of rock a few hundred feet below the rim. I still can't figure out how they got there - there is no apparent trail or ledge wider than a foot or so, but they are among the most sure-footed critters on earth. I asked Robert if he wanted to try that route, but he wisely declined.
The vistas are truly amazing, and the constantly-changing colors due to shadows and passing clouds make every scene unique. The canyon is about 277 river miles long by about 18 miles wide and a mile deep.
I could sit for hours just looking down into the void, thinking how insignificant mankind is compared to the creation and carving of these layers of rock over past eons. The oldest rocks which comprise the Grand Canyon are up to 1.8 billion years old. (That's even older than My Good Friend Bob who gives me such a hard time when I return fishless from fishing; but I digress.)
The day before our hike down, we attended a Fossil Walk with Ranger Tish. She gave an excellent talk on fossils of Grand Canyon, and showed us several splendid examples of brachiopods found in Kaibab limestone, which is from the Permian Period, about 250 million years old. Brachiopods are similar to bivalves, but unlike their distant relatives, process most of their food, sneeze some waste out, and have no anus. (They also don't taste as good as oysters and clams... perhaps there is a lesson there for Darwinian-oriented folks.)
We started our hike down on the South Kaibab Trail, which winds down steep switchbacks for 7 plus miles to the Colorado River. The drop-offs are significant, and even impressive. Going over the edge here would result in a big splat!
Just a mile down, we met two muleskinners riding their trusty steeds up from the river. This was evidently a training evolution for the mules (which is the sterile hybrid offspring of a male donkey {jack} and a female horse {mare}). Mules are alleged to be less obstinate and smarter than donkeys and more patient, longer-lived, and easier-riding than horses. (For those who were about to make snide remarks about mules being like some husbands, please don't go there!)
Our hike continued down and down. We took a break once an hour for about 5 minutes to drink water and have a snack (mostly GORP, Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, the backpackers' classic snack). The weather was still chilly, but warming up about 4 degrees for every 1,000 feet we hiked down in elevation.
Flora was pretty sparse once you dropped below the South Rim. This area gets very little rain, and the soil isn't exactly rich. This skinny little extension of a cactus is about as good as it gets, unless there is a seasonal stream within a few yards...
A moment's reflection at lunch... the Grand Canyon has to be one of the best places in the world to meditate. It's hard to comprehend how much rock was cut away by the Colorado River, wind and rain over the past 5 million years.
Down and down some more! Here we see another 12 or so switchbacks, and teenie-tiny dots way down there that are actually humans...
As you descend, you look north and up at the soaring Sumner Butte and Zoroaster Temple. The latter is climbable, but has at least one 5.9 pitch near the end of the climb. (The scale only goes to 6.0). "Darn, I forgot my rope and pitons..."
Finally, the Colorado River comes into view, still about 1,000 feet below; and yes, that tiny ribbon is indeed a bridge across the river...
Wildlife! Not a blonde female hiker, but a desert bighorn sheep, just 20 feet above us off the trail. There are also cougars, bobcats and coyotes here, but this was the only large mammal (other than mule deer) that we saw during our hike.
The Kaibab Black Suspension Bridge was built in 1928, and the 122 tons of equipment and cables were transported by mules and humans all the way down from the South Rim. 42 Havasupai Indians carried the one ton, 550-foot long cables in single file every foot of the way for over 7 miles, snaking down the switchbacks we had just hiked.
Phantom Ranch isn't exactly the luxurious dude ranch you might expect. While the greeting signboard was friendly enough....
... the bunkbeds left a lot to be desired. Since our bunkhouse mates had arrived the day before, Robert and I got both top bunks. Oh Boy!!!
Meals were simple, but pretty satisfying. Breakfast was especially hearty, with all the eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes you can eat.
We spent two nights "at the bottom", with a day hike of the Clear Creek Trail, which runs along the Tonto Platform below the North Rim. This trail offers unique views of the gorge cut by the Colorado River. Totally impassable on foot, it can only be run by...
... river rafts and kayaks like these. This boats were on a 25-day adventure through the Canyon. (As much as I like boats, I would not want to be in a stinky wet suit for over three weeks!
That's all for today... Come back in a few days for the finish of our Grand Canyon Adventure!!!
The last stop on our summer trip was in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to visit our great friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens and their daughter Nadia. Judson had set up a reservation at a lovely riverside campground in nearby Florence, and when I went to check in, the camp hostess told me that not only was there no charge, but "Please take that basket of candy, cookies and other goodies that your friends left for you before I eat it all!" Judson took us for a four mile run to work off some of the sweets, and then the five of us enjoyed dinner together in town. It was a most pleasant end to our cross-country adventure.
It was a fabulous 2017 Tour, with many events where My Lovely Bride Suzanne helped people and shared her Messages of Hope. We visited 21 states (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Pennsylvania), putting around 12,000 miles on The Coach (she now has over 64,000 miles under her tires, but since she's built on a Freightliner truck chassis, that's not so much - truckers often put a million miles on their semis - although a motor coach is a bit different... imagine driving your house down the road at 55-65 mph, especially with the fun of potholes!) For example, I had to get the front windshield repaired - fortunately just a chip and not a big crack that would require total replacement (been there, done that!).
While traveling, we have to do normal things like finding a barber... We have had more than our fair share of (mis)adventures getting haircuts in small towns. We were in Oregon, an hour from the nearest town, and I looked on my phone for a barber shop. Cindy's Barber Shop (a pseudonym, to protect her reputation and me from lawsuits) was the only place nearby. I called, and asked Cindy if I needed an appointment. "No, but how did you get my number?" "It was in Google Maps." "Ok, come on by in 15 minutes." I pulled up to a modest ranch house surrounded by hop fields. A tiny 75-year old lady wearing a patch over one eye walked out as I drove up. "Don't mind the patch. I just had eye surgery, but I've been cutting hair for 30 years. You'll be fine. I asked how you got my number because I haven't cut an outsider's hair in years, just locals." With more than a little trepidation, I walked into her house and was directed to the kitchen, where Cindy pointed to a wood straight-back chair in front of a mirror propped up against the sink - it was one of those 5 dollar, four foot high mirrors that you see attached to the backs of doors in cheap motels. "I am doomed" kept running through my mind. But I got a decent haircut, and even a straight razor shave (that gave me some pause) without shedding any blood.
It's good to be back home, but the past few weeks have been filled with lots of yard work. Summer rains caused our yard to grow more weeds than expected, and Hurricane Irma didn't help - we didn't have any significant damage, but our yard guys evidently found more lucrative work in South Florida, because our lawn hadn't been cut for over two weeks when we arrived home. Suzanne even had to chase after another lawn crew and offer them triple-time to do an emergency cut on our yard. (I suggested renting out 20-30 goats at half the cost, but was overruled.) One day later we saw this rainbow over the house and knew that all was well.
Rudy and Gretchen are also glad to be home, probably because the resident rodent population (squirrels) has burgeoned to the point where you can't walk down the street without seeing a pair of the little beasts doing what squirrels do... I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Rudy has again found a favorite spot astride pillows to take a nap, while demure little Gretchen keeps watch for geckos and squirrels.
Speaking of dogs, My Good Friend Bob was walking his Chihuahua when Roscoe decided he had gone far enough. Fortunately the event was preserved on Jan's phone...
In St. Louis, we saw this preposterously pink and purple poodle... what were they thinking???
It's great to be home again with family. Suzanne's Lovely Mom Ruthie is very happy to have her daughter Suzy home. (Ruthie, by the way is a bridge shark - her biggest complaint these days is not having enough challenging bridge games. We should all be so lucky at 90 years of age!)
We had dinner last week with Ruthie in her assisted living dining room. To celebrate our return, I brought an especially nice bottle of Cabernet, and asked our server to open it. She returned in a few minutes, and I went to pour Ruthie a glass... but nothing came out. Perplexed, I looked into the open bottle and saw that the cork had been pushed in, rather than pulled out! I stifled a laugh, and had to push the cork down with a pen to get the wine out, until the cork was down a few inches.
Note: wine was not involved in the next picture! Suzanne and I have a saying, "Never take yourself too seriously". We will extend our hands in an "okay" gesture and turn them inwards over our eyes into a "Space Cadets" look... recently Suzanne posted this photo on her Facebook page.
We thought we were pretty cool, at least until we received this image from our dear friends Jeff and Lynn Hollahan, who said "This is what happens when you're at the confluence of good friends, nice weather and tequila!"
We just returned from a short trip up north; Suzanne had flown to Wilkes-Barre, PA, to give one of her Serving Spirit classes. Meanwhile, I was driving up to Asheville, NC, where we would meet for another event and some hiking. I had planned on stopping for two nights in Marble, NC, almost as far west in the state as you can go, where Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina come together. The night before, while south of Macon, GA, I looked at the weather forecast... snow... SNOW??? Driving The Beast, our 42 ft motor coach, is interesting enough in rain, but the prospect of a combination of mountain roads and snow was a bit much, so I diverted to a campground near Greenville, South Carolina, where a balmy 50 degrees awaited me and the pups.
Greenville is very close to Clemson University. Football fans know the Tigers well, their having won a national championship a few years ago. Everywhere you look in Greenville you see orange tiger paws.
We drove on to Fletcher, NC, near Asheville, where Suzanne met us after her flight from Wilkes-Barre. She then had a very successful event at Unity of the Blue Ridge, in Mills River, NC; thank you, Reverends Darleen Christie , for your warm hospitality and a great dinner! Asheville is a delightful area; the coach was set up next to a small lake with this sunrise view...
The following weekend found us backpacking overnight on the Art Loeb Trail in Pisgah National Forest, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Brevard, NC. The first day was pleasant, and the six mile hike mostly uphill. This windblown stand of trees was not the typical foliage.
The forest floor was littered with fallen leaves and not a few trees that were slowly returning to where they came from, while hosting moss and lichens during their decay.
We had planned to camp near a lean-to shelter which had a small spring and a privvy nearby, but when we arrived, four yahoos had a boom box blaring and were awaiting the start of a football game. "Really, in the wilderness? Why didn't you just go to a sports bar?" In disgust, we marched on aways, and just before the rain began, Suzanne heard "We have selected a perfect spot for you." We indeed found a beautiful (flat) spot on a gap beside Cedar Rock Mountain. The weather was cooling down, and long pants and fleeces were donned.
The rain squalls stopped long enough to have an al fresco dinner. I was the designated chef - a tough job, requiring boiling water and pouring it into the bags holding our freeze-dried dinners, chili mac for Suzanne and chicken gumbo for me. Wait 10 minutes, and "Presto!" hot meals, if not gourmet treats.
The next morning loomed misty and grey, but we had slept pretty well, considering it had rained most of the night, and the two-man tent was just barely big enough for our sleeping pads and down bags. Our packs and food bags remained outside under the tent fly in a small vestibule (staying almost dry); a passing bear could grab the food, but just in case, I positioned Suzanne by the tent door with the bear spray so she could protect our food supply. She looks amazingly chipper, all things considered. Fortunately, the 6 miles back to the trailhead was mostly downhill.
Our dear friends Sandy and Lisa had volunteered to stay with Rudy and Gretchen, and to find out what "glamping" in a big motor coach was like. After our backpacking, we enjoyed a nice lunch together at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Mills River - a very popular spot for Sunday brunch.
Leaf peeping was winding down near Asheville, but at the Carl Sandburg Estate in Flat Rock, we found a few gorgeous trees still showing their colors. The five miles of hiking trails here were also fun.
One of our shipmates (and DEAR FRIEND) on our boat trip earlier this year is Irene Vouvalides, who became famous in the Virgin Islands charter fleet for ensuring we had the cleanest decks of any boat in the area. We received this photo of Irene standing proudly with her new Rubbermaid Reveal mop. (Irene, this "reveals" something about you... Ha!)
Someone asked recently what I do with all my spare time... well, I am hard at work planning our 2018 Summer Tour, and already Suzanne is booked for events in The Villages, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Scottsdale, Prescott and Sedona, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Creve Coeur/St. Louis, Missouri; New York City; Frederickton, New Brunswick, Canada; The Monroe Institute, Lovingston, Virginia; and Orlando, Florida. It looks to be another 12,000 mile summer.
Finally, Suzanne and I would like to thank everyone we met this summer who made our trip so much fun. You gave us many memories that will last forever, and we look forward to seeing you again, maybe next summer!
Following the two nights and one full day Robert and I spent at Phantom Ranch, we prepared for our climb back up to the South Rim on the Bright Angel Trail. This 10-mile long "corridor trail" starts out relatively flat, crossing the Colorado River on the Silver Suspension Bridge, paralleling the river for a couple of miles, partly through loose sand, and then climbing up through side canyons 4,460 feet to the rim. On this map, it's only a couple of inches long...
We had an early breakfast at 0530 - all the eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes you could eat. I would need every calorie on this hike. I left promptly at 0600, in the dark, using a headlamp for light. Robert would follow a couple of hours later on a different adventure - a mule train. He thought it would be a unique experience. Being a cheapskate, and having an intense dislike of mules (based on a previous "adventure" when the mule I was riding stopped to graze over the edge of a 500 ft cliff), I opted to use my own feet, but told him that if he found my body on the side of the trail, just sling it over a mule and haul me out. 
I climbed steadily over a rocky trail for the next few miles along Bright Angel Creek. The scenery was barren, but beautiful. The trail got steeper as I hiked higher. 
Bright Angel Creek wasn't running very high - it hadn't rained heavily in months - but the vegetation was relatively lush, compared with the arid, rocky desert that surrounds the creek.
The reddish cliffs towering above the trail are composed of sedimentary rock called Redwall Limestone, from the Mississippian age, about 350 million years ago.
Reaching Indian Garden, I stopped for lunch, and met a young woman who had been out alone for five days and nights, camping off trail and away from established campgrounds. Tammy works at one of the lodges here, so is acclimated to the elevation, but her pack was the smallest I have ever seen a backpacker carrying for a 5-day outing. The advantage of a light pack is being able to move faster and farther than someone carrying a heavier pack. The disadvantage is that you have to be very selective about what to carry. Tammy was living on water and beef jerky so she wouldn't have to carry heavy food, stove, fuel and utensils. She did admit that she was going to splurge on a big steak when she got back home. Oh, and she was wearing Keds, not hiking boots!
After Indian Garden, the trail steepened, and entered what seemed like unending switchbacks. But the view... my God, the view was awesome! Cameras and cell phones just cannot duplicate the magnificence of the Grand Canyon. This area is called Jacob's Ladder, named for the connection between earth and Heaven that Jacob dreams about in the Book of Genesis. 
My closing trip photos show the dawn's early light on Grand Canyon as we prepared to depart for our flight back in Las Vegas the next morning. Hard to believe that we had checked off one of our most important "bucket list" items. If you haven't been to Grand Canyon to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, you are missing out...
Suzanne had ordered a special birthday cake to be shipped from Joe Gambino's Bakery in New Orleans for our joint birthday. Bev Garlipp had conspired to put it on her credit card so I wouldn't see the bill. For those of you unfamiliar with New Orleans cuisine, one of the city's signature desserts is doberge cake, comprised of six layers of white or yellow buttermilk cake separated by custard filling, and frosted with buttercream and petit fours fondant icing, in this case half chocolate and half lemon. It is one of the World's Truly Evil Desserts. One 12 inch diameter cake weighs about 10 lbs. It is "To Die For"... 
Tony gave me the most amazing gift. He had personally made this beautiful, hand-crafted model of my destroyer, USS John Rodgers (DD-983), which I had commanded for two years. It was a touching moment when I gazed upon my old ship, and brought back many fond memories. 
Here is a close-up of Tony's exquisite model. He is a master craftsman - he has built his own wooden sailboat and many ship models that nautical museums would be proud to display.
As we reach the end of 2017, we look ahead for an even better 2018. This sunrise suggests the optimism that sailors have always had at the dawn of a new day. We wish you all fair winds, following seas and exciting adventures in the year ahead.
