I flew to San Diego, where I hung out with Geetesh and the occasional seal on the shores of San Diego! Geetesh also lent me his car for three days so I headed up to Santa Barbara to play with my 10-year old cousins, and had fun cracking open a coconut to eat.I then headed down to Mexico. Lacking a passport, I could only travel within a 25-mile strip adjacent to the US border, which is the mostly touristy, so I too a 2-hour bus ride to the pretty port of Ensenada, and ate as many fish tacos as I could fit in my belly (a fair number). The picture below shows my neighboring table being serenaded by a few friendly mariachis.
After Mexico, I joined Geetesh, Saqib, Sonal and Warisha for the 10 hour drive through the barren landscape of Southern California and Arizona to arrive at the Grand Canyon. Throwing caution to the wind, and strapping on several liters of water, I embarked on the Rim to River back to Rim hike--almost 20 miles, and a 5000 foot descent/ascent.
The views were simply stunning. At the rim, around 7000 feet altitude, the canyon spread out like a giant crinkled table cloth, 10 miles across as the crow flies, and with occasional glimpses of the muddy Colorado winding its way through the bottom.The hike down was easy--7 miles of track switching back on itself, hugging a ridge line and cutting through millions of years of evolution. Mules shared the trail, toting lazier (wiser!) tourists up and down, as well as supplies for the facilities below. The sun bore down as I approached the river, which I crossed on a small footbridge to arrive at the Ranger station. There I took a nap and drank a blissfully cold beer, which I would have paid $20 dollars for, but it was kindly priced at $3.75.
The hike back up was equally stunning, but as it was up, it was a lot, lot tougher. The 12 mile return trip followed Bright Angel Creek, so rather than having a ridge-line panorama, I was nestled in deep, high canyons, and was grateful every time I could hike a few feet in the shade of the cliff walls. I passed ancient (American) Indian settlements, and an unfortunate (South Asian) Indian man recovering from sun-stroke, who probably arrived at the top well after midnight, if not the next morning.
Sunset brought more stunning views, and the last 2-3 miles were hiked in cool, pleasant darkness, with my headlamp illuminating the path. I finally arrived back, ate a miserable meal (Governments should never run restaurants), and fell deeply asleep.The following day we returned to San Diego, I met up with old crew friends that night and the next day on the beach, and caught a flight home, so tired I was unable to keep my eyes open long enough for the distribution of peanuts. What a great two weeks.
A few more photos can be found here.
