My husband and I have a new project. It requires preparation, planning and physical pain.
We are hiking the Grand Canyon.
This notion came about years ago and has a sweet sappy backstory. We met and married when we were both in our 40′s. We had both been married before and due to failed relationships, had a slight inkling of what we wanted in any future relationship. My husband, an outdoor type of guy, was married to a woman who was not interested in any type of physical activity, housework included, and an adventure to her was dragging him and 3 kids to the mall to spend his money.
One of the things that he liked about me from the beginning was my love of the outdoors and all things adventurous and physical. He started running once we were seriously dating, because he missed a lot of quality time with me because I was out on route somewhere and he could not keep up.
Through our 3 year courtship, we had many adventures. We camped in tents, hiked the hills and valleys we could get to, ran 5K races together and planted a labor intensive vegetable garden. Once married, we bought mountain bikes and rode for miles and miles, acquired more camping paraphernalia and took vacations that required physical activity. We hiked above timber line at Vail one summer, hiked Muir Woods and the Pacific coast line near San Francisco, rode bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge and have spent hours on the bike routes and trails of the Great Smoky Mountains. We like this stuff. A lot.
As we moved through our 40′s, heading to the BIG 5-0, we made an agreement that the year each of us turned 50, we would do THE BIG TRIP of the birthday person’s choosing. The trip was to be something important, something dreamed about, something from the top of “The Bucket List.”
My husband’s trip choice was a hike into the Grand Canyon. Two years before his 50th birthday, we began to research this trip. There are hundreds of options for doing a Grand Canyon hike. The one we liked best was the one with a guide company that provides all your stuff – bedding, food, water, blister treatment and back rubs for a 7 day trip. The trip included a day of white water rafting at the bottom of the canyon and a helicopter ride on the last day for a view of where you had been. Oh, that sounded wonderful!
We bookmarked the website and began talking to our adult children, who expressed a mild, non-committal interest in maybe perhaps thinking about joining us.
The year my husband turned 50, we were invited to vacation with our best friends in England. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and we all knew it, as the wife of the couple had terminal cancer. There wasn’t much discussion about the choice, we both knew the England trip took precedence. That trip exhausted our vacation fund and our time off from work so the trip was put on hold.
The next year, several family events were scheduled, my step-father’s 75th birthday, two family weddings, both hours away, and other short weekend opportunities we wanted to take advantage of. So we put it off another year. In the meantime, I mentioned our Grand Plans in our Christmas letter each year, lamenting that we ARE going to do it some day.
Due to the mention in the Christmas newsletter, my brother-in-law and my husband talked about our dream trip. One thing led to another. My brother-in-law is a doctor in his 60′s and an avid outdoors man. He has led back country hikes and camping trips in the Grand Canyon several times along with hikes through mountains and volcanoes in several states. He wanted to lead us on our Grand Canyon adventure! He knows the ropes! And hopefully all the water sources along the way.
The trip is confirmed for May. We have tons of training and preparation ahead. We started this project 2 weeks ago and it hasn’t been pretty. Right here is where you can read all about it.
Tags: Grand Canyon
