NothinMuch: Day 3 Grand Canyon

Woke up at 0500 MST which is only 0700 CDT so not too early except my free continental breakfast had yet to open. I planned on starting my hike of the Grand Canyon at 0700. However I had a 1 ½ drive to the canyon and had to take a shuttle to the trail head I wanted. I ended up starting my hike at 0830. It was sunny and cold at the rim. I am at the south rim as the north rim is still closed for the winter season. The map said I had to hike 12 miles to get to the end but this was the round trip figure, which I understood when I arrived at Plateau Point 2 hours later. The trail was narrow and I decided I would never trust a donkey to stay on it, however when heading the other direction for about 4 hours I would have paid a lot to have the oldest and most wobbly donkey carry me. The entire hike was beautiful and it began to get warmer as I descended. The trail head was at 6900 ft elevation and by the end of the day I had descended to 2000 ft elevation. After Plateau Point I went back 1.5 miles and headed down another trail to the Colorado River. I reached the river at about 1300 and spent a little bit of time wading and taking pictures. It started to lightly rain and was incredibly windy so I didn’t spend much time at the river. The patellar tendon of my right leg was hurting so I was glad to use different muscles for the climb. Otherwise the trip down had not wore me out at all so far as I could tell. I started my hike back up at 1315. The first 4.5 miles where easy and I thought I was pretty hot stuff but the last 3 miles nearly killed me. My leg extensor wanted to quit working. I made sure I urinated about every hour and my urine was clear which meant I was well hydrated. I was worried a bit about hyponatremia but my salty beef jerky prevented this. The last 1.5 miles was the slowest I had ever walked. I had to stop often as the trail seemed to become steeper and the sun decided to come out and bake me. It then got cloudy and began to rain so I put my raincoat on which kept all my heat in and I soaked my raincoat from the inside out. By the time I arrived at the trailhead it was 1700 and I was out of breath and shaking pretty badly from being so fatigued. All in all I had hiked 19 miles with an elevation change of just less than 5000 ft. The top was colder and more windy than the morning and I quickly became cold. I was soaked with sweat and had my nonbreathable insulated raincoat on which held in the moisture so I was pretty miserable. Note I did kill another rattlesnake today after it got too close and I have no blisters or new calusus on my feet thanks to my Vibram Fivefinger Spyridons. I was afraid to drive the 1.5 miles back to Flagstaff as I would end up being incredibly stiff once I arrived so I decided to take the shuttle as far as I could to the west while stopping at a few places and taking pictures. I was feeling better when I got back so I road the shuttle to the other extreme and took some pictures on the way. I now had traversed the canyon as much as I could both vertically and horizontally. It was dark and 2000 so I drove home. I took 180 back to Flagstaff, which takes me through San Francisco peak to an elevation of 8000 ft. from 6500 ft to 8000 ft it had snowed up to ½ an inch so the drive back was not very enjoyable as apparently they had retired their snowplows for the year. Anyway I stopped at McDonalds in Flagstaff to obtain faster internet and ate an $11 meal. I better get going as the employees are giving me the evil eye for setting here so long. I’ll upload some Grand Canyon pictures tomorrow. All-in-all the day was great, however I doubt I will ever hike down and back up the canyon in 1 day as you can only enjoy it ½ the time as the other ½ you are just chanting Thomas the Train's mantra of I think I can I think I can.