Love Man went up to the Grand Canyon this weekend for his first ever Rim to Rim hike.
By rim 2 rim (as this group calls it), the group would hike down from the South Rim, walk along the bottom of the canyon and then hike up to the North Rim. They began at Bright Angel
Trail, which is on the South Rim. It is approximately a 12 hour hike.
Love Man was down in the bottom of the canyon, past Phantom Ranch when he came across one the guys in the group, who was sitting under a tree. This guy, I am going to call him "Fred", was not doing very well. Love Man proceeded to continue to hike with him, stopping several times for him to rest. Eventually they ran into a ranger, who assessed the situation and told Fred to lie in a stream. He needed to get his core temperature down. I guess the stream was super cold.
Fred did not bring a lot of water and no food. As a triathlon athlete, he thought he could use those gel snacks for this trek. He is an experienced hiker.
They continued on and the ranger thought they such rest at the caretaker's cottage. By now, it was late in the afternoon and they still had to climb the nearly five miles out of the North Rim of the canyon. In other words, they were about 4 - 5 hours out.
Betsy, or something like that, suggested that they stay the night. This ranger was super helpful.
Love Man proceeded to phone me. It came up on our caller ID, which flashes on our TV,
"United States Federal Government".
Blonde Girl answered the phone and he asked for me. "Ummm, just letting you know I am staying the night near Cottonwood Campground at the caretaker's cottage." He proceeds to tell me the story about Fred. "Yes, he is ill as he did not eat the right food." "How are you?" I asked. "Oh, fine, my knees are a little sore." "Do you have enough food?" I quizzed. "Oh, yes,
we are eating ramon noodles right now. I have to go, Fred needs to phone his wife."
I texted three people in the group. Love Man also said that Betsy was going to let another ranger know. Finally, after the group waited for them to come out. My friend, Amy got the
message. She phoned me using another person's phone as none of this technology works
very well at the Grand Canyon. I think she had to hang off the edge of the canyon to make the call to me.
She wanted to know what happened and how Fred was. I relayed all that I knew. The plan was that LM and Fred would leave first thing in the morning and complete the hike. The ETA was around 10:00 in the morning. I went to bed wondering if LM was sleeping on the floor or outside. I hoped he had enough food for tomorrow. There are water stations all over the place, so I was not worried about his water situation.
Another party had to spend the night. A famous Northern Arizona judge, who is retired, and his former clerk were also staying. The judge, an avid hiker, had been having trouble with his legs. They were very wobbly, but he had somehow continued on until he reached the caretaker's cottage. His son eventually arrived at Phantom Ranch passing out and hitting his head on a rock. He had to be evacuated out. Somehow they all went to bed, but the phone rang all night and into the early morning with calls about the judge and his group.
OMG.
The next morning, I got a text from Amy wondering if I had heard from LM. I told her no,
but I had *69ed the number and would call the ranger's station. I had also included that number in the original text to the leader of this expedition, Amy and Amy's husband.
I called the number and got a grumpy ranger, who I think was generally annoyed with all the drama. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.
