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Day 47, 48, 49

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Mather Campground served as our midway point to fully reentering the “real world”. We no longer spent every waking hour with heavy packs, we wore Tevas and Birkenstocks, and had this odd thing called free time. We spent day 48 simply appreciating the canyon from the rim. We had each bought a pair of janky headphones that will surely break in a week or so, but they served their purpose, allowing us to listen to music again for the first time as we spent hours overlooking the rocks. Back at the tent, Zinc and Half & Half had spare fuel to burn. Naturally, we used this to toast marshmallows and make s’mores. On day 49, we ventured 5 miles into the canyon with only a drawstring bag - our backs were delighted! Even though we didn’t walk very far in comparison to the size of the canyon, the view point from inside was drastically different - like you’re on a whole other planet. On the trek back to the top, we could truly appreciate how fit we had become: we zoomed past over 100...
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Day 47

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As a symbolic act of our union to the trail, we rolled our tent together. It was one of our finest rolls. The plan for today was to stop in Tusayan - a town outside of the Grand Canyon - before continuing on to end our day at the National Park itself. As we trekked, firefighters on ATVs, buggies, trucks, and more flew by, covering us on dust each time.  These men (it really was only men) were here to start off more controlled fires. We knew this because we accidentally walked straight through the middle of their morning work meeting… about 25 tall men in hardhats stood in a circle around the path, silently watching us two muppets walk the middle saying “hello… how are you… hi…” with no reply. It was the ultimate walk of shame, and we couldn’t contain our laughter. To make our embarrassment worse, we shortly realised we had taken the wrong path and had to walk back through their meeting. By this time, they had gotten to work setting off fires with what looked like flame t...
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Day 46

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After some classic morning self-timer pics, we were off for our last full day of hiking. As we walked, we shared the remaining pieces of our others lives that had somehow slipped through the cracks during our seven weeks of chatting nonstop. This conversation helped us through the undulating terrain, which is we had failed to appreciate when looking at the map. Some bright coloured rocks appeared in the horizon. It took us a moment to realise these dramatic rocks were none other than the Grand Canyon itself - our final destination. Seeing the end of our journey ahead made the reality of how far we had come and how little we had to go really sink in.  As we dipped back into the woodlands, helicopters circled low ahead, reminding us we weren’t far from humanity. Our clingy friend - the snow - reared its ugly head once more. Not wanting to be anywhere near that horrible slush, we scurried on past it.  We powered through last 10 miles of the day, passing by some small...
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Day 45

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In all honesty, the first half of the day was quite mundane. More flat land. More back pain. And a few more trees to spice things up. We took our half way rest under the shade of a tree, and watched a line of beautiful copper cows troop past in the distance, backdropped by the snowy San Francisco Peaks.  Later on, we caught up with Zinc and Half & Half at a water tank. These two always have the most fire snacks, and we were quite jealous as we cold soaked our falafel-instant mash combo.  We stopped short at just under 19 miles to pitch next to a little lake. Here we also took a “shower”, which involved scrubbing dirt off our legs with a wet rag. We really felt delightfully clean, as our legs literally changed colour back to pale.  Late in the evening, and with only one full day to go, one doors zipper gave way. With headlamps and tape, we tried our best to perform tent surgery but nothing could save the zip. With the fear of mice getting our food, we loos...
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Day 44

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Our tactical positioning of the tent meant breakfast came with a sunrise view! In good spirits, we started the day with self-timer selfies and karaoke. We were both amazed at how much barren flat land sprawled in all directions throughout the whole day.  After a big 6 mile stint we stopped at Babbitt Lake, where we realised we had inadequately calculated our water with the time consuming need to chlorinate. Just when we had accepted our slightly thirsty fate for the next few hours, two trail stewards appeared bearing clean water! Another spork-like manifestation from the universe.  With the heavy water carry, our backs were particularly unhappy today so we stopped at 19 miles, somewhat near a water tank. This turned out really well, as it set us up with sufficient water for the next day. At our pitch, our friends Zinc and Half & Half passed by again. Although it was 6pm, they still had 3 miles to go but this didn’t stop them from pausing for a half hour chat. Th...
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Day 43

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Great news: our wet socks didn’t freeze despite camping in a snow field! What a delightful surprise.  The snow was relentless and the navigation was horrible, but dry land appeared after 5 miles. Today, we saw the extreme ways that humans alter forests. We walked through an immensely logged field and then through a controlled fire zone with logs still smoking. Lucy correctly noted these smoky trees smell just like burned marshmallows. After several days without them, our friends Zinc and Half & Half our back! The day was peppered with lots of unintentional half hour chats as we leapfrogged them. This couple creates quite the detriment to our mile count, but we so cherish these interactions. We even have their real, non-trail names and phone numbers now, and have plans to camp together at the Grand Canyon.  We dropped in elevation out of the pines and into true Arizona desert again; vast swathes of land expanded in all directions. Unlike last night’s forced pit...
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Day 42

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If we’ve learned anything on this trip it is as follows: the snow is not over yet. It’s always bitter sweet leaving a town, but the calming trees and gentle creek made it easier… for about five miles. Here, we hit our longest continuous blanket of snow yet. There’s typically patches of bare ground amongst the snow, but not today.  We stopped at a small, half frozen lake on a wide plain into which all the snow melt was pouring. Splashing through boggy and windy marshland to get water, we really hit a low point of the day.  To further our dismay, the snow made for slow and frustrating navigation. We tried following others footsteps, but these kept disappearing on us. Hidden logs also made for a treacherous crossing, as we would continuously and unexpectedly and plummet through the thin snow around them. Lucy managed to get stuck under one particularly mean log, and was genuinely worried she wouldn’t be able to get her tired legs out.  Even though there was sn...
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