Day 4 - Hello God? It's Me Tony

Day 4 started out bright and early - approximately at 5 a.m. in the morning. We wanted to get an early start out this day because it was the day of our big hike into the depths of the Grand Canyon. Little did I know, it would nearly be my last day on this earth.

All over the Park there were signs warning people not to hike to the bottom of the Canyon (near the Colorado River) and back to the top during the same day because of extreme exhaustion. While we didn't hike down and back on the same day, let's just say they sure got the extreme exhaustion part right.

We hiked that day on The Bright Angel Trail, which is the most popular trail on the South Rim of the Canyon. During the hike, we saw freaks and geeks in high heels and jeans (not together) and various other types of apparel that didn't seem appropriate for hikers. The hike down was breathtaking - because of the awesome views and the fact that we had to take small sips of breath in between holding our noses from the mass amount of stinky mule poo on the trail.

On the way down, I took 20 or so photos, drank 3 bottles of water and felt good. My legs and feet hurt a little so the wife and I decided to valiantly bypass the 1.5 mile resthouse to make our way for the 3 mile house. Wasn't our plan at the start of the trip, but what the hell. When were we ever going to be at the Grand Canyon again? Plus, it was early in the day and we figured that we'd be able to make it down and back without much effort and stress.

Along the way, we saw a woman who had been bucked off her mule and had to be airlifted out of the Canyon at 3 mile house. It was definitely upsetting. Hopefully that woman is okay.


After the 1 1/2 hour or so walk, we reached the 3 mile house. At the time, I felt it was quite an accomplishment to make it to that point. I'm used to walking a couple miles once or twice a week at or near sealevel on the flat sidewalk, so it was quite a different aerobic experience for me and the wife.

It sure makes a big difference though when the temp. is 95 degrees in the shade and you're at 6,000 feet or so. We rested at the 3 mile house for a half hour, ate some trail mix, filled up our water bottles and began our long trek up the canyon trail....As you could expect it was a lot more difficult going up the steep trail than it was coming down it. MUCH, MUCH more difficult. ...so much so that I had visions of suicide.

So far, I've told everyone that the best highlight from our trip was the hike down into the Grand Canyon. The scenic views were one of a kind. The weather was beautiful. It was Shangra-la crossed with the 1996 World Series.

I tell those same people that the worst part of the trip and maybe the worst part of my life ever - including the Yankees collapse in the 2004 ALCS - was the trek up from the 3 mile house. I cannot express in 1 million words how horrible it was.


As I said before, on the way down, I had three bottles of water. On the way up, I drank or poured on myself 8-9 bottles of water. We stopped literally every 5 minutes to rest. We stopped anywhere there was shade. We might have stopped 20 times. I don't know. My wife, who is in much better shape than the formerly beer swilling Paperboy, dealt with it much better than I did. At one point, I remember telling her that I would rather throw myself off the Grand Canyon than climb one more step. I was serious. Jesus, it was horrible.

After 2+ hours of climbing 3 miles up on a 45 degree incline in 100 degree heat, we mercilessly reached the top. I nearly collapsed. You can see from the picture that while I'm smiling, I'm really not in a happy mood. I'm smiling because I was happy that the whole experience was over. And because of the fact that I started the 6 mile round-trip trek with a beer belly and emerged at the end with a flat washboard stomach...

It was probably one of my Top 1o accomplishments of all time and I'm wicked proud that the wife and I did it. But I'll never forget how horrible the trek up the Bright Angel Trail was...

Tune in tomorrow for the story of the Painted Desert and our trip to John Wayne's old stomping ground...