By MICHAEL RIEDEL
Posted: 2:45 am
September 30, 2008
OF THE five million visitors to the Grand Canyon each year, 99 percent of them will view it from the rim only.
They gaze into that yawning chasm, snap a family photo and then have lunch at the El Tovar Lodge. The average
visit to the Grand Canyon - one of the seven natural wonders of the world - is just under four hours, according to the National Park Service.
The other one percent, however, are known as "canyoneers." These are the people that hike to the bottom, camp alongside the Colorado River and then climb back up.
Earlier this year, I (with four others) decided to become a canyoneer. I signed up for a four-day trek by Jon Shkolnik, a guide with 20 years experience and the owner of Grand
Canyon Hikes.
Day one began at 5 a.m.; we left from from Grand View Point, where a sign warns hikers not to enter the canyon without plenty of water.
Some facts: The number-one killer in the Canyon is dehydration. Death plunges are second. Many of those can be attributed to dehydration, which impairs judgment ("Look, I can fly!" Splat.)
In late spring, when I hiked, temperatures generally reach 90 degrees at the rim and up to 120 degrees in the Inner Gorge, over a mile below.
On this particular morning, it was snowing. I looked into the Canyon and felt snow coming up into my face. This, Jon explained, was due to the wild thermodynamics of the Canyon, a phenomenon which appeals to birds from all over the world who like to come do loop de loops.
The first day was rough. We hiked six miles with 30-pound packs on our backs down a path fashioned millenia ago by Big Horn Sheep, then by Native Americans and then,
in the 19th century, by copper and asbestos miners.
Jon took us on a side hike to a fabulously spooky place called The Cave of the Domes. We strapped on head-lamps and crawled into what appeared to be a little cave.
Once inside, however, we discovered vast chambers furnished with monstrous stalagmites and stalagtites.
Fellow hiker Julie, a health-care executive from Chicago, told me that she thought she'd signed up for an easier hike than the one we were on, which, according to Jon's Web site, is "hardcore only!"
"I didn't read the Web site," Julie confessed.
GATHER AT THE RIVER
The next day we reached the rushing Colorado, which, after two days of hiking (and no shower), looked inviting.
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