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Tuesday, January 15, 2013
We both had a restless night. Between sore muscles and “new bed” syndrome, it was hard to get comfortable. My legs kept twitching most of the night. Not cramps, just twitches. And the blankets were so heavy, it felt like I was sleeping under a full mattress! We rearranged them after breakfast.
We had second breakfast this morning (7:00). They serve a good breakfast here – scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, peach halves, coffee, tea, orange juice. After the calories burned yesterday, we both chowed down.
After breakfast, we learned that we could remain in cabin one for another night, so we didn't have to gather our stuff together - we could leave it scattered all over the place.
Once we got things in the cabin organized, including rearranging the blankets on the bed, we headed out for a short hike. Our goal for the morning would be to return to the river, cross the Black Bridge, hike about a mile and a half upriver, then recross the Silver Bridge and return to camp.
My legs were wondering what was going on. How could I possibly be doing Tabata two days in a row!!! (Tabata is an advanced group exercise class that we started taking about a month ago.)
The photo on the left shows Carl on the trail leading to the Black Bridge, also known as the Kaibab Bridge. I have a similar photo of him from 1999, when we were there in September. In that other one, he's wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt!!!
The photo on the right shows the view upriver from the Black Bridge. The waters here look calm, but they really rush through this area. Swimming across the river is impossible and greatly discouraged. Too many people have been killed attempting it.
While on the river portion of the trail, we heard a helicopter approaching. It landed at the helipad near the mule corrals while we watched (photos to the left and right). Curiosity reigned. Were they there to medevac the person who was sick? Bring in supplies to fix the water break? Something else? Later we were to find out that the pilot was practicing canyon landings.
The daily mule riders passed us while we were stopped at one point, bringing three new tourists for the evening.
As we neared the Silver Bridge, we stopped on an overlook to watch the river for a few minutes. Two mule trains approached while we were standing there, off the trail. The lead rider asked us to move to the inner wall (as the rules require). Well, that put us on the blind side of an outside corner. We were apprehensive, but obeyed. The mule trains were carrying supplies to fix the water main break.
As the train passed, I asked the driver why the inside of the trail, especially when there was a wide area off trail on the outside. Well, she slowed to answer me and the train backed up.
One mule, about the fourth one, decided to cut the corner as close as he could. He nearly scraped Carl off the wall with his pannier, which was fully loaded. Then he whacked me with the pannier, knocking me off balance. I was trying to keep my camera off the rock face (scratched the casing around the filter and dinged a couple of other places, otherwise it's fine) and pick myself up off the trail. Jeff, the mule, was trying to recover his balance, too. One of his rear hoofs collided with my shin and, reconstructing it later, he also stepped on my right toe.
The shin has a 6 inch high by 4 inch wide bruise and a raised lump. I didn't realize the toe had been stepped on until a couple of days later, when I realized that the right boot's toe box had an unusual wrinkle in it. Part of the top of the toe box had collapsed and rubbed against the second toe, which was already sore from bumping into the toe box on the hike down. I really should replace the boots before too long...
I was more frightened than hurt. The mule drivers reassembled their trains, which had had leads dropped at the first sign of trouble, and they went on their way, after ascertaining that I was all right.
We continued over the Silver Bridge (also known as the Bright Angel Bridge) and found a picnic table in the sun to eat our lunch at.
While sitting there, the same mule strings came down the trail, heading for their corral. Carl noisily moved to the other side of the table. The lead rider did tell him that he was fine where he was, but I think he made his point, subtly.
Once we returned to the cabin, we got showers since it was the warmest part of the day (still an icebox inside the shower house), then got some ice in one of the spare ziploc bags and I kept ice on my shin for about half an hour. That's about all we could do for it. There's no permanent damage. I can still walk without it hurting, but the colors it's turning are amazing... And I have my story about getting run over by a mule!
Oh, the reason you move to the inside of the trail is: in case something like this happens, you bounce off the rock wall and possibly get run over by the mule instead of falling over the edge, possibly into the river...
We played more cribbage before dinner. A table full of college students hiked in today. We never did figure out what their purpose was, but something was said about extreme activities and the effect on the human body – skiing was mentioned, as was hiking in various conditions. Must be a rough class...
High today was 39 degrees.