Day Two: Grand Canyon, North Rim, Thunder River Trail

Day TWO, we drop through a break in the Red Wall cliffs into Surprise Valley. It's hot hot hot. Surprise! It's August, in the Grand Canyon, but the heat is still shocking. Our destination is Thunder River Falls, and it's absolutely incredible. This river, one of the shortest and steepest in the world, spits right out from the side of the canyon wall. We eat lunch in the spray of the falls, taking turns drenching ourselves. The fellas try to climb up to the cave, but the rocks are too hot to touch. Jody manages to curl up into a ball and take a nap - her hair and makeup are perfect. I'm not bitter. My brother resembles Indiana Jones.

Wait...maybe he IS Indiana Jones. Only more dangerous. We continue along Tapeats Creek, making several stream crossings. At one point I have a panic attack because we are hiking a very narrow section of trail very high above the ground and my brain does not like it. Tom comes back to save me like a good big brother. This is a repeating pattern in my life. We push through. I don't die and take this as encouragement to keep going. At the bottom, I lay my whole body fully clothed in the creek; it feels like a York Peppermint Patty commercial. Todd calls the next section "the death march" and after rock climbing for what was not 'just a mile' we eventually reach camp at a sandy beach near Mile 135 Rapids along the Colorado River. The river is blood red and carrying a lot of silt. Boy, we are tired.