Into the Canyon, Part 2

One Step At A Time

When I left off in the last post, we had just started down the South Kaibab trail into the canyon. The descent was spectacular and I was feeling great. Many talk about how difficult the downhill is, but I had spent hours going up and down our stairs and I was excited that it was paying off.

There is no way to describe what it’s like to watch sunrise, inside the canyon. The light tips the highest parts of the rock walls and slowly makes its' way into the canyon. Soft muted colors, are bathed for a while in a warm golden light that makes the canyon look like flaming orange. As the sun rises in the sky, the true colors of the walls begin to emerge and every turn took my breath away.

Around 11, we stopped for lunch and I discovered my big mistake for the day. I had purchased Keto bread for my peanut butter sandwich, aka, no carbs. That slip up would haunt me later. After a rest, we set off on the next 4.5 mile portion, Tonto Trail.

We only hiked a portion of the Tonto Trail, but it was stunning. The challenge of the Tonto portion is that there is almost no shade in 4+ miles. The temps were around 80 degrees and direct sun is not my friend. I’m like a car that tends to run hot. Thankfully I’ve learned a lot about hydration, so we made it across and prepared for the hike out. But the sun had definitely zapped some of my energy.

It was around 4:00 p.m. and we had been hiking for 10 hours. And this is where the lack of carbs and calories came back to haunt me. We had 4.5 miles to go, with a 3300 hundred foot climb and I had absolutely nothing left, my gas tank was empty. But I wasn’t sick, I wasn’t in any danger, I was just tired, and that’s when the game changed. It went from a physical challenge to a mental challenge.

The first little bit of this portion is like walking through a valley, until you come to the canyon wall and start the switch backs going up. They are endless and it is all uphill, some areas are steep, some are not and LOTS of steps, some as high as my knees. Our next rest stop was 1.5 miles up and it felt like 3 miles. That’s the longest 4.5 miles I’ve ever hiked.

At one point, a group of men passed us and one of their friends was lagging behind. As the guy passed (he looked as worn out as I felt), Scott said, “You’ll do this, one step at a time.” I don’t know if the guy heard him, but I sure did. That was the key to getting out of the canyon!

I needed to stop worrying about how far it was, how was I going to make it, when would we ever get out of the canyon and I needed to look at this climb as simply taking the next step. When we started the climb out, I said a prayer and asked God to fuel my legs to get me out. I wanted the climb to be fun and easy. But then my prayer became, “Give me the strength to take the next step.”

For the next 3.5 miles, around 7,500 steps, I fought the battle to stay focused on one step at a time. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cry, I railed at myself for thinking I could do this and considered that I should give up my dream to hike the canyon rim to rim.  And then I would drag my thoughts back to ‘take the next step.’

Scott was a rock star! He never got impatient with me, he didn’t rush me, he cheered me on and even had me turn off my headlamp to stop and see more stars than I ever imagined existed. And at 10:30 that night, 16 hours and 50 minutes after we stepped into the canyon, we stepped out of the canyon. We accomplished more than I ever dreamed possible, one step at a time.

As we walked out of the canyon, I laughed and said, “So I need to figure some things out so we can do this again.” 

In those almost 17 hours, I learned some important things, most of them came in the last 6.5 hours, on the hardest climb I’ve ever made.

1. I clearly still need to work on my desire to be comfortable. I wanted God to make it easy for me. “Hey God, I took on a hike I probably shouldn’t have and I didn’t plan well with food, but could You rescue me and not let this be so hard?” God gave me a gift that day when He didn’t give me what I wanted. He gave me the strength to take the next step, but He also showed me a tenacious, determined, tough part of me that I wasn’t really sure still existed.

2. The Bible says “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind…” and to “take every thought captive.” When challenges in life provide me opportunities to practice those truths, it becomes more of a natural state to default to in my spiritual life. I got loads of practice in taking every thought captive as I climbed out the canyon. And the climb out was transformed when I adjusted my focus from worrying about what was ahead to focusing on the next step.

3. Everyone needs someone who is their rock star. Someone who cheers them on, stays with them in the hardest of times, doesn’t let them lay down on a trail with tarantulas and take a nap (they protect you from yourself), and in the midst of it all reminds you to look at the stars and see the beauty all around you.

4. On the road to your dream, when something is far more difficult than you ever imagined, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have the wrong dream. It probably just means you have more work to do. So take the next step and do the work.

As hard as those last 4.5 miles were, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. The things I learned, the deeper connection with Scott, the unfathomable beauty, the majesty, the creativity of creation, that makes God so visible, it was worth every single easy, fun, scary, dig deep into yourself step.

I have one more post that I’ll write about our trip. It’s probably the one I’m most excited to share with you. Stay tuned!