Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Not much to say about today’s walk, which was short and mostly on a gravel road. Heading into Mather Campground at the junction, I was amazed to discover that the shared hiker/biker sites are $6/night. Wow! Sure, it’s a shared campsite, but it’s a shared campsite next to the Grand Canyon.

I have fun company at the hiker/biker site, including two Australian and German men who have eaten canned food for their entire trip thus far – I admire the hiker who lugs cold cans around the Grand Canyon – two funny Swiss guys, a Dutch cyclist recently hospitalized for dehydration and a Thai cyclist who thinks that I’m crazy for wanting to hike into the Grand Canyon. I think that he’s crazy for not wanting to, of course.

In the evening I went with the Australian and German men to a corny but free programme. The Aussie told me that Australia is probably hotter than Arizona, and I asked him whether Australians would think that I was cool if I walked around with a sunbrella. He said that many Aussies carry sunbrellas… he was teasing 😥