6-4-18

The Incredible 11 at The Grand Canyon! :-)

Clara, April, Nancy, Daira, Hannah, Carol, Me, Bob, Paul, Brent, Matthew.

Team Zurisana!

The 7 of us will be hiking RIM 2 RIM of the Grand Canyon tomorrow; June 5th!

Zurisana means awesome in Swahili. ;-)

For Hannah, Matthew & Clara it was the 1st time to SEE the Grand Canyon!

For everyone (except Bob and I) it will be the 1st time to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim!

Daira hiked Havasupai in 2006 which is part of the Grand Canyon and home of the turquoise waterfalls. April has hiked the Grand Canyon south rim down to the Colorado River & back 2x (via S. Kaibab & Bright Angel trails).

Clara (our 11 year old great-niece) flew in from Minnesota to be part of this GRAND adventure!

Clara was accompanied by her grandma & grandpa (my brother, Brent).

All 3 with big smiles for this big hike in this big canyon tomorrow!

Brent & Nancy will join Carol and Paul as our shuttle drivers. The 4 of them will drive the cars from the south rim to the north rim tomorrow where they'll meet us when we finish (12 hours after we start our hike). Their drive around will take 4.5 hours. We are grateful they are part of our Rim 2 Rim team!

April & Matthew (the AZ locals) are excited and thankfully used to this heat. Nieces, Daira & friend, Hannah flew in from Iowa! Both are runners and ready to take on this trek. Clara is a great little athlete but she did get butterflies after supper tonight. She is worried about tomorrow's huge day. Plus seeing how deep and wide the canyon looks is daunting for anyone. We assured Clara that she doesn't have to hike it and she can accompany her grandparents by car to the north rim. We will see how she feels in the morning. Bob and I are confident Clara can do this very tough hike but we want it to be fun & not scary for her.

Enjoying the evening views from the south rim.

Cool to see horses, elk & deer in Grand Canyon village.

Our packs are ready for our long day tomorrow. Good night.