Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, Part 2 - on our way to GRCA!

Friday morning, alarms went off, but we all admitted to each other that we had all been awake to some degree and for varying lengths of time as the excitement of the journey in front of us had kept us from sleeping as peacefully as we had hoped. There was no dragging to get out of bed, though - our day of traveling to Grand Canyon National Park was in front of us. One more big hurdle to clear before stepping off on the Rim to Rim hike!

Amanda, Melissa and Shannon at a pit stop on the way

Not unlike our cadet days, we moved with efficiency, getting dressed and heading downstairs to grab our free hotel breakfast (score!). With the hotel room swept for any left-behind items, we packed up the minivan for the four hour drive to the Grand Canyon!! While this trip was about hiking, the road trip element in between had us in high spirits. What a gift to spend four hours together with sisters of your heart, telling stories and comparing notes of the cast of characters we shared from our West Point days! I had said more than once, too, that I would insist on taking a lot of pictures - no regrets of missing out on pictorial evidence of the adventure at hand. That included selfies at our gas stops, goofy faces and all!

Before we knew it, really, we were driving through the little town of Tusayan that was the gateway to the park. I insisted on stopping at the official sign, where we found a lovely British couple on their honeymoon who we were able to share favors of taking the official entrance sign picture!

only missing Leslie!

ready for the shuttle!

As we drove through the park, my nerves and excitement were running HIGH! We found a place to park by the backcountry office, walked over to check in at the Bright Angel Lodge for our 1:30 shuttle ride, and then had about a half hour to hang out. This definitely worked out because naturally, I realized I'd forgotten something in the car and went back to get it. Part of the uncertainty and nerves was this feeling that there was something I absolutely had to have; in this case, it was my earbuds so that I could listen to my audiobook on the shuttle ride and possibly the evening of our stay at Phantom Ranch. We filled our bottles with water, charged our phones, and kept an eye on our watches. There were other shuttle riders sitting in the lobby of the Lodge where we were waiting, so it was pretty cool to get to talk to some of the other hikers, too. There were three dudes that were planning to RUN it the next day! One of them was a retired JAG guy, too - who when he saw our West Point stuff, asked if *we* went there. Not our husbands, not our dads, not our sons. A lovely, enlightened guy.

in the WAY back of the van

We were excited about getting to the North Rim... and that excitement lasted exactly as long as it took for all of us to get nauseous in the very last row of the Ford Transit van with a lead-footed driver who steered like he was playing Grand Theft Auto!! At our first rest stop, I ended up having to get in the front seat and ride shotgun. It wasn't going to be pretty if I had to stay in the back. Not to mention how uncomfortable the seats were... Melissa's back, which miraculously had improved during the week, could not have felt good!!

In the interim, we had been going back and forth with Leslie, managing through a mild level of panic because her flight had been delayed. It was definitely too much to expect that there would not be any travel issues with four people traveling, but this was the toughest one; if Leslie didn't make it back to Vegas close to her originally planned time, there was almost no chance she could get to the starting point on time. If I know anyone who will make something happen, though, it is Leslie! She changed her flight literally on her way to the airport, and ended up finding a nonstop that got her in without a layover, even a little bit earlier than originally planned! With the crisis averted, we were all able to get back to the low hum of excitement that ran through our conversations as we hurtled toward that first step on the trail.

Almost FIVE HOURS LATER... we get to the North Rim where it is beautiful - and so much cooler!! I was watching the temperature gauge on the van console, and it dipped into the mid-50s as we approached the Lodge. The North Rim was so, so green... a completely different ecosystem than the South Rim, which is where something like 95% of all GCNP visitors go. I now personally understand that statistic, given how hard it is just to get to the North Rim! We checked into The Grand Canyon Lodge, and headed to our "hotel room" which turned out to be a charming little cabin-esque arrangement, and settled in for the evening.

Dinner at the Lodge was quite an elaborate affair, and not very easy on the wallet, so we chose to keep it simple and grab some pizza at the cafe. We took it back to our room and commenced with final prep, filling water bottles, waiting for Leslie, unpacking and repacking our rucks repeatedly (oh, wait... that was just me...). The best way to fill my water reservoir and Nalgenes was to use the filling stations outside, and as I made my way along the path, I looked up into an incredible night sky, full of stars you just don't see in most places. The western sky was one of the things I was excited to see while on this trip, and it did not disappoint on a clear, crisp September evening.

The three of us were in bed around 10pm, knowing Leslie was on the ground and getting ready to drive through the night with her husband Logan to get to the North Rim. Logan is a good egg, for sure - a five hour drive through the night to get her to the starting point, just so he could sleep for a few hours and turn around and drive right back to Vegas.

They showed up around 2:00am, at which point we all popped out of bed to say hello, naturally! We tried to settle back in to get some more sleep, but the adrenaline of anticipation for the next day probably kept all of us from sound sleep at that point. When the alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning, there was no complaining, no problem getting up and getting going! It only took a few minutes for us to give up on being quiet and not waking Logan up; in the face of such enthusiasm, though, he was a terrific sport, wishing us all luck before we stepped out into the very cool, 43* morning on the North Rim.

We were officially a massive ball of nerves, excitement and energy!! We were DOING IT!!! We headed out into the pre-dawn quiet to catch our 5:30am shuttle to take us to the trailhead. Let the Rim to Rim hike begin!