How did this post disappear from my timeline?? Ive no idea, but it did Im hearing that theme from the Twilight Zone. I did post; people even commented. So, here it is, again, the Grand Canyon adventure post about the hold man we saw at midnight near Skeleton Point shortly after hitting the trail. Grand Canyon moonlight Adventure-Post #12 You may recall the old man near Skeleton Point, whom I introduced in post #8. Beth and Ross and I teased afterward that if we had taken a photo with him, he would have been invisible to the camera, just like a ghost. He was ghostly, this old man hiking alone at midnight through bare wisps of moonlight in an otherwise cloud covered sky, barely shuffling along. When I asked him, he responded convincingly about being just fine. He was geared up for the hike as if he knew what he was doing. Having walked closely enough by him and looking straight into his eyes, I noted that his eyes did not seem to focus. He was an interesting character, to be sure, but not one requesting our interceding, so we moved on. The next morning, after a long, blissful night of sleep and over a leisurely breakfast, Ross pointed over my shoulder to a man sitting practically elbow-to-elbow with me at the next table. “Anne! Doesn’t that look like the man at Skeleton Point?” OMG, it does! Any reserve I may have had was overrun, right along with any consideration that might have allowed him to have enjoyed another bite of breakfast. “Sir, were you hiking toward the South Kaibab at midnight on Tuesday?” “Yes, yes I was. I was doing the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim. It was the hardest I’ve ever done...took me 40 hours, had never taken more than 30 before.” Good heavens! With just a couple more notes of interest, this man unleashed storytelling charms. Ghostly though he may have looked, the exceedingly capable 76 year-old Dan Oliver had just completed his 18th Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim in the last 20 years! Dan Oliver (of Michigan Institute of Technology [MIT]) doubles the hike we just labored through every year come hell or high water. Open heart surgery stopped him once and some other earthly mayhem another year, otherwise he’s dauntless. This hike took him longer, in part, because his eyes were chronically mis-focusing, measuring the ground as about a foot above where it really was. Though his eyes told him what he was seeing, they couldn’t tell him where. He essentially had to feel his way with his walking sticks through 48 miles of some of the most rugged hiking in the world, the Grand Canyon Kaibab Trail! And he did it in 40 hours, napping for a few minutes every 1 ½ hours. Dan and his brother, who was at the breakfast table with him, were excited that I was going to do a multi-media presentation about our trek and eager gave me their contact info. Over the course of the hike, I recorded 22 minutes of audio on my phone (sounds of crickets, feet crunching on the trail, flowing water, laughter and conversation), which will be part of the presentation, and in which I speak of having just seen the ghostly man near Skeleton Point. He is especially eager to hear that part. It’s a small world and--man alive!--there are some hearty people in it. It was a privilege to meet Dan Oliver. I look forward to giving him a copy of the multimedia presentation about the Grand Canyon trek that is so important to him and which he knows with such intimate experience.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 21:41:59 +0000
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