Grand Canyon Day One

The hike down South Kaibab trail was steep and trecherous. It was the worst descent I have ever done. One of our party had to turn around and go back after a couple of miles after falling several times. In addition to the drop of almost 5000 feet in six miles, the trail was broken up badly by the frequent Mule trains. They would pound deep ruts into the trail which we had to avoid at our peril. We had to either jump from rut-top to rut-top or hop from the bottom of one rut to the bottom of the next. Some in our party would hike along the edge on the rocks lining the path to avoid the ruts. Approaching the last mile were were totally exhausted and our muscles worn out and, well it was hard to walk. At about that time we encounteresd the Colorado River. There was this narrow steel bridge, covered not very well by wooden planks spaced pretty far apart. It was very intimidating and very high above the water surface, one of the more scary crossings I have done. At least there were sides to the bridge and planks to walk on. Our shaky legs did not help much and my poles did keep getting stuck between the planks. Once we got to the other side, it was still some distance up a side stream to our camp. I was totally destroyed by the time we finally were able to offload our packs and have dinner.
You would think I'd sleep well that night but the thought of our ascent in the morning would not leave my mind.