Galapagos Islands

My wife and I visited the Galapagos Islands in February. This was my first trip to South America and my first time in the southern hemisphere. The Galapagos Islands remind me of the Hawaiian Islands, at least with respect to geology. They also have similar invasive species problems. This was a fantastic trip, with wildlife, volcanic features, and wonderful visits to beaches and hills in warm, humid weather.

We flew from Dulles to Quito on Copa, with a stopover in Panama City. We had a full day in Quito, during which we rested and walked to the nearby botanical garden for a visit. In spite of its location on the equator, Quito was cool and damp because of its high elevation.

After our day in Quito, we took a bus to the airport. We had to put our luggage out the night before for invasive species inspection and sealing. At the airport, we had to go through hand luggage inspection in addition to security. We flew Latam to San Cristobal Island, with a stopover in Guyaquil. The airport on San Cristobal was a typical small-island airport - no air conditioning, only one area each for arrivals/departures, and a long line to get through entrance control. Even though this was a domestic flight, we still had to clear passport control and provide documentation that showed why we were there and when we were leaving. After passing through all that, we had to wait, as a group, for all of the luggage to come off the plane, where it was lined up in rows and, when it was all out, a cop with a dog briefly inspected it. He selected a few bags for more-thorough inspection and then the rest of us could claim our luggage and leave.

We boarded some hot buses and made the short trip to the marina. There we waited on the dock for our turn to ride a zodiac to the ship. There were sea lions on the dock, sleeping. There were sea lions on the rocks, sleeping. There were sea lions in the water. There was an iguana running among us, and we had to be careful to avoid stepping on it.

When our turn came, we boarded a zodiac and rode out to the ship. There was significant swell, which made getting into/out of the zodiac an adventure, which we repeated twice a day for the next week. Once aboard the ship, we immediately noticed that it rolls, constantly. We’re used to much-larger ships that have better stabilization so this was a surprise. I never got seasick; it was never uncomfortable, but always noticeable. We waited a while for our turn to check in, then went to lunch, then finally got our key cards for our cabin. We unpacked, watched the safety video, went to the muster drill, had a quiet afternoon as the ship departed port, and were quietly sitting in our room when we had our first stop: Kicker Rock. I opened the window to take a few shots from our room.

Kicker Rock

This is when we noticed that the AC wasn’t working. It never turned back on after I closed the window, so we had a warm first night. We reported to our butler (that’s what the staff calls them) and he got it fixed while we were on our first outing.

This was an expedition ship, which means it is small, which means there’s also a meeting every night before dinner with a brief educational presentation followed by the activity director’s description of the next day’s activities. I was dubious about the value of these nightly meetings, but the educational info was mildly interesting and the description of the next day’s activities was crucial for making good decisions about what to do.

I used the Apple Journal app on my phone to keep track of what we did each day. I grabbed screen shots of the map at each stop so I had a record of the location of each activity. The ship has good Wifi so I was always able to get good maps.

Our first morning, I went with the “power walk” group to a hilltop viewpoint on St. Bartoloma Island. We climbed (on a boardwalk with steps) to the top of a volcanic cone, where we had a great view of the volcanic features around us.

St Bartoloma looking toward Santiago

The ship repositioned during lunchtime to a place off Santiago Island where we had an afternoon zodiac tour of the shore. Then briefings, dinner. This was the pattern for the whole trip: a morning activity, the ship might reposition, then an afternoon activity, then briefings, dinner, bed. Sometimes there was a second morning activity. There were walks ashore, zodiac tours, snorkeling, kayaking. There was hot weather and hotter weather. There were brief periods of blue sky, mostly partly cloudy days, and some overcast periods. There were torrential overnight downpours. What there wasn’t was a clear sunset or sunrise. And I was hoping for clear nighttime skies to see the dark sky, but we barely saw the stars. Having said all that, we did have good weather for all of our landings except one: a wet landing where the waves picked up as we returned to the ship and I got hit by waves up to my waist and then got rained on.

We also visited Isabella, Fernandina, Floreana, and Santa Cruz Islands. Each island has its own geography, wildlife, and unique places to visit.

After seven nights aboard, we disembarked at the same port where we embarked, saw the sea lions again, rode a bus to the airport, went through security again, and flew to Guyaquil on Latam. We stayed at a hotel in town until midnight, when we went back to the airport for our 3AM flight on Avianca. We had a stopover in Bogota, then returned to Dulles.

Wildlife seen: Iguanas, sea lions, lava lizards, Nazca and Blue-footed boobies, sea turtles, penguins, porpoises, and tortoises.

Photography from a zodiac in waves was an adventure. Aside from that, landscape photography was pretty good, with good light most of the time. Wildlife photography was also quite easy because most birds, iguanas, and sea lions were unbothered by close approaches. For landings, I used my 70-200mm lens for most shots and rarely wanted a different lens. I kept a second body handy on the ship with my 300mm lens attached and used that a few times for wildlife. I also brought my 24-70 lens, and there were a few times that I used it for interesting landscapes visible from the ship. I also used my phone a lot.

Mating Tortoises

Yellow Warbler

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

Silver Endeavour

Land Iguana

Blue Footed Booby

Nazca Boobies

Volcanic Landscape

Sea Lion

Flightless Cormorants

Marine Iguana

 

Sea Lion

Galapagos Penguin

Flamingo

Katmai National Park

My daughter and I made a return visit to Katmai National Park. There was drama.

I’ve written previously on this blog about my trip last year and, this year, the difficulty in getting campground reservations. This is how the trip actually went.

The first bit of stress was after we boarded the airplane in Anchorage. The pilot announced while we were still on the ground that the weather conditions in King Salmon were below minimums and we might not be able to land. We took off, approached King Salmon, and had to do a hold while we waited for other traffic to attempt to land. A little late, we landed in King Salmon.

Having made the trip the previous year, we knew the process to use the water taxi. We waited, the van showed up, we rode to the boat launch, we boarded. Naknek Lake was smooth; we had a comfortable trip to the Brooks Lodge area. After watching the video about how to stay safe around bears, we checked into the campground and pitched the tent.

We had three days of cold weather. The bears were less plentiful than last year and we saw no cubs at all. The fish were everywhere in the river, with their deep red bodies easily visible from the bridge. Most of our bear sightings were from the bridge.

Salmon in the Brooks River

There was a very windy day that cancelled all flights and water taxi trips after our second night. I was worried that the water taxi would not run for our return trip to King Salmon, and then we would also miss our return flight to Anchorage. The waves on Naknek Lake were pretty big (for a lake), and the bridge shook below our feet when we looked for bears. That night as the wind blew it also started to rain.

Our water taxi reservation was for 10AM. We knew that the water taxi’s first departure from Brooks was usually 8AM, so we got up early, packed our stuff away in the rain, and hung out at the lodge to try to get an early trip out. I was worried that the wind would pick up again and halt the taxi. We were able to leave early (and we were the only passengers) and then my daughter and I hung out at a cafe in King Salmon until it was time for our flight. The return to Anchorage was uneventful.

OK, time for bears…

Gully

747 and Chunk

Near the bridge

One of many fishing bears by the bridge

Brooks Falls

My daughter and I walked over to Brooks Lake on the one day that was sunny. It was so windy on Naknek Lake that the airplanes were landing at Brooks instead, so it got pretty busy there. The bugs were pretty bad that day in spite of the wind.

Staying in the campground was OK. My tent held up well even in the strong wind. Our sleeping bags kept us warm enough. We took showers in the bath house and ate our meals in the lodge. The campground was completely full.

Compared with last year, the photography opportunities were disappointing, although I did manage to get a few shots that I like.

I doubt I’ll ever go back to Katmai; I’m glad I had the experience to share with my daughter.

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Sun's Corona During Totality

We saw the eclipse; it was awesome!

It was quite the journey. Here's the GPS track, showing major stops. This was NOT what I planned.

Route of Travel

Years ago, actually right after the 2017 eclipse, I started planning for the 2024 eclipse. I checked the historical weather maps and decided my best chance of clear skies along the path of totality would be in Texas. With about six months to go, my wife made a hotel reservation in Austin. Then I picked a couple of places near Austin as candidates to set up to watch and photograph the eclipse.

My wife took a flight to an event in Nashville the week before the eclipse, so we planned for me to pick her up there enroute to Austin. By the time I reached Nashville on April 5, the forecast predicted overcast and rain for most of Texas, but clear skies in New England, so we cancelled the reservation in Austin and headed for New England. We stopped overnight in Ithaca to visit the city where my wife went to college. Then we went to Lake Placid because that was closer to New England and it was among the few places where we were able to get a hotel room. Then on the morning of April 8, the day of the eclipse, I checked the weather forecast one last time, and it looked like we needed to get beyond Burlington to the east for the best chance of clear skies. New Hampshire and Maine would have been better, but it's hard to travel east-bound in New England because there just aren't a lot of highways, so we went to Newport in Vermont. There was snow on the ground in Lake Placid and in northern Vermont.

When we arrived in Newport I chose Gardner Memorial Park as the place to watch the show. I picked a spot by the lake shore, set the cameras up, and waited under clear blue skies.

Camera Setup

Shortly Before Totality

Of course it didn’t stay completely clear. A thin cloud layer approached, and during totality we watched the eclipse through that thin layer. As it got dim, we could easily see Jupiter and Venus. Despite the clouds, we had a great look at the sun as it got cold, then dim, and during the final seconds before totality we saw the moon move to blot the sun out. We saw the corona and an enormous prominence with our naked eyes. I had one camera on a script controlled by a computer that snapped away. I had another camera that I shot manually, on a tripod, not looking at the camera at all, just using a remote trigger.

After totality, most people left. We waited for the end of the partial phase. After the eclipse ended, we checked traffic on the maps on our phones. Predictably, it was awful. I chose to avoid the interstate highway and instead took state highways to Burlington. There, we ran into traffic and slow going all the way to Glens Falls. When we finally got onto Interstate 87, traffic was very heavy but moving, and finally we stopped for the night at a hotel near the Albany airport. We returned home to Virginia the next day.

Here are a few shots of the eclipse.

Partial Phase with Sunspots

The shot above shows some large sunspots during the first partial phase.

Beginning of Totality

The shot above shows the beginning of totality, with prominences near the top of the photo, and just a hint of the large prominence at the bottom. The moon moved from bottom to top, with the top being the last part of the photosphere to be obscured, hence the prominences and glow at the top.

End of Totality

As totality ended, the moon moved to expose the bottom of the sun, showing some enormous prominences. We could see these with the naked eye. For reference, the large prominence on the lower left of the photo was several times the size of the Earth!

Baily's Beads

As the photosphere became visible, I got some fleeting Baily's beads.

Here’s my first/only attempt at a composite in Photoshop.

Composite

So it was a lot of driving for only about three minutes of totality. And it was just as good as I remember from 2017. The next one in the US is a lot of years away. Maybe we’ll try for one in Australia.

Solar Eclipse Tomorrow!

The weather isn’t cooperating; I’ve had to make a drastic change to my solar eclipse viewing plan.

I planned to watch the eclipse in Texas. I got a hotel reservation. My wife had an event in Nashville. I planned to pick her up on my way from Virginia to Texas. But the weather didn’t allow that. By the time I got to Nashville, the forecast for nearly all of Texas along the path of totality was cloudy and possible rain.

I reached Nashville on Friday. The eclipse is on Monday. I checked forecasts for other locations on the path of totality. There were several possible openings, but New England was looking very clear. We cancelled the hotel reservation in Austin and made a reservation in Ithaca, NY, and Lake Placid, NY. We picked Ithaca because it’s reachable in a (long) day of driving (and my wife went to college there). We picked Lake Placid to get us closer to New England. We stayed in Ithaca on Saturday night, and now we’re in Lake Placid for Sunday night. Of course the weather isn’t cooperating again. I was hoping to go to Burlington tomorrow morning, but now it looks likely that clouds will approach by 2PM, just as the eclipse is starting. So now the plan is to go to Newport in Vermont.

Plans for the April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

In 2017, I travelled with my wife and son to Grand Teton National Park to watch the total solar eclipse. I chose that spot after consulting a historical weather pattern map, concluding that it was a great place to watch with a high probability of clear skies. It was a fantastic experience. My son was a teenager at the time and dubious about the whole trip. At the end of totality, he turned to me and said, “Now I’m ready for the one in 2024.”

Unfortunately he won’t be with us this time; he’s in college. But my wife and I are going.

My photo of the 2017 eclipse

My photo of the 2017 eclipse

Again, I checked historical weather records for cloud cover along the path of totality. This time it’s not great. The best place within the US appears to be in Texas. So that’s where we’re going. If I can believe the weather projections, there’s a 50-50 chance of clouds.

It was ridiculously hard to get a hotel reservation last time. This time we were able to get a room in Austin. So I’m planning to stay there the night before the eclipse, and check the weather forecasts for the next day to decide where to watch the eclipse. Afterward, my wife and I will start the long drive home to Virginia, with no particular plan for where to spend the night.

I’m undecided with respect to the location at which to watch the eclipse. I’m generally hoping to find a location somewhere close to the center line of the path of totality between Waco and Fredericksburg. But of course a few million other people probably have the same idea. We could just drive to the general area and look for a place to set up. But I wanted something a little more concrete as an option, not wanting to be stuck on the road somewhere in traffic unable to find a suitable place. I need a place where I can linger for several hours with a clear view to the south and access to a bathroom. 

So I decided to make a day use reservation at a state park. I reviewed my options, selected several parks, made a rank-ordered list, and waited several weeks for the reservation window to open. I made an account on the web site. A few minutes before the window opened, I navigated through the reservation process up to the point where it was possible to actually make a reservation. I attempted to reserve at Lake Whitney, pressing the button seconds after the reservation window opened. The result: server error. Lots of others had the same idea. I tried repeatedly: more server errors, until all of the reservation slots were taken. It took less than a minute. I tried my second choice: Meridian State Park. I was able to make a reservation there. So I have a limited access location (hopefully not crowded), not on a highway, with bathrooms, where I can linger. It only cost me $10, so if I find a better place I’ll just abandon this plan.

I wanted a backup location. Meridian State Park looks like there isn’t a lot of room to park with a good view of the sky. I searched more. I made a reservation in Gatesville at the baseball field complex. There are parking lots, bathrooms, concessions, and not very many trees. I’m hoping I can get a good spot for a clear look at the sky.

I love a photographic challenge, and total solar eclipses are definitely a challenge. I need a better plan than I had in 2017. I got some acceptable results then, but I can do better now. I have better equipment. I have the experience of last time from which to learn. I’ve found better resources to help me make a better plan. Presuming I have a good location and sufficient time to set up, here’s my plan:

1. Set up a GoPro to create a video of us as I go through the camera setup, wait for totality, watch eclipse, photograph all the way through the end of the partial phase, then tear down.
2. Set up a DSLR on a tripod with a wide angle lens to capture the partial phases with an intervalometer. Switch to video right before totality; switch back to the intervalometer immediately after.
3. Set up a second DSLR on a star tracker, use a laptop computer with a programmed shooting plan. Mostly ignore this one during the eclipse; let the automation do the job. The success of this one depends upon a good shooting script (using Eclipse Orchestrator) and a good polar alignment job. I tested the script and realized I needed a higher-capacity card. I’ve also practiced daytime polar alignment, with good results (the tracker keeps the sun centered).
4. Set up a third DSLR on a tripod to shoot manually. This one is my best lens and my best camera. I’ll set an intervalometer to run during the partial phases so I only have to keep the sun in the field of view. During totality, and for the transitions into/out of totality, I’ll shoot manually, with a plan will leave a lot of time for me to just look at the sun.

So there’s my plan; now all I can do is hope for clear skies and trouble-free travels. In the meantime, I’ve practiced setting the cameras and computer and tracker up. I’ve discovered some issues that I’ve learned from. I know it won’t all go to plan, but I’m hoping I get it mostly right.

Wherever I end up, it won’t be as photogenic as in 2017, but that’s OK.

Our view while waiting for the 2017 eclipse

My son said it was cold that morning before the sun came up

Brooks Lodge and Campground Reservation

I made a campground reservation at Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park and Preserve. It was ridiculously hard to do!

Campground Entrance

In 2022, I tried to get a reservation for a room at Brooks Lodge, hoping to visit in 2023. I entered the lottery, and was not selected. But there was a cancellation, and the concessionaire offered me three nights in early July, which I accepted. My wife and daughter and I made the trip in July 2023 and we had a lot of fun watching the bears.

My daughter has one more year on her Air Force assignment in Alaska, so I want to visit her again and I want to make another trip to Brooks. The hotel is very expensive; this time we are going to stay in the campground.

Campground reservations are very hard to get. There’s no lottery; reservations are first come, first served. The reservations are usually completely taken within an hour of becoming available. And the reservation system makes all dates for the year available at once, at 8AM Alaska time on January 5. My daughter and I visited the recreation.gov site days before January 5 to become familiar with the site. I even went through the process of reserving a cabin in an unrelated location (without completing the reservation) just so I would be ready.

It turns out there are two ways to search, and I searched the wrong way. After logging in, users are presented with several links, one of which is entitled “Camping and Lodging”. This is the one that I tried to use, and the Brooks campground never appeared as an option even after conducting several searches. In the meantime, my daughter, luckily, used a different search box at the top of the page, with text that says, “What are you looking for?” She entered “Katmai”, and then got to the correct reservation page, but she only found dates available in June, which is much too early in the season. We talked on the phone and she described how she got to the correct reservation page.

I finally got to the reservation page and I was able to get three nights in early September. All reservation dates from early June to late September were gone by 8:30 AM Alaska time.

We originally wanted to get dates in late July, which is usually the peak of the salmon run, and consequently also the peak of the bear presence there. There’s a second peak in early September, so I think we’re still able to see bears again. Now I’m going to frequently check for cancellations, hoping to extend our stay.

We’re going back!

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim Hike (In a Single Day)

Just before crossing the Colorado River

My daughter and I hiked across the Grand Canyon, rim-to-rim (R2R), in a single day.

Last year I asked my daughter if she wanted to hike the Grand Canyon R2R with me. She said yes. A LOT has happened since that day.

I did a lot of research and decided that the best way for us was to go to the north rim, stay overnight, hike to the south rim, stay overnight, and be on our way. I also concluded that the best time of year to do the hike is the middle of October because:

• That time frame offers the coolest temperatures.
• The lodge at the north rim closes after October 15.
• There’s no guarantee the road to the north rim will be open later in October because it may snow.

I researched getting a reservation at Phantom Ranch near the Colorado River. It’s a great spot to overnight about halfway through the hike. It’s ridiculously hard to get. So I settled on R2R in a single day. I started with lodging at the north rim. Even though I was trying to book more than a year ahead of time, the latest date I could get was September 27. Then I reserved a room on the south rim for September 28. Then we planned our travel around those dates.

The next problem was transportation. My wife agreed to drive from the north rim to the south rim, a 250 mile trip. So, we all planned to meet in Phoenix, then drive to Flagstaff, stay for a single night, then drive to the north rim, stay for a single night, then, while my daughter and I hiked, my wife would drive around to the south rim, check into the hotel, and then meet us at the completion the hike.

With the plan made, I had a year to train. I ride my bike a lot. I have a good level of fitness, but not for hiking, at least not before I started training to hike. So I started walking a lot. I went to the Shenandoah mountains whenever the weather allowed, so I could hike with some climbing. Then I found out I had cancer. I had surgery in May of this year. I’m cancer-free now, but this sidelined me for several weeks. Then I had a long-planned trip to Alaska to visit my daughter, which also kept me from training. Finally, after the Alaska trip in July, I started training as hard as I could. I walked every day after work in the hottest part of the day. I went to the Shenandoah Mountains every weekend to hike. I worked my food plan out. I worked my water plan out. I worked my sun protection plan out. I decided on my clothing, shoes, and hat.

My daughter also worked out a lot. She went to the gym and spent lots of time on the stairmaster. She did a lot of leg work. She hiked in the mountains near her home in Anchorage. The one thing she couldn’t train for was heat. This was a big concern for her, but short of putting a treadmill inside a sauna, there was really no way for her to get ready for the heat that we knew we would endure in the canyon.

We met as planned in Phoenix, made the trek to the north rim, and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon exploring the area around the lodge and preparing for the hike. The lodge is just a main building with a restaurant, surrounded by a bunch of cabins. The cabins are pretty spartan and the beds in #105 were awful. None of us slept well. The park service web site reported that the water supplies were shut off between the north rim and Phantom Ranch, so we made sure to have plenty of water packed. We were prepared to filter water if needed.

At 4:30AM we drove to the North Kaibab trailhead and my daughter and I got started while my wife drove back to the cabin to pack up and check out. We were among quite a few other hikers as we descended the first few miles in the dark, using headlamps to see. Eventually morning twilight was strong enough to turn the headlamps off, and we made steady progress all the way to Manzanita, where we were surprised to find that the water was actually turned on. We rested, took a layer of clothing off because it was warmer, had some food, refilled our water supplies, and got moving again. We were eager to get through “The Box” canyon before it got hot.

We passed through Cottonwood campground without stopping, passed the Ribbon Falls trail (which we skipped), and entered the box. This is the part of the hike that I liked the most, with great scenery and it was still cool, with running water in a stream alongside the trail. After many turns and miles, and in rising temperatures, we finally exited the box and arrived at Phantom Ranch, tired and hot. We sat on some rocks in the shade, had some of the famous lemonade at the canteen, rested, ate, and refilled our water supplies. We had gone 14 miles, almost all downhill, and knew that the hard part would begin soon. We watched another hiker yell at a squirrel that was stealing her sandwich.

After a good rest, we went to the river, crossed the Silver Bridge, and turned right along the Colorado River. After a climb and descent along the river, we reached the Bright Angel trail and started our climb out of the canyon. This was the start of the “Devil’s Corkscrew”, a series of switchback climbs that are not particularly steep, but are difficult because the trail is mostly exposed to the sun. This is where my daughter started having trouble because the heat got to her. We stopped frequently and took every stream crossing as an opportunity to get our clothing wet. The five miles between Phantom Ranch and 4.5 mile rest house were pretty hard for her.

We arrived at Havasupai Garden (aka 4.5 mile rest) and took another break. We both changed our socks, ate, drank, and refilled our water supplies. I had spots on the balls of my feet that felt like blisters, but there were no blisters, so I covered them with Luka tape. I think I shouldn’t have soaked my feet and shoes in the stream crossings. By this time we were finally back in the shade. I put my hat away. We could see the buildings on the south rim now. I got a weak cell phone signal and texted my wife that we had made it to the point where we had 4.5 miles remaining. It was time for the steep climb out of the canyon.

The next mile and a half was a slog. I don’t remember much of it. But at least it was in the shade and it was cooling down. We reached 3 mile rest house and stopped again to rest and eat. My daughter knew she needed to eat but didn’t think she could handle the food she brought, so I gave her the energy chews that I use when cycling and I feel a bonk coming on. She tells me they really helped. I still had water in my backpack bladder. I hadn’t needed to drink much since we entered the shade. So I only filled my electrolyte bottle. This way I didn’t have to carry as much weight. I also wanted a spare bottle that I could hand to my daughter if she ran out of water; she was drinking a lot more than me. I also told her that we needed to get our headlamps back out because it was getting dark. My cell phone signal was stronger; I texted my wife again.

The next mile and a half was another slog. We turned our lights on and plodded along in the dark, getting closer and closer to the building lights that we could see on the rim. We could see the headlamp lights of other hikers above and below us. We encountered a snake on the trail (the only wildlife we saw all day, except for geckos and thieving squirrels). We finally reached 1.5 mile rest house in full dark, where we encountered two elderly men whom we had been leapfrogging for a while. One of them was clearly exhausted. They left before us; we passed them later. At 1.5 mile rest house we sat for a while, got more water (but short-filled because we were close to the end), and moved on. I texted my wife again.

Again I don’t remember much of this section; we were moving along in the dark on this steep section of trail. We were definitely tired and ready to be done. We went through one tunnel. We plodded along. We went through another tunnel. We knew we were close to the end. We kept going. Then I noticed a building in the light of our headlamps: Kolb Studio, on the rim. We were only a few hundred yards from the trailhead. One more switchback, then a gentle climb along a stone wall, then suddenly we were done. My wife was there to meet us, some people on the path along the rim clapped for us, and all my daughter and I wanted to do was get to the hotel room and get off our feet. I had booked a room really close to the trailhead, so we had a short walk to some food, drinks, a hot shower, and  comfortable beds. Neither one of us wanted to eat a meal.

In total, it was 23.5 miles and 5150 feet climbed. This was easily the farthest I’ve ever walked in one event. My previous record was 17 miles with my son on the Appalachian Trail in Maine (5700 feet climbed).

I knew the canyon walls would interfere with my GPS watch’s ability to calculate distance. My watch reported 32.8 miles, off by quite a lot. When I look at the track on a map, it is clearly erratic. As we were hiking, this made it impossible to judge distances between rest stops.

What went well:

• I had a very good fitness level. I was surprised at how easy it was, meaning, I expected it to be much harder but my training did the job. I thought the climb was not as steep as the climbs I did in training (although the mileage was a lot more in the canyon than in training). I never felt like I was exhausted. Tired, yes. Exhausted, no.
• The heat never bothered me. The hottest part of the hike, the corkscrew, was uncomfortably hot, but I never broke out in the hat-drenching, face-running, shirt-soaking sweat that I frequently have on long bike rides or even in my training hikes.
• My water plan was good. I never ran out. I sipped from the bladder all day and chugged from the squeeze bottle at the rest stops. I used several electrolyte packs and had plenty left over.
• My food plan was good. I had fig newtons at Manzanita and Phantom Ranch, two peanut butter sandwiches at Phantom Ranch, and Clif Bars at other stops on the way, with a a Pop Tart at 3 mile. I had Clif Blok chews that I never used. I had a lot of food left over. I never felt close to bonking.
• My sun protection plan worked well: I had no sunburn. I had sunglasses, long pants, a long sleeve shirt, a full-brim hat, and a buff. I applied sunscreen to my face several times. My clothing choices were optimal for the heat and sun. I wore trail runner shoes, which was a good choice.

What went poorly:

• My daughter suffered from the heat. A lot. In the end she was unable to eat for the last few miles. I gave her some Bloks, which she said helped when she needed more energy but couldn’t eat more of the food that she had.
• She forgot her sunglasses.

On the day after, I had sore achilles tendons, and that’s it. My daughter had very sore legs and her feet hurt. She expected to lose a toenail. She had a mild sunburn on her arms in spite of repeated sunscreen applications.

So that’s it. We did it. It was an awesome hike through amazing terrain. I’m so glad I got the chance to do this with my daughter.