Phantom Experience

Dinner at Phantom Ranch is your choice of steak, beef stew, or vegetarian chili. We filed  into the canteen with the other travelers and took our place at our table. Food is served family-style. There is a ton of it. The folks who run the place know that they are feeding ramblers who have covered many miles to get there and need to fuel up. The fare was filling and delicious, and I grabbed a cup of tea on my way back to the cabin. Before bed I lay on the picnic table and looked up at the stars. The night was jet black, and it seemed like the twinkling would never end. I noticed something I had never seen before: a row of lights seeming to follow each other in orbit. I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I realized they weren’t. I counted the glimmers – five, ten, fifteen, twenty. They kept coming, and I stopped counting. They were satellites. I guess there is an ideal orbit for them, and they were staying in it. Here I was, miles from modern society, and satellites were capturing my attention. What a world.

We got a good night’s sleep in the dark and the quiet. The next morning we went out to explore the area. We hiked part of the Clear Creek Trail. No one else was around. Just us, the rocks, the dirt, the air.

But after a while we did see someone standing on a rock, looking up into the sky. He was having a Zen moment in communion with nature. But wait a minute – what was he doing with his arms? Was that a cell phone in his hands? He looked over at us and called “This is one of the few places around here where you can get cell service. There’s an app that tells you where you can get it. I’m sending some texts.” 

I felt totally guilty that I had backed out of a few conference calls because I thought I would have no service at the bottom of the Canyon. I, too, could have been receiving messages, and addressing matters that did not have yet another day to wait. I, too, could be Standing on That Rock Making Big Decisions. Oh, if I had only known!

In the afternoon I took a dip in the cold Bright Angel Creek running along Phantom Ranch. The water was coursing fast, and I had to brace myself against a big rock to keep from being swept away. More than 250 people are rescued from the Canyon each year, but I don’t think any of them are pulled out of a creek because they went for a cold water immersion plunge. I did not want to be the first. 

Later a light drizzle moved into the area. I looked up to see the suggestion of a rainbow. 

After chowing down another filling dinner and exchanging stories with other travelers we went back to the cabin and fell into our bunk. The night was cloudy. In the morning a thunderstorm set in. I felt safe in my cozy dwelling. 

By morning the creek was rushing madly, and the air was clear. We were ready to make our way back up.