I got up early at about 8am, had a shower, actually got to have some free breakfast because I was up early enough and then met up with my Grand Canyon gang. We were five, myself, Beau and Travis from Australia, Rob from Manchester and James from somewhere posh. This was James' first time to the canyon but the other guys had gone there the day before. It meant they had a car pass so I got in for free but it also meant they up for more of a challenging hike. We drove around to the east side and found the trail that someone had recommended to the guys. It was about 11am when we began our decent into the abyss. I was almost worried as we were passing knackered looking people coming the other way, the Aussie's were wearing their skinny jeans and almost skipping along so at least I knew they would die first. The views were pretty spectacular all the way down and the windy steep route we were taking meant that the view kept changing. After about two hours of mostly non-stop walking we decided to take a break for lunch. I had a couple of apples, a granola bar and stole some of the guy's bagels and cheese. We made it to our target rock formation (the horseshoe) at about 2pm but the trail to the top would take too long... so we just went for the direct route. It was rather steep and probably quite dangerous but we all made it up there. I think we all felt a great sense of accomplishment as we sat at the top of the horseshoe saying "we kicked the Grand Canyon's ass!". Then it was time for a casual stroll back up to the top of the Grand Canyon...
It didn't take as long as I'd expected, only about half an hour longer than it took us to get down. However, it was far more tiring than I'd expected and the small rain and snow showers didn't help. We chatted to a few people on the way back up and met a nice couple from New Zealand. At one point we were all chatting to an old American dude and we realised that five of us were vegetarians, we're totally taking over the world! The old American dude said I looked pale, I said I'm from England and I've just been hiking for four hours in the Grand Canyon, he said no more. We also met two guys from L.A and I asked about the possibility of getting a ride there with them. They said it would depend on a couple of things and that I should call them later on. That would have been perfect except I managed not to store his number in my phone when I typed it in, I blame the lack of feeling in my hands. As soon as we got to the top of the canyon it started snowing heavily, it felt very strange. At some points during the day it had been really hot and we'd all been down to just a t-shirt. As soon as we left the car park a mountain lion ran across the road in front of us causing Rob to slam the brakes on and causing the rest of to unleash a torrent of expletives. We'd certainly had a day of bonding and the car journey back to Flagstaff was pretty funny. One funny thing I remember is Travis saying "Do you reckon the Kiwi woman was a babe............... in her past?"
We got back to the hostel at about 6pm and the two French girls I'd met in New Orleans were checking-in. They remembered me, I remembered them, it was rather amusing. The G.C. gang went out to the pub for happy hour, which was actually happy ten minutes because we were a bit late. Still, $2.50 for one pint isn't bad. We then went to another place for food, the Aussie's had eaten there the night before and recommended their bean burgers. I had a green chili veggie burger which was rather tasty. We got a couple of pitchers and had a few pints each, then went for a few games of pool at a pool club. A couple of locals were trying to tell us which local beers to drink and I got the barmaid to give me a taster of each one, that's always the best way. I beat all of the guys at pool and they ended up having a losers tournament. Upon our return to the hostel one of the staff members was recommending a cheap drinks night somewhere, we decided to check it out with an American guy called John but when we arrived there was a cover and the drinks really weren't that cheap. Back to the hostel again! We sat around in the lobby for a bit, reminiscing about our day of adventure, then some rather cute German girls sat down with us and were joking to each other in German. After a while they suddenly asked us all how old we were, then started giggling to themselves again. We tried conversing with them but an older woman came down from upstairs and told the Germans to be quiet, she said she was their coordinator, James thought she'd said commander, we laughed about that (we were tipsy), she was possibly their teacher, we couldn't quite figure it out. We decided this was all too much like hard work and that the Germans were a bit young so we all went to bed.
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