I was lucky enough to live a life dream and spend the first week of October backpacking in the stunningly beautiful Grand Canyon. I found it interesting how quickly and effortlessly we go back to living according to the laws of nature when we leave our modern lives. I think that the bottom-line cause of most modern diseases is due to the fact that we no longer follow the rules of Mother Nature as every other species on the planet does (except our pets and animals we cultivate for food), and it is thinking we can "play god" with nature's laws that has messed with our health. We are the only species that "improves" our food by either separating out bits so it can no longer work as the whole that it is, or by completely transforming it into something else through chemical or genetic engineering processes; we are the only species that no longer lives by the rules imposed by daybreak and nightfall; we are the only species that does not need to exercise each day in order to survive; and although I can't be certain on this one, I would imagine we are the only species that stresses so much about the little stuff. All these divergences from the laws of nature greatly impact our hormonal, digestive and immune systems, and in addition to that, we are coming into daily contact with so many man-made chemical toxins that our bodies and our planet can't deal with, that our detox systems suffer too. When these digestive, hormonal, immune or detox problems become chronic, the disease process begins. I don't think we have to give up our modern lifestyles to live within Nature's rules and find our health again - we can make good choices without becoming hunter-gatherers.

I tried hard to maintain a whole food diet on the hike. I dehydrated fruit and veggies, soaked and dried nuts, made some salmon jerky before leaving, bought some beef jerky when I got to the States. It was tough finding a beef jerky that wasn't filled with nitrites, MSG or other preservatives, and although the Golden Valley brand was organic, I saw nothing on the label to indicate that the cattle were free range. Oh well - I did the best I could. The biggest compromise I made were my breakfasts, where I used quick oats and whole milk powder, both far more processed than I would like, and I couldn't ferment the oats overnight either as I didn't want to attract critters. But when mixed with cinnamon and dried apples in a ziploc bag, my breakfasts were light to carry, and made a tasty muesli when I added water. Dinners we mixed in vacuum-seal bags, as that plastic was less likely to leach chemicals than ziploc bags when we added hot water. We carried one pot, a small stove and some fuel, and nothing else for meal time - no plates, mugs. We poured the hot water into our bags, let the food cook for 8 to 10 minutes, and then ate right out of the bag with our sporks. My favourite dinner was curried couscous with freeze-dried chicken and cranberries.

We hiked each day between 4 and 10 hours. Before I left I was concerned about my knees, which were bothering me under the load of the pack on steep descents during my training hikes, due to poor tracking in the patellar groove. Even though I had stretched regularly for months before leaving, the problem was not resolving, so the day before I left I was lucky enough to get an appointment with my massage therapist, a structural integrator, who worked over my quads, separating all the layers of fascia so that the muscles could slide properly on each other. One can think of fascia like Saran Wrap, and our muscles are all wrapped in fascia (as are all the muscle fibers within a muscle). Like Saran Wrap, fascia tends to stick to itself, so rather than the muscles working independently as they should distributing the line of pull evenly about the joint, they get glommed together and pull as a unit, usually along the force vector of the rectus femoris, which can be aggravating to the knee. Well, each step down towards the Colorado River, I was blessing my massage therapist - I had no knee pain whatsoever!

Our plan was to go from the South Rim to the river all in one day, so we knew the first day would be long. We were at the Tanner trailhead by about 7h30am, but waited out a thunderstorm before heading down. Later that morning, we huddled under a formation they call "the knife edge" in our rain gear for 45 minutes or so while another thunderstorm rattled through. Then it cleared up, and the weather was beautiful for the rest of the descent (and week), although we were racing the daylight to our destination. We got to the river at about 5h30pm, quickly pitched our tents and "cooked" dinner, and by 6h30, 6h45 it was dark. Here's the thing. It's dark - what do you do? We were not allowed to have a camp fire. We did have head lamps, but we didn't cart books in our packs - too heavy. So, we snuggled into our sleeping bags. We looked and laughed at the photos we had taken that day, but there is only so long one can stretch that activity out. A few nights we had the tarp off, so we would lie in our bags looking up at the stars, which were spectacular. But most nights I found my eyes closing by 7h30ish, and I was actually tired and wanting to sleep. So, we got about 12 hours of dark time a night. Although it took several nights to grow accustomed to lying on the hard ground, by the 6th and 7th night, I was actually sleeping quite well. And I found it easy to get up at dawn, which for me is HIGHLY unusual.

My thoughts changed too. I was not spending my days worrying about all the stuff I had to get done - I was living in the now, loving the scenery, examining the cacti and other vegetation, doing yoga on the beach, deciding how best to get over that boulder, looking for cairns to guide our way. The only stressful moments were very short-lived, when we were negotiating very narrow paths between rock walls and cliff edges.

I am so excited at having witnessed the awe-inspiring beauty and seduction of the Canyon, and having conquered the physical and psychological challenges that it presented me. I am happy, and now feel like I can accomplish anything.  If you are interested in the details of the trip (about the trails, what we did, funny videos, seeing more photos), please click here. Next week, I'll get back to the usual tip format - I hope you don't mind this week's unconventional version!
Related Tips
Food, our raw material
Light pollution messes with our hormones
Exercise - how often, how long, how hard?
Acute vs Chronic Stress



Copyright 2007 Vreni Gurd