Last year I had this weak moment inspiration to do something that I’ve never thought much about or had a great desire to do.

Until that moment.

I was inspired to make the epic hike into the Grand Canyon, precisely the Havasupai area where there is beauty like you would never imagine down there.

(The waters are a blue color due to the mineral content.)

I figured if I was going to hike it, it was now or never. I’m 45 and have never really been into hiking so this is a huge thing for me to go on such a granddaddy of a hike and I knew that if I wasn’t going to back out I would need support – plenty of it. So I started telling anyone I thought would be interested about it and seeing if they would like to join me in my expedition and I got enough of a response that it was a go!

So I am committed. A little scary since… well, I already mentioned that hiking has never been in my books as the most fun thing to do and this is a 10 mile hike one-way plus once you are down there you have to hike some more if you want to see the various waterfalls.

There are

86 days

left till we start our grueling exciting trip.

That means I need to get in shape if I don’t want to have to ride a mule out of there!

There are plenty of hills around our place so that will be good practice for me.

Good practice, Elisabeth!

Good practice!

Good practice!

Good practice! (whimper)

 I’ve made up a spreadsheet for myself and my 3 youngest saying what we should do each day. Each day they do the task they place a checkmark in the square. My goal is that by the time we go to Havasupai, we will be used to hiking uphill 1 mile a day. It’s a 10 mile hike out of Havasupai but they say the last mile is the hard part, so I’m focusing my efforts on that mile.

Our hike date is May 4. We’re staying 2 nights at the bottom and early morning on the 6th (before it is even daylight) we will start making our ascent out of the Canyon.

I really am super excited. It’s a huge challenge for me but there’s a great group taking the journey with us. I think it’s going to be an exhausting, wearying but very good time. (fingers crossed tightly lol)

Does hiking excite you?