The Grand Canyon Adventure and Moran's Point
Moran Point
Thomas Moran was a famous turn-of-the-century artist who painted the Grand Canyon. Maps of the Grand Canyon highlight Moran Point, where he painted some of his most famous representations of the Canyon. His paintings helped create awareness and awe for the majestic canyon and even contributed to its preservation as a national park.
America needed his perspective to help see the canyon's beauty. He'd been there in 1873 with the John Wesley Powell expedition and again in 1892 to create paintings for the Santa Fe Railway, who built a spur from their main line in Flagstaff and Williams to the south rim in 1901. He knew the territory.
Cancer Canyon will provide you with a valuable perspective about cancer ... and with an emotional map that will be instrumental in your journey.
Chapter Two
Down to Phantom Ranch
on the Mule Ride
on the Mule Ride
At the Grand Canyon's south rim there's a Mule Barn next to Bright Angel Lodge. Every day Grand Canyon Wranglers host a Mule Ride, descending to Phantom Ranch and to the Colorado River at the base of the canyon. You're leaving today and you'll spend the night at Phantom Ranch on the River.
Early cartographers christened this area Phantom Creek and Canyon because it was so narrow it would appear and disappear from their view. Others claim it was named "Phantom" because of ghostly appearances of Powell, one of the canyon's original explorers.
But I should warn you, the canyon can be dangerous.
Inspired by the book, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, Kenneth Field created a map that helps tell the stories of more than 900 casualties in Grand Canyon through 2018.
From the first river exploration by John Wesley Powell and his crew of 1869 to air crashes, accident-prone tourists and even hopeless souls jumping to their deaths. This map by @kennethfield explores the story of those deaths.
Source: National Institutes of Health.gov
Night on the River's Phantom Ranch
No matter how hard you try, the fact that you have cancer will sink in and create a new set of challenges. The word cancer has a stigma like no other disease. People don't know what to say and some people will avoid you entirely.
In Greg Anderson's book, Journeys of the Cancer Conqueror, you'll read this from a fellow traveler, "... Just as I was beginning the chemotherapy sessions, I read about the psychological component of side effects. A research study tracked a group of people who were given sterile water injections instead of chemotherapy and a third of them lost their hair anyway."
The Psychological Component
The phases of your cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery are very similar to the 5 stages of grief.
Denial · Anger · Bargaining · Depression · Acceptance
Think about your emotions and how they relate to these stages. Remember, you might bounce back and forth between these stages and that's perfectly normal.
You may not want to even begin. A pretty brunette in her early forties, feeling extremely self-conscious from the recent weight gain attributable to the cancer follow-up drug Tamoxifen, admitted she had to first decide she wanted to live. She said, "You see, I lost my son about a year ago. And, I've learned that I had to first decide ... that I wanted to live." Her frankness was disarming.
Questions to Reflect On
- Where are you in your diagnosis?
- How do you feel about being diagnosed with cancer?
- What have you noticed from your friends and family; how are they processing your cancer?
Chapter Four
Lost
You're on your way out of Phantom Ranch to Bright Angel, but the sky's gotten dark. You see the lightning in the distance and you can smell the rain. You've had to leave the trail to find cover and now you're lost.
There are new challenges. Every morning there is another uncertain step. Your body doesn't feel the same and neither does your spirit.
Let me tell you about a man who spent more than 1,000 days and nights hiking over 12,000 miles through this canyon. Harvey Butchart was a mild-mannered Math Professor from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff who loved this canyon; he spent every spare moment here. Over the years he lost a dear friend and hiking buddy on one of the trails and the time away from his family tested his marriage. He wrote the guide to Grand Canyon Hiking – Grand Canyon Treks.
"He believed that the unexpected is the essence of exploration, he kept his descriptions to a minimum and his directions understated, even vague. Hikers using his book soon learn that what Butchart calls an 'interesting route' might well be a foot-wide ledge on the brink of a 400-foot-high cliff."– John Stanley, The Arizona Republic, September 23, 2013
Lost. Alone. Afraid. No longer in control. Fragile.
Take a deep breath, accept where you are, trust your instincts and have faith. Take Harvey's advice and believe that the unexpected is the essence not only of exploration, but of life. Harvey didn't hike the same trail 1,000 times, he explored the canyon. He did not tie himself to a tree.
Chapter Five
Another Reality
It's about 17-18 hours from Cut Bank, Montana to Rochester, Minnesota.
Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic, where Tami had been treated for her breast cancer since her diagnosis in 2000.
She died during treatments in 2005. Her father and two sons, age 7 and 11, drove from Cut Bank and got to see her an hour before she died.
It hurts to imagine what the ride to Rochester was like; it hurts even more to imagine the ride home.
She was a hair stylist and some of her clients had begun making and selling pink scarves for her; the money from sales helped compensate the expenses of travel and treatment.
Tami's death is another cruel reminder that not everyone survives. Another hidden marauder.