Caught the 8 am shuttle from the Amtrak station to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This is the area that most people visit when they go to the Grand Canyon. After being dropped off we got a sandwich for the 9.2 mile hike down the Bright Angel Trail and made sure out water bottles were full. The canyon view from the South Rim was spectacular. We began our hike down the trail around 10:40 am expecting a 4 hour hike to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. We passed several packs of mules with riders coming up from Phantom Ranch and many struggling hikers. We walked for what seemed like an eternity with our knees taking a beating on the descent of the trail and then realized we were only half way after 3 painful hours of hiking. We finally reached our destination after 5 pm where we were supposed to signal Morgan and the others to raft across the Colorado to pick us up and return to the camp site. However, we saw a raft on our side of the river with 2 life jackets in front. We decided they must have left us the boat for us to row over when we go there. Scott manned the oars and off we went to TRY and cross the river. 2 minutes after rowing we heard a voice screaming to come back. Seems they were all on our side of the river looking for us and we were not meant to try and cross. Hate to think of what would have happened had the Colorado River gotten hold of our raft with our inexperienced crew.
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