Veranda Tales-Walking down through layers of history
Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.
Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.
అండలుంటే కొండలు దాటవచ్చు (andalunte kondalu datavachu)
My life partner and I embarked on one last summer of hiking and travel before jumping into the deep end of parenting. We set our sights on bagging a fourteener, the Longs Peak, a 14,256-foot (4345.22 m) mountain close to where we live. We had a training plan during the summer leading up to summiting the Longs Peak in late July or early August before snow blankets the mountain and the trail becomes impassable.
Our plan was simple. We started out with a plan to hike down to the Colorado river from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The Bright Angel trail leaves the south rim at an elevation of 6860 feet and goes all the way down to the river at the elevation of 2480 feet. Our plan was to do this as a day hike to avoid carrying sleeping bags, food, and water. We were at the trailhead bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7 AM sharp. We had a footlong Subway sandwich in our backpack and water bottles full of water. The trail had water at certain spots along the 6 mile trail that goes down to the river. On the way down to the river we didn’t stop much other than for a quick water break to drink and top off water bottles. We walked down the trail in awe one switchback after another as it revealed layer after layer of the mighty canyon the great Colorado river carved as it tumbled down the rocks.
The very first layer at the rim that greeted us was the 270 million year old Kaibab Limestone from the Early Middle Permian period. This layer resists erosion and stands tall as the other types of geological formation crumble away under the force of raging waters of rivers. It was cold and we had our jackets, mittens, and gloves on when we left the rim.
A few steep switchbacks brought us to the second, 275 million years old Toroweap Limestone layer from the Late Early Permian period. We noticed that the bright colors at the rim now gave way to a darker shade. We could still see the brightly colored rocks at the rim from where we stood. As looked down below, we could see the 280 million year old white colored Coconino Sandstone from the Early Permian period. By the time we reached the 285 million year old reddish brown Hermit Shale layer from the Early Permian, we had to shed our jackets. It was getting warmer as we had been walking for a while and also the temperature was going up as we descended down into the canyon.
We shed another layer as we approached the 290 million to 325 million old reddish layer, Supai Group, from the Permian, Pennsylvanian, and Mississippian periods. It was as if we were playing strip poker with the geological layers and losing to them. A few more switchbacks revealed rich red colors of the 340 million year old Redwall Limestone layer from the Middle Mississippian period. It was a dizzying array of colors all around us. It was harder on the knees and toes to speed downhill switchback after switchback. We reached the 504 million year old gray Muav Limestone layer from the Late Middle Cambrian period very soon.
The green and reddish brown colors were gleaming in the sunlight when we reached the Bright Angel Shale from the Middle Cambrian period. Before we could fully take in the colors, the brownish Tapeats Sandstone from the Middle Cambrian period made an appearance. We were getting closer and closer to the end of the trail.
We had been walking for three and half hours covering several miles. We were very relieved when we saw the ancient crystalline rocks that form the base of the Grand Canyon. These 1,750 million years old rocks are called the Vishnu Basement Rocks which consist of Vishnu Schist, Brahma Schist, and Rama Schist. These rocks are 1,750 million years old.
It was cold at the rim and temperature kept going up and up as we descended down through the geological layers stopping briefly to look for fossils. We shed extra layers of clothing half way down the trail. We ran into hikers going down with camping gear all set to break for the night and come back up in the morning. It gave a pause as we saw permanent warnings posted at the trailhead urging hikers “Do not attempt a day hike down to the river”. It was too late to reconsider now that we were heading down to the river and we didn’t want to turn around. The last watering hole on this trail is at the Havasupai Gardens 4.8 miles from the rim. The trail gently slopes down to the river after this stop. We had to watch out for scorpions in this section.
We went down to the Pipe Creek Beach on the Colorado river very quickly in just about 3 and half hours. We sat on the beach in the valley looking at the towering North rim in front of us and the South rim we started our hike from behind us.. It was surreal and peaceful as the river snaked through the canyon. It is so amazing that the river, so tiny compared to the canyon walls, carved it in mere 5 to 6 million years, eroding the geological layers billions of years old. The Colorado river named for its red color was muddy with all the silt that came down in the snowmelt. We consumed half of our footlong admiring the views. Our half hour of rest evaporated quickly.
We started our 7.8 mile walk, 4380 feet climb back up to the South rim. It was hot and the sun was beating down on us. The climb back up was slow and gruelling. We kept stopping at watering holes to drink water and top off water bottles. On the way up we also kept eating our footlong sandwich. Our Subway sandwich was a good icebreaker for starting conversation with our equally tired fellow hikers at each of these stops. Finally 6 hours after leaving the river, we were back at the rim. Towards the end we ran into a lady who was surprised to hear that there was a river at the button of the canyon. I was tired and cranky towards the end. The last half mile walk felt like a 10 mile walk. I kept asking how much longer after ten step stretches. My legs were toast and so were my feet. We finally made it to the top at 5 PM.
It was an amazing experience hiking this canyon walking through the layers of history. Each geological layer tells a story of its own from ancient times. The Colorado river started carving the canyon 5 to 6 million years ago. The geological layers are billions of years old. As I touched each layer I wondered about the lives of ancient people who would have walked these lands before us. The fossils of invertebrates, vertebrates, brachiopods, conodonts, corals, crinoids, echinoid spines, mollusks, hexactinellid and other sponges, trilobites, and burrows of callianassid shrimp, giant football-sized nautiloids, shark teeth, and chondrichthyans are reminders of this ancient land teaming with life. We were in a rush to head down to the river on our way down and very tired on our way back up to spend time looking at the fossils along the way.
We were tired at the end of our hike. I could hardly walk the next day and had to pick my legs up to get into the car. Going up and down the stairs was just plain miserable. We spent the day hiking around the rim to keep our muscles from freezing up. We ended that summer of hikes with two fourteeners and several shorter hikes. We never made it to the Longs Peak aka (Neniis-otoyou’u or nesótaieux in the Arapaho language).
Since that summer, I logged several miles and hours hiking all over the USA and other countries with my life partner and our kids. My kids started out asking “how much longer” just like I did on the Grand Canyon hike. I started bribing them with Skittles, their favorite candy. Life comes full circle as it is my turn to ask “how much longer” when we go on hikes and my children encourage me to hike just a few more steps. These hikes remind me of అండలుంటే కొండలు దాటవచ్చు (andalunte kondalu datavachu) sameta. It means, “If you have the love and support you can cross mountains”. This sameta has a deeper meaning that we thrive on love and support. If we have the right kind of love and support we can achieve our goals and dreams in life. I am fortunate to find the love and support from family and friends to overcome challenges in life and experience it to the fullest.
Hike-log: Going down on the left and coming back up on the right.
