Tuesday, August 6, 2019

The Widforss Trail - North Rim of the Grand Canyon

The Widforss Trail follows the North Rim for 2.5 miles then heads into the forest to emerge at Widforss Point after another 2.5 miles. The entire hike is 10 miles round trip.

The Fall

During my hike, one of my trekking poles started collapsing, and needed tightening. So on the way back I packed up both my poles and strapped them to my day pack. Rarely, I hike without my poles, because they make every hike easier, but this trail was relatively smooth dirt with little elevation gain.  So I thought I would be fine. I was wrong. It wasn't long before my hiking boot struck a gnarly, solitary tree root, and I abruptly lost my balance. Without warning, momentum flung my body downward, and my forehead and nose slammed into the dirt. At first, I thought I might be seriously hurt, it had certainly hurt, and I felt dazed. I checked my forehead and nose for blood. There was none.

I sat in the grass, and regained my composure. My thumb hurt a lot. But the worst pain came from my chest. My Nikon D7000 camera had hit my sternum when I fell on it. My first concern was my camera. I examined it, and found nothing broken. Then I shot a couple random photos, and that worked. But my chest hurt. Every deep breath caused pain. I stood up and realized the outcome could have been much worse. My camera could have been severely damaged. This is the second time I have fallen on my camera and received a rib injury. Nikon makes strong cameras. Apparently my ribs are strong too.

I had about 4 miles to get back to my car, and I started hiking again without poles. The more I walked the better I felt but the chest hurt. Five days later my sternum still hurts when I take a deep breath, but slowly it is healing. Later I fixed my hiking pole by tightening the screw, and now I will always take a little screwdriver with me on the trail.






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