Peeke Blog

Pre-Canyon Thoughts from a Mississippi Girl July 9, 2008

Here I am, Erin Granberry, and what follows are my musings about the Grand Canyon, joy and friendships, and other related or not-so-related topics:

A little about me:  Ive been married for almost 12 years to a wonderful man who makes all my dreams come true.  I have two stepsons:  Lee, age 18, a rising senior; and Eric, age 15, a rising sophomore.  I have a great relationship with them and my husbands ex-wife, their mother, surprisingly enough, and if you want to hear about the trip that she and I took together with the boys to New York City over the Christmas holiday a few years ago, Ill be glad to share it with you.  I have an MBA (1984) and a MA in creative writing (2006), which I think means that now both my left and right brains are whacko.  Im a health care consultant but Ive dropped back to part time because Im not sure I want to have my lifes work consist of making doctors more money (no offense, Dr. Peeke!).   I have started doing some internal training for the firm, teaching classes in communication, managing behaviors, and constructive confrontation.  I like that much better.  (Maybe Ill actually learn something from my own classes.)  I love cooking and grilling, playing the piano, performing in community theater and crossword puzzles.  I teach Sunday school and sing alto in the church choir.  Every night I sing a night-night song to my dog (I Love You a Bushel and a Peck).  I think the biggest waste of my personal time is whining.  Id much rather take the energy I expend to complain about something and put it into either (a) dealing with it, or (b) changing it.  I work on this a lot.

Mississippi thermometers are usually into the triple digits by July 1, which I normally dread.  But this summer Im in training for the Grand Canyon hike with Dr. Peeke and six other fantastic women, and I am counting on that awful heat to help me get acclimated for the desert temperatures at the bottom of the canyon.  I was looking forward to it for the first time in 48 years!  But wouldnt you know it?  Its the second week of July and we have barely made it to the 90s, with early mornings and late evenings being downright pleasant.  Unbelievable.  But I hear that relief in the form of temps in the high 90s is coming this weekend.  Hooray? 

What is your idea of paradise?  Mine is sitting on top of a high mountain after a long, hard hike up, eating my well-earned pack lunch and looking out over the world.  It is the time my heart is the fullest, my appreciation for life the strongest, my gratitude for all my blessings the highest.   My husband Dennis took me on my first hike in 1994 in New Mexico.  Since then weve hiked all over the American west and Canadian Rockies, across the French and Swiss Alps, and most recently up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru.  The mountains mean so much to us that we got married atop one outside Telluride, Colo.  Here we are, with our Methodist minister who wasnt actually Moses, but he sure looked like him:

The Granberrys, September 9, 1996

Strangely enough, with all this mountain love imbedded in my bones, Ive never cared to hike the Grand Canyon.  Trekking down into a big hole and coming out the other side held no appeal in fact, it seemed quite a backwards to do things.  Boring, I thought.  Monotonous.  Arid.  My husband did the Canyon in his younger days and, while he didnt care to do it again, he frequently suggested that I should consider it.  I didnt, until the day I got the e-mail from Dr. Peeke with the opportunity to go with her and other Peeke Performers on a rim-to-rim adventure.  Dr. Peeke.well, she piqued my interest (sorry, I couldnt resist), and for the first time I thought about hiking the canyon.  Brutal heat, endless switchbacks, a physical and mental challenge ah, that is what got me.  I love a challenge. I love hiking.  I loved Peeke Week when I went in 2006.  But still, its August!  People die in the canyon in August.  I waffled.  Then I found out Marlyn was going, and I was in.

I met Marlyn Glickman at Peeke Week 2006.  She and her two pals Lisa Harwood and Tracy Benstock treated me like an old friend from our first hike, and the friendship continues to this day.  I went to Red Mountain alone, and I left with lifelong memories of great hikes and lifelong friends in Marlyn, Lisa and Tracy.  I have great expectations for the Grand Canyon trip as well.  Cant wait to see you again, Marlyn!  Tracy and Lisa, we will only say good things about you in your absence, we promise.  Here we are in one of my favorite photos, at Zion National Park:

From left, Tracy Benstock, Marlyn Glickman, Erin Granberry, Lisa Harwood

I already had a good training base from the May trip to Machu Picchu (which was very difficult but SO worth it, even the part about going without a shower for four days).  That training worked well for me in Peru, so Im sticking with it.  Im lucky to have outdoor venues nearby that are great for motivation Id much rather be outside than on a treadmill or indoor stair stepper any day of the week.  We have a 30-mile Rails to Trails, an old railroad track that has been converted into a paved and well kept biking and walking trail.  I love taking long walks on it, because it has beautiful scenery and I dont have to worry about cars plowing over me.  I live in a university town, and the Southern Mississippi football stadium steps are excellent for getting a good up-and-down workout.  The football team is sometimes out on the field for summer workouts, and I get a kick out of the fact that I am sometimes working harder than they are (I hope that is not indicative of the kind of season were going to have).  I do some weight lifting and circuit training in between as well. 

Ill be in St. Louis this weekend at the Chi Omega Fraternity national convention (Im president of the House Corporation).  Im taking my running shoes and hoping for a chance to run under the arch.  Ive got a pretty full travel schedule from now until our departure, but I know that every minute I put into training for this adventure will pay off in the pure enjoyment that a successful hike can bring.  Theres nothing like it. 

Happy trails!

Erin