Up at 4:15 in the dark. We picked up the sack lunches we'd ordered at the canteen and were on the trail at 5 with flashlights, over the silver bridge and west along the river while the sky got light. The first few miles of the Bright Angel are easy. It follows the river, then turns up Pipe Creek and climbs the Devil's Corkscrew, which is exactly what it sounds like, and we got to Indian Garden at 8:30. Indian Garden has cottonwoods, shade and water, and a lot of people sitting very still.

From Indian Garden it's about four and a half miles and 3,000 feet to the rim, and every bit of it is switchbacks. You pass Three-Mile Resthouse and Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse, which are named for how far you still have to go, and after a while you stop wanting to know. The Bright Angel is gentler than the South Kaibab on paper, but it is almost three miles longer, it's all uphill, and you already did the other one yesterday.

Somewhere above Three-Mile. That's me with my hands on my knees, and Jimmy a few steps up looking back to see if I'm going to make it. The picture is crooked because Brenda was laughing at us. The trail isn't really that steep. It only felt like it.

Jimmy's knees gave out on the last mile. He'd been fine all weekend, and then about a mile from the top he started taking the steps sideways, one leg at a time, like my grandmother on the church stairs. Brenda took his water and I took his pack, and we went at his speed, which was the right speed anyway. A lot of people passed us going down in clean clothes and asked how far it was to the river. We told them the truth.

1:40 p.m. The top! Brenda, me and Jimmy on the wall at the head of the trail. A nice lady from Ohio took this for us. Look at the people behind us in their white shirts. They had no idea.

We drank two sodas each, ate everything left in the packs, and sat on that wall for most of an hour. Then Jimmy drove home to Phoenix and we drove home to Albuquerque, and I drove every mile of it sitting very still. Brenda went to school Monday morning walking like a cowboy and told the whole class she'd been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. She says they were more impressed by the mules.

Would I do it again? Yes. Next time in October, and next time Jimmy trains first. He says the same about me.