Help a fellow hiker / shuttle driver

[Davis2001R6]

Many of you know Amy Tacey and family. She has been the lone shuttle driver to take people out to the S. Bass trailhead for many years. Last year she came down with cancer while pregnant with her 4th child. She has been miraculously upbeat and trying her best to fight off the cancer.

This weekend some friends are embarking on a 63 mile hike across the Grand Canyon over 3 days, they are doing it as a tribute to Amy and to help raise money for the family as well.

I don't normally pass these things around, but having met Amy she is a wonderful person and very worthy of any donation you can give.

There is an article about it in the grand canyon news.
Article

Donations can be made via the bank account listed or via paypal as well to at the following link LINK

This is simply a gift and not tax deductible or anything. Best of luck to Amy and family as she battles with cancer!

-TIM-

[desertgirl]

Yes -- Amy is a wonderful person -- I have talk to her a number of time regarding shuttles to Bass TH and have shared the fun ride in her rig to the TH a couple of times...Thanks for posting Tim.
_________________
Photos: http://www.pbase.com/desertgirl/galleries
Life is but a dream ...there is no end to what you can dream!

[Davis2001R6]

Here is a recap of the hikers 64 mile trip over 3 days.

Super Hike for the HiknChic Recap
Posted by: "Kam Pebler" kam.pebler@microchip.com kampaz5
Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:38 am (PDT)
I thought I would start the recap of the hike with the end because
it took me by complete surprise. My husband met us at Phantom on
day three and as we approached the last tunnel, he heard me start to
sniffle, then to take a few gulps and snorts as I tried to choke
back the tears that were starting to run down my face. He asked if
I was okay and I said, "I can't believe I just did that." And in
response, a woman's voice said, "I can't believe you did that
either." And there was Amy, sitting on a rock with a beautiful
bright scarf on her head with her oldest son by her side. People on
the trail had to wonder why these women were hugging each other and
crying on the trail without having any idea of the connection we
shared.

Amazingly, Amy had earlier hiked to mile and one-half rest house,
having called Phantom to learn we had been there at 10:30 a.m. (but
not knowing we didn't leave Phantom until somewhere around
12:30/1:00 p.m.). She was waiting on the trail and Dennis and the
rest of the family were up at the top, the two youngest sleeping in
the car. Needless to say, it was way more emotional than I
expected.

Later, we met for dinner and as parents with an emptying nest, we
thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't possibly convey this well in words,
but earlier I met a friend of Amy's on the trail who talked about
how Amy would spend the day puking, but there she was picking the
kids up from school with a smile on her face. As Tim and I sat with
Amy and Dennis and their wonderful family, I couldn't help but think
back to that time when our children were young and we were
constantly in demand in some way and exhausted. The thought of
dealing with cancer, and Amy and Dennis are clearly dealing with it
together, on top of the everyday demands of working and raising a
family is a huge challenge. To stay amazingly positive takes a lot
of effort. Our hike was meant to be a physical and mental push to
draw attention to the physical and mental challenges faced by people
like Amy. Twenty six miles in one day is long and hard, but as I
mentioned to Tim, "That hike was nothing compared to what cancer
patients deal with everyday."

So, to recap the hike . . .

It was an absolute pleasure hiking with Della who has a fantastic
sense of humor and endless energy. We had met just once, at BA
campground as she did the evening campground walk through, but she
had sent me an email mentioning how she loved long day hikes when I
had posted about my New Hance to Grandview hike. I remember these
things and when I talked to Della about the hike, she was game and
we were able to coordinate schedules on short notice to beat the
heat. And beat the heat we did. The weather could not have been
better.

Della and I left Grandview Trailhead at 5:30 a.m. on day one and
arrived at Phantom Ranch, 26 miles later, at 8:30 p.m. Day two
started at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 8:15 p.m. after 19.5 miles
which included a lunch time nap and topping out at the North Rim at
5:15 p.m. Day three started at about 7:30 a.m. and finished for me
(Della is a much faster hiker) at about 6:00 p.m. after 18.5 miles,
including a couple of hours at Phantom and about an hour at Indian
Garden. I believe the mileage comes out to 64. I think we both
reached points where we were incredibly glad to reach our
destination, but I don't think we reached the point where we could
not have kept going if we absolutely had to. We were diligent about
staying hydrated and fed with appropriate food. In that regard,
Della has a great saying, "Potato chips save lives." So amidst some
healthy food, we ate salt and vinegar chips.

Probably the most interesting interaction we had along the way was
meeting a 77 year old man heading east out of Grapevine on his "last
hike in the Grand Canyon." He promised his wife he would take a
friend, but the friend had troubles on day one, so they had a chat
about how he didn't want the friend to screw up his last GC hike, so
the friend hiked out and the man continued with his plans. He was
thoroughly enjoying himself and relishing every moment in direct
contrast of our hike. Rather than admonishing us, he wished us well
and asked that we have a beer at Phantom in his name. We obliged.

The flowers everywhere in the Canyon are gorgeous right now, but the
Tonto is amazing.

Day one was definitely a physical and mental push. I will forever
have in my memory the high of coming out of Lonetree, thinking we
have just one more drainage to go, and getting that very first
glimpse of the bathroom w-a-a-y far away at Tipoff. I think it
takes a good three hours to get there. But we just kept our feet
moving and stopped when we needed to and while we tried to make it
to Phantom without headlamps, we finally put them on just above the
black bridge. Della made a comment to me about putting ourselves in
the shoes of someone hiking in late for the first time and how they
can often wonder if they are really at the right place. We on the
other hand, knew we were very much at the end of our longest day
with dinner waiting for us thanks to the folks at the Canteen.

On day two, we took a super long lunch with our legs up. When it
was time to go, I could hardly walk. That point was the most sore I
was through the whole thing and it was very tempting to just say our
bodies needed a break and we could enjoy the afternoon. But, then I
had my strongest section of hiking heading up the North Kaibab to
the bridge. From the bridge on, it was tough and I used the
recommendation to count my way up – 1, 2, 3, 4 – 1, 2, 3, 4. Thanks
for that recommendation. It helped me twice on this hike. The
North Kaibab has some winter rockfall on it and the trail crew has a
lot of very tough work to do. Because the North Rim is closed, we
had the trail all to ourselves – no yielding issues this day -- and
we had the added treat of water falls from snow runoff (but no
issues with snow or ice as the trail crew has cut the path down to
the mud). Our afternoon hiking meant we had shade the entire hike
up. We put on the fleece at the rim, ate well, snapped a photo
before the batteries died in the camera and headed back down to a
bottle of wine which we were too tired to finish. At one point I
said I felt like my body was on auto pilot, but hiking late in the
day is wonderful.

Day three involved a quick hike to Phantom as we ran into rim to rim
to rimmers and then the Phantom hikers heading for Ribbon Falls. We
were at Phantom at 10:30 a.m. where my husband was waiting to help
push/pull me out of the Canyon. After lunch, visiting with others
and receiving well wishes for a great hike out, a few photos, and
hauling the bunkhouse trash out to the river, we were on our last
leg in the hottest part of the day. Originally, the forecast called
for about 94 at the river, but that was changed to an expected high
in the low 80's! By this time, I was dealing with very sore soles
of my feet and would reach the point of needing to stop and get off
my feet. The rest at Indian Garden was a long one and as we were
getting ready to go, we learned it was 3:49 p.m and it usually take
me about three hours to hike out! I thought it was about 2:30 p.m.
We had been unable to connect with Amy to know if she was going to
hike in and now I was worried she'd be sitting at mile and one-half
and give up. So we high tailed it out of Indian Garden right about
4:00 p.m. When we passed mile and one-half with no Amy, we just
figured we'd catch up with her for dinner. At that point, I was
back to 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, but as we made that last turn below the
rim, I finally got that last wind I needed and put it in overdrive
to finish the hike right about 6:00 p.m. – the fastest I have ever
come up from IG. And then from out of nowhere came this emotional
moment of realizing that a crazy idea I had while driving to work
listening to the Breast Cancer 3-day commercials, Amy's acceptance
of the idea, Della's insanity of signing on to the hike and helping
greatly with logistics, my son's chauffeuring me to the rim Thursday
evening, this amazing weather, my husband's 20 mile hike in and out,
and the support and donations you all have provided had come to be –
all in about four weeks time! I wish you all could have witnessed
the embrace at the end of the hike and enjoyed dinner with us.
Thanks for doing something out of the ordinary for someone you
probably don't even know.

Amy has more chemo to come, but I know she feels that there are a
lot of people out there who will keep her in their thoughts and
prayers as the next round of chemo comes her way. And for anyone
who might still be interested in helping Amy and Dennis, the account
(CHASE BANK GRAND CANYON BRANCH, P.O. Box 459, Grand Canyon, AZ
86023 (1-928-638-2437 OR 1-877-226-5663) or via Pay Pal at
http://tinyurl.com/65v5hw ) is still open and it looks like it will
be for awhile as the GC community (as opposed to this virtual
community) is now aware of Amy's example of staying strong and
positive in the face of a physical and mental challenge and they are
working on some additional fund raising as well.

Kam

[desertgirl]

So here's something positive coming from the GrandCanyon. Amy recently complete Royal Arch hike - Woo Hoo!

[maryphyl]

How come Amy and Kam are not on azh? I will post something.