A Writer Returns to the Grand Canyon, This Time With His Mother’s Ashes
I’M HAUNTED BY my own recklessness as I pull on a base layer and a flannel in the slowly illuminating dark. It’s dawn on a blustery January morning in Williams, Ariz., and after I cut the tags off my hiking pack, I load it up with microspikes, trail maps, a compass and a first-aid kit — like a guy who knows what he’s doing.
Passing, that is. I’m not a hiker, not really. At the REI in Los Angeles earlier in the week, stocking up on cold-weather gear, I told the cashier where I was headed. “The Grand Canyon?
In January?” she asked. “Brave man.” She was surprised, but being a beginner has never stopped me from risking my body before.
Video T’s Summer Travel Issue Three writers retake trips they made when they were different people — and experience a place other than the one they thought they knew. - Switzerland: Maaza Mengiste revisits Mount Pilatus after a life-changing first trip there. - The Grand Canyon: Thomas Page McBee returns to the landmark with his mother’s ashes and reflects on what he’s forgotten — and remembers. - Istanbul: In trying to understand the complexities of the city, Aatish Taseer examines both his past and present selves.
