Just a Little Backpack

Last May I was blessed to hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim—something I have always wanted to do. It is over twenty-five miles of amazing scenery, steep ups and downs, and all the challenges that a desert canyon can bring in late spring in Arizona, United States of America. We started off at about four o’clock in the morning and were joined by at least a hundred other brave hikers who had the same mission in mind—to reach the other side before dark. We made a beautiful, spiraling parade of headlamps down the side of the canyon through the wee hours of the morning. After taking a side hike to Ribbon Falls, we made it down through the floor of the canyon during the hottest part of the day, experiencing temperatures of nearly a hundred degrees. We took frequent breaks, refilled our water bottles at filling stations, and pushed on. The heat was starting to affect me, though, and I had not been able to eat much for hours. Then I made the mistake of putting a vitamin-based powder into my water. At the last stop before the final steep three miles, I started to feel extremely nauseated. My legs were cramping, and I had to stop every few hundred feet. My friend patiently waited with me while her athletic husband took her son up to our exit point at the top of the North Rim, which was still about a mile ahead of us. Every step that I took required more energy than I could muster as I fought off heat exhaustion and more nausea. Right then, my friend’s husband reappeared and offered to take my backpack, a seemingly simple thing as it weighed only a few pounds.

But for me, at that moment, it seemed like an angel had come and given me wings! What was normally a small burden to bear felt like the weight of the world because of all the other challenges I was facing. Having someone relieve me of it made all the difference, and I was able to push forward to meet my husband, who was waiting for me at the top. I was reminded how the little things that we do for people may not seem like much at all, but they might just be the things that allow them to tackle the much bigger things that they are struggling with. Let us look for even the little things to lighten someone’s load. It might just make all the difference!

Nicole Mattson