Flirting with Danger: Hiking the Grand Canyon the Wrong Way

By C. P. Webster-Scholten

With minimal food, inadequate hiking gear, and no water, does anyone hike across the Grand Canyon in the hot summer? Four friends do just that and find themselves facing real danger in the canyons depths. Their trek commences in boisterous naivety accented with laughter and song, but it instead becomes a plight to survive, as they encounter dangerous wildlife, blistered feet, painful limbs, hunger, and grim thirstall leading to hallucinations. In the searing heat of day and the eerie darkness of night, they follow the lonely trail.

A good description of how not to hike the Grand Canyon, this true story of youthful folly induces laughter, amazement, and admiration as one of them displays confidence, courage, and strength. Readers of any age will follow the trail with the spirited four as they endure the consequences of foolish decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532034473

C. P. Webster-Scholten

C. P. Webster-Scholten, retired geologist, has trekked 100s of miles in the Grand Canyon and always looks forward to one last hike. She is finishing a play based on this memoir, which departs from her normal scientific writing and editing. She and her husband live in southern Utah.

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Copyright © 2008, 2017 C. P. Webster-Scholten.

Cover photo: View of the Grand Canyon from South Rim

Photo by C.P. Webster-Scholten, January 2007

Cover and Book Design by Sharon Hamre

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-3448-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3447-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915486

iUniverse rev. date: 10/20/2017

Contents

Acknowledgments

A Grand Idea

The Adventure Begins

Kaibab Plateau

On The Trail

Phantom In The Night

Inching Toward Dawn

Hallucinations

Bear Hug

Hollywood On The Kaibab

Marathon

Epilogue

Afterword

To my wayfaring pals

Muriel, Pat, and Wendel.

Thank you, wherever you are,

for this Grand Adventure.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to Muriel Bergman who asked me (with a giggle) to write it all down so she could add it to her memoirs. And of course, having more than one set of eyes is helpful and necessary when recording events close to your heart, so I thank Jill A. Scholten and Dan L. Webster for comments that were both helpful and funny. To find the penstock photo, Dan plowed through dusty boxes in search of an old scrapbook. Our father prepared it many years ago when he worked at the Pump and Power Houses in Roaring Springs Canyon, a 4-plus-mile trek below the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. In fact, it was this scrapbook and my father’s stories that led me to seek work at the canyon as a teenager.

To my husband, Don Scholten, I offer my thanks for taking me back to the North Rim to revisit some of the places mentioned in this story. Also, I extend my appreciation to Kimber Heaton who provided school and portfolio photos of his father, Wendel Heaton. Graphic artist, Sharon Hamre, created the initial layout for the first five printings of this book, and I am grateful for her expertise. In addition I thank Janet Seegmiller and Paula Mitchell of the Gerald R. Sherratt Library at Southern Utah University who led me to information on Wendel’s activities while in attendance. And, finally, I thank Monica Wurm, Barbara Briski, and Lora Spencer who often asked, Why don’t you write a book?

So I did.

Readers’ Comments

This story is a gripping real-life tale of three teenage girls and their high school graduation gift to themselves of a 25-mile hike. Miracles did happen to these girls because they survived 50 years later to share their enduring trial through the intricately descriptive and entertaining writing of wordsmith Webster-Scholten … By the time I turned the last page, I felt like I was actually on the trek with the girls and one of their friends. It’s an emotional roller coaster with every word you read as the chain of events unfold with the girls’ jovial laughter … to tears of exhaustion with miles left yet to hike without food or water … [It’s a] once-in-a-lifetime experience for others to enjoy.

– The Spectrum/Daily News, Jennifer Weaver, Bureau Chief, Southern Utah

"Loved your book! ’Twas mistitled though—you were way past Flirting With Danger. You’re truly lucky to be alive. Thanks so much for sharing this amazing tale … Like you, I have suffered in the canyon from my own foolishness, and it has taught me many lessons—some of them geologic … some of