North Rim Fire Update | BREAKING: Manzanita, Roaring Springs Threatened | Tuesday, July 15

In this urgent fire update, Brian and Zeena share troubling new developments from the North Rim: the blaze has now spilled over the rim and threatens Manzanita and the critical pump house at Roaring Springs. With no containment and growing danger deep inside the canyon, we break down what’s really happening—what’s confirmed, what’s not, and what it all means for the future of the North Kaibab Trail. This is the most consequential moment in the corridor’s modern history—and we’re not sugarcoating it.

Episode Transcript

Zeena (00:05):
This is the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show presented by
Hiken. Hiking plus kinship.That's Hiken. Together, we roam.
Here's your host, my hubby, andcofounder of Hiken, Brian
Special.

Brian (00:18):
Alright. It is moving fast. It is, Tuesday afternoon
now, 07/15/2025. The focusreally seems to be shifting off
of the lodge area. And now, atleast for our purposes, into the
canyon, Zena's back with me.
Man, what a day.

Zeena (00:37):
Yep. You're pretty charged up.

Brian (00:39):
Yeah. There's a lot going on, and there's a lot to to stay
up with. It can be veryfrustrating doing this when
well, when when you don't thinkthat you're getting all the
information that you maybeshould be getting. You know, I'm
just going through these thesepress releases and the press
conferences that they have.They're not even press
conferences.
They're statements, anddeciphering what's going on. And

(01:03):
we just heard some what what Iconsider, especially for our
group, to be significantbreaking news from the
operational command briefingthat they had just a little bit
ago. And they just happened tomention about halfway through
that statement that they weremaking that they were sending a
hell attack team down to thepump house at Roaring Springs,

(01:26):
which is actually at atManzanita, the pump house
itself. So yesterday in the NPSpress release and briefing that
we heard, there was no threat toRoaring Springs or any of the
area down there. We're talkingat the base essentially of the
North Rim.
3,600 vertical feet and 5.4miles from the North Kaibab
Trailhead is Manzanita, theManzanita Rest Area, probably

(01:47):
the most beautiful rest areathat we have on the corridor
trails. And to hear that that isthreatened now is just
absolutely it's stunning. It'sstunning to show that that fire
can get all the way down therepotentially. Now we don't know
exactly where it is, but whatthey did say in that briefing is
that they were sending a hellattack team down, and that

(02:10):
essentially means a group offirefighters who are going down
there by helicopter, and they'regonna be dropped off, and
they're gonna begin essentiallypreemptive defensive measures
around the pump house in casethe fire does get all the way
down there. Well, if they'resending people down there,
obviously, there is at leastsomewhat of a threat.

(02:30):
And what the gentleman said,quote, they're gonna be working
on doing some preparation inthere so we can limit any
impacts to that pump house fromfire, end quote. So clearly,
they're concerned about what'shappening. And I also picked up
from that briefing that I mean,the fire has obviously spilled

(02:51):
over the North Rim and has beenover the North Rim for for a
couple of days and and burningdown into Roaring Springs
Canyon. We saw on the mapsyesterday, last night, that you
could tell that the perimeterwas down at Supai Tunnel, which
is 1.7 miles from North KaibabTrailhead. There's so much
vegetation up there.
It's like you're in a forest onthat trail up in that area, and

(03:11):
you could see that it's burnedall the way down to Supai
Tunnel. That was last night. Whoknows how much farther down it's
gotten from there? Because nowyou're talking about Redwall
Bridge, then the iconic eye ofthe needle section where the the
the trail is cut into theRedwall limestone right along
the cliff. And then all thatvegetation down below it is
essentially Roaring Springsproper that leads to the to the

(03:31):
falls that provides the thewater supply for the North and
south rims, and then Manzanita.
And then beyond that, we've gotwe've got Cottonwood. So, you
know, who knows how far thisthing can get? And I'm hoping
they can they can stop it beforeit gets to to Manzanita, but it
is you know, this is some thisis some serious stuff, and it's
getting Yeah. It's gettinglittle Yeah. I mean, that and

(03:53):
that's right.
To me, that's that's majorbreaking news, and that should
be that should be out therepreemptively, but this was just
kinda mentioned halfway throughthis press conference, and I'm
Wally. Yeah. My alarm bells aregoing off. It's like, wait a
second here. You know?
Again, reporters who aren't usedto the canyon, they probably
don't understand the terrain andwhat this what this all means
for the canyon and North KaibabTrail and things like that. But,

(04:15):
you know, obviously, we do. Weunderstand what what this means
and the impacts that it's goingto have on North Kaibab, and
honestly, the immediate futureof of North Kaibab. Because if
it's burned all the way down to,you know, Supai Tunnel as it had
last night, there's gotta bedevastation on the trail. And I
I have not heard one singleword, one single report from the

(04:38):
National Park Service or any ofthese the the fire command
about, you know, any impact tothe trail.
Obviously, that's not theirpriority. Their priority is
protects protecting structures.But, man, it is concerning, to
say the least, for the for theGrand Canyon hiking community.
So here are the nuts and bolts.All that being said, here is
what is at the foundation of it.

(04:58):
We're up to, as of this morning,8,570 acres burned. That's up
from 5,000 yesterday. Worse isthat containment still sits at
0%. There are 366 peopleassigned to fight this fire. I
do did also hear that they senta structure protection group

(05:20):
into the developed areas toprotect the structures that have
not burned, especially those inthe in in the Grand Canyon Lodge
area and also the employeehousing areas.
And they're there to, you know,again, be preemptive and to make
sure that there is is no reburn.But, yeah, again, the big news
out of that briefing that that Isaw was the was the threat to to

(05:42):
Manzanita and the threat to tothe pump house down there.
Again, hopefully, they they geta stop on it, but I also saw
that that there there's no oneworking the fire south of Grand
Canyon Lodge. Obviously, that isin the canyon. They talk about
the terrain.
It's it's almost impossible toto put personnel down into the

(06:03):
canyon in that area. But it'sjarring to hear that because,
you know, they're saying they'remonitoring it from the air right
now, but there's no one thatthey said that is is fighting
that fire. So again, whatoutside of mother nature in a
monsoon storm or something isgoing to stop the advance of
this thing? I I don't know.That's above my pay grade.

(06:23):
I don't understand how firescience works, but it's scary
because it could look on a maplike it's really getting close
to Cottonwood, and it's reallygetting close to Ribbon Falls
because that's what it lookedlike last night, relatively
close. It could be two or 3,000feet above it and look closer on
a map, but who's to say thatembers and fire cannot continue
to spill over and down into thebottom of the canyon? And if

(06:46):
you're talking about RibbonFalls and you're talking about
Cottonwood, you're talking aboutthe whole frying pan area, which
is wide open and exposed. Andthen eventually, you're talking
about the the box and thePhantom Ranch area. Obviously,
we don't think it's gonna it'sgonna get that far.
It would be tough for it to getthrough the box because the box
is so narrow. However, if itcomes from above, I don't know.

(07:07):
But, you know, we've heardthroughout the the entire life
of this fire so far that it'sdone the unexpected. Right? This
was a essentially a lightningcaused fire on July 4 that the
Park Service decided to treat asa controlled burn, and it got
out of control.
Nobody foresaw that that wouldhappen, much less that it would
burn down Grand Canyon Lodge,much less that it would be at

(07:29):
8,500 acres when it was at 10acres when when they first knew
about it, much less that itwould spill over into on the
North Kaibab and burn all theway down to Supai Tunnel. So who
knows anymore? Right? I thinkit's right to be concerned and
and to say that that that alloptions are on the table until
until we we hear otherwise. But,man, it's it's scary.

(07:51):
There's so much uncertainty. Ithink everything's kinda moved
beyond the lodge now for themoment because, and only
because, this is an activeactive fire, and zero percent
containment, you know, that'swhat it is. So I don't know
what's gonna happen.

Zeena (08:07):
It's okay. I mean, fire feels like deep personal loss.
It's okay to grieve. It's okayto feel anger, confusion,
sadness, all of it.

Brian (08:17):
Are you calling me angry?

Zeena (08:19):
A little bit. You charged us.

Brian (08:22):
Don't if it's anger. It's a it's a lot it's a lot of it's
a lot of emotions. And that'swhy I'm glad you're here because
you can bring a littleperspective and a little
feminine touch to my over thetop aggressive former news guy
kind of vibes that I've givenoff these days. I'm sorry.
Hardest heavy now.

Zeena (08:37):
I know how hard it's heavy. It's okay. But just
remember that fire has alwaysbeen part of the canyon story.

Brian (08:43):
Yeah. It has. It's always been part of nature's story.
Right? It's natural, but it'sit's scary, and especially
considering we don't know wherethis is gonna go.
There was there was a little bitof good news today. Did you see
that that that map that NPS putout earlier?

Zeena (08:58):
Yeah. They just released the map showing that many of the
historic structures around theNorth Rim Lodge are saved.

Brian (09:03):
Yeah. That was that was actually surprising to see. They
put out a map, and I I hopeyou'll go look at it. It's it's
on our Hike in Grand CanyonFacebook page and in our Hike in
Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon HikerDude Show Facebook group. I hope
you'll go check it out becauseit's led to some pretty spirited
and and actually fun kind ofconversation today through all

(09:24):
this because they put out a mapthat shows all the area around
Grand Canyon Lodge and all ofthe individual cabins, and it
shows which ones were lost.
Most of them were lost. However,there are some that were
untouched. And the motel, thetwo motel buildings that I've
done the canyon shuffle to manytimes, so after going down and

(09:46):
checking in at at the lodge, andthen I it's so far away from the
lodge, I get get you know, youjust finish rim terrain, you
gotta shuffle on down there.I've done that plenty of times.
Both of those buildings weresaved, which is really great to
hear.
A lot of the historic cabins,the Western Cabins, the Pioneer
Cabins, the updated cabins, thenicer ones, I guess you could
say, those a a lot of those area lot of those are okay. The

(10:09):
fancy ones, the expensive Andit's funny. The

Zeena (10:11):
rocking chair.

Brian (10:12):
With the rocking chairs and the porches, and some of
them got the canyon views. Andit's funny because I didn't know
some things come out duringofficial events like this that
are they kinda make you laugh.And it's funny because all the
cabins that we always stay inbecause I'm a cheapskate. Right?
Even though they're notnecessarily they're not
necessarily cheap, but NPSdesignates those, as we saw on

(10:36):
this map, as budget cabins.

Zeena (10:38):
The budget cabins.

Brian (10:39):
The cabins.

Zeena (10:41):
They're definitely budget cabins.

Brian (10:43):
Yeah. Let's just say that that they might need a little
updating. And and might need amight need a need some help
getting rid of some of thevisitors that like to visit you
inside those those cabins withfour legs and tails. Anyway,
everybody's just kinda laughingabout that today, and people are

(11:04):
posting pictures of the cabinsthat they stayed in and trying
to match it up on the map to seeif they're still there. So, you
know what?
That's that's nice to see in ain a situation like this when
everything feels so dire. Imean, there has to be there has
to be levity. Right?

Zeena (11:16):
Absolutely.

Brian (11:18):
And I'm gonna say I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna say it
right now. When they build back,Internet. Come on. We need
Internet when we decide to buildthis thing back.
Is it too soon? Is it too soon?Nope. Nope. Okay.
Again, levity in in all cases,but I have been saying forever
that the one thing that I am nota fan of on the North Rim is the
fact that there's no Internet. Iknow a lot of people out there
think that's one of the charms,and and that's cool. Good for

(11:40):
you. Good on you. But, you know,you could not use it if you if
you think it's one of thecharms, and and Internet's
available.
To me, I I need to be connected.I it's a work thing. It's just a
it's just the way life is in2025. I feel like you need to be
connected. And so I hope thatwhen the North Rim rebuilds and
the Lodge is rebuilt, thatInternet is part of that.
Okay. Why did we get off off thebeaten path with with this right

(12:03):
now? We're talking aboutInternet. Maybe it was deep down
inside me, and I felt like I Ijust was gonna take the
opportunity to to say something.Yeah.
But also, you know, we'repicking up in the group. There's
a in our hike in Grand CanyonFacebook group, and a lot of
people were getting ready fortheir rim to rims, and those are
now gonna be impossible. So haveyou seen that too? A lot of just
a lot of sadness out there.

Zeena (12:24):
Well, yeah. I mean, for a lot of people, it was their once
in a lifetime trip. Maybe theywere planning to return to the
canyon, but it's kinda likelosing a piece of your heart.
You know? Something that you'vetrained, planned for, dreamed
for.
It's not just a change inschedule. So, I mean, there's no

(12:45):
shame in that grief.

Brian (12:46):
No. No. And we've seen that. And and listen, I hope
you'll all post in our group.And if you're sad about about
losing the ability to do thishike, and you think that, you
know, it's too soon, and youdon't wanna worry about
yourself, and there are biggerthings that the canyon has to
worry about, of course.
But we listen. We know howaffected you are by by losing
the opportunity to do somethingthat you've prepared for for

(13:09):
years and trained for for thelast, you know, several months
to a year and beyond, and you'vedone, you know, all the work and
all the hikes, and then suddenlysuddenly, it's it's taken away
from you. That's brutal. Youknow, that's tough, and and we
understand that. And I've had alot of people reaching out to me
personally.
And by the way, you're allwelcome to do that. Send me a

(13:31):
message on send me a directmessage on on Facebook, on
Messenger. I will respond toyou. I I promise. I will help
you.
I will help anyone out there.But I'm just trying to encourage
everyone that, you know, ifyou've already got the plans,
the North Rim's out, but don'tcancel your plans. There are
still iconic bucket listadventures that you can take

(13:52):
part in from the South Rim.There's no shame in doing a a
rim to river. You know?
Go down South Kaibab. See themost iconic views in the entire
Grand Canyon. Oh my they're sospectacular. I talk about them
all the time, as you know. DoSouth Kaibab.
Go down to Phantom Ranch. Ifit's after October 1, and

(14:14):
hopefully the waterline projectportion of the river trail is
taken care of, and the rivertrail's open again so we can
connect with Bright Angel, youcould do a full rim to river
after October 1. Let's hope. Andthat would be South Kaibab,
Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel, andup and out. Sixteen, seventeen
and a half miles.
You know? 17 and a half if yougo all the way to Phantom, 16

(14:35):
and a half if you skip Phantom.But that's a big hike. That's
not that much shorter than a rimto rim. If you've never done it
before, if you've never hiked acanyon before and you're
planning to do rim to rim foryour first hike, use it as an
opportunity.
Still come. We always talk abouthow difficult Grand Canyon
hiking can be for those who havenever done it before. It's a

(14:55):
really tough thing to explainand prepare you for. You really
have to experience the uniquenature of it, which is the going
downhill first before you gouphill. So come out here and use
that as an opportunity.
Do a rim to river. See whatthat's like. Guess what? That's
gonna make your rim to rim whenyou're eventually able to do it
all the sweeter because you'regonna know what worked for you,

(15:16):
what you need to work on. Right?
And eventually, the North Rim isgonna be open, and you can take
everything that you've learned,and you can take the obsession
with the canyon that you'restill going to have just take
over your your soul when youcome to do any of these hikes.
You're gonna have all that tofall back on and look back on,
and suddenly your rim to rim isgoing to be that much more

(15:39):
special when you are able to doit. When is that gonna be? When
will rim to rim be apossibility? I know, you know,
me and a lot of others arethinking about rim to rim to rim
because we know the the NorthRim is going to be closed, but
typically, even when it'sclosed, you can still access the
North Kaibab Trailhead.
You just have to get to it andthen go back all the way back to
the other side. There's novehicular access up there, and

(16:01):
there will not be for the restof 2025. I don't know now. You
know, with North Kaibab, westill I've not heard one
eyewitness account of what thedamage and destruction are like
on North Kaibab. So it wouldappear that rim to rim to rim is
certainly not gonna be an optionfor the rest of this year.
I mean, I I don't think. Maybethere'll be some miracle, and

(16:23):
all the trails will be clearedoff. And later this fall, we'll
be able to to access it. But Ihighly doubt it based on the
fire maps that I've seen. Soeven rim to rim to rim is
probably gonna be out for 2025,and then we've gotta worry about
the winter.
Right? We gotta worry about lastyear, we had a very a very light

(16:45):
winter. There wasn't a lot ofsnow. The winter before, we
didn't even open the trails upuntil, I think, it was July
because there was so much damagebecause of the runoff. And that
was in normal times.
Right? That was that wassignificant snowfall, but there
was no fire burns and firedamage to to exacerbate the the
runoff. This year, there'sobviously going to be. So if

(17:08):
they have a bad winter on theNorth Rim, and, I mean, who
knows what kind of damage can bedone to North Kaibab? That
section between Supai Tunnel andRed Wall Bridge is just
notorious for for rock slidesand landslides, even even in the
best of winters, even in normalwinters.
So who knows what's gonna happenwhen it's got the fire damage to

(17:29):
worry about and the runoff fromthat. And if you, you know, if
you do put the snow, heavysnowpack on top of that, oh,
man. All this to say, I don'tknow. You know? I don't know.
But if you are grieving the lossof your ability to do rim to
rim, you know, we're here foryou. And we just want to
encourage you that, you know,eventually, you're gonna get a

(17:50):
chance to do it. And if you havea trip planned out here, the
South Rim is magic, you know.It's like the North Rim is.
They're both they're both magicin their own ways.
But, you know, I would highlysuggest that you still come out
and you still figure outsomething to do in the canyon,
especially if you're doing itwhen it's in the cooler months.

Zeena (18:07):
Yeah. And in the meantime, let the Facebook
community be your Canyon family.You know, we we love seeing all
the nostalgia. Like, share yourdisappointment, your hopes for
the future. So you're not alonein this.

Brian (18:23):
No. No. And that's, you know, that's that's the entire
point of why we do what we doand why we why we change the the
name of the entire brand fromBright Angel Outfitters to
Hikin, h I k I n, because it wasso vitally important to us that
we had something that reflectedall of us. And so that's why

(18:44):
Hikin was born, Hikin plus pluskinship. That's why it's h I k I
n.
And it it's it's it's why we dowhat we do. So please, please
share in the group, and, youknow, we're we're there for you.
And I know everyone else in thegroup is there for you as well.
It's the it's the best GrandCanyon group that that there is.
I have I just have no doubtabout that.

(19:04):
Everyone cares about each other,and there's no negativity. We
keep the politics out of it, andit's just positive, positive
energy. And, you know, I wouldsay just don't feel bad if
you're, you know, you'rethinking to yourself and maybe
feeling guilty that you'reworried about yourself right now
because you lost your hike, andother people have lost their
homes and and their livelihoods,and we've lost the lodge and and

(19:25):
all that. But don't feel bad.You know?
We get it. This is a is a thisis a rough time for everybody.

Zeena (19:32):
Maybe the monsoons will come.

Brian (19:34):
You know, I hope so. I hope so. Because I did see the
forecast, and there was a 20%chance of storms later this
afternoon up in the up in theGrand Canyon area. And, man, do
I have never hoped for rain morethan I I hope for rain now
because, again, what is there tostop this thing?

Zeena (19:52):
Well, it'll help the land rest and heal. Yeah. Begin
again.

Brian (19:56):
Well, it'd be nice to get to that nice to get to that
point. We can worry about flashfloods and things like that at
another time. Let's get thisfire out first. You know, and
there's a lot of talk about howthis thing was handled, right,
from the beginning. I wanna talkabout that just a little bit.
Have you seen that?

Zeena (20:16):
A little bit.

Brian (20:17):
Yeah. Some people are talking about obviously, we've
got the calls from Arizona'sgovernor. We've got the calls
from Arizona's representativesin Congress who are all using
this as an opportunity to saywhy was this allowed to happen.
Because, again, it was alightning caused natural fire on

(20:38):
July 4. We first heard about ita week ago yesterday that it was
10 acres, and they were gonnalet it run its course and do its
work.
It was gonna be a, you know, acontained fire, essentially a
controlled burn, and they weregonna let it take care of the
underbrush and and all thethings that fire is is used for
and is good for. And then itjust got obviously completely

(21:01):
out of control. And I know it'sit's gonna be so easy to rush to
judgment and attack and getreally, really nasty with those
who made these decisions. But,you know, I was doing a lot of
reading on this last night, andit's a very common thing. It's a
very common tactic to use thesenatural opportunities to allow

(21:26):
fires to become contained,controlled burns to do their
job.
And there's no indication that,you know, there was any there
was any negligence or thatsomeone was acting with
incompetence. I mean, it's notjust one person making a
decision like this to to let afire burn. And it just really

(21:48):
seems like it was a worst casescenario where they've done this
before and, you know, you'reable to contain it. You keep it
away from structures. There'sthere's no threat to structures
and and and infrastructure likethat.
And then it just they they lostit. They lost it. And so at this
moment, before we know thefacts, you know, personally, I'm

(22:11):
choosing to just to beempathetic because, listen,
everyone associated with theNational Park Service who worked
at the Grand Canyon, This istheir life. This is their
livelihood. Do you really thinkthat someone who made this
decision is not regretting everysecond of their day right now?

(22:33):
Do you really think they're notin in significant pain and know
that, you know, maybe theyscrewed up, and maybe they
shouldn't have made thisdecision because hindsight is
always twenty twenty? If theythought there was even a 1%
chance that this would jump thelines and the winds would
change, and suddenly they wouldhave lost Grand Canyon Lodge,
and they would have lost so muchon the North Rim, and now the

(22:54):
fire's down in the canyon.Whoever made those decisions is
living a nightmare right now.And I feel like those days for
accountability, I believestrongly in transparency and
accountability. It's my, youknow, it's a former news guy.
It's what I believe in prettymuch nor more than anything.
There'll be another day forthat.

Zeena (23:14):
But guess what? The canyon has always known how to
survive. And I think right now,she's reminding us how strong
she really is.

Brian (23:23):
Canyon don't care.

Zeena (23:24):
Mhmm.

Brian (23:25):
Right? That's what we that's what we always say to the
hikers. Canyon don't care. Ifyou don't respect the canyon, if
don't take the canyon seriously,the canyon is gonna win. And,
you know, maybe to a certainextent, that's that's what
happened here.
But, anyway, all is still thethe regular closures that we
talked about yesterday, SouthKaibab Trail, Phantom Ranch,
Bright Angel, below HavasupaiGardens, and, of course, North

(23:47):
Kaibab all closed. Still a lotof smoke, heavy smoke in the in
the corridor region. That's whyPhantom Ranch remains closed.
All the corridor campgroundsremained remained closed.
Cottonwood, Bright Angel, andHavasupai Gardens.
So this is I I can't remember amore volatile time in the in the

(24:11):
canyon's history just with theclosures I just talked about
right there. Then you've got thewaterline project on top of
that. You've got the river, theriver trail closure. I know that
the river trips are stillhappening. You know, there's a
river exchanges done at thebottom in the Phantom Ranch area
at Pipe Creek at the at theriver Rest House.

(24:32):
Those are still being allowed,so there are still people hiking
up and down to either leaveriver trips or catch river
trips. So that I know is stillis still being allowed to
happen. But you just talk aboutthe volatility, and then on top
of it all, we said thisyesterday, it's July. And
there's an extreme heat warningright now. So it's dry.

(24:53):
It's hot. So many of the trailsare are closed. I feel for
everyone who's working on theSouth Rim right now and dealing
with with all of this, and stillhaving to keep the park open,
you know, and still having todeal with the with the summer
summer visitors, the summertourists who are who are here
visiting one of the sevennatural wonders of the world.
So, you know, I feel I feel fora lot of people right now.

Zeena (25:14):
We just gotta hope for the return of the rains.

Brian (25:17):
Yep. We do. And it's coming. It's coming. It's
monsoon season in Arizona.
We still haven't seen much, butsurely it's about to happen, and
and that that would be the mostwelcome news that we could
possibly get. But we'll keepdoing these, I mean, as long as
as long as we need to. I feellike, you know, we're not gonna
talk about hiking and trainingand rim to rim stories and tales

(25:37):
from below and all that stuffright now. But I I do wanna
mention I do wanna mention this,since since Zena is is sitting
here. And this is this is not ashameless plug.
I truly I truly believe this. Iam not a person who is into
meditating and and things likethat, and that's Zena's entire
world, so it's kind of a miraclethat we're married. Right?

Zeena (25:56):
No. It's divine.

Brian (25:58):
Okay. But Zena did launch a podcast recently called Sacred
Steps, and it's meant for all ofyou. It's meant for everyone in
our Grand Canyon hikingcommunity. They are hiking and
movement meditations. And, man,they are something to really
fall back on right now.

(26:19):
You've only released three ofthem. The last one you did was
on the meaning of the wordkaibab, which is

Zeena (26:25):
Very significant.

Brian (26:26):
Upside down mountain. And and listening to these and
listening to your voice, I feellike I I feel like that's just,
I don't know, it's like comfortfood for your soul listening to
to what you're doing right now.So I hope you're gonna keep
doing them.

Zeena (26:40):
I will. Every Sunday.

Brian (26:41):
What do you got coming up next, do you think?

Zeena (26:43):
Well, I think it's very important to talk about the
fire. Yeah. I'd like to tell thestory of the Grand Canyon fire.

Brian (26:52):
Yeah. Already. Mhmm. So we say too soon. Not too soon?

Zeena (26:55):
No. It's not too soon. It's happening.

Brian (26:57):
Well, I can't argue argue with you when you're looking at
me like that. Oh, the husbandand wife team. Oh, boy. Those
meditations, I do hope you'llcheck it out. It's called Sacred
Steps Meditation in Motion byZena Special, and and and
they're they're they're reallyspectacular, and they've been
extremely popular.
And I think that both of us havebeen kind of blown away with

(27:19):
face. Yeah. Kind of blown awaywith the reaction because it's
not, you know, what we typicallydo here on the Grand Canyon
Hiker Dude show where we talkabout, you know, training and
packing and rim to rim storiesand death and destruction and
disaster. And

Zeena (27:35):
it was the right audience.

Brian (27:36):
Yeah. But it is. Because it turns out people are looking
for that. Yeah. It turns outpeople are looking for that.
So yeah. So these these arereally special. There's three
episodes, and I hope you'll Ihope you'll go listen to them,
because she's done a great jobon them. And and I think there's
there again, comfort food forthe soul, something that we
could all use right now to justkinda set our minds at ease, and

(27:56):
it is something that's relatedto to the Grand Canyon. So,
proud of you.
I hope you keep doing them.

Zeena (28:01):
Thank you. It comes from my heart.

Brian (28:02):
Yeah. I I it's obvious that it that it does. And
honestly, what we do, it allcomes. It all comes from the
heart. This is this is a laborof love, and we'll keep bringing
you these podcasts and theseupdates as long as you want us
to.
You know, I was wonderingyesterday if there would be one
to talk about today, and thensure enough, I wake up and, you
know, it's 05:30 in the morning,and I'm just sitting there

(28:24):
reading everything that'shappened, and, oh my gosh, it
just never stops. And that'sokay, because again, there's a
responsibility here. I wannamake sure that everyone is as
informed as they can be, becauseI do continue to say that we're
not being told everything thatit's not we're not being told
everything that I think weshould be told.

Zeena (28:43):
We're filling in the gap.

Brian (28:44):
At least not forth with enough forthrightfulness. I
don't even know if that's aword, but you know what you know
what I'm saying? Yeah. There's alot of reading between the lines
and a lot of deciphering what'sbeing told and a lot of
knowledge that I have of thecorridor trails in the area
that's being applied to thestuff that I am taking and
reporting that you're probablynot gonna find elsewhere. So I

(29:05):
take that very, very seriously.
I wanna make sure that I get itright and pass along good
information to everyone, andthat will that will continue. So
that's it for now. Got anythingelse?

Zeena (29:16):
No. Thank you.

Brian (29:17):
Alright. Thank you, everyone. We will probably be
back tomorrow. And, also, ifthere's anyone out there who is
affected by these fires whowould like to to talk about it,
you know, we'd we'd love to haveyou on the show and and hear
your stories and and yourperspective. That's really
important as well.
Oh, one one last thing. We areworking on a T shirt, and we

(29:39):
decided to use because Bridey,the famous Grand Canyon mule
donkey mule. I don't remember.Was Bridey a mule or a donkey?
Oh.
Someone out there is yelling theanswer. I can't hear you. But,
anyway, Bridey is a legendaryfigure in Grand Canyon lore.
There was the statue that sat inGrand Canyon Lodge in the great
room, the sunroom. So manypeople have posted pictures with

(30:01):
it.
And I think that that questionhas been asked more than any
other, is what happened toBridey? Is Bridey okay? And we
still don't know the answer.

Zeena (30:09):
No. We still don't know answer. Shirt.

Brian (30:11):
But we're gonna put Bridey on the shirt, and it's
gonna be we we've got it outthere right now. Is it gonna be
is it gonna be North Rim Strong,North Rim Together, North Rim
Rises? You know, I don't know.We put the poll out there, and
we're gonna let you decide, andthen we're gonna make these
shirts up, and we're gonnadonate everything to proper
causes to support the peoplewho've been affected by this
fire. But that's it for us rightnow.

(30:34):
We will probably be backtomorrow and in the days ahead,
so stay tuned for that. This isthe Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show
powered by hiking. Hiking pluskinship. That is hiking. We'll
see you next time.
Thanks, everybody. Thank you.