 Well, the most important thing is that Pete and I got in so far over our heads that on the first segment of this journey, we were spanked so badly that we had to give up. We had to crawl out of the canyon, retreat back to Flagstaff with our tails between our legs, and contemplate the possibility that we were going to have to call up our editors at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., and tell them that we had failed. And that was the point where we were adopted by a group of long-distance backpackers and hikers in Flagstaff who were incredibly passionate