Backpacking

Cousin Glen has invited me on a backpacking trip and I am super excited! I've never been backpacking, so I told him to put me on the list. It would seem that we're going backpacking in the Grand Canyon this week. That "we" being me, and a bunch of men. Mostly family, but I've been trying to decide if that makes it better or worse. On the one hand if something goes terribly wrong and I can't make it, they're family so it's not like I can be left behind. I also bank on the family relationship creating feelings of concern rather than irritation should they wind up having to drag me out of the canyon. On the other hand if something like that happens I may be hearing at every family reunion from now until the end of time "remember that time that you tried to go backpacking with us but couldn't hack it?"

I also have this potentially irrational fear that I'm going to collapse under the weight of my pack. I've been repeatedly reassured that this will not happen. Still...do those backpacks not look really heavy? I feel like they do. I'm borrowing a frame from Glen, so I guess I'll find out when I get there.