From the article mentioned in the next entry:
Just this last year [Stewart Udall] rafted down the Colorado River from Lees Ferry — named for Udall’s grandfather — and, with a grandson, trekked from the floor of the Grand Canyon up Bright Angel Trail some 7,000 feet to the South Rim. His family had cautioned against it, and he rejected a Park Service offer of a mule. “They wouldn’t have liked it if I hadn’t made it,” he recounted, “but what a way to go.” Once at the South Rim, Udall marched straight to the bar at the Tovar Lodge and ordered a martini.
Kudos to Stewart Udall.
But at the risk of picking nits, the bridge at the bottom where the Bright Angel Trail crosses the Colorado is elevation 2461 feet. The trailhead near the lodge at the rim is about 6878 feet. That’s a net elevation gain of 4417, a discrepancy of 2583 feet, half a verticle mile.
Nonetheless, at age 84 that is quite a climb. Speaking from experience I know that when one walks up from the bottom there aren’t any downhill stretches.