Flew to Flagstaff a day early so I wouldn't stress about missed connections or lost luggage. When I landed on Sunday late afternoon, my first reaction was "I could live here." Got a great view of the red rocks of Sedona on the flight in and the airport is a nice tiny friendly place and the weather was great. So super first impression. On Monday, I walked from my hotel over to Thorpe Park, at the base of Lowell Observatory - from Google Maps it looked like a large enough area that I could walk around for a while and then sit and read and eat lunch. When I got there I wandered for a while and found myself on Mars Hill Trail.
I recognized the name from AliC's log and decided to hike up the hill for a while. I eventually got to a display with a trail map and was able to figure out that I could hike around the Observatory and take Tunnel Spring Trail back down on the other side which came out pretty close to my hotel. A lovely hike and I stopped and read and ate my lunch part way through.
In the evening there was a meeting of the people on the trip (an MIT alumni trip) and one of the river guides. We got our dry bags and instructions for the morning.
One of the participants was someone I had done the Kilimanjaro trip with and one was someone I knew slightly from my time at MIT. There were 15 of us total (there were 16 spots but some last minute cancellations and wait list shuffling ended with 15). We met the head guide Heather and were told there would be 6 more to help with the trip. So 22 total people.