“One Thing Technology Can’t Improve”

THE man who maintains Grand Canyon’s emergency telephone line for hikers in distress says “there’s nothing better than a mule” for getting his equipment to inaccessible places. “It is one thing technology can’t improve. The helicopter is ingenious, but this [animal] was designed to work on my line.”

Explaining the hazards that his mule takes in stride, the telephone man states that “the terrain gets so steep in places you’ll be clinging on with your fingernails, your nose touching the same ground you’re walking on.” The report in The New York Times notes that this rugged installation “connects 11 emergency telephones and four ranger stations, providing service to an estimated 100,000 distressed hikers each year.”