Thursday, June 4, 2009

5 Days Hiking Rim to Rim - the executive summary

This pic wasn't taken in Grand Canyon becuz I didn't take my iPhone, but of looks like this there so it will have to do for now. Friday, 6:30 a.m. we put our packs on our backs and stepped off the edge into the abyss. OMG!  OMG!  OMG!  We couldn't say it often emough!  The views were so spectacular. And I've seen them before. But it's breathtaking every time.   And down, and down, and down we went for 7 hours, for 8 miles. I think our pace was so slow because we kept stopping and saying OMG!  When we neared the bottom, we met up with the mules. We were on the South Kaibab Trail and for now no mules are on it while it's undergoing maintenance. The mules are cool to see but smelly to follow: poop and pee!  And they make the trail terribly dusty and not fun to hike on. At the bottom is the Colorado River, a greyish green sludgy mess with a powerful current. Three boys died I'm it this year attempting to swim across it. The Bright Angel Campground is nestled in the canyon along with Phantom Ranch, a rustic resort with quaint cabins and community dining hall.


Our hiking days started early (everyone else up around 4 a.m. but yours truly who's got this morning pack up routine slept in an extra hour). We would be hiking by 5:30 - 6:30 to beat the heat. But we were lucky on that most days cloud cover came in around 11a.m. and kept us fairly cool. The temps were unseasonably below normal up to 15 degrees and we were happy for that.


Next day was a hike out to Clear Creek a long 10 miles along the Tonto Plateau after climbing out of the nott of the canyon. Our group had 2 thru-bikers from the Appalachian Trail (Maryland Edge and me) and 4 hikers new to the sport at varying degrees of fitness and pack weights. We ended up splitting up due to differing hiking paces. Edge stated back with Diane and Bill, while Roger, Jim, and I hiked ahead. We used a walkie-talkie to stay in touch. About 11a.m. Edge callled to say that Bill's hip belt buckle had broken and he and Diane were having a rough time so they'd gone to plan B. They were going to hike back to a rocky ledge that had large puddles of water and spend the night. We'd meet them back at Bright Angel the next day. This let the three of us continue on to Clear Creek. And what a hike it was. In and out of all the canyon's "hollers" - 15 of them before we hot to the red shale mountain that we had to traverse on a path no wider than my foot, often tilting downhill, with loose crumbling shale. Are they kidding?  Someone could get hurt or even killed out here!  In fact someone did the week we were there. A 69 yr old man fell off the Hermit Trail down 200 ft. And it took them a week to find him. Sure doesn't surprise me. Not a place for the faint of heart... Of the clumsy. While trying to find ruins back up Clear Creek that evening by myself, I was scrambling along a bank of loose dirt and rocks. And as I stepped on one rock I thought about it giving way under me.  And it did. Down I fell. Luckily it was only about 8 - 10 ft and I just scrapped up my thigh. Oops!  Better there than ok a cliff a thousand feet up... And we were on ones like that. Never did find the ruins but I was running out of daylight and had no clue where they were. The rangers won't tell you anything about them. I did get a skinny dip though.


Plane's boarding. Have to finish later.


Bag Lady

Sent from my iPhone