Grand Adventure April 20-22

I just got back from the Grand Canyon, and it lives up to it's name.
First of all, I've been planing on going to the Grand Canyon for about a month. I'm still down in Phoenix and I knew I was going to have a few days off, so why not? Until the day before yesterday I had never seen the Grand Canyon, nor had I ever really planned a camping trip for myself. I knew that I would be going alone, arriving mid-day on Monday and getting back to Phoenix at some point on Wednesday so that I could work Thursday morning. I had a tent, a sleeping bag, a thermo-rest, a battery powered lantern, a trail running backpack, a jet-boil (thanks to Joel and 2-day UPS), and a cooler I found in the garage. I also had it in my head that it would be a shame to go to the Grand Canyon and not touch the Colorado River. I'm so glad that Al Gore invented the internet, because thats where most of my research came from. Also, I thumbed through a few books at Boarders. I was able to find a lot of great information. Looking at places to camp I wanted to stay at the Desert View campground to avoid some of the crowds and it is cheaper. However, it doesn't open until mid-May. So I opted for the Mather campground. It was $18 a night and it has flush toilets which I was very happy about (I can't imagine a whole summer of an entirely full campground at 90 degrees with outhouses. bleh.) It also has coin operated showers. $2.00 gets you the best 8 min shower in the world. I went to Albertsons here in Phoenix, got some ice for the cooler, got some food and Mike's Hard Lemonade and I was good to go. So that took care of the camping side of things.
Now the part that I had difficulty with was the whole notion of touching the Colorado River. I quickly found out that there are basically two ways down to the river from close to where I was at: The South Kaibab Trail and the Bright Angel Trail. The SKT is a few miles shorter and therefore steeper but has great views, though no shade or water, whereas the BAT follows a drainage down and is more closed in, though it has places to get water and shade. So I decided that I wanted to go down AND up the SKT (mostly because it was shorter). Then when I started looking at trying to do this in one day I kept running into the warning: DO NOT try to go from the rim to the river and back in one day. None of the park will even give you any help how to, they just list it as a don't. Same with the guide books I looked at. But, I decided that I wanted to anyway. It was only going to be about 13 miles (The most I'd hiked before this in one day was 12). And I was going to be doing it alone (eeesh). And now everything that I'm reading says, DON'T DO IT -- you're going to have to get pulled out by a mule and spend your life savings paying for that stupid mule rescue and Joel and Brad are never going to let you forget it. uggg. but like the mule that I was worried might be pulling me out, I am stubborn, so I still planned on doing it. I found a couple other blogs and sites of people who had done it, but came up the Bright Angel trail instead. I was determined though. Oh man, but I was nervous. So, that takes care of that.
I packed up the car on Monday morning and I leave Scottsdale at 9:30 in the morning. About an hour out of the canyon I called my mom to let her know what I was doing. I had already given all my camp information to Joel as well as route information and times, what I was going to be carrying, etc. My mom asked if I was trying to find some sort of adventure. I told her I guessed so. Then she asked if this was the kind of adventure that would end up with me going over a cliff. I told her I hoped not. I gave her Joel's number just in case they needed to collaborate. Then she told me to have fun and be safe. ok.
Entering the Park I bought the all access pass for the parks nation wide, and was pleased to find out that it can have two signature holders on it. woo! There was almost no wait getting into the park and the forecast was for sunshine and low 70's at day and low 30's at night. I'd hit it perfect. I purposely avoided looking at the canyon as I drove in. I wanted to be able to take in my first look at the canyon. I wanted to have the freedom of looking at it without the fear of running anyone over. So I checked in, found my campsite, set up my tent and then went for my look.
I took the shuttle out to the South Kaibab trailhead and decided that would be my first look since I would be well acquainted with the area the next day. Man oh man. oh man oh man oh man. My first thoughts were "wow, oh crap. really?" ha ha ha. I didn't know anything could seem that far down. I couldn't even see the river. It's like the canyon goes down forever, then it flattens out, and then somehow it goes down again. And somewhere in the down again was the river. ha ha ha ha ha. oh man.
So I was taking a couple pictures and offered to take a picture for a couple standing close by. We started chatting and it turned out that this husband and wife from Germany were going to be doing the same thing I was tomorrow, but heading up the Bright Angel trail. We chatted a bit more. They invited me to sleep in their RV if it got too cold at night, but I was pretty excited about using my sleeping bag and tent. We decided that we would all catch the 5:10 shuttle the next morning and we would head out together. What a relief. I felt so much better knowing someone else was breaking the rules too and that really nice people would be on the trail with me.
I got back to camp and made dinner. I boiled water and poured it over 5-minute cous-cous, some grilled chicken I brought along and cut into strips and some shelled edamame. Good dinner! Then I set my alarm for 4:40 and went to bed at 8:00. I slept well for the first 2 hours, but then I woke up and tossed and turned. I finally got up at 4:15, and I'm so glad I did. I had a good breakfast of oatmeal with flaxseed and I tossed in dried cranberries and almonds to boot. Very tasty. I had time to wash up and get dressed at a leisurely pace. Though I only got the the shuttle stop just before the shuttle came. A last minute decision was to bring my lamp. It's not extremely light, but it was all I had and figured I should have it. It came in handy on the walk to the shuttle.
We got to the trailhead, used the facilities, took some pictures and heard some more last minute warnings that we should not do what we were about to try to do. Oh well. We hit the trail at 5:30. The sunrise was at 5:48 I think. I didn't use the lamp at all. About 20 seconds on the trail it was realized that I had set for myself a much more ambitious pace. The couple told me to go ahead and they would see me back at the campground. I took a couple pictures of them from a few switchbacks down, then I was on my way. The sunrise was spectacular. (I would hike down to Cedar Ridge in a heartbeat just to watch the sunrise from there.) I was making really good time and found my rhythm going down the steps for the mules. I made it to Cedar Ridge at 6:05 and to Skeleton Point at 6:41. A mule team was not far behind me so I waited there for them to pass. Then I waited for them a few switchbacks down as they were readjusting something. Wow, they kick up a lot of dust. And it kinda smells like a 4-H show hiking behind them. I kept up a good pace with them and passed them at the bottom as they had to wait at a wide spot at the trail because another group was coming up. I passed the Tip Off at 7:22 and came up to the River Trail at 7:58. I didn't really know what to do. I knew that more mules traveled on the Kaibab trail than the Bright Angel, and I already was feeling that I would be missing the shade a lot, so I decided to go up the Bright Angel trail. But I still wanted to touch the water. So I took the River trail to the steel bridge, crossed it, walked going up the canyon into Phantom Ranch, took a bathroom break, then went to the river and dipped my toes in. I brought along an extra pair of socks and so I washed my feet off, at a bar while they were drying and put the new socks on. Man oh man SOOOO good. Then I hiked back, crossed over the steel bridge again and was on the Bright Angel trail.
I was able to track my time well going down because I took a lot of pictures of all the signs and then just looked at the time I took the picture. I didn't track as well going up. First of all, there weren't as many signs. Second, I was just too dang tired to be taking a lot of pictures.
I passed Pipe Creek Beach at 9:18 after meeting another guy on the trail who told me I shouldn't be doing what I was doing (Too late now, I'm at the bottom, only place left to go is up)(but he was really nice too). And I passed through Indian Garden at 10:48. I stopped there and ate another bar and used the bathroom. There was a nice shady area too. Up until then I loved the hike out. It was beautiful and followed a little stream. There was shade and plants, and up until then I had basically been alone, all the people I met were going down to the river to camp for the night and they were friendly and encouraged me on my way. But once I hit Indian Gardens I hit the crowds. There were dozens of people at the gardens and dozens of dozens more hiking around. Not my favorite part of the hike. I met a older man named Jim though. We hiked the rest of the way together. He had the slow and steady method down. I was resting more than he was, but took longer strides, so I would catch up to him again. He would laugh when I'd take a break and would say that if he sat down he didn't know if he would be able to get back up. He was a nice guy and in good shape too for an older guy. People thought that he was my dad or grandpa. He made the last bit more enjoyable.
At one point after the 3-mile rest house I felt myself really dragging. I didn't want to eat because my stomach was feeling not great, but I knew I had to. I got some crackers in me and man oh man, I was surprised how much better I felt.
We got to the Bright Angel Trail head at 1:57. 8 hours and 27 minutes after I left. whew!
I caught the shuttle back to the campground and slowly plodded to the bathroom first because I knew once I got to my pad I wouldn't want to leave. Then I got back to my tent I drank more Gatorade, (I'd been drinking it at half strength cut with water all day) ate some edamame, crackers and string cheese. Then without knowing it I fell asleep and woke up 3 hours later.
wow
I got a jacket and went to go watch the sunset over Kaibab Trail. On my way out I stopped by the couple's campsite to see if they had made it back yet. Nope. So I left a note tucked in their door handle and went to see the sunset (beautiful!). I checked back again at their place at 8:00 pm and still they were not there and my note was still tucked in the handle. I was worried because it was completely dark, but I knew they had headlamps and they were experienced hikers and they were on extremely well traveled trails and maybe they went from the trail to dinner because they didn't want to cook or maybe, they walked to the ranger's nature talk, or maybe....
hmmm...
So I called Joel to ask him what to do since he has more back country experience (and I like talking to him) and he said to wait until morning. I didn't want to be a neglectful person, but I didn't want to raise the alarm and send out a search party prematurely. Well, I drove by their place on the way to the showers around 8:30am (a few hours after sunrise) and my note was still tucked in the door handle. Rut-roh. So I told the park ranger at the desk and he made a note of it and said that he hadn't heard of anything on the radio but that he would keep an eye on their campsite throughout the day and would send out help if they weren't back before the afternoon. So I took my shower and went and packed up camp and was ready to check out and decided to drive past their campsite one last time before I left and lo and behold there they were eating breakfast. What a relief! So I sat with them for a bit and heard the story. They didn't make it down to the river until noon because they were taking a lot of pictures. And then it was very hot (It's about 20 degrees hotter down there then it is at the rim). And then they were very tired. And then they walked across the small creek and Harold's boot just came unglued. Like the sole just started coming off, so that it was flapping there. And they were Merrill boots. I don't get it, but he showed me, it's true. So they didn't reach Indian Gardens until 6:00pm. And they were still tired, but they kept going. And then it got dark. So they turned on their headlamps and kept going. And then when they got to the top the shuttles had stopped running so they kept on going. They didn't make it back to their RV until 2:00am!!!! (my note had stayed in the door because apparently that door is broken so it can only be opened from the inside. When they found it in the morning they went to my campsite to tell me they were ok, but they remembered the number wrong.)
My goodness! So, there you have it. Hiking down to the river and back in one day. I don't think that my trip could have gone smoother. And for them a lot of little things went wrong. They said they started slow at the top so they would have energy later, but later meant that they were hiking the hardest part at the hottest part of the day. Wow.
Now for the pictures.


Breakfast 4:30am.

South Kaibab Trailhead with Harold and Heilker. 5:30am.

Cedar Ridge 6:05am.

Skeleton Point 6:41am.

The Tipoff 7:22am.

Choosing the River Trail to go to Phantom Ranch...7:58am.

At the River 8:07am

Bright Angel Creek 8:26am.

Back on the trail 8:48am.

Pipe Creek Beach 9:18am.




A sign warning not to go to the river and back in a day. 1:47pm

Bright Angel Trailhead 1:57pm.

Sunset on South Kaibab. 6:56pm.



afterword
I've been off the trail for over 48 hours. My legs still hurt. I want to go back.