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Posted by: Onaxthiel- We cleaned up quickly in the morning and got under way. We were debating whether to go down to camp at the bottom of the canyon, or get underway for flagstaff for our evening sleep needs. We drove from our camping area out to one of the view points and took a walk down towards Grand Canyon Village. The village is where the full time residence of the area live, and is large enough to run a small school district as well as making the park one of the more community like areas we have seen. We decided on this fairly long route in order to see different views of the canyon and how it looked at sunrise, since we had already seen it at sunset. Not only did we see more views of the canyon, but we saw some unexpected wildlife in the woods along the edge. A set of stags caught our eyes first, one which was down to a single antler on it's head. That was somewhat interesting, but deer have not been that unusual on this trip, so we weren't that impressed. The second beasty was a bit more interesting. A largish elk was
hanging out right off the path, and really didn't seem to care that we were watching him. He browsed the trees that were convenient, and stood on his hind legs at one point to reach up a bit higher.... than Obfuscator and I could reach! Eventually he moved a bit deeper into the woods, which was fortunate since we would never have gotten by him otherwise. It's frustrating to be a human some times, the pointy tip of the food chain, and know that in National Parks all the critters are loving the fact that they can charge you and get away with it. Once we made it into the village, we started off towards the back country office. The route took us past the mules stables where dozens of smelly animals hang out and roll around in their own feces. Upon talking to the backcountry ranger at the office we found out the following pertinent facts. 1. The easiest route down had ice on the trail for the first quarter mile. The harder one had a full mile of ice. 2. Both routes would take between four and six miles of hiking to reach a campsite. 3. It is
a mile vertical to get to the bottom. 4. It is a nine mile route out of the canyon for the morning after. After hearing these facts, Obfuscator and I weren't really feeling like torturing ourselves by trying a camp at the bottom, so we settled on a six mile hike down about two thirds of the way and back up. The advantage of this was that it wouldn't require the full packs, so we thought we would be able to handle the ice with less gear. The disadvantage, off course, was that we wouldn't see the bottom and we would still need to make Flagstaff in time to do lots of uploading in the evening.
Riding the free bus out, we were surrounded by people that would be attempting the same trail as us. some had equipment for the ice, others didn't. We found that those that didn't were regretting it soon enough, including us. A quarter mile of icy slope only a few feet wide and a shear three hundred foot drop to the first ledge is a bit off putting, and we really were regretting not having taken the opportunity to buy crampons or rent poles
from the village market. Once the ice was behind us, the route became something like a freeway. people passing slower groups, then stopping for a rest or a photo and being passed by the same hikers that they had blown by a few minutes before. We saw our first California Condors there in the canyon, three or four of them circling to the east. It's really quite amazing to see these birds, being how close they came (and still are) to extinction. There are now more in Grand Canyon than there were total at their lowest point a few decades ago. Having never seen one of these scavengers in person before, I wasn't really certain they were Condors at first. At one of the rest stops along the way though, where we were taking shots of a couple perched on a ledge, our suspicions were confirmed by an aging ornithologist. He mentioned that we really didn't know how lucky we were to see them. He had looked for a one in the wild for forty years before spotting his first one. A bit further down was the first official end point for short distance hikers. It's called Cedar Ridge and
it features some beautiful vistas and latrines, but alas for the unprepared hiker, no water. Obfuscator and I took a few shots and moved on. Shortly we encountered our first mule train taking travelers back to the rim. Watching them on the top of the mules made me quite happy to be walking. I don't think I would like the swaying motion a few feet higher up without a foot hold of my own. A bit later a set without riders came past us too, and Obfuscator and I decided we should name them all. We would name our mules something along the lines of Stinky, Crosseye, Fally, Trippy and Slippy the Wonder Mule. Names like these would insure that only people who really want to ride would be willing to take the tour, thus preventing nervous issues later. We continued down until we reached our destined turn around, Skeleton Point. We don't know what prompted the macabre name, but the view is quite nice. The Colorado can be glimpsed down below, as well as some different POVs for other landmarks we had seen from the rim. After a brief snack we turned around for the top again. The crowds
had thinned out in the afternoon, so our hike back up was fairly easy. It was quite taxing though, and we were both glad that we hadn't decided to try for the long walk down and longer hike back up with full gear. On the way back up we encountered a gent that had tried the four mile version of our hike with only three quarters of a litter of water. I gave him a large portion of mine so I wasn't as worried as much about his making it out. He shared some of his beef jerky with us, so that was nice. We later met up with him and rode out on the same bus back to the car area, and we talked of other good hikes in the area.
Finally, we were ready to head to Flagstaff. It was an easy enough drive, though we were a bit exhausted and Obfuscator slept though the first half of the ride. Finally we made it to a hotel and had our first showers in five days.
Lessons learned:
We already knew it, but taking a half litter off water per mile is pretty much mandatory. We
were both sucking the bottom of our camelbacks by the end of the walk, and given another mile or two we would have been out. Mine in particular was pretty much done, thanks to the half litter I gave to the hiker who was dry on the way up. We should have bitten the bullet and bought or rented ice gear. We did manage to make it through the quarter mile ice sheet, but it was by very carefully picking the route and was very slow going. Had it gone on much further, we would have become injured somewhere. The ice was easier to deal with in the afternoon than in the morning due to thaw, so it would have been a bit easier to begin the decent an hour or so later than we did. Lastly, we were right to not try the hike we weren't convinced on. If you aren't feeling it, don't push it.
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