We're Feeling Hot, Hot, HOT!


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Published: March 5th 2008
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Near Bright Angel CampgroundNear Bright Angel CampgroundNear Bright Angel Campground

An oasis of green as we emerge onto the rim of the plateau.
You know that feeling when you wake up and for the briefest of moments you don't quite know where you are and have to retrace your steps to remember? That is not the Grand Canyon. First, there's the continuous presence of heat radiating from every angle, from the ground below and the sky above and even the rock escarpments surrounding you. Then, there's the aching feeling radiating throughout your entire body that reminds that yes, you did actually get down here by the power of your own two legs. It is painfully obvious where you are, and how you got there. That was Sunday morning.

Yesterday, when the backcountry ranger came by to verify we had all the proper permits, she warned us of temperatures were climing up to 140F( 60C) in the sun and to avoid most physical activity during the hours of 10am-4pm. She did, however, provide us with directions to a couple waterfalls and other destinations that we would easily be able to reach before the sun got too hot, so that was our plan for today. We loaded up some water and food and headed north through "the Box" along the North Kaibab trail before turning off into one of the smaller side canyons. The Box, a narrow canyon of black Vishnu Shist, gets extremely hot during the day and every guide book and bulletin board in the area warns about hiking through early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid overheating. I didn't ask how hot it got, but given that the campground was 120F (32C) on an average day, I certainly didn't want to find out what the ranger herself considered to be extra warm.

On our way out we passed through Phantom Ranch, the only permanent dwelling in the inner canyon area that are used by guests on the mule-trains and river-rafting tours. Nobody was outside; everyone was hunkered down in their air-conditioned cabins playing cards and reading books. I could do that at home! What's the point of making it all the way down to the base of the Grand Canyon if you're just going to sit indoors and look at it through a window. Really people, wake up! I admit, the cool air wafting down through a few of the open doors and windows was nice, but I was certain that what we had planned would make for a much better experience (not to mention much better stories later).

A Day Submerged


The hike itself was completely uneventful unless you consider the fact that we're hiking the inner passage ways of the Grand Canyon an event in itself. We saw a few lizards, marveled at the various changes in geology and saw the remants of the old telegraph poles that were installed to convey messages between the rims decades ago, but the real fun came once we veered off the main trail and made our way through a smaller side canyon. You have to be careful when venturing into these more narrow canyons, because heavy rainfall miles away can filter down into the canyon and suddenly you're dealing with a flash flood. But the weather forecast for the canyon and surrounding areas called for nothing to sun, sun and more sun, so we felt relatively safe. Still, one of the first things we did was scout of a high rock ledge and exit route should such an unforseen event occur. Thankfully, that was all for naught.

When we got to the small waterfall we were in for a surprise--we weren't the only ones there.
Common Collared LizardCommon Collared LizardCommon Collared Lizard

(Crotaphytus collaris) Gettin' a little sun. There's enough of it to go around!
A group of young boys had already laid claim to the lower pool and were apparently fairly eager to have a female to show off for. Brilliant. It was already getting too late to hike much further so this was it, regardless. Rather than share a "relaxing" day with a gang of hormone-raging adolescents, we scrambled along the rocks further up the falls to a much smaller, but more remote, pool of water, only to be followed by the guys! Time to play of a little card known as "maybe if we ignore you completly and make this situation awkward, you'll go away." So that's what we did. And you know what? It was awkward, for a while, but it eventually worked. They went back to the large pool they'd initially dominated and we mellowed out in ours.

So what do you do in a small pool of water, deep in the heart of the Grand Canyon for a whole day? Ah....sit mostly. Well we each took turns standing in the falls, and my dad and Andras built up a dam with the rocks to deepen the pool another 9 inches or so, allowing us to submerge all the
Looking down over the Kaibab PlateauLooking down over the Kaibab PlateauLooking down over the Kaibab Plateau

The trail switches back in the lower-left corner and then spreads out over the plateau.
way to our shoulders. And we saw some frogs. But mostly we submerged ourselves in the water and sat there. The water was fairly warm but still much cooler than the air around us. The water we'd brought to drink was as warm as bath water even before mid-day.

When the sun began to dip behind the canyon walls, we pulled ourselves out and headed back. Will never look at pretzels the same way again. When we did finally return to camp, we entered the Phantom Ranch Canteen to have a look around. My dad bought us pretzels and lemonade and I swear they were the best pretzels in the entire planet. They looked suspiciously like the very same pretzels that I usually turn my nose up at parties and on airplanes, but down here their salty crunch was delectable. Soon thereafer we were kicked out to make room for the lodging guests who were having their steak and stew dinner; that's alright because we had camp-stove speghetti and dehydrated backpacker blueberry cheesecake awaiting us. Of course I made it in the dark, so accidentally mistook the crumb topping for the blueberry mix and sat there stirring and stirring wet granola trying to get it to thicken into a nice sauce....but it still tasted just fine. The bigger shock came when I went to wash out the dishes and discovered a scorpion in the sink! Luckily I had a head-lamp on that time. If the ants weren't enough of a reminder to wear shoes constantly while walking around, this definitely was. We try to get everything packed back up (nothing ever packs as neatly going out and it does going in; did we pick up that much dirt while we were down here?) but eventually managed to close the satchel with a hard shove. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

The Hike Out



We know what we forgot, and that's an alarm clock. This hasn't been a problem all summer--we just get up with sun or later if we feel so inclined--but down here it's wise to have several miles covered before the sun's sweltering magma orb floats up over the canyon walls. The goal is to wake up around 3am and hit the trail by 4am, giving us a little over an hour to walk in the relative coolness of the early
Building the DamBuilding the DamBuilding the Dam

Since our pool of water wasn't that large, Andras and my dad started building up a rock damn to bring up the water level. Gotta love the teamwork guys!
morning. Andras is fairly convinced he can just wake us all up since he won't be able to fall asleep anyways, but just in case we elicit the help of another hiking couple (mother and daughter) who were on the hiker shuttle the same morning as us and were hiking out on the same day. They've been staying in the lush cabins of the ranch so alarm clocks weren't an issue; it is agreed that if they walk by our campsite on the way out and we're not awake, they'll get us up.

Andras was right, of course, in that all of us were awake around that time and were just waiting for the right moment to get moving. The rustling sounds of the campground coming to life seemed motivation enough and we were breaking camp right when our human alarm clocks strode past on their way out. We wished them well, wished we were already on the trail, and followed suit a half-hour later.

Rather than hiking out on South Kaibab Trail, we're creating a large loop and making our ascent on the Bright Angel Trail. It's about twice as long as the South Kaibab, but since
Mid-Day in the Inner CanyonMid-Day in the Inner CanyonMid-Day in the Inner Canyon

What do you do during the heat of the day when temperatures are upwards of 120F (32C)? Umm....this.
it covers the same gain in elevation, not nearly as steep. The first portion of the trail loops around by the river, where yucca palms and prickly-pear cactus line the way. What this portion of the trail lacks in difficult topography it makes up for in sand. Hiking on level sand is practically as difficult as hiking on steep rock, in fact I'd much prefer the latter, but eventually we made our way up away from the river and started to head up along the canyon walls. It was nothing but switchbacks, pure and simple. Steady as it goes, one step in front of the other, over and and over and over. I think I set a good pace. We were inbetween the canyon walls for the sunrise but watched the sky lighten overhead, knowing that soon the inevitable wave of heat would descend down upon us. When we finally breached the top of the lower canyon wall and emerged onto the plateau, we were greated by a lush oasis of streams, trees and *gasp* shade! It made a great place for a break, but we still had many more miles to cover and another steep elevation gain back to
Slot CanyonSlot CanyonSlot Canyon

My dad cools off under the waterfall.
the rim so we carried on.

At Indian Gardens, the campground half-way down the trail, we did stop to break and make use of the availabilty of water and benches. We'd caught up to the mother/daughter team and the younger one was simply exhausted, so we shared what remained of our trail food (Cliff Bar Shot-Blocks--cubes of colored glucose shot straight into the blood-stream, good stuff!) and wished them well as we pulled ahead. Due to it's less strenuous nature, Bright Angel Trail sees more injuries each year than anywhere else in the canyon. How can that be, you ask? Well because it's less strenous, everyone thinks they can do it. We met a Japanese tourist a few miles further up the trail with tennis-shoes and a 20oz bottle of water asking how far to the river. Being that's the sun is already up, and he has over 7 miles to go, we told him it was "way too far" and that we wouldn't recommend going further than to the plateau overlook. The further we hiked up the rim, the more of these encounters we made. We saw people hiking down in worse condition than we were on the way out! Still we methodically plugged along, providing information on the trail condition and relative distances and basically reminding other visitors not to over-do it. One of the rangers we spoke to on the rim the day before was telling us of an Asian tour-bus group was leading everyone down the river at noon, in the heat of the day, without water, and many of the ladies were wearing heels! Turns out this isn't an isolated incident.

By the time we hit the last mile we were anticipating the end of the trail behind every corner and at the crest of every set of switch-backs, but if finally came! It was a little after 10:30am when we "summitted" and whew...the first thing we did was collapse on a bench and stare out over the canyon in awe of what we just accomplished. I always wanted to ride the mules down into the canyon when I was younger, but not only is hiking a much more satisfying accomplishment, after seeing the narrow trails those big animals would have to navigate, no way! I think we're a bit more secure on our own (weak and weary) feet. Still, we did it!
Mid-Day in the CanyonMid-Day in the CanyonMid-Day in the Canyon

Not a whole lot to do but submerge yourself in cool (warm) water.
That one more accomplihsment I can cross of my list of things I want to do in my life.

Exploring the Rim


Even having spent the last three days up close and personal with the inner canyon and trails along the south rim, there is vastly more area to explore and different view points to take advantage of. After we were showered and refreshed, we hopped the shuttle down to Hermit's Rest and the various overlooks along the way. At some points along this route you can see the Colorado River from the rim, and as we watched we saw the bright yellow tell-tale sign of the river-rafting tours making their way along in the water. There's a lot of history along the south rim, from the architecture of Mary Colter to the original campgrounds set up to draw in tourists from the old Santa Fe Railroad. We poked our noses around here and there, but mostly we were pleased by that fact that we did what we came to do. My dad, I know, was quite impressed by the pace I set hiking out. What with Andras' boots causing blisters and my bum knee, there were times when we ourselves had doubts.

The rest of the trip passed peacefully. A large elk was on the lawn outside the hotel one morning and we saw several colorful species of birds. We drove through the Navajo reservation on the way back to Pheonix and supported some local craftsman setting up road-side stands right outside the park (truely some beautiful and quality items, much better than the park giftshops) just as it began to rain. Our first thought was "Oh no, get all the stuff in from the back of the truck before it gets wet" but when we saw the relieved faces of those who live in this area, we realized that the rain was a welcome visitor, one who didn't stop by often enough. We dropped my dad off at a hotel in Pheonix so he can catch his flight tomorrow and uploaded/burned hundreds of photos onto CDs (Over 800 in a week! Enjoy the slideshow when he gets back!). It's bittersweet. Being on the road for over a month makes me start to miss seeing friends and family but at the same time I know this means we'll soon be heading out once again into the unknown
Worn and WearyWorn and WearyWorn and Weary

We may look a sight, but only 1 mile left to go!
with our car and our tent and dutch oven. After hugs and handshakes we pulled out of the parking lot and hit the highway. And just like that, we're back on the road.


Additional photos below
Photos: 23, Displayed: 23


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Success!Success!
Success!

Hot, sweaty and exhausted, we hiked out of the Grand Canyon in little more than five hours! Feel mighty proud, we are.
A View of the South Kaibab TrailA View of the South Kaibab Trail
A View of the South Kaibab Trail

This photo was taken on the solo hike my dad took. Our trail started in the upper cliffs, descended across the plateau, and in the foreground crosses over the sandstone and switches back towards the river.
Cactus and CanyonCactus and Canyon
Cactus and Canyon

Hiking out along the Bright Angel Trail
Bleached Deer SkullBleached Deer Skull
Bleached Deer Skull

This is what happens to those who don't carry enough water with them.
Are you HOT yet?Are you HOT yet?
Are you HOT yet?

The answer was an undoubted 'yes' no matter what time of day it was. Thank you campground thermometer for confirming what we all were feeling.
Bright Angel TrailBright Angel Trail
Bright Angel Trail

One step forward, two steps back on the sandy trails near the Colorado River.
Hiking to the WaterfallHiking to the Waterfall
Hiking to the Waterfall

What a great looking pair.


7th March 2008

Each time I read another entry I am blown away by your creative style of writing and the way you draw me to be right alongside you. Your blogs should be published.

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