Grand Canyon Trip - Part Three

Day 5
It's our last day on the river, and it's full of big rapids. The walls are high now, and it will be late in the day until the sun makes it way onto us. I put on my rain gear in the hopes of staying at least a little dry and not too muddy. Right away we hit Tanner, which is only ranked a 4 on a scale of 10, but which does involve a drop of twenty feet. The rapids today are not only big, but also long. After making it through Tanner, we make a brief stop to check out some Anasazi ruins, which this time include pottery shards, some even painted. We also get a sneak peak at Unkar Rapid, which is just around the bend and is one of many rapids we'll face today with a rank of 7 or higher. The river runs quickly thanks to all the rapids and we move through the miles quickly. Right before Hance Rapid, an 8 that is considered technically very difficult because of the huge rocks scattered across it just far enough apart from each other for a well-guided boat to squeeze through, we pull up for the boatmen to get a look at it and make a plan. The roar of it is deafening, and my imagination goes wild. We haven't ever stopped to look at a rapid before. But there's no way to go but through it, so we're soon in the boat heading toward the madly churning water. We head in backwards and then twist and turn to avoid slamming into a rock. The water washes over us and fills the boat up to mid-shin. As soon as the water is calm enough, we begin to bail. I can't even count how many full buckets we tossed back into the river.

We have lunch shortly after we make it through Hance - everyone exhilarated by exhausted. Back in the boat, we get some of my favorite views of the entire trip. The canyon is very dramatic. It's fairly narrow with the rocks slamming straight into the river. No beaches or brush. And a black schist rock has now appeared, marbled with pink and white granite. It's gorgeous. In the afternoon, we encounter three more large rapids--Sockdolager, Grapevine, and 83 Mile--before we stop at Clear Creek for a hike. We first scramble off hot, sharp black rocks before scurrying down into the creek. We follow the bed, which takes tiny little drops and bubbles over smooth rocks, before reaching the goal of our trip: a horizontal waterfall. There's actually also a vertical waterfall, but the horizontal is more fun. Both flow out with the force of a firehose, and we take turns being blasted by the warm, clean water. It's a cleansing of sorts, and it feels good. Unfortunately back on the river, there's one more big rapid--Zoroaster--awaiting us, so we all end up dirty again. Oh well.

We set up camp at Cremation. It's named aptly as it's burning hot. We're only about a mile from Phantom Ranch, where many day hikers take refuge for the night, but we're far enough away that the solitude remains intact. For dinner, we stock up on carbs: spaghetti with a delicious meat and vegetable sauce, ravioli, salad, garlic bread, and strawberry shortcake. We watch the sun set over the river for the last time and then we lay in awe under the stars. It's been a perfect trip.

Day 6
We're up early. We take our tent down and squeeze all of our gear into our backpacks. They seem fuller and heavier than they did before. I'm sure it's just the reality of knowing we'll be carrying them out that makes it seem that way. They have breakfast--blueberry pancakes, bacon, and fruit--ready for those of us who are hiking out. We say our goodbyes to those staying on to raft the lower half of the river, and then Jeff and I load ourselves into the dory. The others are in another boat, as they are all using the mule duffel service instead of carrying their bags and must stop at Phantom Ranch. Jeff and I are taken past Phantom Ranch to the point where the Bright Angel Trail sweeps down to the river and then begins it long ascent to the rim. This cuts two miles off the hike, but we still face 8 miles of uphill climb. Right at 7:00 a.m. We take our first steps. Almost immediately, we go around a curve and lose sight of the river. The pack feels heavy at first, but I adjust quickly. I lead the way so that I can set the pace. The trail has no mile markers so we have no idea how far we've gone, but we stop after an hour for a short ten minute break for water and a snack. About 45 minutes after we restart, we hit Indian Gardens, which is 3.2 miles from the river, yet still 4.6 miles from the rim. There's a bathroom and water, so we stop for a bit longer here. As we exit the Gardens, we come across a huge snake draped across the trail. It was striped yellow and black and must have been 8 feet long. I was just glad it wasn't a rattlesnake. As we walk, we move through layer after layer of rock. The incline on the trail never seems to be too much, but there's no doubt that we're always moving up. Before Indian Gardens, we didn't see any mule trains, but we now begin to have them pass us as they make their way down to the bottom, laden down with tourists, most swaying back and forth like rag dolls. The mules kick up all kinds of dust and leave huge puddles of pee in the path along with a lot of crap. I come to hate them quickly.

After another hour, we're at the 3 mile rest stop and decide to have our lunch although it's only a little after 10am. We're making about 1.5 miles per hour, which seems pretty good to both us. Afterall, we're moving up hill, it's pretty darn hot, and I'm carrying the equivalent of 25% of my body weight on my back. Unfortunately just as we're about to leave the 3 mile rest stop a mule train on its way up passes us. We're stuck behind it--which as you can imagine isn't too pleasant--and the mules break frequently, messing with our pace. After about a mile, we're given the go-ahead to pass, but have to hightail it for a while to put some distance between us and the mules. We reach the 1.5 mile rest stop a little ahead of schedule, but then fall behind there. The mule train has passed once again, and instead of trailing it for the rest of the trip, we just extend our break to let it get far enough ahead that it's not an issue. At this point, we begin to see more casual hikers, most of whom I find irritating. A number of them are wearing flip-flops and carrying nothing but a camera. They clearly had no idea what they were doing, and I wondered if any of them had considered that once they got down, they then had to get back up. At least carry water for goodness sakes!

Overall the hike had gone well. We were both still smiling and laughing. We hadn't hurt anything. And the views were nice. The last 1.5 miles was hard, however. We were getting tired and we could see the end but we couldn't quite reach it. Long switchbacks kept sending us in the seemingly wrong direction. I just wanted a staircase to take me straight up. But we kept our sense of humor and kept putting one foot in front of the other. Fortunately that worked out, and at 12:30, 5.5 hours after we had begun, we reached the trailhead. We had made it.

Unfortunately, our speed meant that the room we had reserved at Bright Angel Lodge wasn't yet available for us. So we had some ice cream, checked out the views, and even walked about 2 more miles along the rim, checking out the different hotels, gift shops, artist studios, and viewpoints. At 4:00pm on the nose, we checked into our room and promptly hopped in the shower. Hot water. Soap. Shampoo. A flush toilet. It was heavenly. Clean (but in semi-dirty clothes), we went to dinner and then watched the sun set over the canyon. Still on canyon time, we were snoozing soundly by 9:00pm. The river, which couldn't even be seen from the South Rim, was nothing but a memory...and a dream as both Jeff and I woke up in the middle of the night thinking the sound of the fan was the sound of a rapid. It stays with you. And calls you back. I know that one day we'll be back, finishing up the trip with a run through the lower canyon.