It all started when our friend, Leena actually got the reservations at 'The Phantom Ranch' for all 12 of us - 6 couples. It is not as easy as it sounds. We had been getting up at 5:30 am and calling 13 months in advance, for 3 years without even getting to the live person on the phone. Around 6:30 then you hear a person and they tell you, all the spots for the month you want are already booked, and to please call next month. We knew the best times to go are March or October, so we religiously called every Feb 1st and Sept 1st, 1 year in advance, but had never heard the beautiful words of how many do you want to reserve. So it was a big tasks accomplished when Leena got us all booked for end of October 2013 weekend. Now the real question surfaced.
Can you really do it? Now that one excuse for not doing it was gone. Every one, who had gone, said you better practice. and since those were the words of the experienced, we decided to follow. What do you practice for? Endurance, Elevation gain, Steep downhill, Heat, Carrying heavy load, Keeping hydrated.... so many things to worry about. So many things need to go right for this one hike.
We took it to our heart. This was a once in a life time event and we were going to make the most of it. It was the thrill of achievement, the thrill of going down and coming up the steepest and deepest canyon the excitement of traveling 2 billion years in time, the thrill that each step would mean 40000 years.... We practiced and went to hikes closer to Portland in spring of 2013. When September came around, our friend, Sunil kept reminding us to practice so we all found longer routes, steeper routes and kept hiking. Our friends Hem and Atul , who have gone 3-4 times, led some of our hikes. Since we used to go in a group, it never felt like practicing, we were just bunch of friends having fun.
In our group we had all kinds, One with painful knees, one with back pains, one with a pace maker, one with fractured foot and one with fear of hiking down a steep path next to exposure......One wounded soldier can easily get demotivated but the group power kept us going. Every body wanted to do it and we knew we could do it with our group.
As the day started coming closer and closer, we started discussing which route to take. We all wanted to be together but some of us thought that the Bright Angle trail is the easiest, so why not stick to easy? South Kaibab is most beautiful. these are the two super highways into the canyon. Then there are North Kaibab and Tonto trail and many others. We decided to select between the easier paths, the two super highways into the Grand Canyon as the hikers put it. All the experts seem to point us to Sount Kaibab on the way down and Bright Angle on the way up. So we decided that, but the easiest was bright angle both ways,,, so i mulled over the idea all the time. Is the risk worth taking?
Information on the internet and the YouTube videos came to my rescue. There is so much information on the web, pictures, videos and advice, dos and don'ts ... The visualization was easy. If your mind is ready to go, you will go.
The next question was, what should we pack, mule skin for the toe nails, camel back to carry water, Getorade or nun tablets for energy, snacks, extra socks, proper cloths, shoes, hiking poles, sunscreen and so many things but make sure they do not weigh a ton, you have to carry everything. Thank goodness we had dinner, breakfast and lunch arranged with the phantom ranch stay.
And then there was the Government Shutdown which closed all the parks,,,, are we going? We were hopeful. And they opened 1 week before our weekend to go. The weather guys predicted snow right around when we were to go! but then it was changed to 1 day after we came back... So many hurdles to overcome.... But they were resolving themselves.
We reached Phoenix the day before, drove around Phoenix then had a nice lunch at Flagstaff and reached the national park around 3 pm. The whole group of 12 got together for pizza and beer. All of us were a bit worried but each one of us was determined.
Now there was no turning back, even if one wanted to return from half way, we did not have reservations at the lodge, plus the ready made camp dinner was waiting for us at the bottom. We had so many yummy snacks and full map of where we were going to eat which snack.... The best snack was closer to the end, so we knew we had to work hard to get that!
We got into the express bus, that dropped us at the South Kaibab trailhead. It was all downhill from there. We started hiking around 8:40 -9 am We did not want to start very early and wanted to do it slowly, and enjoy the scenes. When else do you get nature's 360 degree panoramic beauty while hiking, so we followed that advice to the tee and took long stops at the OOH AAH point, Cedar Ridge, Skeleton point and at the Tonto trail junction. The trail was steep but South Kaibab is built and maintained so well that even I could go down. When we reached the Tonto point, we thought we had now made it, so we relaxed a bit more, and when we started, we realized, this was probably the steepest and the longest hike, at least it felt that way! We could see the green Colorado river from the trail and it was beautiful, The maker of this vast canyon was calmly flowing beneath us.
When we reached Phantom Ranch, it was victory! We made it, all of us. We showered and walked around waiting for the sunset, We could see all the way to the top. There was a man way on the top and we decided to waive at him, half of us were thinking, they are not going to see us, but the man waived back.... We saw the mules, relaxing after a long hike. We were very happy when the meal was announced at 6pm. The stew and the chilli tasted wonderful.
After dinner, we went to listen to the presentation at the ranch. It was wonderful to be near the river, hear all the information about how Grand Canyon was formed Ms. Toy was a young girl from CA who was the camp geologist. She told us stories about how Grand Canyon was put on the map by Mr. Powell's fearless efforts and while telling us how Grand Canyon was formed, she told us to simply remember DUDE, Grand Canyon Rocks.... DUDE meaning --- Deposition, Uplift, Down-cutting, Erosion. That has stuck in our minds. What a nice story teller Ms Toy was.
Now we started thinking about going back up. General rule of thumb to estimate time to go up, was double the time you took to go down, we took about 6 hrs to go down, so we would need at least 12 hrs to go up.. that was scary.. specially hiking up in the hot sun... so we started early in the morning. Had our water bottles filled, ready to climb.
The trek started with a gentle river walk, The sun was rising in front of us, some tips of the mountains were shining with the new sun light where the others were still in the dark. The Bright angle trail is beautiful, it is a natural trail, with so many well defined points on the way, the river on the side, it did not even feel like a climb. Only when we stopped for the mule train or photo opportunity, did we realize how far up we had already come. Looking at the rock formations, and trying to figure out which layer of the rocks were we in, kept us quite occupied, We passed the red stone walls, and the green bright angle shell rock, then coconimo sandstone towards the top. Indian Gardens was a very green campground. We made to that mark fairly quickly. Then came the 3 mile stop, then the 1-1/2 mile rest house and the tunnel at the top. We did not realize that we were already at the tunnel within 6 hours.
No wonder this trail was used by the native people to carry material. No wonder, this trail was kept private for years before National park services acquired it. It was kept private for so long that the national park services built South Kaibab trail. Of course our stars were properly aligned, because we had one of the best weather on those two days. 54-60 on the top and 75-80 at the bottom.
One by one, each one of us came up from the land under... Jayant was waiting at the top with a camera, the two members who reached first were told to hold there cameras for our entrance onto the rim. It was victory, it was jubilation, it was happiness, it was pride. It was time to eat onion rings without guilt.
Now it is time to brag, it is time to look at the photos, it is time to remember how scared we were before going there, it is time to talk about the fun times, the vastness of the canyon, the history of the trails... we all have a stories to tell.
When you are going to Shanghai, be sure to go to Hangzhou
3000+ mile road trip in winter: Portland OR to Tucson, AZ and small towns in between.
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