thebaldgeek

The plan was to get to work at 6am so we could leave by 3pm and drive to Ash Fork.
Its about 5 hours from Temecula and about an hour from the Canyon and has a cheap motel.
The plan worked.
We took Freddys Honda (for the cruise control and good economy) and the drive over was uneventful.
At the motel, we were tired, but figured that packing that night was the best plan, that way we could sleep till about 5am and then just get up and go.

Love this shot of Lloyd scratching his head…. His backpack was smaller than mine and so he had to make some pretty tough choices as to what he was going to take.
The upside of that smaller pack was less weight. Lloyds pack was about 18 pounds (8kg), mine was 37 lb (16kg).

The reason for the early start was because in our trip, we were going to come out of the Canyon at a different place from where we went in. This meant that we had to park the car at our exit and then get back to the entrance (for us). This is really common, so there is a bus that runs back and forth between the two most common entry and exit points at the South Rim. (And another bus that will take you over to the North rim if you are doing a rim2rim hike – or run).
The ‘Hiker Express’ runs every hour, and Lloyd and I wanted to get the 8am bus. That way we would have time to drive up to the Canyon, get breakfast and get on the bus and hike down to our first nights camp spot and not get there too late to do much other than set up.

For the most part, this plan worked… Just not so much the breakfast thing…… Thankfully we grabbed some coffee along the way.

Here is a shot inside the Hiker Express.

It was a bit cool as you can see from all the beanies and long sleeves, but it was not freezing, just cool.
The chatter in the bus was mostly about where you’re from, have you done the hike before and how far are you going that day.
It does not take long and the bus is at our take off point, the South Kaibab Trailhead.

Lloyd filled up his pack water bladder from the spring. This is the last water (and dunnies) till you get to the bottom, so it was a popular activity.

Once thats done, there is nothing more to do than hoist the pack and strike off.
The path is cement for the first few meters, but soon becomes a packed dirt track. For the next 3.5 days, it was dirt and rocks from here on.

The fog was really nice, the forecast was for rain that afternoon (which never happen) and fine days the rest of the trip, so we were enjoying the cloud and fog.
It was especially nice as we were, at the rim, about level with the bottom of the cloud, so as we went into the Canyon, we left the cloud base behind, it was a really nice feeling.

Switchbacks were going to a common thing. I honestly had no idea what to expect, so was pretty excited to see the path ahead so often. It was pretty cool to see that it was going down so fast and how it was carved into the sides of the steep canyon walls.

At the top there were a few hikers bunched up, but we soon spread out as we all struck our own pace.

At first, Lloyd and I were going at around the same pace, but as we warmed up I found I naturally hit a faster pace. It was no big deal, I was stopping at every vista point and Lloyd soon caught up with me.

As the cloud lifted, the temperatures warmed up, the sky got blue and it was just a really nice day for a hike.

I was still, even after about an hour and a bit of seeing the track ahead of me, pretty excited every time we came around a curve and saw a bit of trail.

By this stage Lloyd’s knees are giving him a bit of a hard time and so the gap between the two of us is getting wider, but there were no issues as we simply waited for him at each point.

Here is a shot of Lloyd waiting for the mules to pass. I don’t know what this path would be like in summer with people going up and down and then the mule traffic. It would be too much for me I suspect.
Thankfully, there was very little traffic the weekend we were there, but even so, there were enough people wanting to talk it started to annoy me and the mules just added to the frustration of the trail…. That said, it was so beautiful that you soon forgot about standing with 37 pounds on your back and not moving.

Here is this parts last picture.
It was really important to Lloyd that we got this shot as he struck this pose back in about 1988 when he first did the Canyon and every trip since (yes, he has the shot on film).

Read Part 3 here.

Click on any of the images to make them bigger.
Click on the ‘Trips’ category on the side to see the blog posts just about trips.

To start, you have to go back.
4 months back.

Around 4-5 million people per year visit the south rim of the canyon.
Around 100,000 people go to the north rim.
Of those, around 400,000 hike to the bottom each year.
Most of those stay a night.
There are not that many camp sites at the bottom of the canyon, so there is some demand, as such, you need to book your spot.
4 months in advance.

Now, to be fair, most of the demand is for summer (why, I don’t know, it would be too stinking hot for me).
Point is, I’m told that all the sites can be booked out in a matter of minutes for summer, and in up to an hour for winter.
But no matter when, they go quick.

My co-worker Lloyd and another co-worker, Ken, decided 4 months back that they wanted to go hiking and camping for a few nights around the fall. Lloyd had gone to the Canyon a few times before and more than once in the summer and agrees, its just too hot.
So, 4 months ago, they tried their luck for Autumn and scored.
3 nights in the bottom…. Not all in one spot, but three different camp sites, so it really was a score. Big time…. 3 different sites in the one weekend was just gold.

4 months latter and Ken has a scheduling conflict, so he had to bail.
Lloyd asked another co-worker and he could not make it, so I was Lloyds 3rd choice. I was at the trade show in Las Vegas and so got the invite via text message.
A quick check with Freddy and we are in!

It was a crazy few days getting everything we needed together.
Thankfully Lloyd had most of what we needed as far as a backpack and food (dehydrated) goes. That left a sleeping bag, clothes and some sort of tent (the forecast had rain and cold in it). Freddy was a real trooper and drove all over town and picked up a few things. I grabbed a sleeping mat (one of those thin self inflating types) off Amazon and paid the extra few bucks for one day shipping.
For the most part. We were ready.

I knew I was going to be on the heavy side because it was all pretty low tech, but here it is all laid out so I could question each bit.
Layers of thin clothes (mostly running stuff that has proven to keep me warm and comfortable while moving), running gloves, hat, beanie, camera, gopro on selfie stick, trail mix, tissues…. well you can see pretty much everything in the photo.
The good news is that I used everything (except the tissues – they had toiles at most of the sites – all but one), and needed nothing more, so in that regard I was really happy with my selection.

Getting it together in 3 days was ‘fun’, but when the time came to go I felt I was ready, nervous, and excited.

Read Part 2 here.

We are back!!!

Had just the most amazing 4 days. Just amazing.
Going to take some time to sort through everything and blog about it, so will break it into ‘parts’ rather than days.

We took a GoPro and a selfie stick…. might have overdone that aspect a little, but wanted to get me into the photo for a change. (Thats Lloyd in the background – the co-worker that put all this together – more about Lloyd in Part 1).

As of right now, roughly;
1000 miles driven.
34 miles hiked.
3 campsites.
37 pound backpack hauled – every packed item used.
Untold (at the moment) feet of elevation climbed.
1200 photos taken.
1 body shattered.
1 mind blown.

Another tease…..

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that we made it, had a truly mind bogglingly astonishing experience and won’t be running any time soon (seriously jacked up my right IT band – aka knee/calf tendon – Got a massage booked for tomorrow night).
Back at work, back to thinking I really need to re-install the Smart Car roof (Its got to rain here at some stage!), back to the blog, back to ‘life’, but with a bit of a different outlook……

Read Part 1 here.