GRAND CANYON - October 2017

"You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it, you have to toll from month to month through its labyrinths." - John Wesley Powell

As long as we’ve known Gary, we’ve heard about his various trips to the Grand Canyon – hiking different trails and rafting down the river. The first time Jeff and I had been to the Grand Canyon was for two nights in February a few years ago when we drove down from Las Vegas where we were attending a conference. During those two days, we also came under the spell of the magic of the canyon. We’d expected to be awed by the beauty, but the sheer magnitude of the splendor left us both standing at the rim with tears streaming down our faces. We knew then that we had to book a trip to get inside the canyon.

In preparation, we spent some time working with the outfitter “Just Roughin’ It” to arrange the trip. We wanted to be in a part of the canyon where we’d be away from the crowds, and we’d also hoped to time it with our BrightStar Owner’s Conference in Las Vegas in October 2017. We selected the Tanner-Grandview trail as being the one to fit the need of being most challenging and remote, but we were still at the mercy of the National Park back-country permitting system hoping the outfitter could snag the permit for the trail we wanted on the dates we wanted – and it did work out perfectly.

National Park permits are typically for six people – in our case, one guide and five guests. Gary, Jeff and I, and Dan and Tam all originally signed up. Several months before the trip, Dan suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon, so he dropped out. The four that remained decided to pay a little more for our trip, rather than have the outfitter fill his space with a stranger.

‘Just Roughin’ It’ is headquartered in Scottsdale, and Tam found an Airbnb condo that worked perfectly for us so we all flew out to Phoenix and stayed there two nights before the hike. It was a great place to chill and easy for our group to be together and we already knew we are extremely compatible!

We spent the first day with an easy morning walk to Starbucks, then chilled out at the pool. We had some time to kill before our 5pm pre-hike briefing so we went to Top Golf to hit some balls and drink our favorite Black Butte Porter! After the briefing at ‘Just Roughin It,’ we went back to the grocery store and bought the fixings for dinner - salad and pasta, great dinner and relaxing evening with some good laughs.

The next morning, we were all up at 4a - Jeff and Dan had made an egg bake so it was awesome to warm that up and have a great breakfast during last minute packing.

Dan brought us to the Fairfield Inn where we met up with our driver, Jason and guide Colin. Dan’s plan was to hang out with friends in the Phoenix area and play some golf.

We were on the road about 5:30am for the 4-hour trip to the trailhead. It was a great way to get to know Colin a bit more - he’s originally from Hudson WI and immediately we knew he’d be a good fit for our little group.

While it was a warm morning in Scottsdale, I watched the temperature on the van thermometer drop as we approached Flagstaff – it dropped into the 40’s! We’d seen it in the forecast, but it seemed so unbelievable. We were above 7000 feet so that contributed to the cold, but the sun was warm.

We stopped along the way at a Starbucks, and then again twice at gas stations before finally arriving at the eastern entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. We did a last toilet / water fill stop and spent some time milling about with the tourists at Desert View Watchtower, climbing the tower and enjoying the view. Colin pointed out where we’d be camping tonight far below along the river. I was anxious to get away from the tourists and down into the solitude of the Canyon. There was a ranger at the visitor center and I asked him if he had a map showing the Tanner to Grandview trails we’d be hiking. He said: “you don’t want to go there, you’ll die.” I called Colin over and told him the ranger said we were going to die. Colin said, “probably not.” I believe the ranger was trying to communicate to us about their campaign to keep tourists and hikers safe. Every year about a dozen people die in the canyon, and hundreds of people need to be rescued. The ranger gave me a brochure about their campaign and it was a story of a hiker named “Victor” that went into the canyon without enough water and suffered dehydration. It came with a sticker that I put on my Nalgene water bottle and it became our mantra “Don’t Be Like Victor.

Back into the van and it was a quick drive around to the Tanner trailhead. Colin laid out a tarp with all the food, and we all grabbed a bit and added that to our personal gear in our packs. My pack felt like it was slightly less than the 45 pounds of sand I’d been lugging around on our training hikes. I was also glad to have my own pack along on this trip which fits me so perfectly, versus using one from the outfitter.

We started down into the canyon. I was delighted to find that while it was steep in a lot of places, it wasn’t on the edge of a cliff. It was fascinating to hike through the varied layers of rock - the layers are what gives the canyon it’s character, but they’re much different looking as you’re traveling through the red, green and brown layers.

Most of us started with a top clothing layer, which we shed as we hiked down and into the sun. Temperature-wise it was a comfortable day and we never felt too warm.

Our training paid off; it was a tough day hiking 4500 feet down, but it felt great. We had an overzealous training hike at Devil’s Lake a few weeks ago and Jeff’s knee has been swollen and causing him pain. He didn’t have it looked at because he didn’t want to risk having his doctor tell him not to do this hike … so instead it’s been ice, elevation and compression and not so much rest. He bought a great brace and planned to take it slow and hope for the best. Our biggest concern was how we’d all feel with most of the trail being down, and with the help of a lot of Advil, he made it just fine today.

We started the day by going down about 1000 ft, then it leveled off with gentle up and down. The trail varied, not a lot of lose rock though so it was pretty easy to keep our footing. Colin trained us on this no brainer technique of stepping on a rock that’s more deeply embedded (or appeared to be). He also told us about “nose over toes” when going downhill which helps keep your weight forward and your feet from sliding out from under you (just like the advice we’ve heard from our dance instructors for years). I hadn’t thought much about foot placement when walking downhill, but it really makes sense to focus more on toes than heels.

It was a long but awesome day; 7 hours to travel 9 miles. We paused often to enjoy the changing views. We saw just three other groups of people, so we found the solitude this trail promised.

Being October, we were pushing daylight. We arrived at the campsite on the river at 6pm, and it was dark as soon as we got the tents up! We all got our headlamps out, and we got our tents organized and all the food and smelly stuff out of our bags while Colin made dinner (pasta and red wine sauce).

Rather than the plastic “bear cans” that we’ve used on previous hiking and paddling adventures, we have two “rat sacks” which are mesh bags with Velcro enclosures to keep the vermin out of our edibles and “smellies.” As we were eating dinner, we had our first little mouse visit the tarp with our food laid out! We saw several more through the evening with their little eyes shining red in the light of our headlamps.

After dinner we were quick to retreat to our tents - exhausted and ready to be off our feet! We were camped along the Tanner Rapids, my favorite sound to fall asleep to when I’m camping: rushing water! The stars were amazing, and when the moon came over the mountain, it seemed like day light! We opted to sleep with the rain fly on, not because we were expecting rain, but we did expect it to get colder and it did dip somewhere into the 40’s before sunrise. It was awesome to have our own trusty sleeping pads and down bags. For about the first time ever, I even put the mummy hood on a few times in the early morning hours.

Since we’d gone to sleep so early, we were all up by 6a. Colin had been up later last evening cleaning our dishes and filtering water for drinking. This morning he had water boiling for coffee and a quick breakfast of instant oatmeal.

The Colorado River here is quite silty right now. Apparently, it’s clearer at times. Because of that, Colin is using a two-step water purification process - first he treats it with something and it sits for 30 minutes to clarify the water, then he treats it with a steri-light. It tastes just fine, but it’s a bit turbid. Lucky for me my Nalgene bottle is so beat up I can’t see through it anyway.

We had breakfast and enjoyed the scenery, then we packed up and were hiking by 9a. We were hiking downriver, not too far as the river goes, but of course we weren’t going direct! We did walk along the river for a couple of miles, at first in the sand and then up along the river bluff. It was beautiful with the sand changing colors and texture just as the rocks do in the canyon. The area we hiked through was called “furnace flats,” and it was quite warm with hot breeze - I can’t imagine this place in the summer.

As we traversed the trail on the edge of Cardenas Canyon, we entered the desert terrain, with a wide variety of beautiful cacti. We stopped periodically to catch our breath, enjoy the views and drink water. It was another very warm day and our level of exertion seemed higher today with lots of ups, downs and challenging traversed.

Again, we were in awe of the splendor and beauty - everywhere you looked. What a blessing to see the Grand Canyon this way!!

We stopped for lunch when we were just over half way through our day. Colin found a great shady spot where two boulders were leaning on each other creating a nice place to sit in the shade. He mixed up some chicken salad, which we ate on wraps.

We saw just one hiker today, a solo hiker from Colorado named Kirsty. It was her first trip to the canyon and she was hiking 7 days with a plan for 13 miles per day - impressive, and while I love solitude, I couldn’t imagine being down here ALONE!

After a few miles along the river, we headed up and over some mountains, kind of creating a big “Z” - sometimes our great view included the river, sometimes it didn’t. Once we looked down at 5 dories, the traditional wooden boats, that were making their way through the rapids. Fun to watch from way up high but I doubt they noticed us as we would have just been little specks.

Finally, we worked our way around the side of a mountain and Colin could point out the canyon we’d take down to our campsite for the night. The distance seemed daunting, but I just think back to marathons I’ve run or really tough bike rides and I know it’s just one step at a time.

The canyon we hiked down was actually a dry river wash. It was beautiful and fun to imagine it with water gushing down it. It reminded us of a Lake Powell adventure with my sister and brother-in-law Matt in which we ended up having to swim out. We hoped this would end differently (it did).

We arrived at our beautiful sandy campsite about 4:30p. We quickly set up the tents and Colin told us about a sandy beach just down the rapids so we went down there to clean up a bit. Tam and Jeff got in far enough to wash their hair - but the water was so cold. I didn’t immerse myself, but it still felt great to wash up and wash out some clothes.

We had burritos for dinner and the mice came out again just as it got dark. We ate and then retreated to our tents just after 7p - what party poopers we are!! Today’s hike was 9 miles - total time 7.5 hours.

The following morning, we all emerged from our tents about 6am again. It had stayed pretty warm all evening and we slept without the tent fly. It was so amazing to see the stars and the moon come over the ridge about 2 am.

We had a lazy morning which we called “Sunday Morning” as we had a big breakfast and an extra pot of coffee. This morning Colin made an “Egg hash brown scramble” from Cache Lakes - the exact thing we ate a lot of on our kayaking adventure.

We had plenty of time to stretch and wake up our muscles, but the last two days had really taken a toll on my quads and I was really dragging and even Advil didn’t dull the pain for the first mile or so. Also, probably a bit dehydrated, even though I took in over 5 liters yesterday - the dry heat, wind and altitude add to the toughness.

Today’s hike was much shorter - just 3.5 miles. When the description of this trip said three nights along the river, I think I pictured us walking along the bank or a low ridge from campsite to campsite. That’s not at all what we’re doing, but the beauty and the challenge of the route are unparalleled.

We started today with a climb along the bank, then turned in and walked along the rim of 75-mile canyon, so named because it’s 75 River miles from the Glen Canyon dam. It was difficult to photograph how awesome the canyon was as it twisted and snaked away from the Colorado River. When we came to a part that would have been a spectacular waterfall had water been running, we climbed down into the canyon. Colin was tentative with us (good thing) and coached us one at a time as we picked our way down. Two other hikers appeared and walked right down, one with his hands in his pockets! They didn’t stop to chat, but did say this was day 30 for them!

It was amazing to walk the canyon with its twists and turns, beautiful rocks and walls. Again, the photos we snapped can’t do it justice. Back to the river where we climbed again. Sometimes with some tricky ledges, sometimes through scrubby willows or prickly Acacia bushes, sometimes beaches and sometimes boulders. Once when we were pretty high on a ledge, three kayaks with a support boat and four yellow rafts went by. We yelled out and whistled and they searched the mountain side until they saw us and then waved - and then shot the rapids. It looked like great fun, but you’d need a pretty thick wet suit as we know that water is cold!

We stopped on a nice beach and took a ‘pack off’ break - some of us even took advantage of soaking our feet. Then we set off to scale the Papago Wall. Colin coached us one by one up the first part, and offered to ferry our packs but we all stubbornly kept them on. It was more technical than our Chilkoot Pass climb, but with good hand holds and moving just one limb at a time it wasn’t too scary. After the initial vertical climb, we hiked up more boulder fields and across a scary ledge, and then looked down at what looked like an impossible descent, but using hands and feet and moving slowly we were soon high-fiving safely down at the bottom. Jeff and I were so glad we’d brought gloves for that section of the climb - the extra grip helped me feel secure.

We walked through more large boulders along the river, and stopped for a quick lunch of PB and J on pita bread and applesauce. I found a flat rock that worked perfectly for a quick nap. Then we trekked about 45 more minutes along the river to the campground - up and over boulders and through thick vegetation. Once Jeff was behind me and as he avoided a prickly bush, his foot caught a root and it spun him backwards. He landed perfectly on his pack on a pile of dead brush. The sound of the breaking brush was spectacular and we all spun around and watched the fall like it was in slo-motion. Jeff was completely unhurt, but his head was just two feet from the rushing river! Once I assessed he was okay, I fell into a fit of [nervous] laughter and couldn’t compose myself to help him up. So far, that’s been the only tumble among our group.

When we got to the campsite along Hance Rapids, there was a small group already set up at the best spot, and another at the far end. We took the middle spot - right in these amazing sand dunes (in the Grand Canyon!!!) with an awesome view overlooking the biggest rapids we’ve seen yet.

We decided not to set up the tents right away - with the breeze they might just fill up with sand. We sat and chatted for a bit, then picked our way down to the river to bathe and wash clothes. I washed my hair by leaning backwards over a rock - talk about brain freeze! Jeff soaked his knee, and had an upper body workout trying to only have his knee in the cold water.

As Colin made dinner, the rest of us played a game of “Rock Bocci” a game Jeff dreamt up while walking through 75-mile canyon this morning. Tam and Gary beat us 15-10, finishing up just as it got dark and dinner was ready. As we sat in our semi-circle enjoying our Spam, sun dried tomato and polenta concoction - the rocks came alive with little mice once again!

We finished dinner and sauntered off to our respective tents - exhausted hikers with full bellies. Another beautiful evening. The stars are amazing and the Little Dipper is peeking out from between the peaks across the river. Today’s hike was 3.5 miles and we were out 5.5 hours. The most technically challenging hike I’d ever done, but it was fun and I felt strong and balanced!

We had another amazing night under the stars. Again, we slept with the rain fly off, so we could enjoy the stars and the moon whenever we woke up. The rapids here were so loud it was like sleeping below a dam, but I enjoyed having the sound of the water.

Today we had a couscous with rehydrated fruit for breakfast, packed up and were hiking by 9am. Today’s route involved 1200 ft of net elevation, but when you count the up and down our reality was much more than that.

Initially we climbed and then we were doing that “shimmy with your belly along the wall” maneuver, and added a “commando crawl” maneuver - once to get under a ledge, once to get under a tree!! But soon we were back in the high desert with not much technical work - just the occasional canyon rim.

It was very hot, and we were back to cacti and prickly knee level bushes along the trail. You’d start out twisting around them, but as you got tired you just dragged your legs through them. We all look like we’ve been in knife fights with toddlers!

We hiked today along the Tonto Trail and according to our map we were hiking along Mineral Canyon. The trail had the most amazing views in all directions. We had just one more glimpse of the river as we climbed up higher into the canyons.

All of the canyons we crossed today were dry, but it’d be spectacular (and dangerous) to see in early Spring or monsoon season! You could see where there once had been cascading waterfalls. We’d get to the edge of a canyon, and then up up up along the rim - and then often there were offshoots of each Canyon - so then we’d go up the edge of that until the end or until we could traverse down and across to the other side. Sometimes it was like the main canyon was a hand, with multiple fingers. All of the up and down reminded me of our 2012 adventure cycling along the Koocanusa reservoir.

Since we were out in the desert all day, we took our breaks in the shade of rock ledges - which not only provided shade, but often the rocks were really cool. Shortly after our lunch break, we could see into the canyon where we’d be spending the night. Of course, it was a bit of winding around until we got there, but we arrived about 3pm and claimed the best site under a big tree. We trekked 6.7 miles today, with 6 hours on the trail.

We’re camping tonight in Hance Creek Canyon. There is a spring here, so it’s like a green oasis with cottonwood trees, birds, tadpoles, and crickets chirping rather than the sound of the Colorado River - like we’ve been transported to a different world. We sat under the tree and chatted for a few hours, then had an early dinner and our earliest off to bed yet!

Today was another day of solitude. We chatted this am with a group of six camped at the end of the beach. They came down Tanner Trail (our exit route tomorrow) and said they’d almost died. They’re taking a day off today, and I’m not sure how they’ll get back up. We also met two skinny guys that seemed to be trail running / power walking - they had hiking sticks, running shoes and clothes and only hydration packs - no other gear. They were speaking another language and didn’t stop to chat.

I felt pretty good today and made it without Advil. The up was aerobically tough and will be worse tomorrow as we climb back to the rim. I lagged behind the group a bit as I tried to enjoy every view and every beautiful little cactus. Words and photos just can’t describe the grandeur of this magnificent place!

We were up early (5am) for a quick start on the final day. It was a beautiful and mild morning and it was so awesome to experience the canyon as the day dawned. We packed up using headlamps and had granola with powdered milk and coffee for a quick breakfast, and we were on the trail by 6:15am.

We walked up the other side of Hance Creek Canyon and it was fun to look back down at our cottonwood tree. We went through more of the thin desert cactus-lined trail, some up and down. At one point the trail had been washed out and we picked our way through the wash finding it again on the other side. Finding your way through the deep canyon would be so difficult without an experienced guide.

Then we started to climb. The sun was up, but we were in the shade and I was grateful to be out of the heat. The past days have felt like consecutive marathons with no time for rest and recovery, but finishing early yesterday with better hydration helped me to feel like fresh legs today and I was grateful for that.

We climbed the spur trail up to Page Spring, otherwise known as Miner’s Spring. Tam, Colin and I walked down to refill a few bottles - with 4 miles to go yet to the trailhead we just didn’t know how much water we’d need and it’s better to be safe “Don’t Be Like Victor” and what’s a few extra pounds of water!? The spring dripped into a beautiful little pool with tadpoles - surrounded by wildflowers - like a landscaped pond! Along the trail we saw rocks with blue hues - oxidized copper.

We continued our climb, soon coming to the shaft of an abandoned copper mine with some mining artifacts around the entrance. This was about the only time this morning that we were in the direct sun, so we weren’t overwhelmed with heat today, which really helped me out a lot.

From there to Horseshoe Mesa, we had our most technical part of the morning as much of the trail was washed out and the drop was steep. We moved quickly through that section and found ourselves on the Mesa, which is a popular destination from the Grandview trailhead, so we also started seeing many hikers coming down - most for the day, some for the night. Since it was so early in the day, we didn’t encounter too many others going up.

Now we were getting into the steepest part of the trail, but it was wonderfully maintained which made it easier. Huge slabs of rock were stood on end so they looked like patio pavers, and were quite stable. With the amount of use this section was getting, it would be terribly eroded without that.

We felt the effects of the altitude, and the gorgeous views gave us good excuse to rest and soak up the views. But yet, we were able to keep pace with a few of the folks that had wandered below the rim despite our much heavier loads!

Emotion welled up in me as we reached the last switchback. It was such a spectacular experience - the amazing setting, the physical and mental challenge and the camaraderie of our little group.

Our guide, Colin Courtney, was amazing. His guiding skills were top notch, caring for our safety and comfort (ok, that’s a relative thing!), and his knowledge of the trail and the canyon. But besides that, he was a really neat young man - very Zen-like, and caring about people and the planet. Besides this occasional guiding gig, he’s done a lot of work leading troubled youth in outdoor and volunteer experiences. He has lofty goals of running his own nonprofit that would benefit teens while being completely self-sustaining. I don’t think he’s just a dreamer, I think he’ll change the world one person at a time and that’s all any of us can really do. It gives me hope for the future.

We were picked up by Ginny the driver, and went to the main Grand Canyon Village where we met another guide and her solo guest, Julia (who was Italian and decided to hike the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim while at a conference in Phoenix). We had a quick beer and slice of pizza (heaven) before our long drive back to Phoenix - arriving at our hotel at 6pm where we were met by Dan.

After long hot showers, Jeff and Gary and I walked across the parking lot to a local Italian restaurant, while Dan and Tam went to visit with their friends in Tempe. We had a great meal - salads and pasta and really enjoyed connecting with the proprietor, Giovanni - originally from Poreč Croatia - we showed him our photos and he showed us some too. We stopped for some frozen yogurt on our walk back to the hotel - did some laundry and repacked our bags for early flight to Las Vegas and 5 days at the BrightStar Owners Conference.

Our sore muscles, sliced up limbs and brown faces will help us fondly remember the different world that we were privileged to experience down inside our Grand Canyon.