Grand Canyon Suite, Part 3: Miscellany

   Preparatory to starting the hike, dw read a book that advised hikers to force themselves to eat in hot weather, since your body "uses enormous amounts of energy" to keep itself cool. I observed that while that's doubtless true, I have enormous amounts of energy stored in the emergency back-up fuel supply that has settled around my waist. However I did take that advice when I inhaled a plate of bacon at Phantom Ranch.

On the hike itself, I expected I would be the oldest on the trail. (Not the oldest to ever do the hike. I don't know what the age record is, but I imagine it's 15+ years older than I.) I thought on any given weekend I would be the oldest. --- Not even close. We met quite a few people (mostly men) who were older than I am, some of them pushing 80. Not counting the rim-to-rim in one day crowd, I would guess the median age of the hikers was mid-forties.

"Why are they called the Vermilion Cliffs?" " Because they've been there ver a million years."  (the North to South shuttle bus driver)

 I wrote about the nasal cleaning swab in an earlier blog. This time I decided to buy one. I particularly enjoy the stern Teutonic flavor of "Nazal Clean". Some of the directions: -- Insert the Nazal Clean into the nasal cavity and rotate in a circular motion -- If Nazal Clean is lodged or breaks off in nose, seek medical attention. --  DO NOT vigorously rub the inside of your nasal cavity. -- Nazal Clean is NOT DESIGNED to be used in any other orifice. ---
(dw: "Rats, I had plans for it!")

Hmmm

Our favorite beer when we're in it's distribution area (mostly Utah) :

We think it tastes more like a stout than a porter, but it pretty much has to be named Polygamy Porter -- Polygamy Stout just wouldn't taste the same. (It's quite a good beer)

 

Available from St George Medicinal Herbs, co.:  St. George Silver Sol.  It cures: Athletes foot, blisters, herpes, cold sores, shingles, flu, cholera, meningitis, plague, gingivitis, thrush, cankers strep throat, best nose spray (look out, Grandma!), pneumonia, B.O., and toenail fungus -- to name just a few. Best of all, it promises YOU WON'T TURN BLUE!!

 

We drove hwy. 93 (it follows the eastern border of Nevada) to come home. We hadn't driven the road before so it was something new. The road pretty much defines High, Wide, and Lonesome. At one point (probably 100 miles from any water, even a small rivulet) someone abandoned a 25' sailboat. It looks as if it's been sitting beside the road for a long time.

 For 60 miles or so the road is paralleled by an abandoned set of 6 wire power lines (they dangle on the ground in places) -- the road is so remote that no one has stolen the wire -- that's a couple of tons of copper sitting untouched.  It's so remote there are deer crossing warning signs, and cattle warning signs with no bullet holes in them. We concluded the road is an alien abduction zone.

 

In Ely Nevada, I bought a loaf of "artisan all natural ciabatta" to make some sandwiches for dinner. It was so dry it couldn't be cut, it just crumbled. (It was too much trouble to return) But when I finally read the small print, I saw it had been baked in Frederick Maryland. Podunk Nevada is shipping bread from the East Coast?

 

Returning to earlier features:

The Pythagoreans had a thing against beans. Pythagoras was fleeing some soldiers and he refused to walk on some beans -- the soldiers caught him and killed him. But I think historians might have misunderstood what really happened. The beans were probably strewn across a stone floor and he was barefoot. It would have really hurt to have walked on the beans.

 

Word(s) for the day:  Godwin's Law -- An aphorism maintaining that as an online debate increases in length, it becomes inevitable that some will compare someone or something to Hitler or the Nazis.

 

Books: I've just started The Presidents Club (Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy) It's about ex-presidents and how they have often helped their successors and formed friendships with their political ex-foes. It's proving to be interesting. I've just finished reading the Hoover/Truman chapter. My parents loathed Hoover (my mother refused to call Hoover Dam by it's name -- when it's name came up, she called it Boulder Dam -- which was a temporary name) While Hoover wasn't very good as president, he was critical in helping Truman revamp and streamline the Executive Branch, and more importantly helping Truman design and institute the Marshal Plan which was critical for the survival of millions of people after WWII.     And so it goes. DJA

 

 

Grand Canyon Suite: Part 2: Ssssizzlin'

Angels Rest campground (Phantom Ranch) and it got even hotter later in the afternoon. This thermometer was in the sun, of course, but there was very little shade on the trail.

Cottonwood creek and Angels Rest campground. The creek was surprisingly large (the water needed to be treated before drinking) and it was very refreshing to splash around in. It didn't cool off much during the night. dw slept on the picnic table wearing just enough to be decent. I slept in the tent -- just in my skivvies -- not enough to be decent but it was still hot.

(Scorpions are known to abound in this campsite.  One ranger likened a sting to having a glass tube jammed into your hand, and then broken off. Another ranger (supposedly) gets a new tattoo of a scorpion each time he gets stung. -- Sort of like a WWII fighter pilot and his airplane.)

Phantom Ranch itself is a series of cabins and bunkhouses. The main building is just a large room -- serves breakfast and dinner (family style) and it's air-conditioned which is possibly why dw spent the whole afternoon there. Actually most of the people who were at the bottom of the canyon spent the whole afternoon there.
    Along with the air-conditioning you could get beer. Tecate lager, which I thought was nearly undrinkable, and Grand Canyon lager which was much better but still pretty thin.

We just spent the afternoon and night before moving on. We did get a breakfast which was a mistake because we didn't start hiking until a bit after 5:30 and we didn't get far enough along the trail before it got hot.

(The breakfast was quite good though. Scrambled eggs, muffins, pancakes, bacon and coffee. Our end of the table was missing a couple of people (assigned seating) and the other three who were there were Indian or Pakistani or some such. I don't know if it was their preference, or religious restrictions, but they didn't eat any bacon. I figured I'd be working it off during the rest of the day, so I hit that plate of bacon pretty hard. -- It was great.)

Again the scenery was spectacular:

For a while the heat really got to dw, but she recovered enough to take a side hike to Ribbon Falls:

The moss covered apron is travertine, formed by the falls and dissolved limestone. We spent more than an hour here, enjoying the shade and rinsing our shirts in the water and then putting them on for the quick blast of cold. We reluctantly moved on and struggled more with the heat, finally getting to Cottonwood camp and lucking into the last remaining site that had some shade. Three groups came after us. They dropped their stuff and immediately retreated to some shade.  

 

The last day was the hardest, about 7 miles and 4500 feet in elevation gain and most of that coming in the last 4 miles. Since dw had struggled the previous day I took more of her stuff and most of the water for the last day. We started on the trail when It was just light enough to see, but even so the heat was again a problem. I went well until about the last mile and by then it was a bit cooler and there was more shade and dw began to perk up -- I considered suggesting we trade packs -- but I sucked it up and finally we both topped out.

A few more scenery shots:

When we finally topped out, we both thought: "Thank god, that's over!" After a shower and some r&r we both thought: "Actually it wasn't that bad, maybe we could do something similar again. Although it would be a good idea to get into better shape first."  But so it goes. DJA

 

Next up: some of the details that make travel so much fun.

Grand Canyon Suite, part 1 B (photos)

  We first drove to Capitol Reef NP where we camped and hiked Spring Canyon (as well as a couple of shorter hikes)   

                 The picture shows an easier section about a third of the way down the canyon.

   After Capitol Reef we moved on to Bryce NP (at 8000') and did another hike: Down to the bottom and back up to the rim.

 

 

 Grand Canyon Rim to Rim. 

                                                          This photo shows most of the path we took. The sickle shaped greenery just left of center is Indian Springs campground and some of the trail is visible. The trail descends to the river via the dark slot just above and right of the top of Indian Springs. The large canyon that recedes from right center is Cottonwood Creek canyon and the trail follows this canyon for about two thirds of the visible length, and then veers to the left and climbs up to the North Rim.

  

 

 

   Many flowers were in bloom, including yucca and cacti as well as a bunch of other things I don't know the names of                       

 

NP Ranger and Trip Leader

  

The visitor at our campsite:

  This guy (I admit I didn't look close enough to see if it was a guy or gal) was a little over three feet long. It came slowly crawling through our site, dw was napping and I was sitting at the picnic table reading. When I noticed it, it was close enough I could have bent over and grabbed it. I carefully lifted my feet onto the table bench and watched it drink some water (a small stream was at the edge of our site) After a bit, I started lobbing pebbles and twigs at it, trying to get it to move on. Eventually it moved out of the immediate area, although it settled in for the night just 15 feet from out tent site. The ranger said these snakes weren't very aggressive and we needn't worry about it. (easy for her to say, her bed didn't have a great reptile 15 feet away) It was a splendid addition to the usual array of fauna: deer and squirrels and lizards and bugs. In the evening we went to a ranger talk given by a young ranger, Elissa. She told us the biggest snakes in the campsites have all been given names (Indian Springs -- Manny; Angels Rest -- George; and Cottonwood -- Sam) : Our snake was a smaller one, just an ordinary low-down no-name snake. (and the names might have been given by Elissa who gave an evening talk probably unique in National Park lore: the talk concerned the preservation role of the National Park Service and one thing to be preserved is silence. In that light Elissa (who started as a professional percussionist -- cymbals, timpani, etc. ) introduced John Cage and his piano piece --4'33" -- which is four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. -- It can be performed on any instrument -- even a kazoo -- perhaps particularly a kazoo.)

 

Nearing the bottom of the canyon:

 

After this point the trail followed the river for about a mile to a bridge crossing:

 

The bridge crossing is just beyond the bend

 

Next: up and out. We survive a furnace.    DJA

Grand Canyon Suite part 1 A

Sept 2012 North Rim Grand Canyon:    8pm on the terrace enjoying the evening light over the Grand Canyon and chatting with the young lady sitting next to me with her feet elevated on the massive stone railing. Turns out she and ten of her best buddies had just completed a rim to rim hike and were waiting for celebratory dinner reservations. Looking at her best buddies (all age ranges and body types) I asked how difficult it was, how much training they did, what they ate, gaining more details by the minute and letting the little germ of an idea grow. "Dennis, what do you think about hiking rim to rim? I think we could do it?"  And the man who is 69 going on 70 said "okay". The adventure begins...

Being strictly limited as to the number of people staying overnight "below the rim" (official lingo for those who do more than a day hike), planning for this little adventure was mandatory. Dec. 31, 2012 at midnight I am faxing my permit request from a friend's house to get in for May 2013 and it worked. We had been granted overnight stays for May 31, June 1 and 2, 2013 which means four days and three nights for traversing the canyon. The permit requires a signature of the designated Trip Leader and that was me. At last - power in print. I was excited. And quickly started making Trip Leader decisions like how many nights in Grand Canyon lodges we needed before and after and ordering meals for our night at Phantom Ranch and the day after. It lightens the load. Yes, there is a lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in addition to the campsite with a waiting list of 13 months to get a room so we still needed to take the tent and plan on camping. The lodge has an air-conditioned canteen that serves beer and that's all you need to know.

Dennis had been riding 60 - 80 miles several times a week getting ready for the Seattle to Portland ride in July and I had been working and holding down the couch daily by reading and eating and fretting about the failure to exercise until the job ended and so did my excuse list. Since 70 is the new 69, Dennis was forging ahead getting into seriously improved shape while I needed help putting the backpack on. We did it - loaded them up with filled water bottles and started walking in Forest Park - longest hike 8 miles with a three day recovery time for me. Not bad as our longest hike would be 7-8 miles in the canyon. Unfortunately Forest Park lacks the elevation gains and losses and is at an altitude of 200 feet not 7500. It was a start and we continued by going to Capitol Reef and Bryce National Parks for day hikes and acclimatization ten days before the hike. It all worked.

As for the rim to rim hike - easy peasy. If you go slow enough you can do anything and as Trip Leader I made sure we went slow enough. Several times I nearly died from heat exhaustion and was saved by Dennis pouring water over me. Thank you Dennis.

The man who is turning 70 had no problems. None. Seriously. He didn't even freak over that damn snake and the picture of the snake still creeps me out.

Glitch - oh yeah, the water pipe broke that provides water to the north rim campsites and Phantom Ranch. This is a Very Big Deal even though it happens frequently. The experienced rangers blithely tell you to filter the water you take from the creek not mentioning that the creek ends halfway up the trail so you will have to carry a lot of filtered water to survive. Fortunately the pipe was fixed while we were at Phantom Ranch and you could hear the cheers in the campground and canteen as news of the repair spread. I only had to fill a bucket once to flush a toilet. The laminated instruction sheet on how to flush with a bucket was a clue to the frequency of a broken pipe. It's a different world down there. Plenty of river water but nothing potable unless treated. 

Part 2 B coming up later and I will let Dennis insert photos.         Submitted by Trip Leader Dianne Wessel 6/22/2013