I have mentioned it a few times, but last week Marlys and I exercised our back country permit and became part of the 5% of Grand Canyon visitors that go below the rim.
The challenge of getting the permit were documented in posts from earlier this year, so when we showed up in the park last Tuesday afternoon we went to the Back County Center to check in (not needed/nor does it seem wanted) and saw signs saying that there was a pipe break on the north side, so no water at Phantom Ranch/Bright Angel Campground, our destination. The Ranger at the counter confirmed this without much fanfare.
What his means is that after loading with water at the top of the South Kaibab the next site for potable water would be Indian Garden on the return trip.
There are places to get water at Phantom Ranch/Bright Angel and the River House, but it would need to be purified before use.
In the Canyon you are figuring a gallon of water per day per person, not counting water used for cooling, which is important if you are traveling during the heat of the day, e.g. 10am-4pm.
We spent the night at the Maswik Lodge across from the Back Country Transportation center on Tuesday night, ate dinner at the El Tovar. On the happenstance there may be openings for dinner down at Phantom Ranch on Wednesday night, we went to the Transportation Desk that takes care of reservations for Phantom Ranch to see. They did! I had checked in February when ordering a couple of sack lunches at the bottom, but they had been booked up, but now there were two openings for the Hikers Stew Dinner, sign us up!
Getting two meals at the bottom from Phantom Ranch reduced the amount of food we would need to carry. We still need to have food, because of the water lose during hikes you need to eat almost whenever you stop to rest to make sure you keep electrolyte levels up, along with energy replenishment.
The meals could offset the carrying of a couple more liters of water.
We grabbed the first hikers express shuttle to the South Kaibab Trail head at 4am and were among about 20 others getting an early start to beat the heat.
The trail down is 7.3 miles to Phantom Ranch and a ~4500' drop from the rim to the river. Going down hill is more difficult (gravity enhances every foot plant), so we chose the shorter of the two trails for the descent.
Bright Angel would be a 9.5 mile ascent to the rim the next day.
We needed headlamps for the first 45 miniutes of so of the desent.
About two thirds of the folks heading down trail were not going to the bottom, but to the Tonto Trail which cuts of just beyond the half way point and head west to meet up with the Bright Angel Trail, making for a long day hike. Seemed to be alot of aspiring "adventure racers" in this crowd.
We started down at 4:45am, looking to bottom out in about 4-5 hours.
The number of switch backs, put those we see on 14er's here in Colorado to shame. We made a few stops in the first hour to get comfortable with our loads and and the terrain. The temperature was great it being in the high 40's on the rim.
The forecast for the bottom at Phantom Ranch/Bright Angel was a high of 98, this was to be proven wrong.
We didn't pass anyone coming up until past the halfway point and they had a load on, but they were probably half our age so their legs still had the spring of youth.
We talked to them at one of the rest stops along the way and they told us that, "if available grab site 14 at Bright Angel". As the day heated up this became some of the best advice/info we received during the entire day.
Both the South Kaibab and Bright Angel are also used by mule trains to resupply Phantom Ranch and to carry tourist to the bottom for overnights in the Ranches Cabins.
At we went over the tip above the river we ran into a few. The first group of two wranglers with 5 mules apiece was hauling out trash and packbacks for folks who paid the ~$50 to have their gear hauled in and out.
The mule trains stop pretty frequently to rest the mules. A round trip for a mule train takes about 7.5 hours according to one of the wranglers.
Over the next two days it became obvious that below the rim everything depends on the mules. It also explained the size and number of corrals at the rim.
The drop to the black bridge is pretty sectacular, with the view of Bright Angel Campground.
Phantom Ranch is actually a short hike up the valley to the north.
We reached the bottom at 8:45am. It was already warming up and our knees were heavy into the wobble zone.
The trek along the north side of the Colorado to the camping area was a challenge.
BUT the good news was when I passed a drinking water faucet it was dripping...WTF I opened it up and there was water. So one of the first tasks in camp wasn't going to be refilling/sterilizing water bottles/camelbacks, but walking over to the faucet and turning it on.
I wonder if at the top they say there is never any water at the bottom to make sure that folks carry water treatment equipment/chemicals, just in case.
There were not many folks in the campground, only those doing a layover.
The Bright Angel and North Kaibab hikers were/should be well on the way by 9am. We had our choice of sites, of which 14 was open.
It was in bright morning sunshine, but after pulling out my compass and looking at the overhanging Cottonwood tree and rock face to the west side we could see that as the morning progressed this would be a great choice.
We set up the tent, pulled pads and fleece bags from packs and stashed them in the tent, got water and hung up our packs. This is a must as the squirrels are very comfortable with going up to a pack for food. Speaking of which we stored all food in the ammo cans at the site.
After a while we took the walk to the Phantom Ranch Canteen, which is farther up the trail to the north rim then you would think. We bought lemonades, picked up our sack lunches, checked on the reservations for the Hikers Stew Dinner, then turned around and went back to veg out for the day.
After a nap laying on the picnic table (Marlys took the tent sans rain-fly). We took a trip down to the creek to sit in the cold water and cool off.
By this time our site was in shade and the campground was starting to fill up. It was obvious that an early start had paid off as the folks coming in during the heat of the day looked like the walking dead.
Most of the rest of the day was spent reading, napping, eating and drinking water. I though I had been doing well in that regard until I realized I had not taken a leak since that morning on the trail. We knew that if we started tomorrows hike dehydrated it would be bad.
At 4pm we went to a Ranger Talk at Phantom Ranch about the history of the area. We had been told that the presentation were a "not miss item" at the bottom and that is good advice, don't miss'em.
BTW: The temperature hit 112F that afternoon.
We went to dinner at 6:30pm and sat with some folks from the east coast doing a rim to rim. They had come down from the north rim that day and were going up to Indian Garden on the Bright Angel the next. Bright Angel is traditionally a two day hike to the top with a stop over at Indian Garden which is at the half way point.
We were going to do it in one.
Sitting back at the campsite I asked the Guide for the guided group next to us what he budgets for the return up Bright Angel. He looked at us and our gear and said 7 hours. This kinda floored me because using my mile an hour average in the mountains, and also the Boy Scout; two miles and hour, plus an hour for each 1000' in altitude, it would mean 9.5 hours.
We planned for a slog out starting at 3am that should put us to the rim around noon.
It was so hot the fly never went on the tent and we were in our underwear on the sleeping pads when we turned in at 9pm.
Equipment Note: Our bottom of the line Sierra self-inflating sleeping pads were GREAT!. Got them from Sierra Trading for $30/each.
We woke up at about 11:30 when another group was moving down the trail flashing headlamps everywhere and talking like it was the middle of the day.
At midnight the moon (near full) came over the canyon wall and lite us up. At 12:15am I asked Marlys if she was awake, which she answered in the affirmative.
We got up packed up, without turning on a headlamp or flashlight and hit the trail.
After a quick stop at the toilets we got to the Bright Angel Trail head and were on our way.
The first hour was spent going along the river after we crossed the silver bridge (not to be confused with the black bridge used coming down).
At the River House we turned south and headed toward the Devil's Corkscrew. Most reports say to get above this area and out of the river bottom before the heat of the day sets in (Summer Rules). All I can say is I am glade we did it at night because it may have been mentally discouraging to see what we would need to transit to get out.
After another hour or so we saw the lights at the top of the south rim. So close yet so far. At this point we were about a quarter of the way according to the 9.5 hour plan to get out.
About 4am we ran into a sign that says Indian Garden, under which is a arrow pointing south and another sign that says 3 Mile.
I had a number of interpretations of what this was saying:
- Indian Garden is to the south....Good that is way I thought it should be.
- Indian Garden is still 3 miles away....Eck, this meant we had only gone 1.5 miles in 3 hours.
- We were 3 miles in from the Bright Angel Trail Head...OK, 3 miles in 3 hours, right on plan.
- Or the 3 Mile water/rest stop, which along with the 1.5 Mile water/rest stop is to the south...Also OK, but still don't know how far to Indian Garden.
Regardless we headed in the direction of the arrow, second guessing ourselves a little until we came upon some mule shit, which confirmed that we were still on the Bright Angel Trail heading toward the rim.
Trudging on (in the dark), we were still on schedule for about a noon-1pm Rim Out.
After a couple of minutes I could hear a motor running, which initially I though was from the top as it was very still, but as I rounded a bend in the trail my headlamp caught a rather large stone building in its beam...what the heck?
As we approach there was a sign welcoming us to Indian Garden and the building was part of the trans-canyon water pipeline.
WOW, it is now 4:15am and we are at Indian Garden, basically halfway up to the rim and in 3 hours!
We had our first real rest stop, took off our packs drank and ate. In ten minutes, we were back on the trail. Since this is also a campground we were very quiet and kept our lights pointed at our feet.
When we had looked at the Bright Angel trail from above on Tuesday before heading down we could see Indian Garden, which looks like an oasis, being green and having trees, but there was a long fairly straight trail from the lip into the lower canyon to it. In hind site, we figured this is where we first saw the light above on the rim. It just that it looks straight and kinda level from above and it was not so much when coming up it.
We hit the 3 Mile water/rest stop an hour later just as the sky was getting light enough to turn off the headlamps. 6 miles in and deep into the switchbacks on the upper canyon wall we were starting to slow down. After another few minutes drinking, eating and resting, we loaded up.
We had enough water, it seemed, to run out as we rimmed out...so we decided to bag this bad boy.
After 3 Mile the traffic from the top increased the closer to the rim we got. People were beyond the 1.5 Mile Water Rest stop with little in the way of water bottles, wearing dark clothes and sometimes flip flops. There is a sign at the top that says "what goes down, must come up" and the trip down to 3 mile is about 2 hours down and 4 hours up.
As we approached the top, the trail steepened and we ran into a mule trail heading down. We even needed to walk back down the trail to wide spot for it to pass...giving back real estate at this point was hard, real hard.
We rimmed out at 7:15am for a 6:30 trip from Bright Angel Campground to South Rim.
If you would have asked the night before I would have said you were crazy to think of doing it in under 8-9 hours, but we even beat the guides estimate.
We walked about another half mile back to the Back Country Center to retrieve our car, stopped at the market for coffee, water, Diet Coke and headed home.
We grabbed the first hikers express shuttle to the South Kaibab Trail head at 4am and were among about 20 others getting an early start to beat the heat.
We started down at 4:45am, looking to bottom out in about 4-5 hours.
The trek along the north side of the Colorado to the camping area was a challenge.
We hit the 3 Mile water/rest stop an hour later just as the sky was getting light enough to turn off the headlamps. 6 miles in and deep into the switchbacks on the upper canyon wall we were starting to slow down. After another few minutes drinking, eating and resting, we loaded up. 
As we approached the top, the trail steepened and we ran into a mule trail heading down. We even needed to walk back down the trail to wide spot for it to pass...giving back real estate at this point was hard, real hard.
