Rim Job

Kaibab mating season wouldn't be at the end of the summer would it? They've been out and about quite a bit this past week... Anyway had my first couple days in full-on ranger uniform and flat hat. Look goofy...but have been told I just might be the cutest ranger some people have ever seen...and have gotten my picture taken much more than usual. haha

Soo...Hiked across the canyon this weekend...twice. Started out late Friday night around 8:30 and hiked down the North Kaibab trail with Addy and Jess.

Picture of the three of us at the trailhead.

Made it down to Phantom Ranch (14 miles) by around 3:30 am. Stayed at the Phantom Ranch Trail crew bunkhouse.. which I must say is quite nice. Air ocnditioning and a full kitchen, showers and flushing toilets. Kind of cheating for a backpacking trip but I think its ok if you're going to be hiking almost 50 miles in 3 days... Full on Rim Job.

Hung out most of the day in the ac (was over 100 degrees at the bottom... too hot to be outside, hiking, or doing anything really). Ate some of the good food we brought down, read, napped, chilled... Then set out around 4:30 pm. Just a few minutes into it we came across a little kid by himself on the trail. We started talking to him (which was difficult cause he was so out of it) and realized that he had come down the Bright Angel trail with a group of people, and he had gone ahead of them. This kid was probably about 8... was carrying no water and was completely dry. This is one thing that always amazes me when people come here. How they just don't get it. The Bright Angel Trail is more than 9 miles down and the farther you go, the hotter it gets. We found this kid around 4:30 which means his group probably started walking in the late morning and maybe even as late as noon. Stupid. Addy and I walked him tabk to the canteen to get him some food and water. I tried to tell him to get into the creek to cool off and he told me that the adults he was with told him not to go in the water....ok.... maybe its alright to tell young children to not go swimming in the creeks... but if you're going to be hiking in the canyon during the day during the hot months you need to stay wet. Jesus. Anyway we stayed with him giving him our water and gatorade, an dhis group that Jesse had gone ahead to find came around 15 minutes later. About 6 or 7 other YOUNG kids and a few adults... all really out of it an dobviously really dehydrated. Stupid.

Anyway, picture of Silver Bridge on Bright Angel Trail on Left.

Made it up to Indian Garden in a couple hours, anice little oasis halfway down the canyon. Made dinner at the bunkhouse and hten did the last 4.5 miles up. Brutal. But hiking in the moonlight was delightful. Jake, NPS river crew guy, met us at the trailhead and had been shining his crazy powerful spotlight on us for the last mile or so of the hike. Jesse mentioned that he felt like frodo with that light searching for us and I had to agree. Haha

Spent the night and day up on the grim rim as Jessica calls it... stayed inside recuperating. Sunday Evening me and Jesse headed down the South Kaibab trail around 6PM. Addy stayed to chill and take the shuttle back.

South Kaibab is an AWESOME trail. A bit of a trade off because there isn't any water on it... but seven miles down to Phantom and no mules! (except the very last stretch).. Which makes a huge difference. Hiking and not having to worry about dodging mule doody is very nice.

We were able to catch a spectacular sunset and stop for a beer with two guys a little ways down. Relatively uneventufl except the beautiful sunset and then four Russian dudes we ran into more than half way down that were coming up form the river and carrying nothing ubt cameras (Not even a water bottle). People are crazy.

Two South Kaibab sunset pictures below

Woke up late the next morning (set the alarm for pm not am) and headed out around 8. Kind of late but the box wasn't too hot and we made it to Ribbon Falls just as it was starting to heat up real nice. Stayed there for a few hours, basking, eating and talking to people.




Picture of me in front of the falls just before we left. Lovely little stop in the middle of the hostile, unforgiving canyon.

Made our way to Cottonwood Campground in the afternoon and finally saw a Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake! (On right) Silius said it was probably Gary, the super chill pinky that hangs out around cottonwood and never rattles or bothers anyone. Typical pinky behavior.



Continued on and checked out the gauntlet... natural waterslides in the tapeats sandstone near roaring psrings. Was a bit too cold to go for a it but definitely want to get down there again soon. The first waterslide looked pretty gnarly but fun.

Headed up. Got dark and hiked in the moonlight around supai tunnel (two miles down). By far the worst part of the trip. Difficult, sandy, steep and mule poopy. Its trails like that that make me wish they would just phase the mules out. or make mule-only trails.

Picture of me at the North Kaibab Trailhead just to give you an idea of how tough those last few miles were...and how sweaty I got.

Great weekend. Challenging, but we were definitely proud of ourselves for completing the full on Rim-to-rim-to-rim (Rim Job) of Grand Canyon :)