NOBO AZT Spring 2018 ~ Mid-March

[jeffmpls]

I'm planning to hike about 300-325 miles (to roughly passage 18 or 19) beginning March 14 or 15, is anyone else leaving NOBO about that time? I need to arrange transportation to the southern terminus, and wanted to see if other hikers wanted to carpool, or were looking for a hiking partner. I'll be leaving my car in Scottsdale, and likely taking a bus to Tucson; and from there finding a ride to the terminus.

My plan is for 15-20 miles per day, with 5 or 6 resupply points - Patatgonia, Colossal Cave, Summer Haven, Oracle, Kearney & Superior.

Another question for those that have hiked the southern passages in the spring, should I consider a 20 degree bag, or will my 30 degree bag be fine? I know there are early passages that reach elevations of 8000'-9,000', and much of it at 5000'-6000', so I'm curious what others have used.


Jeff

[FireFly]

I just sent in a request for a backcountry permit during the times I plan to be in GCNP excluding the first night at Mather. This didn't surprise me at all, but all of the corridor campgrounds are already full for late April, so I had to settle for one of the threshold use areas, but I included a night on the North Rim in my request so hopefully they'll honor it.
Thanks again for all the help.

A permit to camp inside the Canyon (at Bright Angel or Cottonwood) is easy to get if you are prepared to wait 1-2 days at South Rim, which a lot of people want to do anyway. Bright Angel has about 30 camp spots and 10% of these are set aside for thru-hikers and other people who just walk into the Backcountry Office at South Rim and get assigned just the day before at 8:00am using a waiting list. So in theory about 3 sites on average become available per day, plus extra sites if there are cancellations.

I'll give you my own experience as an illustration how it works. I had plenty of time and wanted to spend lots of time in and around Grand canyon, so I wanted to camp at South Rim, Bright Angel, Cottonwood and North Rim. I arrived at South Rim on Friday early afternoon and headed for the Backcountry Office first. I explained to the ranger that ideally I wanted to camp at Bright Angel on Monday and Cottonwood on Tuesday. I was lucky: he could directly give me a spot for Cottonwood on Tuesday.

For Bright Angel was a waitinglist. I was #5 on the waiting list. The next day (Saturday) at 8:00am I went to the Backcountry Office where they were going to assign the available camp spots for the following day (Sunday) based on the waiting list. Although I was #5 on the list, there was a spot available for me so I could already camp om Sunday night if I wanted to. But I didn't want it yet so I asked for a new waitinglist number. I got #1 now. So on Sunday morning 8:00am I was back in the Backcountry Office and got the campsite I wanted for Monday night.

An extra option that you have is sharing sites with other hikers. The assignment is per site, not per person, and each site can accommodate more than one tent. Sizes vary but all of them are big enough for at least two tents and some of them can fit even five or so. I ended up sharing my Cottonwood site with a lady who like me didn't want to walk from Bright Angel to North Rim in one day, but she hadn't been able to get a site at Cottonwood for that day. So I offered to share my site with her. Of course you can already team-up with other hikers before (or in) the Backcountry Office.

The hike/bike section of Mather Campground at South Rim should not be a problem. When I arrived there was a sign saying that the campsite was full but that didn't apply to the hike/bike section.

The hike/bike section at North Rim was oddly quiet when I was there. Most backpackers that you meet when crossing Grand Canyon don't camp there.