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| Backpack | 35.00 Miles |
4,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 35.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 4,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Wish I could write a full blow-by-blow of this awesome trip, but it is unfortunately not at the top of my list of current priorities. Here's the basic run-down, two night trip with 5 guys including myself, three of which were first time backpackers. Dustin (my wife's cousin-in-law), Gil (my wife's stepfather), and Adrian (family friend) rounded out the newbies, while Dan (Dustin's soon to be stepfather) has much more Grand Canyon backpacking experience (or backpacking experience in general) than myself. Of course, I was about a couple of the guys making it out okay, which would later turn out to be rather ironic. After camping in mule crap at the trailhead thursday night, we made the descent in friday morning. We snagged a nice creekside campsite about 75 yards upstream from Mooney Falls. I spent friday evening photographing Mooney, Havasu and Upper (New) Navajo Falls. Clouds caused sunset to be a dud, but the open shade was still conductive to great picture, especially for long exposures at the waterfalls. Dan brought some spiced rum, and thus my boisterous alter-ego, hippiedrunkpirate, made a brief appearance.
I got up at sunrise and shot Mooney again, and then we all took our time getting ready for the dayhike to Beaver Falls. The climb down the Mooney latter was pretty intense, and by the time we reached the bottom, I realized I had forgotten to bring my tripod, spoiling my plan to stay below Mooney into the evening golden hour for long exposures at the many waterfalls down there. We had blast on the dayhike, spending a nice relaxing hour amongst the crowd at Beaver Falls. We got up the Mooney latter around 3pm, and I rushed to grab my tripod and shoot back down the latter before the uphill crowd thickened. I was too late as I ran into uphill hikers in the first tunnel and had to backtrack out. A peek down to the bottom of the cliff yielded a view of a route full of hikers, and a line starting to form at the bottom of the lower latter. I quickly changed gears and headed upstream to try some different perspectives on the big falls above the campground. At this point, my right knee would start becoming sore, a sign of events to come.
We packed up Sunday morning and left the campground around 7:30. Even after taking some ibuprofen and wrapping my knee in an ace bandage, my knee proved to remain sore. In the three miles from our campsite to the village, I was slightly slower than the others. At the village, I decided to get a head start on everyone, but they caught back up to me just before we reached the turn into Hualapai Canyon. At this point I was having trouble lifting my right foot more than four inches off the ground, and combined with not being able to put a lot of weight on my right leg, all uphill steps had to be done left foot first, then dragging my right foot up afterward. Gil and Adrian waited for me, walking ahead a little bit and then waiting, while Dustin and Dan made quick time to the car. I definitely could have pushed myself to walk faster, especially on the flat sections, but I feared completely blowing out my knee and not being about to hike out on my own power. When I neared the 6.5 mile sign (indicating 1.5 miles out to the car), Dustin appeared, apparently having dropped his pack at the trailhead and then hiked back in. He offered to carry my pack as to make it easier for me and my bum knee. To be honest, I was rather embarrassed, but sensibility overcame pride and I passed my pack off to Dustin, retaining my hiking poles and my easily unclippable daypack that held my camera and lenses so he wouldn't have to bear the full load of my heavy pack. By 2pm we made it out, and really, 6.5 hours over 11 miles on a bad knee ain't too shabby. Of course, Gil and Adrian far exceeded my expectations, hiking out in 5.5, and probably would've done so faster had they not been waiting for my slow pumpkin. Dustin was a beast, hiking out in 4.75, and then taking on an extra 3 miles to save me knee.
It's humbling having someone lend such a generous hand like that, Dustin is a great friend. I'm grateful for his kind act, as my knee, though still sore, is just fine, and was actually feeling much better by the time we reached Seligman on the drive out. Had I hiked that steep final 1.5 miles with my full pack, I could've hurt my knee much more seriously. The lesson is, prepare for these big hikes, as I think my lack of preparation contributed to my injury. I have had a history of knee problems, but had strengthened my knee over the last few years by hiking often among other things. Prior to my Boucher-Hermit backpack in April, I hiked 5 times a week for two weeks prior with a nearly full pack to train, and had no significant knee pain for that trip, which included much steeper trail sections. Prior to this trip, I had not hiked significantly during the summer, and hiked only two short hikes in the two weeks prior to the trip. Then when I hiked 14 miles on Friday and 10 miles on Saturday, it is no wonder my knee was jacked on Sunday. I knew preparation was important beforehand, but I let 100 degree temps impede the proper training. I won't likely make that mistake again.
Lastly, I was super impressed with Havasupai. It was more beautiful than I could've imagined, and my imagination is pretty vivid. The campground was much more pleasant than I expected, and the lack of trash during my visit was also surprising. I definitely want to go back, especially after dropping the ball on photographing between Mooney and Beaver Falls. Maybe next time I will try for late November for those gorgeous yellow cottonwood leaves and suppressed crowds. |
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