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| Backpack | 29.25 Miles |
7,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 29.25 Miles | 4 Days | | |
| 7,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I started writing a super in depth report for this trip but it seems to be kind of a big time investment. I'll just do a moderately in-depth report instead:
Dustin, Tanner, Gil, Matt, Devin and myself headed down into the Canyon on a drizzly Saturday, in tow we had 3 first time Canyon hikers. Going down Hermit was a tad wet, but the impact of the descent is what really seemed to make it rough. The newbies were pretty torn up and slow moving for the last few miles. I was trying to keep things moving because the rain was supposed to hit again in the late afternoon. Sure enough, water started falling from the sky about a mile from camp. I made it to Hermit Camp a few minutes in advance of everyone to scope out campsites, and found a nice spot under a rock overhang that provided some nice shelter. Everyone looked pretty exhausted. Dinner was eaten and tents were pitched. Three of the guys were so tired that they were in bed pretty much at sundown. I also managed to forget my quick-release plate on my tripod, essentially I was lugging around an extra four pounds of worthlessness. I was expecting to have to sleep on the ground at Hermit Camp, but I did manage to get my hammock hung on some mesquites, although I did get some sag in the middle of the night and my butt was touching the ground in the morning.
After a rough first day, the second day was the easiest and best. We got a late start as a couple of the guys slept for a good 13 hours, but we only had about 3.5 miles of packing on the Tonto to do. We rolled into Monument about 1:00, after taking a nice break along the way in a side drainage. Gil was moving slow due to a sore knee from the rugged Hermit descent the day before, but powered through. It was truly a breathtaking moment coming around the bend and seeing the Monument towering in the middle of a gurgling Monument Creek. We took lots of photos and proceeded to Monument Camp. After getting settled in, I went with Dustin and Tanner down to Granite Rapids. The other three decided they better take it easy to preserve themselves for the rest of the trip. I'd been to the river before so I knew what to expect but the other two were pretty blown away. We poked around and took photos, and even took off our shoes to dip our feet in the ice cold water. Tanner collected a bottlefull of Colorado River water as a souvenir. When we returned to camp, Devin had just woken up from a two hour nap, while Gil and Matt had done a little exploring upstream. Dustin, Tanner, Devin and I decided to go check out the narrows where Monument cuts strikingly through the Vishnu-Zoroaster complex. I took off my shoes and splashed barefoot while the others kept their shoes and performed athletic moves to navigate the creek without soaking their footware. I always say that the creeks are my favorite part of backpacking the Grand Canyon, and that section of Monument reaffirmed that opinion. Upon returning to camp and proceeded to have hammock problems. I used too big of cordage on part of my suspension (which I threw together on the fly since the one I ordered wasn't delivered in time). To make a long story short, my hammock whipping failed on me four times and I ended up sleeping on the ground.
Woke up with the typical ground sleeping pains, which is exactly the reason I like sleeping in a hammock. We got out of camp a little earlier as we had a 10 mile day ahead of us. I put Gil in the lead for the first couple miles since he was slow going with his knee. Eventually he ended up in the back, but we were cautious to make sure we didn't leave him behind. It was noticeably warmer this day, and it was a typical day on the Tonto, working in and out of drainages all day long. The whole day seems like kind of a blur. I remember good but seemingly distant views of all the temples on the north side of the river. I remember stopping at every major drainage like a checkpoint to refuel, drink water, and wait for Gil. Everyone would get wind in their sails at different times, with a few different people taking the pole position at different times. I remember identifying the Battleship above us and thinking we were close, and then realizing that it was still another long traverse around Horn Creek. We rolled into Indian Gardens with a bit of a culture shock after not seeing many other people the last couple days. We had a bit of a party that night, with lots of laughing, joking, friendly banter and such. When it was time to go to bed, we realized how quiet the campground was on how boisterous we were  I managed to fix my hammock problems and had another pain-free night sleeping above the ground.
In the morning, Gil and Matt got a good 30-40 minute headstart as they knew Gil was gonna be slow with his knee. The rest of us hit the trail about 9:00 and set a pretty steady pace up to 3 mile rest-house, where we caught up to Matt and Gil. Dustin, Tanner, and I proceeded to keep pushing up pretty good and topped out just before noon. I had a weight on my shoulders still, however. Back in October 2012, I had a bum knee coming out of Havasupai, and Dustin made it out well before me, dropped his pack, and came back down to carry mine out for me. I felt like I had the opportunity to pay it forward so I ran back down Bright Angel. I ran into Devin after about a half mile, and then reached Gil and Matt about three quarters of a mile down. I confiscated Gil's pack and hauled it up for him. We all made it out by 1pm, and proceeded to drive to Flagstaff for a heavenly late lunch of my favorite Mexican food in the world at La Fonda.
The first day was kind of rough, and I had a few gear SNAFUs of my own, but it turned out to be an amazing trip. I laughed so much and so hard like I haven't done in a while. We saw amazing country, banded together to setup gear, eat and share food, collect water and survive together in the big ditch for four days. I was a bit anxious about taking a group of Canyon novices on this itinerary with a rainy forecast, but in the end we persevered and had a great time. I'm proud of our group  |
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Hermit Creek |
Medium flow |
Medium flow |
| | | Pretty standard conditions at Hermit...solid creek flow |
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Monument Creek |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Good flow in the narrows downstream from Monument Camp, dry upstream as well as the stretch down to Granite Rapids | | _____________________
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