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| Backpack | 35.12 Miles |
6,864 AEG |
| | Backpack | 35.12 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 6,864 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Another January jaunt into the canyon. My favorite winter route is down South Kaibab and up Bright Angel.
South Kaibab was icy and snowy for the first mile and a half and then it turned into mud-ice for another mile and then what was (not) fun was the insane gloopy mud/mule poop mixture there was for another two miles or so. The mud was absolutely unavoidable so by the time you get to the river you’re just caked in mud and mud splatter.
The upside was there was just absolutely no one in the trail. The entire way down SK we saw maybe ten other people.
Once we got down we sat on the beach for a while before heading to Phantom where I’d snagged a last minute cabin rental for two nights. We settled in and got our hikers stew from the cantina (which is finally open for indoor eating again, yay!). Showers weren’t working but I didn’t really mind that since it was a bit chilly.
Next morning we headed up to Ribbon and Upper Ribbon. Again, an empty trail (at this point it was a little bizarre to hike for miles and miles and not see a soul, but I wasn’t complaining about it). 
Ate lunch at Ribbon and then headed to Upper. Explored the area around upper and looked at the archaeology and then headed back to Phantom. Another happy evening of hiker stew.
Next morning we headed up Bright Angel and didn’t see anyone from the river through the corkscrew up Bright Angel and then again didn’t see anyone from Havasupai Gardens to 3 mile resthouse. Once I got a little service at 3 mile I checked the weather and realized that’s why I didn’t see anyone coming down, snowstorm projected for the area to start in the evening. That makes a bit more sense why the canyon was absolutely dead on a holiday weekend.
The mud appeared around 3 mile resthouse and then at 1.5 mile we put on our microspikes. Snow for the last half mile was a bit thick. But, I’d rather hike this in the cold any day over the heat of summer.
All in all a great canyon trip. |
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