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| Backpack | 17.00 Miles |
2,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 17.00 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 2,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I was looking for a change from South Rim hiking and realized Lee's Ferry is (1) paved and (2) not snowed in! Perfect! This hike was ... a lot.
On Saturday I woke up at 3am for the first time this year, and that hurt a little. I arrived at Navajo Bridge around sunrise and took a quick look at my route from above... it looked steep. The condors were perched beneath the car bridge. Then I dropped off my bike at the head of Soap Creek and shuttled the car at Lee's Ferry.
The beginning of the hike was nice and easy. A little walk along the road, then established trail, to "secret beach". The river is brown below Paria. From here, I picked up a nice use trail along the base of the cliffs which took me to Cathedral Wash without much trouble. Man, there were a lot of beer cans and bottles... Lee's to Cathedral would be a very productive walk to pick up litter.
Below Cathedral Wash I encountered two cliffs jutting into the river. The first was easily bypassed with a little scouting, as I just followed a ledge above the river until I could scramble up onto the higher bench. The second is the true obstacle: the ramp and downclimb that Harvey describes. I scrambled up the ramp without my pack and decided I didn't even want to bring my pack up there, considering how far back I had to lean in a couple places. Luckily(?) I'd also read about the low route, where one partially submerges and claws along the cliff edge to the next bank. I'd prepared for this contingency by packing everything into a pack liner, and I even moved a few snacks and things from the outside pockets before I began. What could go wrong?
Well, I neglected to move my phone, earbuds, or Zoleo into any waterproof bag and left them in the fanny pack around my waist. Ugh, Shelby! The sun was shining and I felt fairly warm so I didn't have many qualms about dunking to mid-thigh. The water was too murky to see through but I found boulders along the base of the cliff and had nearly clawed my way across... until the submerged boulders ran out and handholds became slopers. After a minute or two of struggling and desperately gripping a large handful of grass my forearms were completely pumped and I fell back until I was standing chest-deep on the muddy bottom. From here I just walked the last few feet to climb out, then spent a good long break drying out my clothes and lamenting my mistake with the electronics. Some boaters passed and were suprised to see me.
I'd imagined that this cliff would be the toughest obstacle on my trip. Ha! Shortly before the bridges, one has to ascend to stay above the rising Coconino. There was even more trash here - lots dating back to bridge construction, and somewhat interesting, and lots more that has just dropped or washed onto the slope. There was also a big cairn with some sort of benchmark, but not the USGS type (I'll see if I can recover the photo). I found three pennies and normally I'm not superstitious, but I decided maybe if I feel lucky, I'll be lucky. Perhaps I will start a collection of pennies found in Grand Canyon... the grand total is four, now.
Anyway, the walking above the Coconino frankly sucked. There were some game trails but these were pretty friable. Not being on a trail wasn't a viable option. I opted for the second-highest trail which was nearly as solid as the lowest trail but less likely to end me if a rock rolled under my foot. It was a relief to descend back to river level above RM6.5.
Once back beside the river, I couldn't remember if I was supposed to climb back atop the Coconino. I really wasn't in the mood and decided if I had to back track, so be it. Anyway, that slope was well and truly pinched out before Badger so I'm glad I stayed low. I had to navigate some annoying boulder fields but the walking was much better below 6-mile beach. Very nice sheep trails. Somewhere along here, a beaver splashed into the river to avoid me. I also had my third beavertail cactus incident in three weeks when my pack and wool jacket rolled into a big clump of these guys. Ugh!! Incidentally, if anyone has tips for removing vast quantities of invisible beavertail spines, I'm all ears.
I reached the beach at Badger before sunset and happened across a group of boaters who'd had a late start. They were generous with their dinner and butane heater, which was very nice in the cold temps. The night felt cold but didn't freeze. I should have redistributed the down in my quilts away from the sides.
On Sunday, I took a while getting up in the cold. The boulder field below Badger Rapid was slow but the rest of the way to Soap was nice walking, mostly on sandy sheep trails. The Hermit Shale emerged. I took a long snack break at Soap, then started up, expecting a relatively easy hike to the rim.
For a while, the walking up Soap was extremely easy. There was a good amount of flowing water. Near the top the Hermit Shale, I encountered some annoying boulders and used a handline to climb a chockstone. I couldn't see any nearby or appealing bypasses here and the chockstone would have been very difficult/ impossible to ascend without the handline and cheater blocks. I thought this was the crux of the route, as I've read it is simple except for one bypass/ rope ladder and a bit of boulder hopping... wrong. I think things may have shifted since the 2004 description on HAZ and Tom Martin's 2002 edition hiking guidebook.
Through the Coconino I did some low-stakes ledge traverses around short dryfalls. The reading suggested there's a 60ft dryfall somewhere but I have no recollection and I don't think I would have missed this. Above the Coconino I encountered more giant boulder fields and did some tricky scrambling and a little more pack hauling. There were a few cairns, but their sneaky placement indicated that I was on a viable route rather than where the route was ahead. This scrambling was challenging class 3 and at least one bit of class 4. I don't know if the route is truly that hard or I had tunnel vision on the scrambles.
I finally emerged into the wash above the Kaibab and picked up my bike for the ride back to Lee's. I was nervous about this section, and rightly so. There is no shoulder. Two a-holes in pickups reaffirmed my prejudice against pickup trucks by (1) passing too close to me with oncoming traffic and (2) revving their engine past me. The semi-truck driver actually recognized they could squash me like a bug and took their time passing me. Of course the above-rim travel is the most dangerous.
The weather got wonky at the end of my hike. There were some stray snowflakes on my way out Soap, then I watched weather roll over the Vermillion Cliffs from the highway. On the road to Lee's I had to get off and walk my bike up the hill into a ridiculous headwind. Thankfully this relaxed a minute later and I wasn't sandblasted.
What a hike. It'll take me a minute to forget how difficult this was and be willing to repeat any sections. As rough as river right was, river left looks worse. |
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