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| Hiking | 23.43 Miles |
4,548 AEG |
| | Hiking | 23.43 Miles | 12 Hrs 25 Mns | | 1.89 mph |
| 4,548 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Due to changing vacation plans, my annual trip to the Canyon was at the end of July. I knew it was going to be hot at the river. The high at Phantom ranch was going to 107! I started hiking down the S. Kaibab at 5:30am. I made it down to the river by 8am. I stopped by the Phantom ranch for water and to send out some post cards. I started the journey up the Bright Angel by 8:30 am. By 9am the temps already broke 100! I took a short break at the rest stop by the pipe creek / Colorado river intersection. One good thing about heading back so early was that there was still a lot of shade on the trail. I took my time coming out of the Canyon. I took a lot of short breaks in the shade. I made it to Indian Gardens by 11am. I had a small snack, rested and then hiked to the end of the Plateau Point and back. There was a couple of clouds now in the sky. I got lucky and I had shade on the trail about 1/3 of the time. I made it back to the Indian Gardens by 12:30. I had lunch now. As I had lunch I noticed a guy waking around in Speedos and saddles. I hoped he wasn't hiking that way, and just playing in the Gardens creek! Now here's one bad thing about starting so early. The hot afternoon sun was on my for most of the trip from Indian Gardens to the TH. I did have an occasional cloud provide me shade.
Right below the 1.5 mile rest house, I ran into (almost literally) a bighorn sheep. He was sitting of to the side of the trail eating grass. The bighorn sheep was not scared or concerned with me. I keep a 10 foot distance from him. He wasn't going to budge, so I took my pack and took a break. After 10 minutes a park ranger came down. She tried to scare the bighorn sheep away, but he didn't care about her either. Eventually the ranger told me just to pas the sheep. She also mentioned that they had problems with the bighorn sheep hanging around the lodges.
On one of the last switchback near the top, there is four blue poles that stick out of the ground and there are two cross connects on them. (It almost looks like two blue Xs sticking out of the ground. I've always noticed a spur trail at the switch back. I had some extra time, so I decided to follow it this time. It is a defined trail that goes somewhere. I took this spur trail about a 1/4 mile out. The further I went out, the more rugged this trail became. The trail was heading towards the Maricopa lookout point(About 500~800 below it). I stopped here because I was alone and I didn't tell anyone that I was going on this trail. I heard stories of there being a decommissioned trail from the Bright Angel to the uranium mine. I wonder if this is it. If you know please let me know. I headed back to main trail and went back to the TH. I was so curious about this spur trail that I hike about 3/4 mile down the rim trail to see if I could see the trail below. I had no luck spotting the spur trail from above so I turned around and went back to the car. This was a fun hike, but I'll try not to do it again in the middle of the summer. |
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"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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