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| Hiking | 7.00 Miles |
4,790 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.00 Miles | 7 Hrs | | 1.00 mph |
| 4,790 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Calibration hike done - damage? One blister each - wussies!!! 
Used the Hikers Shuttle to ferry ourselves over to the South Kiabab trailhead. Saw some really HUGE elk wandering through the Grand Canyon Village - glad I was in the bus! 
What a cool feeling standing at the trailhead - 13+ months of preparation and planning finally all coming together.  We exchange cameras with other folks as we all take pixs of each other before we dip below the rim. Even though technically we had been below the rim yesterday this seems like the real deal. As we begin down the switchbacks it hits me that this is going to take forever to get to the bottom. Why? Pix. My buddy Matt is taking pix like there is no tomorrow - before exiting on the North Rim he will take just north of 1600 images! 
We trek our way down and then BAM! The Stink! The Horror! MULE POO! Not as much mule pee but loads and loads of mule poo - UGH!  I begin to rapidly understand why some people avoid the corridor trails and now knowing this I believe this will be my future plans too. Stoopid me I was under the impression that the SK was closed to the stinky beasts. Not only was the supply line running for Phantom but there were several groups of people riding the trails. Sorry folks but color me as one of the people whom is adamantly opposed to the Mules. They pee, poo and GRIND the trail into dust. This is helpful how????
At any rate we make our way to Oh Ah point - OH AH indeed!  I lie prone on one of the rocks and gaze down the canyon to the east - what a cool view. I lay there for quite awhile until 2 young ladies arrive and ask if I will take their pix for them. One thing I gotta say - if yer single it seems like the Canyon is a great pick up spot!!! Never did I see so many seemingly single hot looking females hiking either alone or with another hot looking female!!! Wow!!!  Ladies?? YOU ROCK!!! 
As we head down towards Cedar Ridge my buddy turns and asks if I am throwing stones at his ankle. I am thinking OK - the views are overwhelming him and he is losing his mind. No he assures me that it feels like something it tapping him on the back of his ankle. Not a good sign. He continues down to Cedar Ridge. We arrive at Cedar ridge and I am blown away by another observation - the foot ware of people whom have hiked down this far - I see sneakers, open toed designer sandals, flip flops and then the people who seem to have a brain, hiking shoes/boots.
As we hang at Cedar - taking pix what else? - I strike up a conversation with a woman who was part of a guided Ranger tour from the rim to Cedar. She inquires of our plans and I tell her we are planning on going to Phantom - staying two nites then hiking out to the North Rim, staying two nites then hiking back down the NK and up Bright Angel in one day. She is alllll over this. Immediately she starts to ask how much to stay at Phantom? Mind you this woman has next to no water, a small backpack with very little as far as provisions go. Now it seems she has decided that you need to do something crazy in life (aka stoopid in my opinion) ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") and she is asking if she can hike down with Matt and I. I look at him, he looks at me and I say well ya might want to check with the Ranger over there and see what he says. I tell her that I have heard that if you do not have a room that the rangers basically make you leave the area and head towards the rim. Dunno if that is true but she as heck I didn't need no head case, middle age crisis whack job on my conscious! 
Thankfully common sense kicks in and she decides well - maybe not a good idea. Matt and I continue down to Skeleton. Again - Matt says ya know something is going on with my ankle - it just feels funny - NOT GOOD! Little did I know. We get to Skeleton - enjoy the views and then make our way to the tip off. We availed ourselves the use of the facilities and then headed down the tip off. While going down I am noticing that Matt is heavily favoring his ankle.....since we seem to stop just about every 100 to 150 yards and take pix I really didn't pick up on it as I am either looking down at my feet to see where those lil bad boys are going next or soaking up the awesome views. What really impressed me the most were the drop offs and exposure situations that we encountered on the way down. Wow just way cool. I am normally a person who really doesn't handle heights very well but for some reason this didn't bother me very much. The views were top notch - sadly a million images cannot convey what my eyes and brain processed. I really need to keep coming here as much as I can. 
We reach the River Trail sign and trudge over to the Black Bridge. I begin to realize that I was not eating enough - I drank enough but my energy is waning big. We make our way over the bridge - again awesome views up. I feel bad for the people who will never see this sight. Still do not like the MULES tho!! We begin to make our way to Phantom - I am a history aerobic-instructor so I am stopping at the old Indian sites and soaking up all the info. We walk past the campground and I am shocked by this oasis at the bottom of the Canyon!! Awesome! Finally we locate the cantina and check in. We stagger over to the dorm - claim our bunks and then head back over to the cantina for some Tecate's! 
We met some real nice people at the cantina. Spoke with a guide - now I do not know if he was trying to justify his pay but he was seriously blown away that Matt and I were hiking out the NK in one day and even more blown away that we were going to do the rim to rim in one day. I kinda agreed with him on the rim to rim as I know that is a little ambitious but the hike out the NK in one day? Hmmmmm I guess we would find out.
First real hike into the Canyon - damage?
Me - blisters on both ankles, 3 blisters on the toes and a toe jam on the big toe. Oh toe nail, I did like you!
Matt - blisters on both ankles, toe jam on his big toe - much worse than mine, some blisters on his toes and the kicker - a sprained Achilles tendon! Fricking boots!!!!!
More to follow.........River trail next.... |
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| Out of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most..... |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
.....chow was good 
- we stopped to use the facilities at 1.5 mile and I changed my socks 
NOTHING like the Bataan Death March up North Kaibab, NOTHING! 
the next adventure. Ansel wants to explore more states - after Utah I almost agree with him but the Canyon has soooo many places I want to see - I am thinking of going it alone in the Canyon next time as Ansel just can't handle the down part - up no problem - down no soap.
as his knees were suffering from our previous exploits - sadly we hit the river at 11am....at the pace we were now going I knew it was futile to try to attempt the Pyramid - additionally I am not so certain I had the ability to pull it off even tho we had secured a nite at Phantom. Dang it all!!! My sincere appreciation goes out to the Hazer's who have not only bagged this but done it in one day AND drove back to Phoenix after doing it!! 
so we resigned ourselves to some awesome and I mean AWESOME views from atop what I will call Piano Alley Mesa....pretty cool lil area - certainly was interesting in that it looked like there were multiple lightening strikes that have charred the rocks up there.....found two spaces cleared out for sleeping purposes nicely hidden from any ranger views from down below at Phantom....heck one spot even had his and hers rock nightstands!!
The Colorado was in nice shape - a picture perfect green river - saw awesome amounts of the river from where we were. after MORE than a few pixs Ansel and I headed back down to the bridge - holy crap! It is straight down! I mean STRAIGHT DOWN! Sheesh! I walked more like slid about 2/3rds of the way down. Almost to the end I am sliding along and WHAMMO my right knee catches some kinda cacti. Now I have several clusters of small tiny needles in my knee and sticking out of my shorts....they in turn proceed to embed themselves in me.....a week later and I am still picking these lil devils outa me!!! 
WTH!
I clean up two small scrapes that gave up a fair amount of blood and patched em up. Head down and met up with Matt and off we went up Little Wild Horse.
rant - since the parks are in the US and we pay for them thru our taxes shouldn't our foreign visitors still have to pay to get in? Sadly what became a recurring theme was the absolute RUDENESS of anyone French we encountered. ANYONE else was super friendly and we met many nationalities while we did our 9 hikes in UT and AZ - the French are supremely rude people. Sad - I just wish I would have encountered one nice French person to counteract the many rude French hikers we saw - a simple Hello would have been nice.....must be those freedom fries! Off my 
What is it about carry in/carry out that these folks DO NOT understand? We then went inside the cantina and stuck up conversations with several other folks - the typical "what trail did you come down what trail you going out on" type of thing. We discussed our intention to go out the NK with a guide who was at a table with his group. This guy proceeds to tell us we are nuts to hike out the NK in one day - we had better leave before dawn and he hopes we have lights! Then we tell him we are planning on hiking down the NK and out the BA in one day - he dang near died on the spot blubbering about how that was just impossible blah blah blah. Talk about trying to fleece your group you are guiding.....wow, just wow. 
We pass the buildings on the way to the bridge - we stop to admire the differences of construction between the two bridges and begin to traverse our way to the South side of the river. One thing I thought that was real cool was the Colorado - yes the mighty muddy Colorado. As we went over the suspension bridges the river seemed fast - not overly so but man when we were down level with it I got a whole new appreciation for fast. As we walked across the bridge I thought I felt it swaying - sure enough it was - total cool!!! The closer I got to the South side I kept noticing the huge VW and larger sized boulders all piled up like pebbles in a stream at the bend in the river - wow - would it have been sweet to observe the river current that moved those babies. Actually the entire time I was below the rim I often felt like I was in the land of the giants and all those huge boulders that were so precariously placed all over the landscape were the giants toys that never got put away. The many many images that we took will most likely never really convey that feeling but it was wild to see the larger than houses boulders all lined up in a row from an evident fall at some point (when?). We meet some other hikers coming down from BA and they ask for us to take their pixs - again very cute girls - I am really beginning to think that the Canyon is the world's best kept "singles meeting place" secret! 
