Thursday: It was a long, tiring trip up from Las Vegas. We lost 45 minutes to a major accident on the 515 north of Henderson, and maybe another half hour due to “construction zones”. Interstate 40, which used to be Route 66, is a washboard of a road; probably more than 66 major potholes per mile. It sucks.
Something must go wrong on each leg of an RV trip; it says so in the Bible, I believe. So, I was literally waiting for some fuck up to happen, and…it did. When we finally arrived at Trailer Village in Grand Canyon, I found out that we were A DAY EARLY! In other words, our reservation didn’t begin until the next day. Oops! I was mortified, because I do all the trip planning. But, my doofus ass was saved by the nicest lady in the camp office, who finagled another night’s accommodation for us in the “Full” RV Park. As she told me, they keep one 50′ full hook-up space in reserve (the “Hail Mary”) for idiots like myself who create an emergency situation for themselves. Thank you , Jesus (er, Mary)!!
It is a small RV park, nestled in the pine trees, but it has the basics, and it’s only $45 per night, located within hiking distance of everything in Grand Canyon Village. A shuttle bus takes you everywhere in the Park, and its free.
The RV park seems to be the foraging grounds for a herd of elk who wander aimlessly about, scarfing up on tree leaves, weeds, and whatever, seemingly oblivious to the human guests. Some of the elk are very large, and the dogs are quite interested in their comings and goings.
It’s difficult to describe some of the things one sees at the Grand Canyon. Many natural wonders to appreciate…
Friday: Today, I hiked out to Yaki Point, took a look at the South Kaibab Trailhead, and then walked the Rim Trail over to Mather Point. In all, I put in about 5.7 miles on my hiking boots, and got a few nice photos.
(My friend Jason Friedman has talked about joining me here so that we can do a “bucket list” hike from South Kaibab, down to the Colorado River, and back up to the South Rim via the Bright Angel Trail. It is a very strenuous hike of over 20 miles, with the last 6 miles ascending (laboriously) about 4,500 feet to Grand Canyon Village. I’ve noticed many signs warning that a one-day Rim to River to Rim hike is not recommended by the Park Service…it’s a bruiser, and people have perished making the attempt. But, if Jason wants to do it, we probably will. After all, you only live once, right?)
Saturday: Over the past two days, I’ve walked the Rim Trail from Yaki Point to Bright Angel Trailhead, a little over 6 miles.
There are some great vistas, of course…this is the Grand Canyon, for goodness sakes!…but the neatest views are achieved when you risk a bit and climb out on a rock precipice, with 1,000 feet of air under you. It’s probably pretty dangerous if you’ve got two left feet or vertigo. I overheard some young folks talking on the shuttle bus today about a guy who (yesterday) was out on one of the un-fenced ledges goofing off with his cell phone camera and fell off the cliff to his death.
Speaking of dangerous, the wildlife up here in the Arizona high country can be trouble if you’re not paying attention. We met a local here in the RV park (I think he works within the National Park) who was, with the help of a couple of young bucks, straightening out the front end of his Chevy pick-up. He had run into a deer several months ago, and the impact caved in his grille and, of course, the deer…which he and the family enjoyed for Thanksgiving dinner. The man said that, had the animal been an elk, n0 one would have survived the encounter.
I met a very nice gal today at the Bright Angel Trailhead. I was looking down the trail/escarpment, with a ton of questions, when I noticed this lady (in her 40’s) sitting on a bench. She had hiking gear, backpack, etc., and looked a bit winded. I asked her if she had hiked Bright Angel and she said, “Yes, from the River”, and she told me that it had taken her about 5 hours. It turned out that she had hiked the North Rim to the South Rim in two days, staying overnight at the River. The “Rim to Rim” is a very special hiking achievement, with 5,000 feet of descent and 4,500 feet of ascent over a distance of 23 miles. That hike requires one to drop their car at Bright Angel Trailhead, take a bus 4-1/2 hours around to the North Rim, and then hike back to your car. Yipes! And, she was a lone hiker, to boot. What a lady, and Kudos to Her!!
There is cell phone service here at Trailer Village, but we’re getting only a bar or two of signal strength (at best), so our WiFi hot spot is minimally effective. Charlie is totally befuddled by this, and I can’t do my blog here; I will have to save my thoughts and photos for publishing when we get to Hurricane, Utah. That sucks.
Our dogs love it here. Lots of new, interesting smells (especially the elk droppings), and very nice, paved walking/bike trails going everywhere. Our pooches are getting plenty of exercise.
When they aren’t out exploring the camp and adjacent forest, the dogs have a fancy containment pen to camp out in, or they can just hang out inside the rig. There is plenty of room in the motor home, and the dogs find nooks and crannies where they can nap and keep cool.
Our six-month puppy, Baby, is doing great. She’s a full member of “The Pack” now, and is often the lead dog when we take a stroll. And, knock on wood, she is pretty much potty-trained now. No poops in the rig, and she will send signals to us when she gets the urge to go out. She might lick us a bunch or emit a low whine, which is tantamount to “You’ve Been Warned”. So, she’s working with us, and we appreciate it. She’s a lovely dog.
My tentative plans for the coming week include doing several-hour hikes down into the Canyon; maybe 3 hours each, just to get the hang of it.
Sunday: I got up early, took two shuttle buses, and made it out to the South Kaibab Trailhead by 8 a.m. The elevation there is 7,200 feet, with the Colorado River approximately 5,000 feet below. The trail is steep, “very difficult”, and my intention was to do what was comfortable and see how it went, all the while realizing that the return trip will be all uphill, in the heat of the day, with little or no shady spots.
If you could read the detail on these trail information placards, you would notice that the potential hiker is warned, many times, about the trail conditions, the elevation, and heat issues, etc. “Proceed with caution” is the byword.
I made it down to Ooh-Aah Point (0.9 miles, 540′ descent) in about 20 minutes, felt good, and headed downward some more.
I reached Cedar Ridge (1.5 miles, 1,080′ descent) in another 20 minutes, still feeling pretty good. The scenery was very nice; however, the trail was very rough, mostly because it is used by horses and mules, so there are long stretches of awkward “staircases” of rock cobbles, wood cross members, and hard-packed uneven/rutted dirt. Luckily for me, I had brought my hiking poles, which helped me negotiate this nightmare of a trail.
The rule of thumb is that it takes a hiker, on a normal trail, about twice the time to hike up a trail that it did hiking down the trail. So, I was forty minutes into my hike, and I could figure about 80 minutes to get back to the South Rim.
After thinking about it a bit, I decided to press on to Skeleton Point (3 miles into the Canyon) . I arrived there, which is halfway to the Colorado River, at 9:30 a.m. Even though the hike so far had been all downhill, it had been a tough scramble down steep, very rough trails, so I was a bit tired. I had a snack of jerky, trail mix, and Gatorade and rested for about ten minutes before beginning the 2,000′, three-mile climb back to the South Rim.
It was a grueling ascent. The temperature was heating up, and the heat radiated off of the rocks. In most areas of the trail, I could go maybe a few hundred yards before taking a breather; in some steep stretches, with the “staircase” lumps and bumps, maybe half that.
When I made it back to Cedar Ridge, I was pooped, so I stopped for maybe 30 minutes to eat lunch (which I shared with a squirrel) and cool off a bit under the partial shade of a small tree.
I then resumed the Hell-ish trudge up the slope and, after many rest stops to catch my breath, reached the summit at 12:10 p.m. So, my trek to Skeleton Point and back had taken 90 minutes going down and 220 minutes climbing back the trailhead.
It was a tough hike, but was made tougher because I got a late start. If I was to do it again, I would begin a 5 a.m. and would be done with it by mid-morning, before the Hell Hole heats up.
I met some nice people on the trail, including a Ranger who was positioned just below Cedar Ridge to caution inexperienced hikers and help out anyone in trouble. I can imagine that he is kept quite busy, because there are a lot of tourists on the trail who do not belong there. South Kaibab is signed “very difficult” for a reason (because people have been hurt and have died on it), yet many tourists don’t give the trail enough respect, heading down the steep, slippery slope in sandals and flip-flops, no hiking poles, and carrying minimal water. I saw idiots with no water hippety-hopping down the slope with big smiles on their faces; I’ll bet they didn’t have those smiles when they had to slog out, banged-up and dehydrated. (Note: I carried about 200 ounces of Gatorade down the trail, and used about 150 ounces in four hours.)
All in all, it was a productive day. I got limbered up, didn’t get hurt, didn’t overextend myself, and developed a great respect for the Grand Canyon. It is an awesome place below the Rim; I’m glad that I experienced it.
Tuesday: Back at the home front (i.e. at the rig), we’ve run into a few problems. For starters, although this RV park met our trip planning business criteria (Verizon cell phone service), the cell signal, hence the WiFi strength, is insufficient to run Charlie’s digital office properly. And, as it turns out, one of her clients had an important meeting today that required up-to-date financials. Charlie had to farm some of her work out to our son Jonathan in Montana, and he came through big time. But, she remains upset about the crappy WiFi.
Secondly, Jason Friedman, our honorary 5th son, who was going to come here and hike with me, notified us yesterday that he’s just too busy at work (building contractor) to make the trip. That sucks, in that the two of us won’t have the opportunity to kill ourselves on the brutal Rim-River-Rim hike that we had planned for May 9th. Damn! (Actually, my calves are still sore from the South Kaibab Trail meat grinder two days ago. I’m out of shape. So, maybe Jason’s absence is a blessing.)
So, because of Jason’s no-show, we actually have an opportunity to resolve the WiFi issue by relocating to Hurricane, Utah three days earlier, which I was able to confirm yesterday. Accordingly, we will pack our gear early Wednesday and make the 250-mile trek around the east end of the Grand Canyon into southern Utah. It will probably take us about 6 hours to do that.
Another problem that we have is that Baby is growing up and is pushing the limits of her freedom. She will stroll out of the RV if the front door is open, but, thankfully, she doesn’t run off. However, she has taught herself how to clamber out of the communal dog pen, something the two other Bostons have never done. This creates a bit of a problem, because we like to let the dogs sit outside in their pen, absorbing sunlight, smelling the local smells, and watching kids play and people walking their dogs. But, if Baby cannot be contained in the pen, we will not be able to allow her that freedom (that the other two enjoy). I am going to have to come up with a “containment” solution for the pen, perhaps some netting. We’ll see.
Overall, though, we are very pleased with Baby. She is pretty much housebroken, and the only accidents we’ve encountered have been a couple of minor piddles caused by excitement or nervousness right at the door. She holds her pee and poo all night (until 5:30 a.m.!), is very sociable with people and other dogs, and occupies her time around the rig chewing on a toy, playing with the other two dogs, and napping. Jay Jay plays more with Baby than Booger does, which surprises us.
As is typically the case with a long RV trip, the advanced planning is only a “plan”, and we adjust the itinerary based upon life’s little surprises. So, now, we will leave Grand Canyon Village after six days, with the new schedule calling for a 12-night stay over in Hurricane, Utah, which is the gateway to Zion National Park, my favorite. Hopefully, things will go smoothly there for the five of us.