Into the Canyon
Day 54
I am writing from a completely different world than where I penned the last post. Instead of forest, snow and cold above 8,600’, we are now in a deep gorge, it’s hot, at about 3,500’.
On day 51, I split from Ray and post-holed way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in sometimes waist-deep snow; I finally found what the Forest Service was warning us about. I hitched a ride to the village and went straight to the post office to grab my camera’s battery charger. No dice—despite being express mailed, it didn’t make it, so I have got to be extremely selective in what I shoot.
I’ve got to interrupt myself here to report one of the more bizarre happenings of the journey: Ray put a small MRE on some hot rocks in the gorge here to heat up his “appetizer." A raven (or what I call the “majestic black desert eagle”) promptly flew away with it. By the time Ray tracked the thief down it had finished his treat!
OK back to the post –
I decided to inquire at the lodge if they had any rooms, knowing they’d probably be sold out, being Memorial Day weekend. They were, but the thought of a bed and shower was intriguing. I was in the restaurant having a lunch that was not Clif bars for a change, when Michael from the front desk found me and told me he had a room if I wanted it! For the first time in my life I decided to splurge—I got the room and dropped my pack there just as a nasty thunderstorm rolled through.
A shower, a quiet, warm(!) night, and a sink that doubled as a Laundromat—I was squeaky clean and happy. I decided to eat a good breakfast and then who do I run into? Ben and Allison! They were back for more of the Hayduke Trail. Ray showed up in the afternoon with tales of his own adventures bushwhacking through fallen trees and we found the newcomer, Greg Prosl, publisher of MountainZone.
We all headed out of the park for a very windy night of camping. Ben and Allison departed at dawn; their permit in the GC starts a day before ours does. Of course, nothing has gone smoothly for those two, this time the trailhead at point Imperial (our back-up access to the Nankowemp Trailhead) was closed for a search and rescue operation. They came back to camp to report the bad news and drove off greatly disappointed. In the meantime, Greg drove Ray and I back to the park where we readied our packs and supplies for 12 days of GC hiking. To lighten the load, I ditched my warm layers and my tent, whose zippers were foiling on the screen body, removing any usefulness in the hot dry gorge (I hope….!).
We headed out to Point Imperial to see if we could get at least to Saddle Mountain and found the SAR folks gone—it was a go! A condor soared overhead as we ate lunch, one of many I had seen since arriving the day before. The North Rim seems to have become a popular destination for these huge endangered birds. The three of us hoisted packs and headed through the eerie remains of the forest, burned a couple years ago in the massive Cape Royal fire, dealing again with countless downed trees.
We set ourselves up at 8,600 feet just outside the park boundary—giving us the biggest vertical descent in the park —virtually a mile straight down. Lo and behold, just as it was getting dark, into the camp walk Ben and Allison. They weren’t ready to give up the sections they most anticipated.
A very difficult and sometimes frightening walk brought us down to Nankoweap Creek, home of the canyon’s first wild fire of the year, a fire that burned much of the canyon bottom just a week or so ago.
The National Park considers the Nanko Trail to be the hardest in the park and we found out why (I’ve only ascended this monster before, which despite a heavy water load proved to be much easier than going down). The trail pinched off in places to a mere boot-width, with drops of several hundred feet that in turn lead to cliffs thousands of feet tall—talk about exposure! The five miles of ledge walking of the Supai layer finally gave way to a steep descent on a trail that was covered with just enough gravel to act like ball bearings; again a slip would lead to a life-ending freefall. We all made it down without incident and were treated to a night of warmth for a change—our last night up top was so cold and windy I was forced to erect a makeshift shelter out of my blue tarp to stay warm. At least the wind and storms brought a cold front, which might actually keep the temperatures in this huge stone oven below one hundred degrees.
Well, Ray’s appetizer was just returned to us: a raven deposited a load of turds onto Ben and Allison’s tent, showering their sleeping bags and Ben with a nasty surprise! I think those two need a break!
Day 56
We’re in deep, literally and figuratively. We’ve all reached the confluence of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River, whose bright turquoise water makes such an amazing contrast to the guacamole green of the river we’ve followed for two days.
The canyon has been hot, not oppressively so, but hot enough to get us moving out of camp by 6 am. We’ve reaped the rewards of this year’s above average precipitation: thigh deep cheat grass, which is not only slippery and obscures the already faint game trails that we’re following, but it inundates clothes and shoes and socks with evil, difficult to remove spikes. The scenery is a little easier to take; the massive walls of Marble Canyon towering overhead, the layers easy to differentiate, all five of us— three are first timers in the gorge —can readily pick out the supai—host of Nankoweaps dazzling descent.
Besides moving early, we’ve also been ducking into the shade in the heat of the day, then walking on when the sun’s gone behind the giant wall. Yesterday’s retreat brought us a great surprise: lunch from a Western Rivers group who wanted to share our shade. Today’s lunch was courtesy of a Wilderness River’s group who ferried us across the river to the south side. At least it’ll keep my pants from falling down this week! (Actually I do eat pretty well; I owe a great thanks to Alpine Aire Foods and Clif bars for keeping me fueled up!)
This post is heading up the Tanner Trail with Ray, who needed a little extra exercise (like 20 miles with 4,000’ ascent and descent).
Keep it Wild,
Mike Coronella
I am writing from a completely different world than where I penned the last post. Instead of forest, snow and cold above 8,600’, we are now in a deep gorge, it’s hot, at about 3,500’.
On day 51, I split from Ray and post-holed way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in sometimes waist-deep snow; I finally found what the Forest Service was warning us about. I hitched a ride to the village and went straight to the post office to grab my camera’s battery charger. No dice—despite being express mailed, it didn’t make it, so I have got to be extremely selective in what I shoot.
I’ve got to interrupt myself here to report one of the more bizarre happenings of the journey: Ray put a small MRE on some hot rocks in the gorge here to heat up his “appetizer." A raven (or what I call the “majestic black desert eagle”) promptly flew away with it. By the time Ray tracked the thief down it had finished his treat!
OK back to the post –
I decided to inquire at the lodge if they had any rooms, knowing they’d probably be sold out, being Memorial Day weekend. They were, but the thought of a bed and shower was intriguing. I was in the restaurant having a lunch that was not Clif bars for a change, when Michael from the front desk found me and told me he had a room if I wanted it! For the first time in my life I decided to splurge—I got the room and dropped my pack there just as a nasty thunderstorm rolled through.
A shower, a quiet, warm(!) night, and a sink that doubled as a Laundromat—I was squeaky clean and happy. I decided to eat a good breakfast and then who do I run into? Ben and Allison! They were back for more of the Hayduke Trail. Ray showed up in the afternoon with tales of his own adventures bushwhacking through fallen trees and we found the newcomer, Greg Prosl, publisher of MountainZone.
We all headed out of the park for a very windy night of camping. Ben and Allison departed at dawn; their permit in the GC starts a day before ours does. Of course, nothing has gone smoothly for those two, this time the trailhead at point Imperial (our back-up access to the Nankowemp Trailhead) was closed for a search and rescue operation. They came back to camp to report the bad news and drove off greatly disappointed. In the meantime, Greg drove Ray and I back to the park where we readied our packs and supplies for 12 days of GC hiking. To lighten the load, I ditched my warm layers and my tent, whose zippers were foiling on the screen body, removing any usefulness in the hot dry gorge (I hope….!).
We headed out to Point Imperial to see if we could get at least to Saddle Mountain and found the SAR folks gone—it was a go! A condor soared overhead as we ate lunch, one of many I had seen since arriving the day before. The North Rim seems to have become a popular destination for these huge endangered birds. The three of us hoisted packs and headed through the eerie remains of the forest, burned a couple years ago in the massive Cape Royal fire, dealing again with countless downed trees.
We set ourselves up at 8,600 feet just outside the park boundary—giving us the biggest vertical descent in the park —virtually a mile straight down. Lo and behold, just as it was getting dark, into the camp walk Ben and Allison. They weren’t ready to give up the sections they most anticipated.
A very difficult and sometimes frightening walk brought us down to Nankoweap Creek, home of the canyon’s first wild fire of the year, a fire that burned much of the canyon bottom just a week or so ago.
The National Park considers the Nanko Trail to be the hardest in the park and we found out why (I’ve only ascended this monster before, which despite a heavy water load proved to be much easier than going down). The trail pinched off in places to a mere boot-width, with drops of several hundred feet that in turn lead to cliffs thousands of feet tall—talk about exposure! The five miles of ledge walking of the Supai layer finally gave way to a steep descent on a trail that was covered with just enough gravel to act like ball bearings; again a slip would lead to a life-ending freefall. We all made it down without incident and were treated to a night of warmth for a change—our last night up top was so cold and windy I was forced to erect a makeshift shelter out of my blue tarp to stay warm. At least the wind and storms brought a cold front, which might actually keep the temperatures in this huge stone oven below one hundred degrees.
Well, Ray’s appetizer was just returned to us: a raven deposited a load of turds onto Ben and Allison’s tent, showering their sleeping bags and Ben with a nasty surprise! I think those two need a break!
Day 56
We’re in deep, literally and figuratively. We’ve all reached the confluence of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River, whose bright turquoise water makes such an amazing contrast to the guacamole green of the river we’ve followed for two days.
The canyon has been hot, not oppressively so, but hot enough to get us moving out of camp by 6 am. We’ve reaped the rewards of this year’s above average precipitation: thigh deep cheat grass, which is not only slippery and obscures the already faint game trails that we’re following, but it inundates clothes and shoes and socks with evil, difficult to remove spikes. The scenery is a little easier to take; the massive walls of Marble Canyon towering overhead, the layers easy to differentiate, all five of us— three are first timers in the gorge —can readily pick out the supai—host of Nankoweaps dazzling descent.
Besides moving early, we’ve also been ducking into the shade in the heat of the day, then walking on when the sun’s gone behind the giant wall. Yesterday’s retreat brought us a great surprise: lunch from a Western Rivers group who wanted to share our shade. Today’s lunch was courtesy of a Wilderness River’s group who ferried us across the river to the south side. At least it’ll keep my pants from falling down this week! (Actually I do eat pretty well; I owe a great thanks to Alpine Aire Foods and Clif bars for keeping me fueled up!)
This post is heading up the Tanner Trail with Ray, who needed a little extra exercise (like 20 miles with 4,000’ ascent and descent).
Keep it Wild,
Mike Coronella
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1 Comments:
And what an amazing trip it was indeed. I cant thank Mike enough for including me on the hayduke adventure, one I will cherish for a lifetime.
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