Tuesday Voice: Grand Canyon adventure—Part 3

Up and out

By James T. Carney

[Sequel to "In and about with people"]

The next morning we were up at 5:00 a.m. to have an early breakfast and hit the trail at 6:30 a.m. We crossed the second bridge over the Colorado and followed the river for about a mile and a half before turning inland and up on the Bright Angel Trail. Along here on the Bright Angel Trail there was a privy to which I availed myself (and recognized the onset of a large group of external hemorrhoids). There was also water at a couple of points along the trail. I could have made it easily without additional water but I did find that I used a great deal of water on this day as opposed to the other two. I had a water bottle that led to a tube attached to my jacket so I could suck water without stopping. This is something I will use on any future hiking trips.

View of Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim

    After we turned uphill from where we picked up the Bright Angel Trail, we had about a mile and a half of steady climbing to the Indian Gardens Camp Grounds into which my friends Jack and Cam Cover had staggered years ago soaked in a rain storm. With our good-weather luck, we had perfect sunny dry weather for our three-day trip. A day after we left, the South Rim had 12 inches of snow. We had lunch in Indian Gardens and then the group was left to proceed as individuals with our guides bringing up the rear guard. I left early at 11:30 a.m. to avoid being in the rear guard at the start of this leg although my friend John and the other North Jersey boy had left ahead of me.

Probably the worst part of the trip for me was the half a mile or so of the level trail after I left Indian Gardens. It was hot as the blazes and while I was wearing shorts, I still had a couple of layers of sweaters and a snow jacket around my upper torso—something from which I benefited the rest of the day once I got to the shade of the uphill climb. The happiest moment on the trip was when I left level ground and started to climb because then I was in the shade. I believed that if I could go approximately 1.5 miles further to the 3-mile mark (as measured from the top), I would be reasonably confident that I could avoid an air lift. There is a certain point on any climb when one knows that however hard the remainder is, one will make it, and the point from my standpoint was the 3-mile mark, if I could make it by 3:00 p.m. I would be okay. I made it by 1:00 p.m. as I stayed in the forefront of the group. My training on the Southside Heights was paying off. I made the 1.5-mile mark by 2.00 p.m., so I was really moving. One thing I noted in climbing up is that one could not see the Rim of the Canyon until reasonably close to the top. The Canyon is so wide that even on the Bright Angel Trail, which went pretty much straight up after Indian Gardens, it took a long ways to see the Rim (although once on the Rim I thought I could see all the way to the 3-mile mark).
    After the 1.5-mile mark, I came rather quickly to the 1-mile mark to which we had climbed down and up on our practice hike. There, I hit ice in the shady spots where the sun had not melted it. In retrospect, I should have put on my crampons (which I had dutifully carried with me). However, I kept hoping that I would hit dry spots along the trail—which I did—but which were no real help in traveling over the icy spots. One mildly annoying thing which I encountered was the number of kids—I suppose I should call them young adults—scrambling down the trail at this point as though on a lark. Of course, they weren’t going the whole length so they didn’t know the ardors of the whole trip. However, I am sure I envied their youth.
    I ultimately sighted the cabin at the top of the trail and kept moving forwards to it. I got there about 3:15 p.m.—number six in our group, which certainly made me feel better than being the last in the camp every night on the Inca Trail. However, I thought that with this group, it really didn’t matter when one finished. It mattered that we all finished; we all supported each other and we all enjoyed each other’s company—with a dubious exception in the middle of the night for those light sleepers who were bothered by my snoring.

John asked me if I would do either the Inca Trail or the Grand Canyon trip again. Much as I enjoyed both trips—and felt if I was in better conditioning, I would have enjoyed the Inca Trail trip more—I said I would not. I always think of Thoreau explaining why he left Walden Pond after a year: “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to lead and could not spare any more time for that one.” I had read this passage to my fellow employees when I left USS after 33 years because it explained in part my reason for my departure and set forth my general approach to life.

In all events, next year it will be the Pyrenees and another adventure. (And more trips up and down the Southside Heights.)
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Copyright © 2013 by James T. Carney

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