"It was another glad awakening to fresh breezes, vast expanses (...), bright sunlight, an impressive solitude utterly without visable human beings or human habitations. (...) Even at this day it thrills me through and through to think of the life, the gladness, and the wild sense of freedom that used to make my blood dance in my veins on those fine overland mornings."  from Mark Twain's Roughing It 

 

Welcome to Bob and Molly's trip journal for our winter hike through Grand Canyon in 2009. Walking from Phantom Ranch to Nankoweap, we spent 26 days on the trail and 2 rafting down the river back to Phantom Ranch, plus a few days on either side of our journey at Phantom Ranch. The following is taken from Molly's trip journals. Enjoy! 

 

On a beautiful sunny Arizona day, we hit the South Kaibab Trail with heavy packs. Bob and I have hiked up and down this trail more times than we can count due to our time spent as hiking guides at Grand Canyon. Having been in the flatlands of coastal North Carolina for three years now;  the trail kicked our asses. My legs were wobbling under my 60 pound load as we reached the tipoff, just past midway of the 7 mile hike to Phantom Ranch. I think Bob was feeling his 80 pounds as well. We saw a herd of Bighorn Sheep, see picture above, and a mule deer with a nice rack on the way down. The Ranch was a welcoming site - we love it here! It was good to see all the ranchers (our friends that work here) and the hot shower and gourmet food was, as usual, the cherry on top. That night we slept like a couple of rocks.

 

 

Another warm and sunny day. We hiked two of our 20 pound food bags and some water up the Clear Creek Trail, and cached them past Sumner Wash. Our plan is to cache these two bags ahead of us as we walk for the first week. Once we have eaten down the bags we are carrying, we won't have to run this food shuttle. We keep our food in earth-tone stuff sacs, no visable plastic (rodents have learned that plastic baggies mean food), no raisins (mice love raisins), and we hang them up a couple feet from a tree or rock ledge in hopes to keep out rodents and witty Ravens. See the picture below. After our hike down yesterday, we decide to leave one of our 5 food bags behind, and adjust our daily rations accordingly. So instead of each bag being one week's provisions, it will be 9 days worth. At some point, one must decide whether carrying the extra weight is worth it for the calories contained in the food. Because the weight slows you down, often it is better to not take the food, thus permiting a quicker pace while burning less calories as you go. The dayhike up the Clear Creek trail is slow going, we take it easy and nap along the way (see picture 007 in the photo gallery of Bob napping along the trail). Our bodies still very much adjusting to the trail. We see some river runners stopping at boat beach, and are reminded that one private rafting trip leaves from Lee's Ferry to run the Colorado through Grand Canyon each day during the winter months.

 

Sixty degrees, warm and sunny. We rested, took a walk down to the River and Bob chopped firewood for the ranchers, to loosen up our muscles. We compared notes about our trip with our friend Tom, a rancher who had done the Phantom to Nankoweap loop. He said the route down the old Bright Angel from the North Rim can be tricky to find and is overgrown. He also shared information on water availablity and some advice on routes to follow out there. The loop we are doing doesn't follow any established trails after you leave Clear Creek. To find your way around, you must follow the advice of other hikers and follow your own instincts with the aid of 7.5 minute topo maps. Our route followed routes from famous Canyon hikers. George Steck wrote about the loop in one of his Grand Canyon Loop Hikes books from the 1970s-80s. Harvey Butchart wrote about hiking around this remote region in the Northeast Grand Canyon as well. Bob researched our hike before leaving, and sketched out all the possible known routes onto his maps. He found the information from the books I mentioned (we also brought these along with us). He went to NAU in Flagstaff and copied the route directly from Harvey Butchart's maps. Some fellow guide friends of ours had done the horse thief route from Nankoweap, then along the tonto level to Phantom a couple of years ago, and Bob included that on our map as well. The horse thief route was used in the late 1800s by thieving cowboys who traded stolen horses between Utah and Arizona. The route goes behind the buttes along the river on the North Side, up and over drainages to where the Tanner Trail comes in from the South Rim. The thieves would cross the river in this area, back before Glen Canyon Dam was built and was crossable at certain times of year. It is also known that one can walk along the river from the Little Colorado (LCR) confluence north to Nankoweap. We just had to get to the LCR, which we would do along the Tonto level, the platform full of side drainages and ravines, about 1000 feet up from the river, following parts of the Horsethief Route. After the LCR we would most likely walk along the River. At Nankoweap we planned on hiking out, up and over the snowy Walhalla Plateau, then down the Old Bright Angel Trail to Phantom Ranch. Armed with all this information, we would pick our route as we went along, depending on how we felt.

 

 

Warm and Sunny, 55 degrees. The half moon is waning, which means it comes up at midnight. Saturn rises with Leo and the Milky Way is shining bright! Feeling rested and mentally and physically prepared, we start out up the Clear Creek Trail and out along the Tonto level to Demaray Point. (See photo 006 in the Photo Gallery of Bob hiking along the Clear Creek Trail, up on the Tonto level.) One could spend a couple days out here scrambling amongst the Tapeat's ledges. We could see the river, it will be our last siting until Unkar in 2 weeks. We are dry camping tonight, no water around until we get down to Clear Creek tomorrow. Out on the point we found a decent "hanging tree," that is a tree in which to hang our food, and set up camp. We then hiked back to get our food and water cache left from our hike a couple days ago. We ran into solo hiker, Carl, who was going from Tanner out to South Bass, the complete Tonto trail on the south rim, but was taking a little detour across the bridge at Phatom Ranch to Clear Creek because he likes it so much. Ate a lot of salami today. Didn't have time to cook lunch, so dinner was well received, couscous and black beans. At first we thought the portion was too big, but I feel pleasantly full. Our menu is as follows: breakfast - granola mixed with oatmeal and powedered milk, lunch - salami or pepperoni, small handful of dried fruit, cup of soup, dinner - dehydrated black beans, refried beans, or lentils mixed with either rice or couscous, chocolate every so often. All these meals are quick and easy, mix ingredients, boil water, add water to mix and wait 10 minutes, eat, rinse bowl with hot water, dry bowl, done. Bob had to pick cactus from his leg after hanging the food, but all is well. Tonight there are too many stars to differentiate between the constellations. It is absolutely breathtaking.

 

 

Sunny and warm, we awoke to sunshine on Demaray Point. We decided to pack up all the food bags and carry them to Clear Creek. It is worth it not to have to run the food shuttle since we only have a couple of miles to go. I was unsure whether I could do it, my pack now weighs 80 pounds, Bob's 100. We moved slowly and rested every mile, and we did it. We met 3 novice hikers on the trail, too many clothes, too little water, no food. We tried to quiz them in order to assist, but weren't too successful, as they weren't into taking advice from us or giving us straight answers, and didn't realize the danger they were in. I think they were trying to hide the fact that they were camped illegally without a permit. I hope that bad decision doesn't kill them. This was worrysome to us for the rest of the day, but we knew there were other hikers out on the trail that Saturday afternoon because Clear Creek camping use area was full. We helped them as best as we could. Feeling frustrated about these hiker's ignorance, we kept on and made it to Clear Creek by mid-afternoon. Beautiful running water, cottonwoods, willows, reeds, it is fantastic here. There must be many ruins in the area, for surely farming was done here 1500 years ago. We boulder hopped to our camp, a large luxurious overhang that Bob found on his first backpacking trip into Grand Canyon 10 years previous. It is an eye of the sky overhang with some stars and nice darkness, so the bright moon won't wake me up. We didn't stop long for soup at lunch again today, and I'm feeling calorie deprived, but we have 3 nights here and plenty of time for our bodies to adjust to trail life. The ass of my pants ripped today, I will have to put a large patch on them. Next time, I'll start out the hike with new stiff Carhart canvas pants. Bob has bad chapped lips from lack of prevention (using chapstick) upon arriving in Flag, but he is doing a good job of caring for them now so they can heal (which they finally did, 2 weeks later). For now we are tucked up in this overhang, cozy, with sounds of Clear Creek below.

 

Sunny, warm, and altocirrus clouds high above, makeral skies and mares tales mean a front on the way in a couple days, we hope it brings moisture. We are looking at a couple of long sections of one or two days worth of dry camping coming up, and rain would mean water filled holes along the way, making these long dry sections possible. I awoke refreshed, after a breakfast. We took some time for housekeeping. We took sponge baths, did some soapless laundry, and I mended my pants from some material taken from an unused pocket of my cargo pants. All tasks take effort but are well worth it, unlike being in a house with running water and no reward. The sun was just beginning to peak into our cave when we took off up creek to see if we would be lucky enough to see Cheyava Falls, an intermitent spring found a couple miles up from camp at the base of the Redwall Limestone. A mile or so from camp the creek disappeared beneath the creekbed and we bushwaked our way through Manzanita, Desert Holly, Pinion, and Juniper. We were in luck, Cheyava was flowing early for the year. We scrambled up close to it, and sat admiring the view down Clear Creek and to the South Rim where we could see the South Kaibab Trail, see picture above. We returned to camp as the sun was disappearing from the Kaibab Limestone high above. After dinner, dehydrated bean and couscous slop which tasted good to a hungry hiker, I went to the stream to filter water and do some yoga stretches on a rock. We snuggled into our sleeping bags, but before sleep, killed some darkness hours by planning routes, mending pants, clipping nails, and daydreaming, ahhh.

 

 

Sunny and Warm, more mare's tales partly cloudy today, this could mean good news for thirsty hikers. The quarter moon peaked up over the cliffs and into our cave just at dawn. We left camp early for an exploratory hike up our route that will take us out of Clear Creek, onto the tonto level, and into the really remote backcountry. Our first goal was to contour around all the way to Vishnu Creek. The hike to the up-climb was fun with half a dozen climbs around large car sized boulders, then a steep 100ft wall out of the drainage. This will be tricky tomorrow with the heavy packs, and I’m kinda scared. Once on top, we cached water for the next day, and decided to look around. We tried to find an alternate route down for fun, but didn’t have enough water to give it a thorough search. Distances are deceiving out here. We were trying to peer down the neighboring arm to see if a route was possible, so we climbed a hill, and we when got there, 2 smaller drainages blocked our view, so we would go down and come up on another hill, and there would be another bend and 2 more drainages in the way, and so on…We will have to come back and search when it is the only item on our agenda. We climbed back down the wall and boulders to Clear Creek. Now Clear Creek is a glorious spot, I can see why that solo hiker Carl took a detour off his trip for a visit (See picture 014 in the photo gallery of Clear Creek). There are many nice swimming holes and flat patios for basking in the sun. On the way back we saw a special species of Agave (see pictures 010, 011, 012 in the photo gallery of this special Agave). It is thought that prehistoric Indians propagated this agave some 2000 years ago to grow quickly and reproduce small plants at the end of its stalk instead of seed, so that it could be traded easier. The species shows up in the Verde Valley, south of Arizona’s Mogollon Rim, and the plant in Clear Creek is only one of the few that have been found at Grand Canyon thus far, and it sits in front of Obi Canyon, with a couple of babies surrounding it. It is the reason I wanted to spend some time in Clear Creek, to find this plant and search for others. We also saw some fresh mountain lion tracks, a rare site down inside the canyon. We got back to camp, and had beans and rice, but I added more water so tonight it was less like slop. We still haven’t prepared our midday soup course, and our food bags look as heavy as ever. We are very glad we left one behind. Tomorrow we leave established trail and venture into the really remote backcountry. Wee Hoo!

Tuesday Jan 20 Day Five – Up a Wall to Cliffs of Insanity and into the Remote Backcountry

Sunny and warm, with a few scattered altocirrus clouds, slightly breezy. What a day! Where to begin? Holy crap. Let’s see, we packed up and walked down Clear Creek to the arm that would take us out of the drainage. I was unsure whether I could get past the boulder climbs and the wall with my heavy pack. At worst, I would have to shuttle my food bags to lessen my load. In my mind, I had it figured out that the boulders would be the “test,” to see if I was worthy. Then the wall would be the “challenge.” I made it through the test, one move, one step, one scramble at a time. Done, I proved that I could do it, now for “The Wall.” (See pictures 015 - 019 in the photo gallery of us climbing the wall). I decided to go for it with all 80 pounds of pack, all steep, sketchy, strenuous 100 feet of the climb. I had to talk myself through each move: OK move quick on the next part, quick before the talus under your feet gives way to the forces of gravity, OK rest here and plan the next move, don’t look down, or too far up, one move at a time, focus, set hands and feet so that if something gives way, you won’t go with it, use this tree, test that rock for a hand hold, no too crumbly, dig your fingers into the dirt and move quick, go, go, go, breathe, use your breathe to power you up, big alley OOP, ok good, next move, and it was like this for 100 feet. After an eternity, the top came into sight…and YES! I made it. I placed a glittery rock on the cairn at the top, but nothing felt higher than I did at that moment. I felt energized, I can do anything if I set my mind to it. We treated ourselves to chocolate, pepperoni, and dates. Gourmet! Now we had to contour around, out past Clear Creek, parallel with the river, and back into the next drainage, out and back in, until it got dark. Little did we know that the first couple of miles would turn into the “cliffs of insanity!” This is steep Tonto walking at its finest: lots of ledges and quick stepping on skinny footings next to 200 foot drop-offs. No gazing around, just planning the next move, calves still feeling the burn from “the wall.”  It was like this until we got around The Howlands Butte, we stayed high above the band of chocolate-colored Bright Angel Shale, working each drainage one at a time to find the best and safest (relatively speaking) route. There is one drainage in particular that we started sweating the moment we laid eyes on it-would we be able to pass or would we get cliffed out? We kept heading towards it, one step at a time, and when we reached it, there was a deer trail with cairns leading us round it. Cairns in spots like this are always a nice reassurance that some other dumb-ass was here and chose this route too, and lived to keep going. It took a few hours to finally get out past Clear Creek. Then a couple of hills and some route finding decisions to make before we drug ourselves exhausted, out of steam, hungry, to 83 mile canyon, where we would find a camp on the Tapeats Sandstone ledges. Then Bob hunted for just the right place to set up camp, and I sort of sat in a daze on a bench trying to come to terms with it all. Bob heard some rocks fall in the bed of the drainage some 200 feet below, he saw a pair of animals that he thought were deer, but after seeing long tails, he realized it was Mountain Lions! (See pictures 021-023 of our view into the drainage where we saw the Lions). They scampered about and came to rest on some boulders. He then came for me, and we headed back out to the overlook, and watched these animals for about 25 minutes. They would disappear into the background while at rest, like the Cheshire cat, but then they would flick their tails or move their heads, and reemerge from the desert. There was no mistaking their identity, plus we had been following fresh tracks since Clear Creek. Mountain Lion sightings are rare, especially within the Canyon walls. And this was a treasure, because there were two, most likely mating, and we watched them undetected for so long. It is usually the other way around, with the Mountain Lion acting as spy. I always say the harder one works, the bigger the reward. I write this completely exhausted and excited. Venus is shining brightly and our familiar constellation friends are out tonight. Encircled in canyon, stars above, a mandala around me – saw a falling star. Welcome to the backcountry.

Wednesday Jan. 31 Day Six – To a Drainage with No Name and Almost Out of Water

Warm partly cloudy, I write this Thursday, as I was too exhausted to write last night- here is what happened…Bob woke me in the middle of the night, about 3 am according to the sliver of moon that had just peaked up. There were some clouds rolling in, we put up the tent, but no rain. Come morning, we could see that south of the canyon, near Flagstaff, precipitation was falling, but none for the big hole in the ground to the north. It usually takes a couple of days for clouds to zero in on the Canyon, and get a strong hold of it. A few days for the clouds to come over, get lost in thermals, bounce off the higher North Rim, and eventually begin to accumulate. At least, that’s how I interpret it. The clouds disappeared as the sun came up, but they have found us and I think they’ll be back. My joints were really sore after yesterday’s adventure, and it made the going tough today, but the trail wasn’t as steep and sketchy. We passed some pockets of water early on, but we decided not to top off. We figured we would have just enough water to make it to Vishnu even if we had to dry camp. We had 5 liters total at the time. It took all day to get to the large unnamed drainage just before Vishnu, longer than we had anticipated, but we should have known better, it always takes longer than anticipated. As it got to the time of day where shadows become long, we were getting worn out and thirsty. We would have to dry camp, and make it up a large wall and back into Vishnu with a total of 1.5 liters of water tomorrow. We were going to have to ration the water. Our mouths were dry, and we were getting worried. We did our best to stay calm and try to find the down climb into “no name” canyon. We couldn’t find it. Bob had come this way from the other side once on a trip a few years back, and knew of a large boulder that you could step down on, then follow a ramp to the creek bed.  This boulder was hiding from us, and we decided to keep contouring back to a place where reaching the creek bed didn’t involve guess work and exposed ledge jumping. Bob thought he spotted a water pocket down in the dry creek bed below, just up creek from a large dry water fall. I tried not to get too excited about the possibility of water, and said we just better keep walking and looking for a down-climb. We stopped long enough to savor the juice from some pepperoni, which was a smart move as we needed the energy and had become a bit cranky. We eventually found a talus ramp down, hallelujah. It took all the concentration I could muster to make it down that slippery slope. Bob thought he saw a nice overhang camp, but I claimed that the camp and the water are most likely optical illusions, but lets keep going. We made it (finally) to the bed of the dry creek bed, took off our packs, and began a search for water. Sure enough, at the top of a large impassable water fall (had we found the downclimb at the boulder leap, we wouldn't have been able to reach the water tank), was a pool of about 10 gallons. Our eyes teared up, and I dropped to my knees and silently thanked the powers that be. In awe of our dumb luck despite our bad decision to pass up water earlier that day, we vowed to never make that mistake gain – we got lucky.  Then we found this awesome cowboy camp overhang, with 3 rooms, and an old fire pit and wood (the fire pit and wood are interesting to us, like artifacts of a bygone era, it is illegal to have a campfire in the Canyon, unless you have a fire pan). Perfect. Just up from that was another 10 gal water pocket (see picture below). We filled up with that sweet water, made dinner in a daze, and crawled into our tent. A little water even came from the sky in the middle of the night (just a sprinkle). Next, it’s up a big hill and over into Vishnu – with flowing water!

Thursday Jan 22  Day Seven – Vishnu Creek

Mostly cloudy, rain in the late afternoon and into the night. Slept in this morning, it felt good, the body needed a bit of a break. We both had some pants mending to do. My pants are now an endangered species. I shutter to think what they’ll be like in 4 more weeks. They already look like the velveteen rabbit. And the floss that we use for thread is on the threatened species list, I broke one of our sewing needles today. My hiking attire could very well consist of extra baggies and athletic tape before its all said and done. We did find a tattered baseball cap on the trail today, maybe that will be useful…After another lovely bowl of granola and oats, we said goodbye to the sweet water in our hallelujah hole, and up, up, up we went slipin’ and slidin’ to the Tonto level (see picture 033 in the photo gallery of typical Tonto hiking) and up and down and around Hall Butte, staying high to avoid cliffs and unnecessary mileage. Then we found ourselves back into the Vishnu drainage. The clouds were really starting to pack in by this time, and we were once again faced with the decision to find a down-climb (sketchy/steep) to the creek bed or continue on humping talus drainages and descend a little further back. We chose the high road and contoured around back into the drainage, and quickly found a beautiful little slickrock sandstone canyon (Steck writes about using this drainage to climb out Vishnu) with a spring and flowing water. We arrived to Steck’s down-climb, set the packs down to look for the second half of the route down and/or possible camp sites, when it started to sprinkle. The pressure was on now, so we scrambled about trying to find an accessible overhang. Luckily we were in the middle of a Tapeats overhang garden, and eventually found an overhang large enough. It was up the hill, on creek right. Big drops of rain started coming down as we ascended to our camp, and some large boulders were already losing their angle of repose, now that the water had lubricated them. We reached the overhang, and the site of the most glorious camp in the world (well at that moment anyway). We took advantage of the rain, and showered compliments of Mother Nature. The rain washed the salt off our bodies, and it felt incredible. We then used the drips coming from the overhand to fill up our water jugs. It tasted like rain smells, it doesn’t get much better than that! So here we sit in a hole, in a cliff, in a smaller hole, in the biggest hole on earth (above water), the Grand Canyon…loving it! Oh yeah, I’m suppose to write that Bob is crazy. We agreed to put that in the journal so that next time we start planning another Grand Canyon adventure, we remember….

Friday Jan 23 Day Eight – In the Overhang

Misty rain and cooler, low clouds rolling through, obscuring Vishnu and Krisha temples most of the day. We hung out in the overhang, playing 20 questions, mending our pants some more, rationing our food. Lazy day, good day. (See pictures 026,027 in the photo gallery of our view out the overhang onto mist covered shrines).

Saturday Jan 24 Day Nine – Drying Out and Exploring Vishnu

Mostly cloudy, cumulous clouds, breezy. We awoke to soupy grey clouds moving overhead.  They kept moving, and as the sun came up, we gradually saw more blue, which was met with cries of jubilation. We spent the morning down at the spring. Bob tried to find a leak in his thermarest, all he managed to do was poke another hole in it-poor guy. He would sleep on a half inflated thermarest for the rest of the trip, and not one complaint - wish I could be such a bad-ass. We basked in the sun as our clothes dried, and ate some split pea soup with salami (See picture 028 in the photo gallery of Bob basking in the sun). Afterwards, we climbed down into Vishnu’s Quartzite narrows (see picture below), and scouted out our climb up and over for the next day. Vishnu has a couple nice overhang camps, and there must be ruins around. The creek bed has the typical array of Canyon boulders, creating a nice palette: mustard yellow, terra cotta, buff, white, grey, rose, mauve, turquoise, khakis – all washed down from the cliffs high above, 1.8 billion years of geologic time all mixed together, beneath my feet. We returned to camp as the sun made its way to the tippy top of the temples and disappeared. After dinner, we did some route planning with our maps and guide books, then it was off to dreamland. We noticed a large ominous soupy grey cloud building up in our canyon, and we hope the breeze pushes it out. It could mean that another southern front is rolling in behind this last one or a northern front is blocking the one that just came through. We hope for a clear day tomorrow and more exploring.

Sunday Jan 25 Day Ten – Asbestos Canyon

Cumulous clouds blowing over the canyon. Sporadic rain showers, especially late afternoon, but luckily not on us. We watched from the north rim, as the south rim got pelted with squals, what a show! The wind, however, makes for difficult walking. We awoke and climbed what seemed like a mountain, leading to the Krishna/Dunn Butte saddle (see pictures 029,030 in the photo gallery of a view of our climb up and out Vishnu). The going was fairly easy, as Steck said, just steep. There was one maybe 12ft section near the top that Bob and I named the “mutha fuka.” It was one of those ball-bearing traverses where you feel like a cartoon, legs spinning but not getting anywhere. We finally made it to the top, leaving beautiful Vishnu Creek behind, and contoured into Asbestos Canyon, once again on top of the chocolate band of Bright Angel Shale, picking our way through the various drainages. Hungry as we got to camp, it took awhile to finally settle on a spot. An overhang looked promising, but was under a pour-off, and seemed unsafe. We ended up on a knoll, wind a whipping, but with a mostly clear sky, for the first time in a few days. The back of Asbestos Canyon is intriguing, different drainages have created a bowl shaped canyon, where the Tapeats has eroded into spires, with the presence of springs signaled by green ferns growing from the buff and red colored cliffs. Down creek, where it meets the Colorado River, are mines created by John Hance at the turn of the century. But conditions weren’t right for us to explore Asbestos, some things must wait. Here at camp, looking up at the other side of Vishnu Temple, I’m reminded of those classic horror films where the villain lives in a castle atop a mountain, with a road winding up and there is almost always a storm cloud with thunderous lightening hanging over it. The wind whipping off the Redwall cliffs above us, created a loud cracking noise, which added to the effect. (See picturer 035 in the photo gallery of the Vishnu of vintage horror films). We might wake up under a sand dune in the morning, as the wind is blowing the sand into the tent…

Monday Jan 26 Day Eleven – The Tabernacle

Stormy, weird weather. (See photos below for a picture of the view of the South Rim on day ten, followed by that on day 11). Cold snow flurries whited-out parts of the South Rim, moving east, but never really reaching us. We did receive blasts of chilling wind ahead of each storm, we eventually walked in rain jackets for wind protection – brilliant idea after being cold most of the day. When we awoke, the South Rim was white, a light dusting of snow down about 1000 feet to the Supai layers.  The hiking was fairly easy today, past Rama Temple and into King Solomon’s Temple and the Tabernacle area. It is a beautiful valley here, with Tapeats terraces and slickrock. The topography is changing, as the River below us bends and begins to enter the Granite Gorge. Found a couple potsherds and an arrowhead. Bob says most known routes in the area don’t come by this valley, too bad for the other hikers, for it has a magical quality. (See pictures 037-039 of the valley and The Tabernacle). It is also bone dry. We found only 2 pockets with about 2 liters each, two days after a rain storm. As for the wildlife update since the Mountain Lions, we have seen 2 chipmunks, 2 ticks, a black widow under an overhang, a snake skin, and a raven today. Venus is still bright overhead, as is Orion, and Caseopia is peering out from under a passing cumulous cloud. We are excited to be nearing the river, soft sandy beach, a soapy bath, and the possible company of river runners who can provide fresh food, garbage collecting, and social interaction.

 

Tuesday Jan 27 Day Twelve – The River at Unkar

Sunny, cool, slight breeze. Slowly got around and packed up. Did our usual morning uphill to the Tabernacle/ Solomon Temple saddle, then back down the other side. Then a little contouring over to where Butchart said was a route to the river. This was to be a short cut down the front of Unkar, allowing us to bypass walking all the way back into the creek. A person can never be too sure of reaching his intended destination when it comes to following Harvey Butchart’s routes. Sometimes they get a little to “sporty” as he would say, for Bob and I. But we rounded a bend, and all of a sudden we were on a trail. Bless those river runners. I guess hiking up to the Tabernacle for a view is a popular thing to do. This was a solid trail through some sketchy cliffs that would have taken Bob and I awhile to maneuver if we didn’t get scared off, and it was a multi day trip back into Unkar and down the creek bed. The map did not give us any idea of the steepness and exposure of this area.  A couple of places you had to walk off the nose of a Dox stone block, less than a foot wide – yikes! But we made it to the beautiful river, where the sun was shining. (See the picture below of the view from the Tonto down to Unkar Delta. Also view picture 042 in the photo gallery for a view upriver from near that same spot.) Then we had to travel 1.5 miles over to Unkar Delta through willow and sand on climbing up to Tapeats ledges. It was rough going, especially around the Catclaw Acacia that grab and don’t let go, and those scary Mesquite trees with the 1 inch spikes. Then we came to a 30 foot wall. We were to either find a way up, go swimming in the 40 degree river, or walk back to the Tonto level and back into Unkar. So we carefully roped the packs up, and shit our pants (figuratively) at the top. (See picture below of Bob preparing to rope up the packs) We eventually made it to sandy Unkar Delta. After exploring the delta for a good boat beach, and best possible river runner action, we settled on the small beach where we first stepped foot onto the delta. It was a nice exploration past ruins, but next time we’ll take off the packs. We were down to one liter of water, and since we had to wait a good 12 hours for the river water in our bucket to settle, we ate a dry dinner. We hung the food in a Mesquite tree, and passed out. No river runner friends tonight, but there is always tomorrow. We will stay at this camp and clean up and do some exploring before we continue on. Yee Haw!

Wednesday Jan 28 Day Thirteen – Exploring Unkar, a Soapy Bath, and a River Scheme

Bright blue sky, sunny and clear. Spent a few hours lounging by the river in swim shorts – Awesome! Today was a “fluff the beard” sort of day. Laundry, Bath (w/ soap fresh and clean), mending in the sunshine. (See picture 044 in the photo gallery of laundry day at Unkar). Went for a sunset hike, found a kick-ass river camp on the other side of the delta, saw the famous Unkar ruins and lots of potsherds and stone-tool pieces. We will move to the other camp tomorrow, a tunnel through the willows and tamarisk leading the way – thank you river runners. We saw 3 boats float past today, but no one stopped- bummer. We have devised an alternate ending to the trip, instead of hiking up and over Walhalla Plateau in the snow, we could possibly hitchhike downriver on a private river trip. This would be a 2-3 day trip, which is a lot to ask of a trip, will they take us, will they have room, and will we be lucky enough to camp with one, to have an opportunity to ask? The thought of ending our weeks of backpacking with a river trip through Grand Canyon’s rapids enticed us greatly and provided us with hours of  mental exercise while hiking. The clear sky made for perfect stargazing conditions, the moon a waning crescent near Venus, Orion with his bow aiming at Taurus, Pleides, Caseopia, and a gazzilion more up there. I can see why a group of pre-historic Indians made this delta their home for over 500 years.

Thursday Jan 29 Day Fourteen – To Boat Beach at Unkar

Warm and sunny, we moved camp over ruined filled mesas and willow tunnels to the other side of the delta. We played on the beach, fishing, sunning, and contemplating thought. The water turned from muddy to an aquamarine color. I spent a few hours watching the life go on around me- that of the bees, birdies (sorry I can’t name them), lizards. Saw one group of river runners float past mid-morning, but they didn’t stop. Feeling a bit lonely, as we were very excited for social interaction, but we will meet up with some all in good time. Took a good look at the ruins this afternoon, they make nice question generators and potsherd holders. We’re wondering about the methods used in the archaeological dig. The river rock walls are of crappy construction – like they were recreated by some ignorant modern man. A couple of the structures use the nice square Dox Sandstone blocks, which is what we expected to see, as they are easily stacked. Nevertheless, human presence is abound here, lots of tools for the garden and pottery shards. Is it possible that the area was mostly farm ground, with a few Dox Sandstone living quarters, and the rock walls were only built as a way of clearing arable ground or as a way of making a raised bed?  (See the last entry for some answers.)Anyway, back at camp, we watched the sun turn the Palisades vermilion as its final light hit the canyon wall. The waxing crescent Moon is next to Venus at sunset, creating a very Southwest-looking scene just above the canyon wall. We get to stay at Unkar another night, and will explore up the creek. (See pictures 045-049 in the photo gallery of the boat beach at Unkar, Bob fishing, and the vermilion Palisades and photos 050,051 of the moon and venus).

Friday Jan 30 Day Fifteen – Exploration of Unkar Creek

Awoke to a nice layer of frost on our bags, a bit chilly. Soon enough the sun poked out from behind the Palisades and quickly warmed us up and dried out our bags. We’ll set up the tent tomorrow to keep the dew off.  Last night, after our midnight pee or half-naked stumble to the river-it took awhile for us to get back asleep; then the beans we had been eating started talking. We sounded like a chorus of horns, but a whole lot smellier. I wonder if it is possible to suffocate yourself from farts. My mind wandered to the kitchen at Phantom Ranch where I dreamed I was a chef and I planned the menus for 4 course dinners complete with vegetarian options and dessert. Then my stomach began to rumble, not from the gas, but from hunger, so I gazed at the stars and eventually drifted back to sleep. Meanwhile, Bob was off in dreamland at some mysterious job training which ended up being for “Donuts Donuts” a chain store that sold donuts and cookies. And while having this dream, Bob was taught the big secret to world happiness: each cookie must have at least 6 M&Ms. You can have more than 6 and thats OK, but each cookie must have at least 6 M&Ms. I guess this means we were hungry. Back at Grand Canyon, we prepared for our dayhike, leaving a note on our tent welcoming any river runners. We explored Unkar about 6 miles back, stopping at the spring at around mile 3(See photo 052 in the photo gallery of the spring at Unkar Creek), where creek met bedrock and water spurted out for a few yards. From where we stopped, we could see Point Final on the North Rim – with not too much snow. The creek was wide and dry and very exposed to sunlight which was perfect for a winter dayhike. 12 miles later we were back at camp, where at dusk, the River turned from aquamarine to heavily laden with silt red in a matter of hours and dropped a couple feet. I guess someone turned down the valve up at the dam. Tomorrow we move camp, which always brings excitement and surprise. (The picture below is the view of Unkar and the River from just past the Tabernacle, with the South Rim's Palisades in the background.)

Saturday Jan 31 Day Sixteen – Basalt Canyon and Measuring Food Rations

Awoke to frost, but not on our bags, thanks to the tent. We were quick from the tent however due to the thawing frost and condensation dripping down on us. We sorted the food after breakfast, getting our rations more accurate. We are left with a lot of leftover because we rarely ate our daily soup course, and also due to errors in measuring. When I did the food pack, I calculated our serving size, then weighed it and packed according to weight and the number of calories per day. In the backcountry, I use my cup to measure, not a scale, and with all the conversions, the servings are inaccurate. Also, there is some error caused by our food planning using weight and projected calorie needs. We find that we don’t need as many calories as we thought. That is one unexpected benefit of being in the field, you really only eat what your body needs and with all this hiking, we are still under 2000 calories a day. So next time, I will use my field cup when packing the food rations, and make sure the contents are level, calculating our daily ration by past experience, what our stomachs can handle, and the expected conditions. While repacking our food we discovered that a mouse had eaten its way into one of the bags. We don’t know how or when this could have happened, but the damage was minimal, and we got lucky. We got onto the trail by afternoon and it was a pack-passing, bushwacking, ball-bearing traversing kind of day. But a short day, and we eventually made it to Basalt Canyon where we saw ruins and many potsherds. We entered the “surface of the moon,” a grey landscape nearly devoid of vegetation, thanks to the presence of lava flows and graphite colored shales and silt stones. The graphite layer adds a nice grey background to the regular Canyon palette, but is difficult to maneuver, as it crushes underfoot and tends to send you a sliding. Saw a flock of geese honking their way up river. Tomorrow we begin a long trek towards Lava/Chuar across unknown territory – could be exciting.

Sunday February 1 Day Seventeen – Up Basalt

Mares tales and fish scales at dawn, but they soon burned off as the sun came up. Sunny and warm with a slight breeze the rest of the day, getting cooler as we climbed from 1200 feet at the river to 4000 feet by dusk. What a fun day! We started walking up Basalt Creek, following instructions from Butchart, took the east arm to avoid a large dry waterfall, then up and over back to the main arm. The east arm had mineral laden water flowing through it, creating curtains of salt along the narrow cliff walls and in the creek bed. We had to climb over a couple 20-30 foot waterfalls, which was tricky at times thanks to the salt encrusted ledges. (See photos 054-054 in the photo gallery of mineral laden waterfalls at Basalt, and climbing around these falls) Then we climbed about 600 feet and broke through to a mesa, thanks to a small crack in the sandstone. The mesa overlooked the main arm of Basalt and its magnificent 300 foot dry waterfall – one of the biggest I have seen (See photo 056,057of this waterfall and standing on top of it). We easily walked across the mesa to a break that led back to the main arm. Across from the break was the most beautiful grotto, 6 feet up a cone at the opposite side of the creek. Inside was a water tank of about 25 gallons, swirling around and around to the beat of the wind (see photo 058 of the grotto). We did not pass this opportunity by, and we topped off our water supply. We then continued up the creek to where big boulders, the size of grand pianos, then VW beetles, then houses come down off the cliffs, plugging the creek and requiring the hiker to scramble up and over them – fun! We sought out a relatively flat spot to camp as the light turned dim. It was cool tucked up in the juniper and pinon pines. The half Moon, Venus, and Orion were there to greet us as the sun turned the Palisades vermilion, then pink, then blue. Tomorrow we make our way to Lava/Chuar, they say this valley is unlike any other at Grand Canyon, with prospectors camps and ruins. Can’t wait, but I’m happy to be snuggled in for some sleepy time…

Monday February 2 Day Eighteen – On the Surface of the Moon, Lava/Chuar

Warm and sunny, a few altocirrus clouds in the evening. We awoke dry for a change, not as much humidity here up from the river, plus there was a nice breeze. The sun hit us after much chanting on our part. The sun chanting has become an everyday routine, where we face the sunlight coming down the cliffs, edging closer to camp, raise our arms, and start dipping our knees, singing,” Come on Sun, Here Comes the Sun.” Bob’s Aunt Geri taught us this a few years back while on a family vacation. It only feels right to chant, it is a family tradition afterall. After packing up, we had a nice boulder session and many alley-oops before our good morning uphill. We were following a Butchart route up a wall over into the Lava/Chuar valley. It was a short climb of maybe 200 feet to where Butchart says you can pass through. We got to the top and the bottom dropped out! (See photos 059-061 of our view from the top).We suddenly found ourselves atop a mesa with the expanse of Lava/Chuar valley some 1000 feet below. Temple Butte framing one side, impressive Chuar Butte looming 6394 feet in the back-middle, the black Lava hill down by the river, with a small piece of its muddy waters peaking through, the Palisade’s Peshlakai Point up on the other side of the river, in the foreground, a grey luner landscape with hills like the Painted Desert with redwall buttes sitting on top, and just below us, a 35 foot cliff dropping onto a series of ledges and cliffs sloping down by 200 feet increments to the Cottonwood lined creek below. It is true, this place is unlike any other. Nothing can prepare you for something like that, it was breathtaking, it was intimidating. (See photo of Chuar Butte below.) We sat in awe on a slickrock bench, paralyzed by the view. We had to find a way off this mesa, through the 35 foot cliff, and down the steep slopes beyond. Bob does not like this type of situation, open, exposed, uncertain down-climbs where one is unable to the see the entire route, unsure if it goes. I took the lead, found a way down, and soon enough Bob was back at it. It took most of the day to pick our way through the 2 miles or so to the bottom. Then we hit our Shangrila: Lava Creek, flowing small enough to step over, but large enough for a steady stream with a few decent sized pools. A stream like this was the last thing I expected to find in this landscape. We drug ourselves a mile or so up creek. I was dreaming about a cooling splash in the creek. We found a camp just below the site of an old bootlegger operation. Across the creek, in a teal and purple striped wall is a fountain of water and ferns just pouring out of the cliff! (See photos 062-063 of the colorful bands of shale in Lava Creek). The splash in the creek was so refreshing, nice to get the stink and salt off, we put up the tent and fixed our last dinner from bag #2, you guessed it, couscous and bean slop. And it was really good to a hungry backpacker. We even got to have a piece of chocolate for dessert. Mmmmm. Tomorrow we go in search of ruins. We will also decide whether we will go up and over a 1000 foot saddle to the East Fork of Carbon Creek or down to the river and across the Tonto to get past the Little Colorado River confluence.

Tuesday Feb 3 Day Nineteen – Ruin hunting in Lava Canyon

(Note from Friday March 18, 2009: I have noticed as I copy from my journals, that as time goes on, I am getting more descriptive in my narrative, paying closer attention to details and describing my experiences. I notice later that as we near the end of the adventure, my descriptions taper off. It’s the little things I gain from my experiences away from the things of modernity that intrigue me.)

Damp again this morning, but it was quick to dry. We got everything ready for a quick 4 mile day hike up to some ruins we read about in Butchart’s book, then we will move camp to the river. First stop was the bootlegger camp, with grinder attached to a stump and some barrel hoops (See photos 064,065 of the grinder at the site). Not a bad location for stilling some booze. Shipping must have been difficult: down the creek, across the river, then out the Tanner Trail to some backroom at the fancy rim lodges. We hopped along the river rocks to some ruins atop a mesa. We walked along the mesa for awhile, finding a total of 3 ruins and exquisite potsherd galleries with more potsherds of different kinds than we had seen elsewhere. (See photos 066,067 in the photo gallery of potsherds, also see the last picture of the journal). Maybe this was a result of its remote location. We came up with a list of questions and speculations about the prehistoric Indians or Hitsatsinam (Those Who Came Before) as their Hopi decendents call them. Why were the small potsherds scattered with such a random order, with it being almost impossible to find 2 pieces that would have belonged to the same pot? Why didn’t we find anything larger than the palm of our hands, with 99% of them being the size of an elongated silver dollar? Were the pots buried, broken, and then risen out of the ground? How exactly does this process occur? What caused the mix of all the different styles of pots? How often did new pots have to be fired? Where were they fired? Were they fired alongside the agave in the roasting pits? Did the peoples use different styles of pots for different purposes, like the corrugated for cooking, and the Flagstaff Black-On-White for storage? Were pots traded or did new potmakers marry into the different clans or culture groups? What was the architectural style of the ruins? Were the ruins sub-terranean, how far below the earth did they go, what type of roof structure did they have?  We made a vow to do some research before we left Arizona in hopes of answering some of these questions. (See the last journal entry for some answers.) It was interesting to me to note that there was corrugated ware in both tan and graphite at this spot. With that, we headed up creek to seek out what Butchart said was perhaps one of the most interesting ruins in the park. The going was rough. We bushwacked through Desert Holly, Manzanita, Desert Mahogany, Pinion Pine, Yucca, Blackbrush, Cattails, Horsetail Reeds, and Grasses. They were all in our hair, down our backs, scratching our skin. Back and forth across the creek, up hills and down hills, around large boulders, in and out of thickets, and boulder hopping around large pools. We discovered that cattails explode, sending millions of fluffy seeds into the air, when provoked even the tiniest amount. We each wanted to turn around at one point, but urged one another to keep going towards that distant point and a Butchart rumor. We finally rounded the point, there were many ledges up 100 feet from the creek, but no ruins. Bob wanted to bushwack 100 feet up through Desert Holly (Ouch) to the base of the Tapeats and contour. I was tired and started to think Harvey Butchart was a lunatic liar. Then we rechecked the point that we first rounded, and as we got closer, a faint trail began to appear. We followed it, and Blamo! A sweet-ass ruin. (See pictures 068-075 in the photo gallery of the ruin). An almost completely intact room that was once an extension of the cliff face (now askew a couple inches) with sandstone blocks piled with mortar and a layer of plaster over that, complete with swipes of the builders hands that had wiped the plaster on some 1500 years ago. The walls of the structure had little niches cut out and a hearth. The inside was blackened by the smoke from the fireplace. There were smaller grainery-style ruins along side the room, whose walls had long been eroded away. The ceilings had a few pictographs, what looked like the overhead view of a four-legged creature. A few potsherds and tools littered the ground. Butchart was right; this was definitely a very interesting ruin. We were glad we persisted and found it. We stayed admiring the ruin for awhile; then I pulled Bob away. We took the high road back to camp, and the going was much better, out of the brush. Then we hopped along the creek before taking a detour up and over the mesa back to camp. We returned as the sun left the Palisades walls down across the river far away. We were starving after our hike, and cooked up a big pot of beans and rice. I am currently staring up at the night sky to see the half moon pass through Pleiades; that is if it happens soon, I’m bushed. Just saw the space station pass by, the brightest thing up there moving fast on around the globe. The move down canyon will have to wait until tomorrow.

Wednesday, Feb 4 Day Twenty – Colorado River and Her Rafters

Partly cloudy, slight breeze with ample sunshine. Looks like a storm could be coming, cirrus clouds in and out all day, like jellyfish in the sky. We awoke and packed up camp. It was a wonderful easy hike down Lava Creek to the river. There is a large beach with many little rooms carved out of the Mesquite groves, making a perfect camp. An obvious boat beach, we pitched our tent in one of the higher rooms, hoping for some company. We had split pea soup for lunch, then did a little washing up. The subtle smell of my Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap is a little overpowering, which makes me wonder if soap is all that necessary. Sure, it’s nice to use on greasy dishes and in your pits, crotch, and hair every so often, but I think that people have become too reliant on it. The result of which is the pollution of our waterways from our greywater, the manufacturing of the soap, and the mining of its ingredients. That is frustrating. All a person needs to keep his or herself and household tidy is some glycerin or castile soap, vinegar and baking soda. Cheap, environmentally friendly ingredients. Simple.  Anyway, we spent a few hours preening ourselves and basking in the sunshine. While setting up our tent, we discussed the possibility of a river trip floating by and camping at the beach. Before we knew it, one popped up and decided to camp. 5 boats, 12 people. (See pictures 076,077 in the photo gallery of the river trip).  It got very busy all of a sudden, unloading boats and setting up the elaborate kitchen area, water filtration area, groover. The rafters, from California, West virginia and North Carolina were very courteous in asking permission to share our spot, we were more than happy to oblige and help with the unpacking. We were also more than happy to help cook and eat. And eat. After 20 days, the fresh salad, ravioli, garlic bread, s’mores and chocolate truffels were pure indulgence. We enjoyed sitting around the fire pan listening to poetry, learning new constellations, measuring our ape indexes (that is arm span compared to height), and talking of the Canyon. We went to bed with sugar headaches and smiles on our faces. Got rid of some trash, too. There was a Moondog tonight, that is a ring around the moon, usually signaling stormy weather. Tomorrow we brave uncertain territory, going along the Tonto towards the LCR confluence, weather permitting, and also breakfast with the river runners!

Thursday Feb 5 Day Twenty-One – Along the Tonto toward the LCR

Overcast, slight breeze – storm coming? Ahhh, breakfast: corn bread with honey and butter, breakfast burritos, fruit salad. Awesome. We didn’t even brush our teeth afterwards, to savor the flavor. We enjoyed our time with those beautiful people, and were saddened we couldn’t get to know them better. It is comforting to know that cool conscientious people exist. After packing up, we headed out to see about taking the “high road” Tonto route around to the Little Colorado River (LCR) confluence. We walked along the river towards Carbon Creek, then decided to go up and over. We climbed a couple hundred feet too high at one point (damn!) and contoured around to the Carbon Narrows. (See photos 078,079 in the photo gallery of the narrows.) I got mad thinking it would have been much better to have gone back up Lava one mile to the “river loop” heading into Carbon. In the end, the routes were probably about the same as far as time and effort spent, but you know how it goes,"the grass is greener on the other side." At least we had some bacon grease to power us. After Carbon we popped up onto the Tonto. The first ¾ mile went well, then we got to the first drainage. Steep and sketchy, we stayed high and contoured to the back of the drainage as we were accustomed to doing. Wrong technique here. It would have been better to go down and up – cut across instead of contouring back. We eventually got the hang of the terrain and down and up we went across nearly a dozen side canyons with large steps, slippery talus slopes, and general sketchiness. We each fell at least twice. Bob tangoed with a couple of cacti and slid home to avoid a patch of Prickley Pear. I landed on my knee twice-ouchy. We told ourselves that maneuvering each drainage was like doing a maze, we began to sing the Mario Bros. theme. Who knows how many hundreds of feet we ascended and climbed today, but we felt like an elderly couple, our muscles aching, as we neared the large drainage at 62.6 mile.  We descended this canyon to the river to camp; the view that greeted us on the beach was our reward for a hard day’s work (See picture 080 in the photo gallery of our view). We made good 3 river miles. We might be the slowest extreme backpackers, or maybe we’re just extremely slow backpackers. But we are living it up out here! Tomorrow we hope to go past the LCR where the river is bright blue, only 1 river mile away. We’ll see what the weather brings, more Moondogs tonight.

Friday, Feb 6 Day Twenty-Two – Past the LCR to the Beach at 60 mile Canyon

Partly cloudy and warm. Awoke to soupy clouds, but they cleared as the sun came out. It did get windy last night, but we slept very well. We looked onto the next section of the trail with hope and trepidation. We finally had a visual, and it looked like we would be able to walk the beaches and bushwack through willows and tammies, and when it cliffed-out, we could easily climb up and over. This turned out to be the case as we quickly found ourselves past the LCR only a couple of hours after leaving camp. We sat on the beach across from the swirling waters of the confluence, watching the blue green waters of the upper Colorado mix with the muddy waters of the LCR (See picture 081 in the photo gallery of the LCR confluence). After a wonderful lunch filled with sunshine and a visit from a lizard friend, we moved along the Tapeats ledges that now border the river. (See photo below for walking on Tapeat's ledges, see photo 083-085 in the photo gallery of our lizard friend.) It was nice hiking, hopping along ledges and over rockfalls, there were some nice overhang camps along the way. The last little bit, as we could see our camp on a large beach at 60 mile Canyon, was back up to the Tonto and its slippery tricks. This gave me flashbacks of the previous day, and I was not happy to be up there balancing on steep talus slopes. But we didn’t die, and the beach welcomed us. It was still afternoon, so we had time to relax and do our thing. I did some cleaning and water pumping, Bob did some fishing. The clouds continue to come and go, so we are prepared for rain again tonight. We can see up the river to Malgosa Butte and it looks like we lose our beautiful Tapeats ledges, but the Tonto is right at river level. This means new terrain coming up next. Oh yeah, shared the trail with 3 bighorn sheep today.

Saturday, Feb 7 Day Twenty-Three – Kwagunt Canyon and Trip Reflection

Periods of rain and sun, breezy at times. Rain came on us around midnight, but we were prepared. The winds awoke me, and I decided to pee earlier than usual. I saw thick clouds rolling in as I emerged from the tent, so we buttoned down the hatches. The rain started shortly after. It stopped by morning. Due to the storm, we decided against our planned exploration of Malgosa because of its narrows and flashflood potential. But that’s OK, a person can’t see everything. We lazily broke camp and headed up river 2.5 river miles to Kwagunt Beach. It was a quick hike to Kwagunt, along a trail of all things (most likely from river runners doing loop hikes along the river and back onto parts of the Horsethief Route). We had officially entered the river runner territory, which is completely different than being back inside one of the Canyon’s side drainages, or up high away from the river. There are rooms pruned out of the vegetation and microtrash on the beaches, weird - a small bit of civilization. There was a large sandy beach with rooms at Kwagunt, and we quickly found a nice camp on a knoll with the perfect hanging tree and an expansive view down to the LCR and up to Nankoweap – the end in sight. We fixed some split pea soup with pepperoni for lunch, but had to set up our tent midway through because of an oncoming storm. It has sprinkled off and on all day. We did manage to go on an exploratory hike of the delta, finding some ruins, but only one large (the largest yet) potsherd. We think the lack of potsherds could be a result of the large amount of cryptobiotic crust on the soil, more than any other place we have seen. Could the crust be keeping the shards beneath the soil, or could the place have been raided dry? We finally saw a river trip today, after 3 days. (This made us a bit nervous as we neared the time we would attempt to hitchhike back to Phantom Ranch, we hoped to be seeing at least one trip a day.) It was a 5 boat 5 man group, and one of the boats, called a Kreature Kraft, looked like a moon bounce (See photos 091,092 in the photo gallery of the kreature kraft). That gave us a little excitement to watch it go by, and wonder about the things of man. We also had some time to reflect on our adventure. At the beginning of this adventure, along with seeing a part of the Canyon we had always wanted to explore, we set out to investigate what happens after 5 weeks in the backcountry, and these are some of our insights. We feel like a 3 week trip might be the perfect length of time for backpacking. It could be that we are nearing the end of our trip, but our desire to explore side canyons has been tapering off. I think a 3 week trip is ideal as far as food weight is concerned, as well. We would have had a lot more energy and time for side hikes with only 2 bags, 20 pounds each. Generally, the food has been great. I feel healthy after 4 weeks with a simple diet of wholesome foods, low in preservatives and no High Fructose Corn Syrup. Bob says he wishes we had another dinner grain option, he got tired of the couscous. I would have liked another supplement at lunch, like some nuts, and planning on two cooked meals a day is a bad idea, one is all that time allows for explorers. It’s funny, when we ate with the river runners at Lava, the variety and abundance of food was overwhelming, it was like we were kids in a candy store after eating out of a couple sacks for 3 weeks. But, my body was perfectly happy with our simple healthy diet, I didn’t need the marshmallows and Hershey’s Chocolate. The abundance of food was almost annoying, only because it reminded us of human over-consumption habits, of which we are not immune.  I must say, we were extremely grateful for that food bonus. I was however, surprised at our yearning for social interaction. It was nice to have a conversation with new people after a few weeks to just ourselves, it gave us new thoughts to fill our heads. It was rejuvenating, but at the same time a challenge to the peaceful and calm state of mind that I had obtained while being out here, reminding me of the things of the surface world.  Our bodies are handling the abuse remarkably well, but since the 3 week mark, there have been more complaints about sore knees and ankles. Bob has noticed that my complexion is the clearest it’s been in a long time. Could this be a result of diet, not over scrubbing with soap, lack of environmental pollutants, relatively little stress? I also find it interesting to note that Bob’s attention to hygiene is much greater out in the backcountry. He says that when you only have 6 things to do in a day that you strive for perfection. That’s it for the trip reflection, Bob thinks I’m crazy for writing all this down, but these human idiosyncrasies fascinate me. Tomorrow we hope to explore Kwagunt, we’ll have to see if the weather holds out…

Monday, Feb 9 Day Twenty-Five – In the Tent

Rainy and cold, freezing rain at times. Snow down to the top of the Redwall. We stayed in the tent, venturing out only a few times to pee in the river, and see the LCR and Nankoweap getting pelted with snow. It is very cold. We played 20 questions and battleship with paper and pencils. Bob, with a stroke of genius, made some playing cards out of one of our books. They were fine, and we played Gin Rummy to 500, twice. There is a lull in the rain and snow as I write this and civil twilight ends. Probably won’t see much of tonight’s full moon. We saw no river runners today, but we weren’t keeping too good of a lookout. We feel sorry for anyone stuck on the river today. We don’t know what tomorrow brings; we would eventually like to make it up the 4 river miles to Nankoweap, and perhaps hitchhike a ride down river with a private river trip. But it could easily end up being another cold day of playing cards in the tent. (See pictures 093-100 in the photo gallery of the storm.) (The photo below is of the desert facade on the South Rim, across from Kwagunt Creek. The distance from the River in the picture to the tallest cliff is about 5000 feet.)

Tuesday Feb 10 Day Twenty-Six – Nankoweap

Clear and cool with sunshine. You can be sure we did the sunshine dance this morning. The weather cleared out, leaving cooler temps and snow on the buttes. It was beautiful. We dried everything out in the sunshine and packed up, heading towards our final destination. A river trip came by and offered us beer, we declined as it was very early and we had some hiking to do, they looked offended – se la vie. There was a trail again today, and the going was a quick and easy rollercoaster ride through drainages. The ease of it was facilitated by the lightness of my 40 pound pack. Bob got excited halfway through and took off. He said he finally decided to slow down when he thought he might have a heart attack from hiking so fast. Geeze! I guess he had been tearing down the trail, hell bent on reaching Nankoweap, he was having the time of his life. He came up with our theme song: (to the tune of Glory Glory Hallelujah) “Don Mattox is a pussy, George Steck can kiss my ass, Harvey Butchart is a crazy mo-fo, and still we hike the canyon. Stinky stinky stinky hiking shirts, stinky stinky dirty sleeping bags, stinky rotten dirty underwear, our stink goes wafting on, duhn duhn duhn duhn *fart*.” Don Mattox was a hiking partner of Steck’s who quit a trip due to the soaring 120 degree summer heat. We love those guys for writing books about the canyon, for they helped us along our route, but we often cussed them while struggling along the trail through a section they pass off as nothing of importance – maybe we’re the real pussies. Anyway, Bob waited for me to catch up so we could complete the trail together. Nankoweep was busy – 2 river trips were camped there, drying out from the storm. We found a camp spot, and made a plan. We figured we had enough food to keep us at Nankoweap 5 days while we looked for a ride downriver before we would have to start hiking out – what a nerve wracking 5 days it would be. We also developed a third option, if we could find a river trip to at least give us a ride to the Tanner Trail, less than a day’s float away, then we could hike up the Tanner and hitchhike back to the Canyon village on the South Rim. We had lunch, lentil/split pea soup with too much water, and went on a little hike. We headed over towards one of the river trips. Someone came out to meet and chat us up before we even reached their camp. They offered us some Pabst Blue Ribbon, which we gratefully accepted (we took that as a sign that Bob’s father was looking out for us, he always had a keg of Pabst on tap.) The river runners surrounded, as we pulled out our map, listening intently to tales of our hike, which we were more than glad to talk about. Then came the question, “So what’s next, where do you go after this?” To which we replied, “ Well, option one is to climb out the North Rim, snowshoe (with pine boughs) 7 miles in the snow, and down the Old Bright Angel Trail, or option two, maybe we’ll get lucky enough to catch a ride with some river runners back to Phantom Ranch.” They stopped for a second, glanced at eachother, nodded, and said, “Why don’t you guys come with us, have you all had dinner, why don’t you move camp over here.” It didn’t take us long to return to our packs and join our new friends. We were slowed a bit when Bob had to rinse off our tent which had been shat on by a couple of smug looking Ravens perched over our camp. The river runners were only too happy to have more bodies to help with loading and unloading the boat, to listen to stories, and to eat food. We thought we had died and gone to heaven to end such an amazing journey with 2 days rafting down the river, and it sure did beat snowshoeing (flashbacks from last winter sending shivers down our spines.)  So a symbiotic relationship was born. We are scheduled to camp near Unkar Delta tomorrow (wierd), and Cremation the following night, we would make it to Phantom Ranch early that next day. Dinner that night was more food than we had eaten all week. We went to bed with full bellies, having done our part in getting rid of extra food, and we were excited about the next leg of our journey, hoping that we would stay warm enough on the water, and feeling darn good about our luck, the Canyon Gods were smiling upon us that day.

Wednesday February 11 Day Twenty-Seven – On the River

Cloudy, cold. I’ve gotten lazy while traveling down river, and I write these next 2 entries at Cremation Camp, one mile from Phantom Ranch…Traveling the river is a blast! It blew our minds to cover Nankoweap to Cardenas in one day. It took us 14 days to do it by foot. We did some reconnaissance from the boat, and it looked like a person could walk along the river from 60 mile canyon to Carbon Creek if they could get past the cliffs at the right of the big island in front of 60 mile canyon (a river trip ferry perhaps). The trip down river could have only been better if it were summer, as I was shivering by the time we got to the LCR confluence. But the captain on my raft, Dan received many gold stars for taking the less wet routes through the rapids. We even had a "golden budda run" at one of the rapids - we ran it without a splash of water over the bow. The LCR was muddy, but the Colorado River ran aquamarine after the confluence, not as muddy as when we were last here. Bob and I had an excellent time providing Canyon interpretation - stories of Indians and Miners, rocks, and wildlife - as we floated along on our respective rafts. I think our boat companions enjoyed it too. Bob got behind the oars and that energized him. We helped out as much as possible, cooking, cleaning, loading and unloading, joke telling, farting, and laughing. These people are awesome, each an inspiration to us. Most of them are deeply embedded in conservation programs in Montana and are still having adventures well into their 50s and 60s; this gives us hope that we may some day do the same. They say we are inspiring to them as well, loving our life of adventure, and that is humbling and encouraging in that these accomplished folks are behind us in our decision to travel down the road we are on in life. They get it and it is nice to have their support. (See picture 101-109 of our first day of rafting and camping at Cardenas.)

Thursday February 12 Day Twenty-Eight – Almost Home

Cloudy and cold, periods of glorious sunlight. Bob and I borrowed more layers today, and were warmer despite several fronts passing over. We went through several large rapids: Hance (class 8), Sockdalager (class 7), and Bob rowed Grapevine (class 7). A big day on the river. Sockdalager was really fun with a big double wave train midway that felt like a roller coaster. Kim and I got silly, acting like figureheads and whooping it up. (See photos 110-114 in the photo gallery for pictures of rafting the second day and scouting Hance Rapid.) At Hance, we pulled over to scout the rapid, and saw Hance's Asbestos mine, just a couple of miles from our camp on day 10. When I saw Demaray Point, the sight of our first camp on this trip, I got that wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling of coming home – we made it full circle. I think Bob felt the same thing, as he called out from his raft,” Hey that’s Demaray Point, our first camp.” We can see the black bridge from our camp here in Cremation, and we have butterflies in our stomachs to be so close to the Ranch. There was a party around the campfire that night, everyone celebrating the fate that Bob and I stumbled upon their trip. Keiz cooked steaks over the grill, Dan, the Dutch Oven master, made potatoes and cream cheese brownies, there was also a salad, and I made a Southwest bean soup from some unused cans of things, and everyone was appreciative not to be eating Campbell’s Bean and Ham.  Dan’s study of Dutch Oven cooking has inspired me to take my D.O. to the next level.. We toasted eachother, told stories, shared a bit of drunkin love, and stumbled off to bed. Bob and I feel so fortunate to have shared time with this amazing group of adventurers. (See photo below of us at Phantom Ranch, Keiz holding the "life is good" frisbee.)

Friday February 13 Day Twenty-Nine – Phantom Ranch

Cool and sunny, 50 degrees. Bob and I awoke, excited and ready to go. We helped cook and pack up. Our friends threatened to strap us to their rafts and continue on down the river with us, which we may have let them do had it been summer and if we didn't have a train to catch. Boat beach was a welcome sight, the place where just three year’s previous, we had tied the knot. We happily greeted the Ranchers and said goodbyes to the Montana River Runners. At the ranch, we were treated with deluxe accommodations, thanks to the generosity of our friend, David and his cabin. We took a long hot shower, checked our email, and attempted to slowly acclimate ourselves before reentering the “surface world.” I hope we can retain the inner-peace and happiness that we found out in the backcountry. For now, we are planning a Valentine’s Day cocktail party as a way of saying thanks to the Ranch. Bob is hiking out and back in tomorrow to fetch the booze, what a stud! (See photo 116 in the photo gallery of Bob and I having fun at the party Phantom style.) We spent a few more days at the Ranch before hopping out the South Kaibab trail and back into the surface world. What an epic adventure it was, more difficult than we could have ever imagined, but also more rewarding. The trip gave us insight into the world in ways we never expected.

Epilogue

While visiting some of the ruins in Grand Canyon’s backcountry, more questions arose than we could answer. As a result, we vowed to do some research before leaving Arizona. When we hiked out, we went to Grand Canyon’s Study Collection at the South Rim village, where curator, Kim Beesom so graciously gave us a tour of the collections room. There we saw large pieces of pottery, stick figurines, part of JW Powells raft, and other really cool Canyon artifacts. It is too bad that these things had to be taken from their homes within the Canyon walls, but we were very grateful that they were protected from looters, within the collection’s walls. The collection is open to all Park visitors; call to check about joining a tour. In Flagstaff, we spent an afternoon in the special collections room at Northern Arizona University. There we read parts of the books written by Grand Canyon Park Archeologist, the man responsible for the digs at Unkar in 1969, Douglas Schwartz. We also found the pamphlet on the Delta ruins with maps. This research did answer some of our questions. (See the picture of potsherd, below.)For example, by studying the pottery found at the sites we visited, archeologists were able to figure out that the region was inhabited in 3 waves, a few hundred years apart. So the mixture of potsherds we saw accumulated through 1000 years of inhabitation, with each wave of peoples bringing new pots of different styles. They also discerned that pots were traded between groups, with the Delta possibly the hub of such trade. The clay used to make the pots could be traced to sites some hundred or more miles away!  Which explains all the different types we saw, indcluding different colors of corrugated. As a matter of fact, there were a couple dozen different styles of pots littering the ground around those ruins. We also learned that the walls of the ruins that we saw were mere outlines of structures laying some 5 feet underground. This explains why we wondered about the seemingly shotty architecture - most of the structure was underground. The ruins we saw were the accumulation of 1000 years of settlement, with each new wave of people utilizing old structures in new ways and building new structures. Maybe they did start as a way of clearing the farm of rocks. We did not have time to research the process of potsherds coming up to the top of the soil, but like many things this will come in due time.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our adventure, I hope you find it inspiring, helpful, or at least amuzing.

 

 

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