Hiking into Hades

Hiking into Hades

  How's that for an opening. I thought the title of this installment was appropriate, as the next morning we got up at 2am to head for the North Kaibab Trailhead, ate a healthy breakfast. packed our bags which were then loaded onto a trailer to be chauffeured to the South Rim by Laura, who as I said before, would hike down with us for a few hours to ensure that nobody had second thoughts and wanted to turn back. All we carried was our backpacks, which contained 3 plus litres of water, assorted salty and energy snacks, sunscreen, camera, change of socks and high hopes.

At 3:30 am it was 43 degrees F, so we were wearing a layer of extra clothing that would be peeled off and added to the backpacks as soon as the sun cracked the horizon, knowing that it would warm up fast. And man, I do mean heat up!!

 We started out with hikers headlamps, hiking, for us first timers, what seemed like an extremely hazardous trail with limited visibility. But keep in mind, we were surrounded by four seasoned hiking veterans and had total faith in their judgement. I didn't even bother trying to take photos for the first couple of hours as I have no idea how to set my camera for night shots and was mostly concentrating on where Joani and I were placing our feet.

  Like I had said, as soon as the sun cracked the horizon it started warming up so fast that I found myself going from being comfortably dressed in long track pants and double shirt, to sweltering in what seemed like 10 minutes. 

 As soon as I got a moment to do a costume change into my photographer clothes I started snapping pictures. So, just to give you some idea of what we had got ourselves into.

 This was early on after sunrise, but a long long way from the bottom. Joani still hasn't peeled off her long sleeved jacket but it wouldn't be long after this photo. If you see that squiggly line going down just off the center, that is our downwards trail. 14 miles worth of trail to be exact, although by this point we might have been a mile or two into it. The lower we got, the more interesting the trail got.

 You can see the series of switchbacks taking us down the cliff face in this photo and if you look in to the bottom right of this picture, you'll see a bridge that we would eventually be crossing. The trail continued to get more narrow as evidenced in this next photo. Addie was still wearing her slippers and hadn't yet changed to flip flops.

 This next photo was just to show all the different colored rocks we were seeing. We were hiking down through millions of years worth of earth's history and our geologist captain explained it to us as we descended.

  Next we had to let go of our last safety valve, Laura.

 We all gave her a hug. I was thinking that we did for perhaps two reasons.

 #1 She was a lovely person

 #2 Once she left there was no easy way out.... you know I think a poison mosquito bit me.. maybe I left something on the stove at home or I was even rationalizing... hey,  she shouldn't hike back up alone. Don't worry everyone I'll bite the bullet this time and do it next year. My thinking had nothing to do with the trail getting more and more narrow, with shear drops on one side or the other.

 Never the less we let her go and went on. The point of no return had come and gone.

 We got down to the bridge that I pointed out earlier.

I'm thinking, hey this will get easier...Wrong! The trail started getting more narrow.

And more narrow.

Staircases with moving stones.

Oh and did I mention narrow trails with deep drops. I'm fairly certain I had the biggest feet in the group and I was beginning to wonder where I was going to put them on these tightrope trails that you can see snaking off in the distance

We finally bottomed out as you can see in the next photo.

Great, you're thinking, but I'm here to tell you, not so great. It's well over 100 degrees F in this photo. No shade and the drinking water we're carrying is warm enough to make tea. Only great if your looking for a cup of Orange Pekoe or perhaps Earl Grey. But on the lighter side, now we get to enter the box canyon. There seemed to be some debate on whether it was 118 or 120 degrees in the box canyon. I thought it was a trifle warm either way.

Addie's thermometer stopped working at 118 degrees but it had been that way for a while and it kept getting hotter so who knows. Aside from being good suntanning weather we also had another form of entertainment. A hummingbird joined us.

This is Tyler, the fellow I talked about earlier, and if you look closely at the top of his hat you'll see our little friend perched. Joani told me he first landed on my hat, but I didn't see him and he was moving on to the next person by the time I got out my camera.

Joani's shoulder.

Addie's wrist.

Our very own pet Hummingbird. Kind of cool, don't you think. Sort of helped us from going crazy from the heat.

And then....Glory Hallelujah, we made it to the bottom. Phantom ranch.

We were all still alive and I think it only took us 11 hours. I drank a gallon of lemonade and was thinking how thankful I was that we got to rest for a day and a half before beginning the climb back up. I'll tell you about our time at Phantom ranch in my next entry.

 Garry