Hey - remember that plan of mine to get out to the hiking trail early today? It didn't really work out. I mean, I woke up at 5:30 - I know, seriously?! But I refused to get out of bed that early. I mean, the dining room doesn't even open for breakfast until 6:30. So I dozed for a while and managed to stream some episodes of The Wonder Years and finally got up around 8:15. Got dressed and went to breakfast. A lot less crowded than yesterday. Had breakfast by myself and then headed out to the Kaibab Trail trailhead. This is the trail that goes down into the canyon from the north rim.
The trail is a total of 14 miles to the bottom. There are a number of landmarks along the way - many of which have water and/or restrooms. So you can plan out how far you want to go before starting down. Having a plan is a necessity because you need to take appropriate provisions. I decided to go down to Supai Tunnel, which is two miles down. I figured I'd take about an hour down and 2 hours back up. I was one of the slowest people out there. About half of the people that I came across were doing rim to rim or rim to rim to rim. Some were even RUNNING rim to rim to rim. Crazy people. I can't even imagine.
Well, as expected, the walk down wasn't too bad. The ground wasn't as packed in some areas as I'd like it and it was almost like walking on a beach. There was a nice breeze and since I started right around 9:30, it wasn't too hot. Yesterday when I hiked, I started with my fleece, but quickly took it off. I'm glad that I didn't take it with me today. It would have just been a pain and gotten me even warmer. The temperature does climb as you descend into the canyon. As a reference, the forecast today on the north rim was a high of about 65, on the south rim 70, and down in the depths of the canyon 95. The first checkpoint was 0.7 miles down - an overlook. Not too bad, but the next checkpoint wasn't until my 2.0 mile destination. As I descended more and more, I was seriously questioning my sanity for continuing. I kept justifying continuing because there was a water station down there. I didn't need a lot of water on the way down, but drank it all in order to prevent dehydration.
So I got to my destination, rested for a bit and filled up my water bottle. I then looked up at where I had to go and wasn't happy. 2.0 miles with an elevation climb of 1400 feet. Yikes. Do you know how long it takes to go 2.0 miles when you have to stop every 100 feet to catch your breath? Two hours and fifteen minutes, that's how long. It was really tough. And with people passing me all the time, I wasn't feeling too great about myself - especially those guys that were going rim to rim. Like I said, crazy people. But, I did make it back up. I guess I didn't really have much of a choice. Well, when I was really close to the top one of the mule guides was leading another mule down to drag out someone who was about 2.5 miles down, so I guess that may have been an option as well, but not a good option.
After I finished the hike, I went straight back to my cabin for a shower - god I was dirty. My shoes are now effectively brown. And then just hung out in my cabin for the rest of the afternoon. I have another dinner reservation tonight in an hour and a half and I'm just hanging out in the sun room until then. It's been really windy today and its supposed to get down to 32 degrees overnight. Yikes.
So one thing that I've noticed about traveling alone, especially staying in a resort like this for a couple of days is that I'm becoming friends with the staff. Last night after dinner, one of the staff members that I had only exchanged a couple of words with previously came up to my table and said,"so I hear you're taking a massive trip." I'm very observant, so I notice process things and talk to the staff about how service is going or whatnot. The executive chef and I have become buddies and he's made personal recommendations to me for all my meals. It is nice that the resort staff is so kind and helpful.
Leaving Grand Canyon tomorrow. It's been nice, but onto the next stop! Plus, I need my wifi back!
No comments:
Post a Comment