March 16, 2010
We arrived at the Grand Canyon at around 3:00 after a quick stop in Flagstaff. As we were paying our entry fee into the park the ranger told us it was very full and we probably wouldn’t get a camping spot at Mather Campground as we planned.We headed right to the campground and the rangers there were great and couldn’t do enough for us and the price was right at $18.00 a night.

Next on our list was getting to the backcountry office and seeing if we could talk someone in to granting us a permit to head down into the canyon. All the literature we had read was saying you needed to apply for a permit 4 months ahead in writing or by fax. Luckily we found another very helpful ranger who spent about 30 minutes with us. We told her we wanted to go on a great hike where we could be alone and away from the crowds. She said all the popular hiking permits were long gone, but she did have one that she could tell us about that was going to be very challenging to do in 2 days, or we could come back in the morning and get onto a waiting list and keep going back each morning to see if we could get a permit. Not going to happen as she now had our full attention with the challenging hike!

Well she said “how are your route finding skills as these trails are not marked and lots of people who try this hike panic once they get half way down and drop their gear and run out of the canyon or never make it to the campsite in time and end up camping on the trail?.” She said they don’t really recommend this hike as it is not maintaned and another major issue is water as you don’t have access to water until you get down to the river which is mud brown, but there is a clear little creek running into it. So we had to hike down 4500 feet or 16.5 km before we could replenish our water in 80 degree weather, totally exposed with no shade. Hmmm…..So the lower you go in the canyon the hotter it gets!

I just had a couple more questions for her…..Are there any rattlesnakes? We had read that there was tranculas, scorpions, snakes, ring tail cats and bats. “Well she said I have lived here 10 years and only have seen 3 snakes so you would consider yourself lucky if you see one.” I replied “well I am a little bit of a snake magnet”(Mary)….She told us you just have to keep everything in your tent with you and sleep with your food in between you in the tent so scavengers don’t get it…what??? Big no no at home and can you imagine scavengers eating your food when she just told us you have to eat at least twice as much as you normally do in a day. I know all of you at work are laughing right now thinking of me and all my Rubbermaid containers full of food and how am I going to carry all that down4500 feet and what am I going to bring to eat!
Well we had some thinking to do, but we didn’t come here to just be tourists so we better give it a shot!

We drove to an outlook and starred down into the canyon and I just could not comprehend how huge it was. I could see the river way down below and wondered what have I gotten myself in to? We went to the store and bought everything we thought we might need. We had been warned to bring salty snacks as lots of people have problems with dizziness. We organized all our camping gear, water filters, food, dry clothes, hats, sunscreen etc. wow that makes for a heavy load…I knew we had been in altitude and that was going to help us, but I had concerns about the desert heat and the fact that sometimes I think I am a camel and that I don’t need to drink water….as my running friends know.

Also not being able to find shade or water if we needed it. Well we are going to do this so I might as well lie down and get a good night’s sleep!
Wish me luck!
Deb

March 17, 2010
We got to the trailhead at around 9:00am. A little bit of a late start, but it just took us that long to get organized and to drive to the trailhead which had a coded gate. Right at the trailhead was a story about a Boston marathoner /med student who died of dehydration…yikes…ok I promise to drink. There also was a sign that said climbing out is mandatory…ok…Here we go…..deeper and deeper into the canyon. We hit a little patch of snow on the way down, but soon we were right into that heat I was worried about. Oh that is intense……glad I kept my pants on and wore high hiking boots as all plant life and trees are not your friend..all very prickly..ouch…Also be careful where you place your hands…never know what is between the rocks.

Things got pretty challenging about ½ way WOW! Now I believe the park ranger and her stories. We took our time and made sure we were drinking lots. It is amazing how focused I became on my water. What if I spill it, or it leaks, or I drop it down the canyon…amazing where your head goes when you are tired and HOT…

It is funny everyone talks about the climb out and how you should allow yourself twice the time it took you to get down, but Bill and I both feel that going down is harder. It is just so steep and harder on your feet and knees especially with the big packs.
I found you couldn’t really enjoy the views unless you totally stopped and lifted your head. You just had to concentrate on your footing so much and the only thing marking the trails was the odd cairns and you had to be watching the ground for foot prints and pole markings…especially in a few areas. The rock slides were the trickest part as you didn’t really have any markings to follow(as she had warned us this is where people get lost by going up or down instead of traversing). Bill and I both agreed that only about 3-4 km of the trail was moderate and all the rest was difficult. You had rocks rolling under your feet, starting small slides yourself and big rock slides to climb over. I found everything intensified as you got tired and started stumbling.

All of a sudden my big toes starting really hurting and you had to just not think about your aches and pains and to push forward to make it to your site before dark.

We made it to Monument Creek and knew we were getting close. We got down in to the creek bed and it seemed to go on forever and Bill was getting really concerned about water. He kept saying…”she said there would be water in the creek,how come there is no water?” Then all of a sudden we could hear the Colorado River…yeah!! And we looked down at our feet and a little clear stream was running between our legs. We got to our site around 4:00 and took off our hiking boots and immediately put our feet in the cold river and it felt so great…I can’t even tell you how great that felt on my feet …better than any pedicure I have ever had. (I just didn't feel right going to the washroom in the river which is what the park ranger told us we had to do.)

We set up camp and had dinner and tried to make it until dark, but just wanted to crawl into our bags. We crawled into our bags and Bill looked at me and said “are we going to be ok to get out of here? Do you think it is going to take double the time?” Thoughts to ponder over night…I bet the stars would have been amazing as the moon was shining brightly into my side of the tent. I wanted to get up and look, but Bill had warned me about not getting out into the sand in my barefeet and I was busy guarding my food!!
Goodnight!
Deb

March 18, 2010
I woke up to the sound of the rapids and knew it was daylight. It was shortly after 6:00am and time to get moving. We made a ton of oatmeal and started breaking down camp. We realized Bill’s water bladder had leaked during the night and some of our stuff was wet. He went back to the river to filter more water, at least it leaked in a good spot and not on the trail somewhere.

We started hiking up the creek bed and Bill’s pole turned over a rock and out comes a small rattlesnake…I knew it….I knew I would see one. At least there was lots of room to walk around it in the creek bed.

Up, up we go. We both felt pretty fresh and decided on any flat areas to try and make up some time. About an hour into the hike Bill was ahead and out darted another rattlesnake in front of me…This time I had nowhere to go but over it….I waited until it pointed its head down hill and moved quickly…Now I am really going to be watching the ground and trying not to panic because I don’t want to jump out of the way and fall downnnnnn….. Both the snakes we saw were not huge which we thought was a great thing until we talked to people when we got back and learned that the smaller rattlesnakes are more dangerous because they can’t yet control how much venom they put into you…nice. As my husband poked at it with his pole JA.

We kept reminding each other to drink as the sun was out in full force again (around 80). We stopped at the half way mark and had lunch and took off our boots for a few minutes which felt great. We were really happy with the time we were making and we were no longer concerned about being out of the canyon in good time. We kept moving on and sort of dreading one section of the trail that was called the staircase (which does not have stairs). We found a nice tall flat rock which gave us some shade and decided to take a quick break before the big climb…it felt really good to lean up against the rock and feel the coolness of it, I even leaned my face against it and it felt so refreshing. Forward we go!

We stopped at a section called the Santa Maria Springs which some day hikers go to. It has a little shelter there so we thought it would be a good spot to quickly grab another snack and rub our feet for a minute. We knew we were making great time now, but we also looked up and knew the rest of the way was going to be grueling as Bill said.

The last 2 km was hard and I knew for sure it was difficult when Bill said “I think I need to sit down for a minute”… usually when he knows he is close to the end of something he speeds up like crazy.

In the last km we came across 2 guys from Texas who were sitting down and they said “you guys look pretty chipper.. where are you coming from?” and we told them we left Granite Rapids this morning and they said they had left from around that area too, but weren’t doing so great. They said they left at 4:00am and asked what time we left and we answered 7:45 am. I felt really bad for the one guy because he needed assistance out from the Rangers and he only needed to hike about another 15 minutes to be out, but on the other hand I was really proud of myself for making it out and it only taking us 1 hour longer than it did going down. I felt like we had just done something pretty incredible!

PS Jan….today is the day I realized my life is never going to be the same.........