A day at the bottom of the Grand Canyon (3 of 4)

On Saturday (May 19) we slept in, relatively speaking - the group gathered for 6:30a breakfast in the canteen. The menu hasn't changed over the years: bacon, OJ, eggs, pancakes, canned peaches. Lots of everything. It all tastes good, even the coffee. On our way out of the canteen, picked up the "sack lunch" for later enjoyment.

It was a beautiful morning at the bottom of the Canyon. After some resting and milling around, a group of us got organized for a short stroll up the North Kaibab Trail (trailhead immediately north of Phantom Ranch). This was new territory for almost everyone. I hadn't been on this section of trail since 1997 and had forgotten how delightful it was.

In fact, this portion of the trail is all good. Bright Angel Creek is a classic; in this area, it looks like a mountain stream rather than a creek at the bottom of a canyon. We crossed the "crick" twice on foot bridges. The canyon is pretty narrow here, so we walked in shade a great deal of the time. As you walk, you are constantly coming around a bend to a vista better than the one that preceded it. Very little elevation gain in this area. I include several photos, plus a short video taken at our turn-around point.



We wandered up the trail for an hour, then worked our way back. Nice slow pace. Good hiking group, fun conversation, etc. (Traveling separately, Mike took the 14-mile round trip on this trail to all the way to Ribbon Falls.)

Back to Phantom Ranch, and shortly thereafter we attacked the sack lunches. There was some uncertainty about how to approach the summer sausage. Jon led a group that discovered the summer sausage could be sliced and stuck in the middle of an Oreo cookie. But why did they even think of trying this??

The afternoon was devoted to various forms of relaxation, including more cards - a boisterous double-deck Hearts game, among others.

Rick & David Weis had the idea of hauling down in their backpacks some nice beers - since it would have been inappropriate to ask a mule to carry out full ones, we had some very enjoyable sipping. As the afternoon wore on, some of the young males undertook some amateur dam building in Bright Angel Creek. Others concentrated on relaxing, taking short walks, etc.

Some attended the 4:30p ranger talk -- same speaker, he provided interesting (but overly detailed) information regarding construction of the principal hiking trails in the Canyon, the development of Phantom Ranch, etc. See the short, uninformative video.



Dinner was the famous Phantom Ranch "hikers' stew," served promptly at 6:30p every day. The stew is awesome. Large amounts were consumed. It was accompanied by the usual suspects: salad, cornbread and chocolate cake. How do you beat this kind of eating?

There was another ranger presentation at 7:30p in the ampitheater - about bats - as far as I know, only Dave Kollar attended - he didn't miss a single ranger talk. Fine entertainment.

There was some more fun in the canteen in the evening, but for the most part folks were attending to packing and other prep. Folks in our group were really helpful, especially with our favorite challenge: stuffing things into the mule duffels to minimize backpack weight, while honoring the weight restrictions for the mule service. We also worked on mixing Gatorade and filling water bottles (to avoid morning lines), and packed in general.

All this activity was fun, and left us ready for an early start on our near-5,000 foot elevation change, 10+ mile hike out!

Some impressions from the day: the unique sensation of being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, near the famous Colorado River, alongside Bright Angel Creek . . no phones or TV or Blackberries. Relaxing enoyable day . . . but the South Rim is looming to the south and some anxiety was felt, even expressed about the next day's hike . . . the day between hikes is really a unique, excellent day. And judging from comments, I wasn't the only that felt the day went by far too quickly.