After completing our previous cross canyon backpack, Anne and I were less than satisfied with our performance. The climb out from Bright Angel Campground to the South Rim was much more difficult than on our previous trips, and, for me especially, I knew I could have done much better. So, knowing that a hike along any particular trail is only as successful as the last hike along that trail, we decided to give it one more shot.
I turned 50 in August of 2000, so we agreed that would be a fine year to complete the hike. Fifty is somewhat symbolic, since I was 20 when I first sat on the South Rim predicting that one day I would walk across that vast expanse, speculating that it would have to be before I got old, meaning, at that youthful stage, sometime before I turned 30. We also decided to make our reservations for the fall, in late September, wanting to avoid the 100+ temperatures of June, the month in which we’d completed each of our prior trips.
I should also mention here that early in the year I had been diagnosed with a hypothyroid condition and received medication to correct the situation. A short time after I began taking the little pills I began feeling more energetic, the cobwebs cleared from my head, I began losing weight, several other symptoms cleared up, and I began to feel great. Conditions that I had associated with getting old were actually caused by my underachieving thyroid. I felt much younger, and eager for the trip.
Preparations
As soon as the weather in northern Utah warmed, we began preparing our bodies for the hike. We started on shorter walks that lead to longer walks and hikes and eventually day hikes up into the Wasatch mountains near our home. We progressed as planned, and had even gotten one good camping trip to Red Canyon under our belts, when I was overcome by severe stomach pains. A trip to the emergency room revealed that I had pancreatitis. I ended up spending eight days in the hospital, on seven of which I was not allowed to eat or drink. Nutrients were provided through an IV. For a time they put me on oxygen, and Demerol was the only pain relief that worked.
Of course, once I was released to go home, I was extremely weak and spent several more days recuperating in my own bed. But, because my employer allows me to work from home, I was able to go back to my job the next week, completing my duties as best I could.
What that illness meant was that there we were, in mid-July, basically starting from scratch on our conditioning work toward our Grand Canyon hike. As soon as my strength returned we began taking walks in a local park in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, making two five mile hikes through that area. Next we progressed to hikes up into the Wasatch Range itself, making the strenuous climbs up to Lake Blanche and Desolation Lake on separate trips.
We also felt that we needed a few one-night backpacking trips to get ourselves conditioned to being under the weight of a pack. So we made a trip down to Bryce Canyon National Park and completed the nine mile Rainbow Loop Trail, with a one-night stopover at Riggs Spring. It’s amazing how many little things one forgets in just a few years. Mostly efficiency types of things, like where to store certain items, how to adjust the straps properly, the arrangement of contents for best balance, etc.
We also tried out our old Coleman Peak 1 white gas stove, at home, just before this trip. I accidentally overfilled the chamber with liquid gas, so when we started pumping and opened the valve and lit the fire we had flames engulfing the entire stove. There were a few scary moments as we tried to douse the flames on that potential bomb. I believe we finally smothered it with a metal bucket. And Anne, being the practical one, then read the instructions, which hadn’t been reviewed in several seasons, and discovered my mistake. So, needless to say, we were just a bit apprehensive about using the stove on the Bryce trip.
Dehydrated Meals
Instead of Anne dehydrating our meals, as in the previous Grand Canyon trip, we decided to buy commercially prepared dehydrated food. There was just too much going on at home and no time to fiddle with dehydration trays and food preparation and packaging. And we were surprisingly rewarded by some pretty good tasting meals. We tried Peasant Omelet for breakfast and Black Bean Enchilada Pie (or something like that) for dinner. They were both excellent. We also had Cinnamon Apple Crisp for dessert. Of course, everything tastes great after a day on the trail.
That trip went well until our climb out of the canyon. I struggled a bit near the end, losing energy, and became concerned that perhaps I wouldn’t be ready for the big trip when the time came. I increased my workouts at home, on the treadmill, and we bought a small stair-stepper exercise machine to help strengthen our calves and knees.
Zion National Park
Our next big trip was to Zion National Park, where we completed a one-night backpack up Echo Canyon and the East Rim Trail to Cable Mountain Overlook. We estimated that our packs weighed approximately 50 pounds each; quite a load, but we had to carry all of the water that we needed for the next day and a half. We surprised ourselves and climbed the entire set of switchbacks at the beginning of the trail within 30 minutes, without stopping. That was encouraging. But, the most difficult section was yet to come; the climb up the East Rim Trail to the top of the plateau. On that steep stretch the weight of the packs really bit into our shoulders and our legs were definitely tired by the time we reached camp. Cable Mountain Overlook was a bit over eight miles one way, so we calculated that the total hike was just under 17 miles round trip.
The hike down went well, and we made it through the switchbacks okay, but, to be honest, my knees were a bit shaky by the time we reached the trailhead. Going down for me, with my bad knees, is almost always as bad, or worse, than climbing up.
The thing that made that Zion trip less fun was the fact that we had to carry all of our water. That was a real pain. So when it came time for our next trip, water availability was a major issue.
Bryce Canyon National Park
On our previous trip to Bryce Canyon we realized that the only trail within the park that we had not hiked was the 22 mile long Under the Rim Trail, running from Rainbow Point to Bryce Point. Originally, we intended to do that hike as a one night backpack, with a stay at one of the campsites below the rim. But after checking the recent weather for that area, we suspected that the marked springs might be dry. So, still needing a long set of hikes to make sure we were ready for The Canyon, we decided to do the Under the Rim Trail in two relatively equal day hikes. Of course, because we had to use the access trails to do this, it increased the total length of the hike to 25 miles. As it turned out they were a nice pair of hikes.
So ... we were ready (or as ready as we were going to be) for the big hike. We took the next weekend off from hiking to make sure we didn’t develop any last minute blisters and to take care of some chores around the house.
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