This hike began when Anne and I mentioned to my sister Sue and her husband Dan that we were toying with the idea of another hike across the Grand Canyon. They were both excited by the prospect and asked to go along. Then Anne’s sister, Janine, “signed on.” Later, my nephews, Matt and Andy, wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. The big family outing moved into the planning stages.
Later, Anne and I were camping in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument with two of my friends from Denver, Mark and Rocket. We discussed our plans and Mark jumped at the chance. Rocket passed, indicating the view from the rim was just fine by her.
At that point there were eight of us, causing us a bit of concern about obtaining a permit. Any party of more than six individuals is considered a “Large Group” and may camp only in special sites reserved for large parties. That isn’t all bad, because those sites are large enough to accommodate parties of maybe ten to fifteen, but, on the down side, there is generally only one group site in each campground. Competition for those sites would be rough.
However, near the end of January, before we had to obtain our permits, Matt and Andy dropped out. At their age there are many things that are more exciting and enticing than hiking across a hot, dusty canyon with “old” aunts and uncles.
Backcountry Permits
In preparation for the trip, Anne and I drove down from Utah to the North Rim and camped during the first week of October 1995. Our main focus was securing the necessary back country permit. However, the Ranger at the Backcountry Office told us that the rules had changed since our trip in 1991. Under the latest rules we could not register until February 1st for a June hike. Obviously, we were disappointed, but did enjoy the pleasant autumn weather and practically had the campground to ourselves. One of the more interesting moments was when two wild turkeys strolled through the campground, taking their time and enjoying the scenery. Wild animals are always exciting.
We could have mailed in our request for a permit, but the permits are given out on a first come, first served basis. Any mailed requests could not be postmarked before February 1st. That meant they wouldn’t be received until the 3rd or 4th, and who knows how soon they would be handled. So, to expedite the process and assure ourselves the dates we wanted, Anne and I drove down to the South Rim at the end of January 1996.
This was during that period when Congress and the President were playing politics with the Federal Budget and had closed down the Government on two occasions. They were threatening to do it a third time, and if so, the closures would take effect February 1st. The national parks, being operated by the Federal Government, were directly affected by the closures. Obviously we were concerned about the possibility of driving down there for nothing.
Fortunately, the benevolent forces within our Government saw fit to come to an agreement, and our mid-Winter journey went as planned.
We left Sandy, Utah on Tuesday evening, January 30, about 4:45 p.m. and headed south to Cedar City. Normally a 3.5 hour drive, we spent 4.5 hours on the road because of heavy snow and ice.
By Wednesday morning the weather had cleared and we made it to the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim by about 2:00 p.m. By the time we had reached the East Entrance the weather had taken another turn for the worse. We ran into rain, snow, and fog all along the rim drive.
As nasty as it was to drive in that weather, we were excited to see The Canyon under those conditions. There was a fascinating display of shades of gray as the clouds flowed with invisible currents, falling over the canyon rim in one area and rising over the precipice farther on. And it was wonderful how few tourists were about. There were absolutely no parking hassles, the Bright Angel Café was practically empty, and we could take our time peering into the canyon without being jostled by throngs of humanity wanting a peek and a photo. Our only disappointment was that the trails were too wet and muddy for us to hike. We wimped out when it came to hiking in the rain, snow, and cold, admitting to ourselves, right then, that we are hot weather hikers.
On Thursday morning, February 1st, we drove through the cold and snow from our room at the Lodge to the Backcountry Office. We pulled into the lot at 7:30 a.m., knowing that the office didn’t open until 8:00. We had heard stories of long lines of hikers waiting to obtain permits. When we walked up to the porch there were already seven people ahead of us. Yet, when the doors to the office opened, everyone was served quickly and we had no problem getting the dates we wanted. The Ranger even issued the permit, so we wouldn’t have to check in at the Backcountry Office on the day of the hike. That was one rule change we liked.
Bim-bam we were in and out. We spent the rest of the day checking out the snowy views, the tourist empty gift shops, and the Visitor’s Center and museums. After lunch we took a pleasant nap in our room. It was nice to relax after the tensions of winter driving.
On Friday morning we headed out before dawn, drove through thick fog and over icy roads, then broke out into the clear somewhere west of Cameron. It’s eerie driving along a winding snow-packed road, especially when you can’t see clearly because of fog and darkness, and knowing that there is a deep chasm to your left. Even though there were two of us in the car, and we were playing music, there was a spooky sense of isolation. Well … spooky and wonderful at once. In these crowded modern times we don’t get to experience that sensation very often.
Later we read in the Salt Lake Tribune that Governor Symington of Arizona had enlisted the Arizona National Guard in a weak attempt to take over Grand Canyon National Park during one of the earlier government closures. He wanted to turn the Grand Canyon into an Arizona state park because he thought the State could manage it better. That would have been a tragedy.
Conditioning
Then it was time to get ready for the hike. The first item on our agenda was to get into shape and try to get conditioned for the rigors of the trail—a difficult thing to do when the snow is flying. I usually worked out five days a week, from about 4:30 until 5:30 a.m. I started with a few aerobic stretching exercises, then did 60 sit-ups and 20 leg bends. Then I did 500 steps on the stair stepper, 3 kilometers on the Nordic Track, 500 more steps on the stair stepper, and finished with 50 strokes on the rowing machine. Anne had a similar routine.
In March we took a weekend and camped in Zion National Park and hiked the East Rim Trail. In early April we hiked 10 miles round trip, up into the Corner Canyon area near Draper, Utah. The trail was mostly a gravel and dirt road that wasn’t really too steep. But it gave us a chance to stretch out a bit. We averaged about three to four miles per hour. On that hike I tightened my boots, but still got a slight blister on my left heal. We tried out new socks, and they seemed to work well.
Later in April we had to postpone our planned backpacking trip to Kolob Arch, in Zion National Park, because the whole state was covered in a huge storm. We received several inches of snow in Sandy. We were just glad that it hit before we got out into the wilderness. We always go prepared for bad weather, but that doesn’t make it fun. After a long, cold Winter we wanted some sun.
We did two backpacking trips to get ready for the Big One. The first was on the weekend of April 27-28, in the Kolob Section of Zion National Park. Our second backpacking trip of that season was over the weekend of May 11-12. Again it was in Zion National Park, but beginning from Lava Point, across Horse Pasture Plateau, generally eastward along the West Rim Trail. After both trips we were really tired by the time we made it out. I also had several blisters on my toes and on my left foot, below my big toe. That concerned me. I could not afford blisters on the six-day cross canyon hike coming up in June. We figured we still had conditioning work to do before the Grand Canyon trip.
After we arrived home, Dan called. He had been working with their equipment and found that the compartment on Sue’s internal frame pack was too small to accept her sleeping bag. We discussed several options.
He also expressed concern about their conditioning, noting that they were having trouble getting out to hike and backpack because of the almost constant rain back in Nebraska. Anne and I were becoming a bit concerned that the upcoming hike might be more difficult for all of us than we had envisioned.
Next > Friday, May 31, 1996 (Preparations) |
