Sunday, April 11.
14.6 miles.
Grand Canyon day! *airhorn sounds*
That is how I woke up Jack and Jordan, much to their annoyance. I got an early since we had a long day ahead of us and I was eager to get to the Grand Canyon.
Easy mile or so warm up to the Saddle Mountain Trailhead. I think later in the year I would have rather camped right at the trailhead. We opted to camp a bit before so any lingering snow could warm up a bit. In hindsight, this was a good idea. The trailhead did have some awesome campspots though, maybe a little exposed but with amazing views of the Grand Canyon below.
There’s a little haze which obscured the canyon a bit but it still looked stunning. The haze made it seem not real, like a background painting in an old movie set. It’s still surreal to be doing something like the Hayduke and to be looking at something so, well, grand.
We spent a few minutes getting ready (mostly by shitting in the nearby forest and listening to Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin”) and then headed down the trail into the heart of the Grand Canyon. Except we didn’t immediately go down. Instead, we had a unexpected short but steep climb up for a bit to a ridge with some nice views. We dropped down on the north side of ridge and that’s when things started to suck.
The north facing slope still had snow on it and it was pretty deep. We spent like an hour trying to go a half mile through the snow. There was a register at the trailhead and the last person to go through here was the first Hayduke hiker of the season, two weeks ago which meant no one had kicked in steps since then (side note: the person who went through two weeks ago started mid February and holy shit she’s a badass for starting that early and getting here when it was probably still snowed in). Guess who got to posthole their way the snow?
I’ve mentioned this one or twice or everytime I run into snow on my adventures but I fucking hate snow. It’s cold and makes your feet wet and cold and takes forever to get through (if you don’t have snowshoes, I like snowshoeing actually). But I figured someone had to kick in steps for everyone else and since I made the mistake of being in front of Jack and Jordan, it might as well be me. It was as annoying as always, made worse by there being thorny mesquite shrubs all over. I postholed right into a bramble at one point and got a ton of thorns in my palms. The slope was also pretty steep which made it that much more exciting everytime I sank it the snow and almost fell down.
There was one incredibly sketchy section where the snow was very steep and in the shade so not soft enough to kick in steps. I had to do some very precarious toe swaps to get through it. Jordan and Jack took a more bushwhacky way down which I probably should have.
We eventually made it through the north facing slope to the official Nankoweap Trailhead. The trail from that point was all south facing which meant no snow, hur-fucking-ray.
The first half of the Nankoweap Trail was fucking awesome. We didn’t drop much, mostly hiking steadily down along the edge of the canyon. We contoured our way down past some massive redstone walls and cliffs. The Nankoweap is supposed to be the “hardest named trail in Grand Canyon National Park” but it honestly wasn’t that bad. I could definitely see how some of the exposure might scare people but it didn’t really bother me. There were no big pour offs or sudden cliffs. At the end of the day it’s still a maintained national park trail so not a big deal. There were two very small rockfall sections and I wish they were longer or there were more of them to make it more interesting.
Jack was ahead of us all the way down, little spry mountain goat that he is. He’s finally carrying less water so he’s moving pretty fast now, especially on the downhills. I caught up when he stopped for lunch and we at a ledge overlook. There was another hiker there too but he didn’t seem to be interested in talking to us.
We waited for Jordan who wasn’t too far behind but got worried when he didn’t show up. The ledge we were on had another above it and I think that’s where he stopped to eat but couldn’t see us. His knees had been bothering him on the descent and his shoes also had had the tread wear down a lot from the road walk so he was taking is slow going down.
After lunch, Jack went ahead again. I was determined to keep up with him especially since I love downhills and needed to get to the next reliable water source since I was running low. While the trail up to that point that been pretty mellow, the trail below got a lot dicier. We hadn’t descended much in the first few miles which meant we had a lot of elevation loss left. We got it pretty quickly on some steep switchbacks. The trail also changed texture, going some chunky red stone blocks and dirt to more gravely loose scree.
On maybe the third or fourth switchback I slid hard and ate shit. I slammed hard into the ground on my knees but thankfully managed to not slide down too far. My knees were both pretty scraped up but worse was that my left knee got a deep bruise. It was so painful heading down the steep trail especially with having to go slow to not fall again.
My knees hurt like hell until I couldn’t take it and had to pop two ibuprofen. I haven’t had to take any on trail so far and was bummed I had had such a stupid accident. That’s what I get for getting cocky and thinking the trail was too easy.
The descent was so slow with my busted knees. Normally I would have run down the goddamn thing but struggled so much to go the last two miles to the creek. Since I was slower than expected, I also ran low on water. I was down to my last few sips when I reached the point where the trail flattened out. I popped some gum in my mouth (my go to trick to keep my mouth from drying out) and powered the last little bit to the creek. The ibuprofen plus the flatter trail made my knees feel a little better. So did sitting down and spending too much time filtering water with my shitty slow filter.
Jack had gotten there a bit before me and had talked to some other hikers who were nearby. A group of them were geologist surveying the area. They told him a basalt mound right behind him was 1.4 billion years old, a ridiculous little bit of info.
He’d also talked to two rafting guides who were hiking up the creek. Unfortunately, they were were a commercial operation and because of covid couldn’t take us down the river but they mentioned there was a private party at the camp area who probably would. Very exciting prospect.
The recommended ferry point across the Colorado River is around 10 miles down river from the point where the Nankoweap Creek meets the Colorado. It’s also supposed to be a terrible bushwhack to get there. We were really hoping for a rafting party to be willing to take us the 10 miles down to the Little Colorado confluence and spare us the bushwhack.
From the creek water source, we hiked a few thankfully flat miles to the Colorado River. The section between Nankoweap Creek and the Colorado is one of my new favorite sections on the Hayduke. It was so pretty. Layered canyon walls and textured slickrock. A little bit of route finding as the trail meandered across the creek. And then at the end, it opened up to the mighty Colorado itself.
It took me a second to find Jack between all the video and picture taking. I walked past a group of rafters, asking them if they had seen a pirate wander by. They weren’t charmed by this and told me where Jack was. They didn’t seem to be very socialable so I didn’t try to talk to them much. I found Jack’s tent but no Jack. He had been there long enough to go to all the rafting parties nearby and ask for a hitch tomorrow. Two were commercial operations who couldn’t do it. One of them said they would try to ask the owner who was there but we didn’t follow up with them. The private party, the not social one I had passed, told Jack they could give one person a ride since they only had one extra life jacket. I think Jack may have been a little too forward with asking for a hitch and maybe put them off. They didn’t invite us to join which was okay with me but seem to bother Jack. Jack asked if it was okay if he took the ride which was fine with me. I’m pretty jealous and wish they had been able to give the three of us a ride but at least one of us will get the hitch.
Jordan made it to camp and we filled him in. I think he and I are both pretty bummed about not getting a hitch especially since the next 10 miles are gonna suck to hike but oh well. We had planned to hike and try to hitch further down anyway so this doesn’t change our plan really. The rafting party did offer to slackpack us though and take our stuff with them down the river but since we don’t have as much food left and will access to water all day, we’re not gonna take them up. I don’t feel too comfortable not having my stuff or extra food with me in here so would rather not risk it. The plan now is to get up early before it gets too hot and hike the 10 miles to the ferry point as soon as possible. Maybe we’ll be able to beat one of the parties here to the ferry point and they’ll feel bad for us and ferry us across. Seems doubtful but who knows.
Lack of hitch aside, what a fucking amazing day. I’m laying in my bivy on a warm beach right next to the Colorado River inside the Grand fucking Canyon listening to the nearby rapids and the bats fluttering overhead. The sky is clear and I can see so many stars above the silhouette of the canyon walls. And I’m warm! There’s a soft warm wind blowing every so often and it feels so nice.
There are days like today where I wish I could talk to my younger self, that sad little brown kid who was so depressed and suicidal and thought he had nothing to live for and just describe to him what my life is like now. The kind of days I get to live now. It’s fucking wild.
Plants Outside 