Iam really not sure how.... but through some means the idea of 'hiking down the Grand Canyon' planted itself in to my head. Well I was running(actually to other observers in the park it was a mere jog...something little faster than walking and definitely a lot slower than running) 2 miles a week, I was able to do this 2 mile run....jog...-what ever U call it - nonstop even after a break of 4 months or so. This must have gotten to my head and I thought that I was the fittest dudette in the whole big world! Now that I was totally convinced that I was ULTRA'fit', I casually mentioned it to Ramkumar, when we were talking about the Grand Canyon, 'I don't think I want to go and peek in to the canyon like the ordinary crowd does.... I want to make a difference.... I want to hike down and up the canyon. I think it is the perfect way to get to know the canyon better'. I didn't even make a meek attempt to get to know Ramkumar better in the post engagement/pre wedding times and I wanted to get to know some hot, dry, dusty canyon better... Well the Gods must have been truly against me the time I uttered this statement, 'cos Ramkumar immediately said yes!
Then we started making reservations, getting gear, booking tickets, did a lot of reading, decided which trail to use and when to use...I even got myself a new wardrobe but we didn't train for the hike! Why do the super fit people need training??! Days passed and we set out for our ultimate hiking adventure on July21, 2001.
July 21,2001: Our flight was at 7:30AM and we planned to leave our house at 6.00AM. We set the alarm and went to sleep. Little did we know that the alarm must be turned ON for it to go ON, we probably thought setting it wud do the trick! When we got up the digits 6.00 was peering right in to our face. We left in a jiffy, reached the airport at 7.00AM only to find the the whole population of San Jose assembled in front of us checking their baggage in! So we ran back down to the curb, did a curbside check in and finally boarded. We had oothappam and chilli powder for breakfast.
In Vegas we didn't do much, the whole of Saturday we just walked up and down the strip. I hated being inside the casinos. The cigarette smell was irritating me like crazy. The only casino we loved was The Bellagio, we were amazed by the interior decor. We went to our hotel rooms, rested, had dinner (chapathi and tomato gravy), changed and came back to Ballys to watch The Jubilee.
July 22, 2001: The next day we had got up had the idli and chill powder I had packed and started for the Grand Canyon.'Oh.... Grand Canyon from Vegas?.... It is just 1 hr away... very close by...'. This is what people told us. Yep one hour if U drove at supersonic speed! We kept close to the speed limit 'cos my colleague had warned me, 'The main source of revenue for the the county between Vegas and GC, is from speeding tickets'. So we did 65 mph stopped for lunch on the way in some restaurant, the only best thing about the place was that it was on Route66 and we reached GC in 5 hrs.
We stopped at a vista point to look at the canyon. For an ordinary observer it was hot, huge, pretty, colorful and calm. Nice Canyon I said to myself and off we went straight to the Bright Angel Lodge. Initially we didn't get vegetarian dinners for Mon night, all we could get was a beef stew dinner and that too our dinner and lunch were in the second seating in Phantom Ranch. Iam not sure if U guys believe in angels, but I do and we luckily we met one called Anne, well she was wearing a park ranger uniform but personally I felt she was an angel just like few other things that looked like angels to me for the couple of days to come. Anne said that there was some veggie dinners available and switched us to the veggie dinner and also to the first seating. She asked us when we plan to start our hike and we said with all the pride we could muster, '7.00AM',all she said was, 'Tsk, Tsk' at first. Then she said that we needed to take a shuttle from the Bright Angel Trail Head to South Kaibab Trail head and the hikers shuttle leaves at 5.00AM from the Bright Angel Lodge. 'Better take that' Anne warned us. We took her pretty seriously. We did a little calculation and then came to the conclusion that we needed to get up at 3.00AM in the morning to catch the hiker's shuttle.
So we went back, packed, stuffed our water bottles, Gatorade, snacks, dry fruits, salt crackers, power bars(yuck), power gels(yuck to the power 2), power goo(yuck to the power yuck), disposable caremas, change of clothes and few other stuff that we thought we might need. I lifted the bag and was amazed! I haven't carried such a huge and heavy back pack since my school days!
July23, 2001: Setting 3 alarm clocks and setting 2 wake up calls in 15 min intervals worked like a magic! We were up and ready by 3.45AM. We carried our bags, cleared the hotel rooms and set off to the Bright Angel Lodge and waited for the hiker's suttle. We boared the hiker's shuttle by 5.00AM sharp and found ourselves standing in front of the South Kaibab Trail head in another 20 min. We glanced around and found that we were not alone. There were 10 to 15 other people around us, all eager to climb down the canyon. We met a couple from Lousiana, they took pictures for us and we for them in front of the trail head. Just before walking we stopped for a min to take the canyon view in, yep it was the same calm and scerene canyon! The sun was already coming up as a firey orange ball. The sunlight played with the canyon walls and was doing some kind of mystic dance. All we could see around us were brilliant reds, oranges and soft greens…all these against the blue of the sky was simply magical to look at. I thought that the canyon was THE most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
We walked for 2 hours, stopping in between to sip water every now and then. There are rest rooms only in two places along the whole trail, so I didn't want to drink too much of water and fill my baldder, so I was quite stingy with the amount of water I drank(..I found out later that this was a BIG,HUGE,HUMONGOUS MISTAKE). Around 7.30AM we stopped at the Ceadr House which was the first rest point in South Kaibab, this was 940 feet below the point we had started our descent. Here we sat down and had the sandwiches I had packed for us. We were yet to wear our insect replellants and sunscreens. The min we sat down we were engulfed in a swarm of very very small insects , which we thought were mosquitoes. We just waved the small piddly things and took a bite of our sandwich. This must have hurt their ego.One piddly thing bit me on my hand and immediately there was a very small drop of blood. The next min, all the other mosquitoes started rushing to the place where there was blood. I was amazed! We immediately rubbed generous portions of insect repellant all over us. After attending to natures call we started walking again. We passed and were passed by the Lousiana couple every now and then. He had brought a flute along, so they stopped and played the flute, the sound reflected along the canyon walls and echoed back. It was as if the canyon was trying to sing along with the flute. Even without the flute, the winds gushing past from one side to another was a language of its own…the canyon's language! The canyon was trying to communicate with the people! Was it a friendly welcome note or a warning?! We were about to find out!
The vegetation itself was different, We saw a type of long stem with flowers one end rising about 5 to 6 foot from the ground. They looked more like a flower's stamen than a plant, so we called them Gaint Stamens!
It was almost half past nine and the sun was shining as if it was noon time. We were telling stories to each other to take our minds off the descent and the heat. After an hour we didn't have any energy or enthusiasm to tell stories to each other. We had already started to meet people coming up - both on mules and by foot. Boy….were the people who were hiking up looked tired! There were no more giant stamens any where to be seen. Infact there weren't any plants at all. The whole place was looking like a desert. We crossed the junction to Tonto trail, we were 3260 feet below the rim. I was not having enough of water and I started succumbing to the sun. Ramkumar looked pretty tired too. I was disoriented, had a splitting head ache and thought I was going to throw up. My shoes were not comfortable. It was a bit cramped near my toes and with the descent things were getting pretty ugly, with every step, my toes were jamming against my shoes and the pain was unbearable. As if all this was not enough I started getting blisters on my heels and few other places in my feet… and I had enuf of the canyon already and we weren't even half way down.
Sheer determination kept us going. Ramkumar found that I was not looking too good , he forced me to have plenty of water and some power goo. I had totally lost my appetite. We rested a lot and our progress was very very slow. Finally around half past 11 we were able to see the foot bridge across the Colarado. The foot bridge looked awfully close, but we had to walk for thirty minutes to reach the bridge. The signs at the other end of the foot bridge said that Phantom Ranch was another mile away from that point. I had almost no energy to continue. Ramkumar helped me to walk the rest of the distance. Finally we reached Phantom Ranch around 12.15 PM. It had taken us total of 5 and a half hours of walking time to cover the 7.5 miles. At this moment the prospect of covering 9.3 miles the next day seemed really bleak to me. But first things first…we needed to go the cafeteria and get something to drink.
We were dehydrated, and our appetite was hiding some where. I got a huge glass of iced lemonade. People believe me or not, this was the best Lemonade I ever had in my lifetime. We stayed in dorms which were located near the Bright Angel creek. These dorms were cooled by the creek water itself. I thought, 'If there is something called heaven, then this is it' and drifted slowly in to sleep. We got up a couple of hours later, drank plenty of water. The sandwich we had brought along was soggy and smelly by them, so we had to throw it away. We got ourselves some bagels from the cafeteria. Ramkumar wanted to go to some ranger talk, but I wanted to sleep some more, so I went back to the room. One piece of advice to the people staying in the canyon, never leave food items open in the droms/rooms. There are these huge red ants that come rushing to UR food and by the time U shake them off UR bag U will be pretty tired! I spent 20 min, shaking and cleaning my bag. I was so tired and shooing the ants was the last thing I wanted to do, but I imagined myself carrying the ant filled bag in the hot sun the next day and the ants coming out and biting me all over, well that gave me the enthusiasm and energy to clean my bag!
Both dinner and breakfast were served in the cafeteria - family style. That is if they say dinner at 5.30 then they mean it. U got to take it pretty seriously and be there by 5.30, if U miss Ur time, they close the door and U don't get UR food. So we assembled in front of the cafeteria by 5.00PM itself. Food was delicious. The vegetarians were served steamed corn, salad, corn bread, butter, sour cream, iced tea, lentil loaf and chocolate cake. I was initially skeptical about the lentil loaf, but it was really good. After dinner we went for a short walk and soaked our blistered feet in the Bright Angel Creek, took a few pictures, made a few acquaintances and went back to the dorm.
We packed for the next day, filled our water bottles and had a shower. We were all set for the next day. All the people we met have done this hike alteast once and they said that the ascent is much better than the descent. So we were very confident of conquering the rest of the canyon. We figured that we will be up by noon and even planned to do some site seeing after that!
The next day we got up had breakfast(eggs, bacon, pancakes, syrup, bread, peaches, orange juice and coffee ) and picked our bags and started hiking out. We crossed the second foot bridge on the Bright Angel creek. We stopped for a few min and took few pictures and started walking. I hadn't walked even for a few miles, already I was huffing and puffing. But Bright Angel Trail is much friendlier that the South Kaibab. U get plenty op shade for atleast half of the trail. There are 4 rest houses on the way to the top. The creek runs along the trail atleast until Indian Garden rest house. This water is not potable but we can wet our caps and kerchiefs and tie it around us to reduce dehydration. A little later when I was hallucinating from the heat , I thought that this creek was another angel, who ever named it deserves a standing ovation.
The Bright Angel Trail was originally an indian trail used by the Havasupai indians to commute between the rim and Indian Garden. Later this trail was improved by prospectors in the late 1800's. One of the miners, Ralph Cameron realizing that the tourist trade was more profitable than the mining trade, bought out his partners and took control of the trail. He extended the trail from Indian Garden to the river and began to charge a toll of $1 for its use. The Park Service constructed the South Kaibab Taril shortly thereafter to provide tourist with a free access path to the river. In 1928, after a long ownership battle with the Mr. Cameron, ownership of the Bright Angel Trail was finally transferred to the National Park Service.
But the hike itself was strenuous as there were many ups and downs and the heavy back pack was not making things easier for us. We were walking through sand stone, limestone and granite formations that were more than 1200 million years old. We reached a section that is nicknamed Devils Cork screw, the ascent past this section was quite steep. I didn't make the same mistake I did the previous day, I was gulping water left and right and was also eating something more often. Also we wetted our clothes, caps and bandanas in water whenever we got a chance. We made good time and we were in Indian Garden rest house by 9.00AM. 4 mile, 3100 feet ascent in 3 hrs , that was pretty decent.
The thermometer showed that the temparature was 110 degree F at 9.30AM, we were zapped. We decided to rest for an hour, have some of the sack luch they had packed for us at Phantom Ranch and head back. While we were refilling water bottles a mule train arrived. The people who came on the mule train were claiming that they were so tired and the descent was so strenuous. I was about say 'Duh' but controlled myself.
We started hiking around 10.30AM. The plan was to hike for another hour or so. By that time we would have reached the 3 mile rest house(3 miles from the rim), the last but one on the way up, rest there till 4.00PM and start our acsent. So we walked briskly, but the sun got the better of us. We drenched ourselves in water and started walking but thanks to the Sun and the radiation from the canyon walls, we were bone dry in 5 min! After the first mile or so, the trail started ascending a little steeper through the red lime stone rocks. We were too tired to take pictures. Since walking was the only way out, we kept walking, praying for the 3 mile rest house to come soon. This area, from the rim to Indian Garden rest house is heavily patrolled by the park rangers. They divide the whole trail in to sections and they keep going to and fro to make sure that the hikers are doing fine and assist some one if they are in need of help. I thought this was pretty good!
Finally we made it to the 3 mile rest house and a good news and a bad news was waiting for us there! The good news was that we have only 3 more miles to reach the rim and he bad news was that the 3 mile rest house was closed for renovation and they were not allowing people anywhere near it! We were so pissed off and disappointed. We thought that the park service must have posted some announcements that the three mile rest house will be closed and that the hikers cannot stop there! We thought that we can lie down in the shade below the trees. We couldn't lie down there for more than 15 min, I started dreaming about rattle snakes and scorpions and then decided that we must start hiking towards the 1.5 mile rest house. We had no choice, we were forced to hike in the sun.
I was telling Ramkumar that I will pretend as if I have fainted and he must beg one of the mule trains to take me in! Whn he refused to do so I was so mad at him. I feet were badly blistered again. Finally after what seemed like eternity, we could see some building structure. After turning a corner we found that it was only a rest room. I thought that the 1.5 mile rest house is actually a rest room. Ramkumar said that we must walk till there and find out, but I refused to budge even an inch. So we decided to sleep on the trail itself. We slept on the road for 45 min and dusted ourselves and started hiking again. We passed that rest room and after a 5 min walk we saw a nice, cool, shaded rest house! I felt so stupid for arguing with Ramkumar and throwing a tantrum!!
We refilled our water bottles in the 1.5 mile rest house. We still had 1.5 miles to go. This last section was a killer. It was very steep and we took 2 hours to cover this last 1.5 miles. I would look at the top , to the rim and feel really depressed that we still have soooooo much distance to walk and Ramkumar was cheering me up telling, 'Look back and feel proud of the distance U have crossed, don't beat urself over how much we still have to do' and I responded back to him with snaps of 'shut ups', 'don't talk to me', 'this is a bad idea, U shouldn't have agreed to this in the first place'. We walked the walk for 2 hours and finally saw the end of the trail. We made it to the top!!
My first doubt on reaching the top was, 'Can I take this back pack off my back?' Cos it seemed to me as if the back pack had become one of my body parts! Anyways we reached the Bright Angel Restaurant and had our dinner there. We celebrated with some champagne and hot spicy Mexican food. Later on our way back to the lodge, we were pretty amazed by even the small small things, for example sitting, then driving in the car. I put some deep fundas like 'If we sit in the car, the car moves and takes U from one place to another, man this is so cool!!!'
Hiking, adventure, showing off Ur fitness, what ever U call it, this experience is one of a kind to us. Only when U get inside the canyon one realizes the might and greatness of the canyon. Personally we were humbled and over whelmed by the canyon. It is no time to show off UR physical fitness, for it is not some huge stupid dry and dusty place, it is very much alive. U have to be friends with the canyon and hike it smartly otherwise U have gotten urself a deadly adversary. This is true for all works of nature - the sea, space, forest, fire, mountains….anything. They keep reminding man that he can be rendered powerless if nature wills.