Hello Friends and Family!
A lot has happened since our last update! We have completed our rim-to-rim-ro-rim tour of the grand canyon, it lasted 5 days altogether, and we hiked a total of 45 miles. (With lots of elevation change!!) After that, we left the Grand Canyon and are now in Flagstaff, 80 miles away. Here is a map of the biking we did: http://goo.gl/maps/QaGt7. And here is a map of the hiking: http://goo.gl/maps/RwppC
Below are our journal entries from these days:
June 3rd:
Today was the day we hiked in to the Grand Canyon! We hiked from the South Rim (elevation ~7250) to Bright Angel Campground (elevation 2400) along the South Kaibab Trail. The trail was 7 miles long, and took us about 5 hours to complete. The views throughout were absolutely stunning. Too stunning for a camera to fully capture (so everyone reading has to do this hike too!). We arrived at camp around 9:30AM and set up camp. Soon after it started to get hot. Really hot. So we jumped in the Bright Angel Creek, as it's the only source of relief from the heat on the canyon floor. About 50 other people joined us and we all hung out in the creek during the heat of the day. Unfortunately, in the evening we witnessed a woman being rapidly evacuated by helicopter for hyponatremic seizures. This means she had inadequate salt intake; most likely a bag of pretzels or salted peanuts during a trail water break would have prevented this event. Furthermore, she and her husband hiked fourteen miles from the North Rim in the heat of the day, most likely beginning their hike after 11 am. VERY dangerous hiking behavior. This was not the first time we saw immense arrogance and inadequate planning on the trail. We made sure that we left early (often waking up at 3 am to begin hiking), rested often, kept out of the sun, stayed hydrated, and ate well.
June 4th:
Today we hiked along the canyon floor from Bright Angel campground to Cottonwood campground. The hike was much less strenuous than the day before - we rose in elevation approximately 1000 feet - but overall the 7 mile hike was flat. We visited Ribbon Falls along the way. We were the first ones to arrive for the day, so we got the most shady campsite (Prime real-estate! Score!). Again, there's nothing much else to do in the heat of the day besides dip in the creek, so we stayed cool there from about noon to 4pm. We went to bed early because we knew tomorrow was our big ascent of the North Kaibab Trail.
Stephen has been writing the email summaries for most of this trip.. So now I (Aoife) am going to take a crack at it!
June 5th:
We got up early and hit the trail hard. The ascent was absolutely breathtaking (because it was beautiful AND an 5000 ft climb). Stephen took a small detour to check out Roaring Springs (Selfie photo "Roaring.Springs.jpg") while Aoife hiked on ahead. Because of its wide elevation range, the Grand Canyon possesses many climate zones. It is said that hiking from the North Rim to the canyon floor is the climate change equivalent to hiking from southern Canada to northern Mexico; as such we saw a large diversity of vegetation and geologic formations. Most interesting were the various oceanic deposits of rock from millions of years ago. Along the trail there are a number of points where there are displays about ancient fossils such as trilobites that can be found embedded in the canyon walls. Fascinating! We finished our climb at 8:30 in the morning exhausted, sweaty, and done for the day. However, we saw many ill-informed hikers departing just as were arriving. Some of them had no water, and most were leaving just as the heat of the day began.
June 6th
Up and at em at three a.m. to begin our fourteen mile hike back to Bright Angel campground. This would be our longest hike of the trip also with the greatest elevation change. The trip was beginning to wear on us; Stephen was not feeling very well and had no appetite (which is, as you know, extremely unusual for Stephen). The downhill was very tough on Aoife's knees. Regardless, we made good time and were at Bright Angel by 12:30 pm. However, that was a solid eight hours of hiking and we were exhausted. Stephen still felt ill so we spoke to a park ranger to explore our options and check in on our health. It was reassuring that he told us we were taking all the right steps and precautions. However, he also told us that they had three helicopter evacuations on that day alone. We wondered how many of them were people we had seen on the trail the day prior, leaving without any provisions and walking straight into a wall of heat and exhaustion...
June 7th
Final day in the canyon. We woke up sluggishly at 4am and began our climb out towards the South Rim. This time we left via the Bright Angel trail, which allowed us to walk in shade for the majority of the morning, as well as pass through Indian Garden. We hit four refueling stations on the way back out (one of the main reasons why this trail is highly recommended for those climbing out of the canyon). We also ran into many ill-prepared day hikers.. meandering down the trail in flip flops without any food or water with high ambitions to hike from the rim down to Indian Garden (this is 9 miles round trip; the 4.5 mile ascent would take approximately 4 hours or more to complete, not counting for the feverish heat of the afternoon). After spending so many days coming to understand the extreme nature of the canyon, we ourselves felt disrespected by the ignorance of those who underestimated its intensity. After being stopped often to ask for estimates on how long such a descent would take, we eventually came to say: "Don't do it. You have no food or water and it is too late in the day", rather than tiptoe around the issue politely and gently suggest that they may not be prepared for the hike ahead. Inadequately prepared hikers are not only a danger to themselves, but also to all the people who are involved in their rescue and subsequent care. BUT WE MADE IT! It felt amazing. We took many photographs and headed back to Mather Campground to rest, rehydrate, and sleeeeeeeeeeep.
June 8th - June 10th
Aoife gets food poisoning. Stephen is exhausted. We decide to stay in the Grand Canyon village for a few more nights. We rest and recover; neither of us have appetites (again, weird for the both of us). We hang out. Lounge at the library.
June 10th
We planned on leaving early in the morning, but Stephen still wasn't feeling well. We discussed alternative options for getting to Flagstaff, but ultimately decided to leave in the evening and do our scheduled ride. We biked 30 miles from Grand Canyon village to just past Valle. Aoife got a flat as the sun was beginning to set. Luckily, we were right by someone's house - a man named Fred who used to work for the Grand Canyon airport services. We asked if we could pitch our tent on his lawn. We wound up sleeping on the floor of his guest bedroom and eating many of his delicious snacks, and left early in the morning to continue our ride.
June 11th
We biked 54 miles to Flagstaff and climbed about 2000 ft. The ride was beautiful, mostly through pine forest with a wonderful view of Humphrey's Peak about 90% of the way. After we hit 8046ft (about 20 miles from Flagstaff), we had mostly flats and downhills as we descended 1000ft into the city itself. We rolled in to Flagstaff and our motel, napped, showered, and then went on the hunt for horchata and good burritos. It had been over a week since we had eaten mexican food.. truly devastating, really.
June 11th - June 13th
Rest days in Flagstaff.
Eating. Sleeping. FIFA world cup. Eating. Sleeping. FIFA world cup. Repeat.
June14th - now
Flagstaff still. Now staying at a Couchsurfer's house (check out the great website couchsurfing.org - a program Aoife used extensively while in eastern Europe) named Marco. More horchata.. More food. More FIFA. More sleep. We bought ingredients and made our own horchata (with almond milk and honey rather than rice milk and sugar - still tastes pretty great). We are doing a lot of cooking - stir fries, oatmeal, bacon and eggs.. Quite nice to have a kitchen again and an extensive spice kit! Today, we plan on spending the afternoon at Lake Mary with Marco, and tomorrow we hope to summit Humphrey's Peak (the highest mountain in Arizona which stands at over 12,000 ft). Then on Wednesday we hope to begin our return to Phoenix!
Happy Trails,
Aoife + Stephen "Horchatas saved us."
P.S. Fun Fact: 'Kaibab' is a Pueblo word meaning 'mountain laying down'.
Some additional photos from this section: