Grand Canyon from the backpacker's eyes

I was getting lazy to put up this post, specially since it was going to be a long one, but at CAR's insistence I'll do it. Also it's good to have a record of the trek and hopefully it'll help others plan a similar trip. You can have a look at the pics here

So the first step to backpacking in the Grand Canyon begins 3-4 months before the actual trip. That's when you apply for your backpacking permits as only a limited number of people are allowed into the canyon every day. If you're planning to go on a long weekend (as most people are), then you need to apply for your permits even more in advance so that you get reservations at the campgrounds of your choice. The backcountry camping information at the NPS website is a very good resource that you should use for planning the trip. We had permits for camping the first night at the Bright Angel Campground and the second night at the Indian Garden Campground.

The rest of my gang was flying in directly to Las Vegas while I was going to drive from San Diego with all the equipment. Expecting holiday traffic I left San Diego at about 2:15 in the afternoon. A brush fire on the way made things even more difficult as there was bumper-to-bumber traffic for almost 10 miles. And 3 hours later I was just 50 miles from home with 280 more miles to go. I eventually made it into Las Vegas by 10 pm. By the time we had dinner and did grocery shopping (mainly gatorade and stuff for next morning's breakfast) it was almost 1 am and it was 4 1/2 more hours to the South Rim.

The rest of the guys decided to take turns at the wheel. I'd already had enuf of driving for the day ! The idea was that everyone gets some sleep so as to be (somewhat) fresh for the strenous trek in the morning. Anyway, since we were meeting after such a long time we chatted on for a long time and I hardly got any sleep through the journey even after forcing my eyes shut for half an hour. Now the temperatures in the inner canyon are extreme between 10 am and 3 pm and the time to get to the river via the South Kaibab trail is 4-6 hrs. So the latest you should start trekking down the canyon is 7am so as to avoid the peak heat, and the earlier, the better. Our other option was to wait till 3pm the next day to start our trek. While this option looked feasible we would end up reaching our campsite at nightfall. We were all carrying flashlights and were prepared for this option but we preferred the travel in the morning.

So we reached the South Rim close to 5:30 am, freshened up, distributed the load amongst all the backpacks and were all ready and raring to go by 6:45 am. We took the bus to the South Kaibab trailhead and were ready to begin our hike at 7:15 am. The only hitch was that we'd hardly had any sleep in past 24 hours. Would our high spirits and enthusiasm make up for that ? We all hoped so. So the destination for the day was the Bright Angel Campground which is just across the Colorado river. The South Kaibab trail is pretty steep and you climb down 4700 ft over 7.1 miles. After being awed by the sheer size of the canyon and taking a few customary start pics we were on our way.

Our first break was after 45 min, the next after 30 mins and then the frequency of breaks kept on increasing as we got more tired and the sun got hotter. The steep, step like jumps all the way on the trail are really harsh on the ankle and knees and you have to be careful so that you don't twist your ankle. Also keeping yourself hydrated is very important. I'd recommend keeping a bottle of water/gatorade right in your hand (as opposed to in the backpack) and taking a sip every 5 min. So in between admiring the wonderful scenery, singing songs, a lot of water / trailmix breaks, clicking snaps, calls of nature, tired legs, motivational words, headaches and emotional outbursts, we managed to reach the colorado river at 1 pm. In a sense we were lucky coz we got some cloud cover in the final hour or so when actully the heat would have been at it's peak. Here's a link to a nice cartoon by jammy which explains our condition on the South Kaibab trail.

I dunno about the others but I was totally zapped of energy. Maybe it was even more so coz of the lack of sleep. I just wanted to cool off, have something to eat and crash. And I did exactly that. There was a stream (Bright Angel creek) running right by the campsite and we sat in there for a while. The water was super-cool and it felt heavenly ! Next was a very quick meal comprising mutter paneer, chana masala and navarathan korma. Yes, it was the ready to eat packets that we had carried. We were loo lazy to heat up the rotis but the sun and the steel plates did a good job at that. We were not carrying tents and hence we made our shelter by suspending a tarp as the roof which would protect us in case it rains. And after that I crashed. I got up briefly for dinner and crashed again.

The next morning I was feeling great, the sleep had done a lot of good to my body. The plan was to spend the day by the Colorado river and then start off for our next destination, The Indian Campground, by 3 pm. Phantom Ranch is just a 5 min walk from the campground and you get excellent breakfast there. So we went in and were treated to bagel with cream cheese and hot cocoa. It's the best bagel i've had, and i'm sure others will agree. We then took our sleeping pads and went down to the river. The temperature by now was 108 F and the water of the colorado was freezing cold. I could hardly stay in the water for 10 seconds. But it felt wonderful. So we generally spent time lazing around on the beach. Also discovered antother nice part of the Bright Angel creek and spent time cooling off in natures jaccuzi. Just a note that we saw three indian groups at the campsite and I also ran into a friend from my undergraduate college in Pune. What a coincidence !

We were back on the Bright Angel trail , and heading for the Indian Garden Campground by 3 pm. It's about a 5 mile hike with a 1300 ft elevation gain. That shouldn't be too hard to handle. But it turns out that the trail goes up, then goes down, then up and again down and eventually the 1300 ft elevation gain is very misleading. We concluded that the term "net elevation gain" should be specified for each trail ! The route itself was very beautiful, going along the colorado river for a while and we came across several small waterfalls and streams along the way. Again at the end of the trek we had just enough energy to cook some food (maggi noodles and flavored rice this time) and crash. From our camping spot we could see the lights on the south rim far away in the distance. They seemed very far away. I was wondering if my sore legs would carry me all the way to the top. Just before crashing we started evaluating the chances of a shower in the night and concluded that whatever the answer no one had the energy / patience to put up our tarp roof. Also we had a point that it hadn't rained the night before. So we just crashed without any cover and as if too prove us wrong there sure was a shower in the night. Luckily it was at 4:00 am and it was almost time for us to get up to begin our final ascent out of the canyon.

We had some more food and hot coffee before hitting the trail at 6:00 am. Sleep really does wonders. I could feel the life back in my legs. The final destination didn't seem that far anymore. And really the hike back wasn't bad at all. It might be strenous but it's not hard on your knees / ankles and you feel more in control. Also we knew that there was water at a couple of points along the trail so we were carrying just 1/2 a gallon of water per head as opposed to the 1 gallon on the South Kaibab trail. That took some load off form the backpacks and also the fact that we had consumed our food made the backpacks a bit lighter. The views while going up are breathtaking and I really enjoyed this part of the trek. And by noon we were at the top, much earlier that we had expected. We were however drenched in sweat and mud and nothing seemed better than taking a nice hot shower.

So after a nice hot shower and a hearty meal in the cafeteria we were back on our way to Vegas. After dropping off these guys at the airport I still had some way to go. I started off at 11 pm and soon realised that I was too tired and drowsy to drive all through the night. So I pulled up at a gas station, removed the blanket from my backpack and slept off right in the car ! Early next morning, energized by a donut and coffee, I made it back to san diego in less than 5 hrs. That was the end to an adventure that i'll not forget in a hurry.