Day 2 –
South Kaibab Trail
September 4, 2008
Stats
Miles: 8.23
Time: 9:45 am – 3:00 pm
Elevation Loss: 4,714
It is glorious to wake up at 6:30 am, pull open the curtains and look out at our first view of the Canyon at sunrise. Wow. We check the outside temps and dress quickly so we can go to the El Tovar Hotel for breakfast. Expensive and delicious. The coffee is exquisite, rivaling the coffee at the Prime Roast in Keene. After breakfast we walk down to the Bright Angel Lodge to register with the folks there for our Phantom Ranch stay. I log onto a computer and started searching for hotels near the airport – find one – Best Western Airport Inn and make the reservation. This will take the pressure off and we can stay in the Canyon for as long as we want on the 9th.
Afterward we stop at the Bright Angel Curio shop. I buy some electrolyte replacement mix and a couple of t-shirts while Nancy buys a fleece jacket to keep her warm on the north rim. Here we meet Dick from Illinois – a seasonal worker who lives in an RV and is incredibly helpful and friendly – he gives us lots of inside information about places to hike, cool overlooks, and other stuff. We part, head back to our room, pack up and bring our suitcases to the El Tovar for them to store until we return. Then we hop on a shuttle bus to the South Kaibab trailhead.
We are on the trail by 9:45 am, boots tight and our packs – oh my god – our packs weigh a ton. I’m shocked – as soon as we start walking I know I have over packed – what the hell was I thinking bringing a book (a heavy one) and a journal (when a couple of pieces of paper would have sufficed). Too late now. I suck in my gut, tighten the hip belt and step out into our adventure.
The South Kaibab Trail is 7 miles of steep downhill with views every step of the way. No water along the trail. We know we have to carry our own – another reason why the packs are heavy. I have two liters of water in my hydration sack that’s stored in my backpack, a liter of water in a Nalgene bottle, and a liter of Gatorade. I don’t fool around with water in the Canyon. It takes us almost 20 minutes to walk 100 yards – the beauty of the trail, the flowers, the views and the excitement have us exclaiming aloud and taking pictures every few seconds.
Eventually we settle into a rhythm and start down into the depths of the Canyon. It’s like climbing an inverted mountain – first down to the summit and then up to the base. I like that analogy. The South Kaibab Trail runs along the spine of a ridge with little shade and total exposure to the elements and to views of the Canyon. We are both in heaven with the beauty surrounding us. How can a place like this exist in the same country that also hosts the rugged, rocky, rooty trails in the White Mountains where green is the dominant color instead of pale reds, grays, tans, and teals? What an incredible place, this country, to have such diversity of landscape and geological history! We are walking down to the Colorado River through millions of years of history – history so old that in the context of time the millions of years that the dinosaurs roamed the earth is only 10 days in the context of the geology in the Canyon.
We see a few hikers coming up after doing short hikes down to the various viewpoints. With so much water in my system, I use the facilities whenever they’re available. We see a ranger down at Cedar Ridge and he keeps eyeing us until he finally asks if we have a backcountry permit – we say no, that we’re staying an Phantom Ranch and he lets us go, but not before asking if we have plenty of food and water for the trek down. When we leave Cedar Ridge we circumnavigate O’Neill Butte before coming down to Skeleton Point. There we find a perfect lunch spot and our first view of the Colorado River. We take off boots and socks and sit in the shade and eat our apples and carrots and trail mix and anything else we can find. We are hungry girls.
We stay there maybe a half an hour or longer – Nancy’s feet are starting to give her some blister symptoms and my toes aren’t happy at being crunched into the toe box – I shouldn’t have worn low shoes – I can’t tie them tight enough to the ankle to hold the foot back from the toe box like I can with a boot. No matter – the day is warm and cloudless and we are in the Grand Canyon. Whoo Hooo!
Shortly after we leave our lunch spot I start feeling the effects of the constant downhill plunge. I hate going downhill anyway, and even though I have fresh legs, I feel the effects of the constant braking in my calves, quads and hip flexors – part of it is the heavy pack and part is the steepness of the trail, despite the switchbacks. When pain enters the picture, I usually become quiet and withdraw into myself. While I don’t do a total withdrawal, I do lose some of the excitement I felt early on. Nancy says she feels strong and I can tell she’s good to go. I feel like a wimp and a loser and I hate, absolutely hate, feeling like a wimp.
We check out every view, even when it means an extra walk – they’re all worth it – absolutely gorgeous. When we arrive at Panorama Point, Nancy wants to sit – she’s mesmerized by the view of the River and the drama of the moment. Unfortunately, I’m unable to get out of my own head, and I allow the pain and tiredness in my body rule the moment. I don’t want to sit down with my pack on, knowing how hard it will be to get back up, and I don’t even consider taking it off – I want to be down and done for the day. What I really could have used is a kick in the ass – Jesus, look at the view and take a moment to sit and absorb it – incredible! But no, I stay in my head, trapped in my nervous system instead of being in my heart and I allow the pain and exhaustion in my muscles to rule the moment. We don’t stay very long and reluctantly Nancy gets up and starts moving down the trail. As it turns out, this is a critical moment for both of us – she wants to stay there and be in the moment and I’m not able to and she doesn’t ask for the time and I don’t allow myself to see that she wants to stay so badly.
Shortly thereafter we arrive at the black bridge and the Colorado River – it’s hot and I’m exhausted as we walk the last half mile up to Phantom Ranch. Through my tiredness it feels like a homecoming seeing the familiar corrals and cabins and the main lodge at Phantom Ranch. We take off our packs and go inside the cool air of the lodge to check in and buy some lemonade (Lemmy’s). We’re assigned to dorm 15 and head off to claim our bunk. Since we are arriving late most of the bunks have been taken so Nancy ends up with a lower bunk next to the door and I’m on an upper bunk across from her. The “dorm” consists of five sets of bunk beds, a sink, a shower room and a toilet room. Not much space for packs and gear. We take off our shoes and put on flip flops before walking to Bright Angel Creek that flows next to the Ranch. We sit on a rock and put our feet in the cold water. Ahhhh – Nancy’s blisters are talking to her and are very happy to be in the water after a long day of being chafed. I bring my leftover Gatorade to put in the creek to cool off and as I’m squatting down to put it in, I feel a sharp pain in my left knee. It’s so sharp it’s nauseating. I immediately stand up and take my weight off it – petrified that something has finally torn in there. But the pain eases away and a few minutes later I am back to normal. That scares me though – my knees have been used hard in my life – my right one had the meniscus removed so it is bone on bone and the left one has clicking and grinding noises that sometimes cause me pain and sometimes do not. I have little time bombs for knees, never knowing when one is going to give out. I feel relieved as the pain ebbs, although I can feel that something has happened and that I shouldn’t try squatting for the next few days.
After some time by the creek, we decide to go shower and dress in clean(er) clothes. We have reservations for the early dinner and spend the time between the shower and dinner sitting on a bench facing the creek and the walls of the Bright Angel Canyon where Phantom Ranch is located. The sun setting behind the Canyon walls is beautiful. Then the bats come out and start feasting on insects – bless them. Dinner is at 5:00 pm and consists of steak, baked potatoes, corn, peas and carrots, cornbread, salad, and tea or water – dessert is chocolate cake. I eat it all, steak, potato, potato skin, cornbread, veggies and cake. I can almost feel my body processing the food into energy as fast as I shovel it in. However, the chairs they have for us to sit at the tables are the worst, I repeat, the worst and most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat in. They are too low and the seats are rawhide interlaced into a pattern of squares – the rawhide has stretched over the years and bowed down – my rear end barely fits and the wooden sides of the chair digs into my already tired hips. I think they keep those chairs so folks will eat fast and get out of there so they can prepare the second meal serving.
After dinner we return to our bench and stay outside talking until full darkness descends. Back to the dorm to get ready for bed. It’s only 8:30 when we turn off the light and settle in. We sleep okay, not great – strange bed, strange noises, and overtired legs contributed to a less than ideal sleeping night. But we manage to rest until the 4:30 am knock on our door: “It’s 4:30 – breakfast will be served at 5 o’clock.”