Day 5 –
North Kaibab Trail
September 7, 2008
Stats
Miles: 14
Time: 6:00 am – 2:00 pm
Elevation Loss: 5,760
We are up at 5:00 am to dress, close up our packs, and walk into the chill of the morning to buy coffee and muffins at the North Rim Saloon, which not only caters to the late night crowd but opens at 5:30 am for the hikers as well. Then we hand our overloaded packs to the van driver and load up for the two mile drive to the trailhead. When we step out of the van, we step into a chilly, windy morning. Wow – it must have been in the 30s – such a difference between the trailhead and the lodge! We take a quick (and I mean quick) picture and walk quickly down the trail, knowing that warmth is attainable by going down.
Nancy stops and puts on a fleece – I stay in my shorts and two thin Techwicks. We hike down the trail at a quick pace. The sun is rising over the eastern rims of the Canyon, birds are making their Canyon noises and the wind is swirling around. I’m excited to be going back down again and looking forward to being warm. We reach the Supai Tunnel at 7:00 am. After a quick pit stop, we move on through into the redwall limestone. These next five miles are the steepest on the trail – almost 5,000 feet of elevation lost on these miles. We take off our outer layers and rejoice in the warmth of the Canyon as the sun rises higher and the temperatures climb. It feels so good.
We reach the bottom of the Bright Angel Canyon which is marked by the Roaring Springs ranger station at 9:00 am. We decide to stop, take off boots and socks, eat an apple and some trail mix. Nancy needs to do some Rx on her blisters. More are developing between her toes. The bandage system we have manufactured for her heel blisters is holding, but we really don’t have the right bandaging for her toes. It’s a nice break and we’re soon off again, the trail more level and straight as it moves through the Canyon walls toward Cottonwood Campground. A couple of hours later and we pull in to Cottonwood for water and a rest stop. We eat some more food and talk with a father/daughter who are doing a rim to rim. They’re ready to settle in to Cottonwood for the night. Not Nancy and Pat, though – we have miles to go and a beef stew dinner waiting for us at 6:30 pm.
After leaving Cottonwood, it’s only a matter of an hour and a half before we walk back into The Box. God, I love this part of the Canyon – so old and deep and narrow and black and hot and the creek rushing below me so cold. Vishnu schist – the rock formation layer we’re walking through – I love the name – Vishnu Schist, the basement layer, 1,700 million years old. My life span not even a snap in time. And the time and effort it took the people who carved this trail out of the steep walls of the Canyon, burying a water pipe that brought water from Roaring Springs to the South Rim. Amazing.
There are four bridges that span the Bright Angel Creek in the box. After the first two there is a long wait for the next two, and the last one is especially deceptive. Around every turn and bend I expect to see it, but no. Not yet. I’m feeling the effects of the descent, though not as strongly as I felt the descent on the first day of the trip. We meet up with one of the women who had been on the shuttle to the trailhead and started out ahead of us. She’s nursing blisters and has changed out of her boots into sandals for the last effort. We offer food, water and first aid and she declines, saying she’s fine, just taking her time.
We hike on and are soon greeted by the Welcome to Phantom Ranch sign. We stand beside it and our faces tell the tale of 14 long miles. It’s 2:00 pm. Now what? After checking in and buying a couple of Lemmy’s, we go to our assigned dorm and choose our bunks. Luckily we’re early enough that we can claim the two best bunks in the back. More room, close to the toilet, and far from the door. We walk out to our spot by the creek, take off our sandals, and soak our feet. I’ve had enough sun and can see a bit of a rash forming on my legs. Sun poisoning? I’m always careful with the sun screen – so not sure what that’s about. We relax for a while and then decide a shower and a quick lie down are in order before dinner.
The shower feels great on my warm, salty skin, but the water isn’t draining at all and I leave Nancy with two inches of scummy water to step into. Sorry, Slick. While she showers I lie on the top bunk and let my body feel the luxurious tiredness and my heart feel the warm sense of accomplishment in having made three legs of the journey – healthy, strong, and in my heart. After her shower, we walk over to the lodge and make some notes about the day. We realize there’s a Ranger talk at 4:00 pm so we mosey on down and find seats under a huge Cottonwood tree. The Ranger giving the talk is the same guy who had spoken to us about the geology of the Canyon last summer on our rim to rim – only that time he had been stung twice by scorpions and it was hard for him to concentrate on anything but the feeling in his hand as the poison ran its course. A character and a throw-back hippie, he has a great time telling us about how changing the flow of the Colorado River, by damming it up, altered the ecology of the Canyon – the good and the bad – and his rambling and sidebars keep us entertained until the 5:00 pm dinner shift.
After the talk, Nancy and I wander up to our bench overlooking Bright Angel Creek and look up at the canyon wall surrounding the Ranch. Nancy decides to call Don while I sit and contemplate. She joins me a while later and we talk and look at the sky and watch the bats come out as we wait for the dinner bell. I’m very ready for beef stew, cornbread, salad, iced tea, and chocolate cake when the folks on the later shift let us in to eat. I’m a fast eater, but Nancy demolishes her stew so quickly it makes me feel almost normal in my eating speed. She reaches for more and takes care of the second bowl easily. I can still feel my body craving calories so feel no compunction about packing it in. Yes!
It’s dark when we emerge from the dining hall. Of course, it’s only 7:30 pm – what are we going to do? Can’t watch TV. We can hang outside on our bench, but I’m feeling pretty DUN. We go back to the dorm, brush teeth, change into sleeping shirts, and get into bed. We talk for a while and eventually feel our consciousness fading. I vaguely hear the rest of our bunk mates show up some time later, but they keep the overhead light off and I’m able to fall back to sleep. It feels so good to stop moving, to let go, to cease the effort of moving forward. It feels so good.