We awoke early, grabbed a breakfast sandwich from McDonald's (across the street from our hotel), stopped at a convenience store for Don to buy himself a new cap (he left his at the Mexican Restaurant last night), and by 6:30 a.m. we began our descent into the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail. It is 30 degrees, brilliant sunshine, a great day for this adventure! There are many others who are also hiking down on the Bright Angel Trail this morning. The trail is well-maintained, approximately 3-4 feet wide in most places, with wooden timbers installed across the path at regular intervals to create water bars, helping to eliminate erosion.
Going down is relatively easy, the views are spectacular everywhere we look!
We reached the 1.5 mile Resthouse/Water fairly quickly. It is great to find a faucet here to fill our water bottles. The Resthouse is basically a roof supported by 4 stone posts with built-in benches to sit on in the shade while resting. We drink a bottle of water and refill it here, even though we do not feel thirsty on this nice cool morning, we know we need to stay hydrated.
We begin our descent once again, and are still meeting more backpackers who are heading up out of the Canyon, who began there ascent at 4:00 a.m. this morning from the Indian Garden Campsite (5 miles from South Rim). Some of them said they have been out here for 5 days hiking in the Canyon!
Yippee! We can see the 3-mile Resthouse/water just ahead! Again, we drink our water bottle and refill it here. Another nice thing about these Resthouses along the Bright Angel Trail, is that there are "composting" toilets here also! How awesome is that!
We head down once again, switchback after switchback, until we are near the five mile mark and the trail levels out for the remaining distance to Indian Garden Resthouse/Water/Toilets/Campsites, which are beautifully nestled in the trees alongside a small rushing stream. We find a picnic table under the shade trees and sit and rest and to enjoy a snack break. Don's wife, Beth, has packed him enough snack foods in his daypack for him (and enough for several more hikers!). So we share with each other some of the good things we have each packed for our hike.
Just after we arrive here there is a mule-train coming down the trail also into Indian Garden area, stirring up a cloud of dust as they pass. Glad I am walking when I see how dust-covered the mule riders are! All of them have a bandana covering their nose and mouth to keep from breathing in all that dust!
Before we even get away from our picnic table, we see this little guy cruising around looking for any left over crumbs, totally oblivious to me taking its photo!
We leave Indian Garden to hike the 1.2 miles out to Plateau Point, which overlooks the mighty Colorado River, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which by the trail is another 4+ miles from the Indian Garden Reststop!
We gaze down at the incredible views of the Colorado River far below us!
We have walked 6.2 miles since we left the South Rim at 6:30 a.m. this morning (when it was 30 degrees); It is now 10:30 a.m. and it is 80 degrees (in the shade), as we begin the arduous task of hiking back to the top! We know it won't be easy, however we feel confident that we can make it out before dark.
My next post will chronicle our hike back to the top!
I will tell you that it took us only 4 hours for the 6.2 miles going down, however it took us more than 7 hours to do the same 6.2 miles going back up!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment