"...But the excellence of things is really unscrupulous, it will dare
anything"
Robinson Jeffers, from Red Mountain
I have not backpacked much over the last few years, ummm actually turns out a bit more than a decade. I had been seduced by cycling, both road and mountain, which has occupied much of my time. However a series of bike accidents to myself and good friends has tempered my enthusiasm. This spring a backpack trip into the Keet Seel ruin in Navajo National Monument whetted my appetite for backcountry travel again. That trip, Keet Seel, was a good reintroduction to travelling in the desert backcountry, however it revealed that some of my cycling caused injuries, notably a badly fractured collarbone, surgically reinforced with screws and metal plates, were going to require lighter gear and a new pack to keep me from whimpering after two hours of walking. I have never been to the Grand Canyon, I didn't want my first visit to be a 'drive-by' visit to the overlooks on the South Rim, as nice as they are, but wanted to hike into the canyon to really experience it up close, to be enveloped by it. The years passed and I never found time to organize a backcountry trip to GCNP. Given that I now qualify for "Silver Sneakers" discounts and that a body part or two have been replaced, I decided it was time to do something about it. I consulted two Grand Junction friends who have hiked almost every trail in the canyon accessible from the South Rim. As I type, my buddy Gordon is backpacking the last section of trail he hasn't yet hiked, so that 'almost' will be deleted soon.
For many of the same reasons I didn't want to do the 'drive-by' Grand Canyon tour, I also didn't want to hike either of the two insanely popular trails into the canyon (Bright Angel and South Kaibab). After talking to Walt and Gordon (70-something and 60-something respectively) I settled on the Tanner Trail. My plan was to hike to the river camp near Tanner Rapids then head west to the Lava Falls area with the intention of spending two nights there and hiking to the confluence of the Little Colorado River. We'd hike back to the Tanner Beach area, spend the night and hike out of the canyon. So 5 days and four nights in the canyon.
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| Crowds on the South Rim |
I wanted to go with a light pack, which I defined as around 35# or less for 5 days, including 2.5 liters of water. I'll get back to this later when I discuss the weight of Gordon and Walt's packs for a similar Grand Canyon hike.
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| Mark at the Wolfman Panel |
The drive to the South Rim is about 8 hours from Junction, but we made a few stops along the way. The burgers at Comb Ridge Bistro in Bluff, Utah were great. Who knew? Bistro's in Bluff? Anyone who's spent time in southern Utah will know how weird that is. Stranger still was the good beer and vegetarian offerings.
We arrived at the South Rim just before sunset and stopped at a few viewpoints on the drive to our hotel.
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| Sunset from South Rim |
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| Our Destination |
Our first night's destination was that little bit of river seen in the photo above. It is roughly 5000 ft below the rim. This viewpoint made all four of our hands sweaty.
The guide book distance said 7.5 miles to our first camp, the map said closer to 10 and some signs said 8.5. A little disturbing but we thought it might have to do with full/new moons, tidal forces and tectonic plates. Given that our usual hiking speed is about 2 miles/hr we didn't think an early start was really required, the weather was cool 50-60F at the top. I was figuring 4-5 hours maximum for the hike in.
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| Our Destination from Lipan Pt. |
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| The First Big Descent and Last Big Ascent |
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| Mark nearing our first night's camp. |
We made it down and found a good campsite about 100 yards from the river. Because I had really underestimated the time for the hike down we were both out of water. Replenishing our water became our first priority. But....
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| Like Water for Chocolate |
Ordinarily the river is relatively clear in the canyon. Lake Phowell and the Glen Canyon Damn cause silt to settle out so the water released from the lake is clear. However, major rainstorms the previous few days resulted in very muddy, unfilterable water, probably about like the water Powell's expedition had to use. I was relying on chemical water purification (Aquamira, which I highly recommend) and Mark had brought a water filter. For either to work, however, we had to let the silt settle before treating it and that took 2+ hours or better yet overnight. We were pretty tired, but between handfuls of ibuprofen, eaten like M&Ms, we collected water in the containers we had and let it settle and then pumped or treated until we had enough for dinner and a half liter each for the night. We had a late dinner, under an outstanding night sky after a stunning sunset. The Milky Way was beautifully framed by the canyon walls. Sleeping was difficult for me because my IT bands were so painful that I couldn't sleep on my side (I whine).
On the down we met 3 hikers who quizzed us on our water purification methods, I told them we had both a filter and water purification chemicals. They informed us that they had brought the latest, greatest filter system from MSR (the MSR Guardian). We were told that it had been developed to filter water for the military and disaster relief teams and would filter any water, no matter how silty. Having had some industrial scale experience with filtration systems I was skeptical and said so. However the next morning they were raving about how fast they had been able to pump water directly from the river above. If we had cell reception I would have ordered one immediately and hoped for a drone delivery.
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| Mark, a Happy Camper |
In the morning Mark cleaned his filter as best as he could and we set out more containers to settle the silt. We tried experimenting with pre-filters, using 4 layers of a cotton handkerchief, a pack towel and one of Mark's shirts. The crud was too fine, the 4 layers of cotton did nothing at all. We had planned an early start to Lava Falls but that wasn't happening. In fact, we needed the morning to recover anyway before starting out for Lava Falls , so we settled silt, pumped and treated until we had 2-3 liters apiece for the 3.5 mile hike.
The Beamer Trail
There is nothing in the guide book that says that you could kill yourself on the Beamer Trail (named after a miner, not the car). They should mention that. I have a reasonable amount of experience on sketchy, exposed terrain. If you made a misstep on parts of this trail you would fall 70-90 feet into the Colorado River, after hitting a few ledges or rolling down a steep slope. There is one point that most people would appreciate a handline on. It requires 4 points of contact to make a couple moves from one shelf to the next. A fall here, although unlikely, would ruin your whole day for the rest of your life. Looking at the map, I notice that this spot is marked with two black diamonds. Now I know what that means for a hiking trail. It should have been marked 5.1, a climbing grade that would indicate most people would like a rope.
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| The Easy Part of the Beamer Trail |
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| Lava Falls Beach Campsite |
We saw the group with the MSR filter and they continued to rave about its performance. I forced a happy face and pretended to be happy for them. However, it was another great night. New moon and a Milky Way as bright as any I've seen. The hike to Lava Falls, although sketchy, was beautiful with full-on magenta rock colors and essentially every other color visible to human eyes.
Our plan for the next day was to hike to the confluence with the Little Colorado River. I was interested in this hike because the confluence is a place of great importance to the Hopi people and the site of several ancient Native American salt mines, which might explain the salty spring water. The hike is 12 miles (round trip) out and back. However, we were worried about the amount of time it was taking to make potable water. The hike to the Little Colorado and back would take the full day, and to be safe we would have to carry all of our water for the day, roughly a 3-4 liters given the 85 F temperatures in the canyon bottom and the difficult hiking. In addition we had not fully rehydrated from the hike in. Mark thought it would be better to hike back to Tanner Beach and spend the next day prepping water for the hike out. I agreed. This would give us time for our legs to recover and we could still do a day hike down river along the Escalante Trail. Having been surprised by the difficulty of the hike in I wanted enough time and water for the hike out. All along, I thought that the hike in would be more difficult than the hike out, but still didn't want to take unnecessary chances.
So after a windy but warm night at the Lava Falls beach we hiked back to Tanner Rapids. The downclimb between ledge systems seemed a bit more hair-raising than before because you were forced to directly confront the consequences of a misstep. No missteps were made.
We settled in at a nice campsite, close to the river and near Tanner Rapids, and prepped water.
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| Mark Pumping Water from his Bear Cannister |
The next day we hiked the Escalante Trail to Cardenas Point, below Cardenas Butte. Cardenas Butte was visited in the 16th century by a Spanish expedition looking for a river route back south. Bummer for them.
We returned to camp and began the time-intensive water prep for the night and the next day's hike out of the canyon.
The issue with water really changed the nature of the trip, without Mark's large container it would have taken virtually all of our time to keep up with water prep. Problem is, you need settling vessels and clean containers to take the decanted or pumped water. Without the bear cannister we would have only had 3.5 liters of settling capacity at a time. Although we did start to enlist used food containers as well as pots. If I had brought some alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) which is sold in most grocery stores we could have added it to the water to greatly speed up the process. The water would still require filtration or chemical purification. If you are interested, this link will take you to a video showing one method to clarify dirty water using alum: Alum induced silt flocculation.
While we were working on water for the next day the 3 hikers with the MSR-Guardian filter showed up looking very dehydrated and not at all happy. Their filter had clogged and was unusable. They didn't bring a backup system (water purification tablets or Aquamira solutions) so they had no way to purify water even after letting the silt settle out. Boiling would have worked for most things, except for some kinds of spores and cysts, but they didn't really have enough fuel for that. Luckily I had an unopened bottle of iodine tablets in my emergency kit that I gave them. They headed downriver hoping to meet up with some boaters that might be willing to share water. Don't know how things worked out for them. I suspect, given the great equipment MSR usually makes, that there is a field method for cleaning and restoring the filter. There certainly should be given the $300+ price tag for the filtration system.
The last evening we were treated to a wonderful sunset (actually they were pretty nice every evening).
That evening we ate and drank as much as we could, filled water containers so that we had enough water for breakfast and at least 3-4 liters for the hike out. This is more water than I would usually carry but I had no idea how my legs would feel on the hike out and wanted extra in case we needed to stop for the night or took a really long time to get out. I was reasonably confident that we could do it in one push, but we have many body parts that are way past their warranty period.
In the event, the hike out was hard, but a lot easier than the hike into the canyon, we got away before the sun rose over Navajo Point and were back at the hotel by cocktail time. This was a great introduction to the Grand Canyon and for me, a great reintroduction to the pleasures of backpacking. The hiking in this part of the canyon is primitive by National Park standards. There are no trail signs (at all) and the trails are poorly maintained and can be a little confusing in places where there has been a lot of runoff induced erosion. I highly recommend the Sky Terrain Grand Canyon National Park Map as well as the CalTopo site for organizing your trip.
When we got back to Grand Junction I called Gordon to let him know about the water conditions. I proudly told him that my pack weighed only 35 pounds. He was silent for a moment and then said: "Ummm, mine's 17". I said kilos? Nope, pounds. So when Gordon gets back I'll bribe him with a nice bottle of wine and get the details.
Epilogue
"...But look how noble the world is,
The lonely flowing waters, the secret-
Keeping stones, the flowing sky" ( R. Jeffers, Life from the Lifeless.)
My snobbery about crowds is really unwarranted. Places like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone will always attract crowds because of their magnificence and uniqueness. If they don't we will have lost our way as humans. The more people who see these places, the more likely they will be to protect them. I can still hike away from them if I wish to and will do so for as long as I can. The views from the South Rim are a view of the earth's history, from the very beginning. The geological processes that ultimately led to the formation of this canyon began before the continents separated. Many southwestern indian tribes believe that they emerged from the Grand Canyon and in a sense they did. The beauty of the canyon and its vistas are anything but subtle from the the top. It is within the canyon that the subtly emerges, the color palate is unlike anything I've ever seen. All the colors of the world are here, in one place. I cannot comprehend the Grand Canyon anymore than I can comprehend the universe. I like it that way.
Thanks for reading.
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| Panorama From Escalante Trail |
We returned to camp and began the time-intensive water prep for the night and the next day's hike out of the canyon.
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| Flowers in October |
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| Flowers along the Escalante Trail |
While we were working on water for the next day the 3 hikers with the MSR-Guardian filter showed up looking very dehydrated and not at all happy. Their filter had clogged and was unusable. They didn't bring a backup system (water purification tablets or Aquamira solutions) so they had no way to purify water even after letting the silt settle out. Boiling would have worked for most things, except for some kinds of spores and cysts, but they didn't really have enough fuel for that. Luckily I had an unopened bottle of iodine tablets in my emergency kit that I gave them. They headed downriver hoping to meet up with some boaters that might be willing to share water. Don't know how things worked out for them. I suspect, given the great equipment MSR usually makes, that there is a field method for cleaning and restoring the filter. There certainly should be given the $300+ price tag for the filtration system.
The last evening we were treated to a wonderful sunset (actually they were pretty nice every evening).
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| Navajo Point Sunset |
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| Navajo Point from Tanner Rapids |
In the event, the hike out was hard, but a lot easier than the hike into the canyon, we got away before the sun rose over Navajo Point and were back at the hotel by cocktail time. This was a great introduction to the Grand Canyon and for me, a great reintroduction to the pleasures of backpacking. The hiking in this part of the canyon is primitive by National Park standards. There are no trail signs (at all) and the trails are poorly maintained and can be a little confusing in places where there has been a lot of runoff induced erosion. I highly recommend the Sky Terrain Grand Canyon National Park Map as well as the CalTopo site for organizing your trip.
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| MJ after 9 miles and 5000 feet |
Epilogue
"...But look how noble the world is,
The lonely flowing waters, the secret-
Keeping stones, the flowing sky" ( R. Jeffers, Life from the Lifeless.)
My snobbery about crowds is really unwarranted. Places like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone will always attract crowds because of their magnificence and uniqueness. If they don't we will have lost our way as humans. The more people who see these places, the more likely they will be to protect them. I can still hike away from them if I wish to and will do so for as long as I can. The views from the South Rim are a view of the earth's history, from the very beginning. The geological processes that ultimately led to the formation of this canyon began before the continents separated. Many southwestern indian tribes believe that they emerged from the Grand Canyon and in a sense they did. The beauty of the canyon and its vistas are anything but subtle from the the top. It is within the canyon that the subtly emerges, the color palate is unlike anything I've ever seen. All the colors of the world are here, in one place. I cannot comprehend the Grand Canyon anymore than I can comprehend the universe. I like it that way.
Thanks for reading.
