May 1, day 0 (Dirt road from hell)
The day started out good. My alarm went off at 4:14 a.m. just like any other day. Only this day instead of going to work, I was going to the Grand Canyon. The plan was to meet up at the In-N-Out in Barstow at 7, then convoy across the desert to the canyon. Brian, Smita, Joe and Paul were driving from San Jose, and Barstow was the first place we could meet without either of us going out of the way. The group from San Jose was a little late, due in part to Joe¹s luggage arriving late at the airport. I was only a little late, and thus was there first. After breakfast at a Denny¹s type restaurant there, Joe jumped in with me and we were off. On the way, we stopped for gas and restrooms a couple of times, and at each store Brian scoured the shelves looking for a small spade to take with us for "hiking hygiene". Apparently his had been forgotten in the rushed packing that morning. I later found out that Smita had had all of about 15 minutes to pack her things for the planned 12 day trip. After a couple of stops, Brian decided on a windshield ice scraper to serve the purpose. It was small, light, and appeared durable enough to dig a 6" hole as needed. Somehow the name "Sam Spade" made its way into my head and from then on the spade was known as "Sammy". A couple more stops to find shorts for Smita proved fruitless, so we were then ready to make the final 30 miles of rough, rocky, dirt road to the trailhead. We both filled up with gas before starting. Brian also had a spare tire that needed a little air, so we got that, too. The drive was actually worse than I had expected, and after about an hour, we were only about 20 miles in. At that point, a sharp rock blew Brian¹s tire out, and as we put on the spare, the cause for it¹s earlier low air pressure was noticed. There was a large nail or screw in the spare! By this time it was about 4:15, so we figured we might get lucky enough to find a tire repair place before they closed for the day if we headed back as quickly as possible. 20 miles back over the same crappy road, then another 25 miles down the highway, and we miraculously made it to a place that: 1) had a tire the right size to replace the blown one, 2) could repair the spare tire and, 3) were still open for another 10 minutes or so. All the pieces fit! A good sign!

By the time we got the tires fixed and got back to the start of the dirt road, it was almost dark and too late to start out again without dinner first. After a $17 plate of tortellini at the Best Western, we once again filled up with gas and started out onto the 30 mile crappy dirt road (that we¹d already driven 40 miles of). Paul rode with me this time, which gave us a chance to get to know a little bit about each other before we spent the next two weeks together. Brian had mentioned that the road passed through the corner of the Havasupai Indian Reservation, but he hadn¹t told me about the $25 entrance fee, or about the 2 guys who instantly appear on quad runners to collect it as you drive across their cattle gate. It seemed a little creepy to me, these 2 guys sitting out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night waiting for someone to come along and give them money. Oh well. Brian said that he’d have to scout the area sometime and try to find a detour around the Havasupai Reservation. After one minor wrong turn and one more minor repair on Brian’s car, we finally made it to the trailhead at about 11:15 p.m. We made a quick camp (mine being the back of my truck) and slept.

May 2, day 1(It actually snowed on us!)
We got up about 6 a.m. It had been a chilly night, especially for Joe, who had only a sleeping bag shell and liner, but no actual bag. We ate a quick breakfast of cereal and coffee/hot chocolate, packed our bags, (which took significantly longer the first time than it would in the upcoming days) and headed off down the South Bass Trail at about 8:45: Right on schedule! The packs were fairly heavy at this point, since we were carrying a full 12 days food and 2 days worth of water. My feet were already blistering by the time we took our first snack break about an hour and a half later. By then I was very glad that I had let Brian talk me into using a walking stick! (Brian: A sobering reminder to put moleskin or do whatever is necessary to keep the feet in good shape before it blisters. Poor Steve had 5 or so miserable days until his feet healed). The weather was awesome! In the shady spots, it felt just a little cool, and the sun would warm you up just enough in the spots between shade. In the Toroweap cliff near the trail, we saw an Indian structure built into an overhang. Whether it was a dwelling or a granary was unclear, but it was a neat thing to see that early into the adventure. After lunch, we had already traveled over 1000 feet down, and had contoured around on the Esplanade level to where we were finally in the Royal Arch drainage. The royal arch creek would be our break through the "redwall" which is a pretty much continuous cliff of about 1000 ft in height that circles most of the Grand Canyon. Ironically, the “redwall” is actually gray limestone that is colored red by the bright red rocks of the Supai above it. Along the way, Brian spotted an old horseshoe near the trail: Was it an omen? Shortly after lunch we left the trail near Montesuma point, and started through the Supai walls, and we reached some areas that required us to take off the packs and pass them down. At this point, believe it or not, it was snowing lightly on us. Somewhere in this process, a walking stick was dropped, a rock was dislodged, and the stick was bent severely. We were at least able to repair it, but it was a warning to us about the severity of the canyon. (At least it wasn¹t one of Smita’s new ski poles, which had been drafted into this service by Brian the day before.) A little farther down, a nice flat section of the streambed served as our first night’s campsite. Here Joe introduced us to "acro-sage" which is a Hawaiian mutation of acrobatics and massage. It looks a little silly, but it really is very relaxing and a neat feeling. After a dinner of shrimp curry and a bowl of egg drop soup we were ready for bed at about 8:30. Rumor has it that Joe, Paul and I (Steve) snored.

May 3, day 2(Found an alternate route)
Awoke at 5:30 to Brian’s call of, "OK, no more snoring!" This is the day we will make it to the Royal Arch. Near to that is the next place where Brian knows that there is water available. That is pretty much what totally regulates ones actions in the Canyon. You have to base everything on whether you can carry enough water to get you from one sure source of water to another. About 1/2 mile from where we had camped last night, we encountered our first major drop-off of the trip. On past trips, this problem had always been solved by a traverse to the left, then a 40 ft. rappel to the valley below. Brian found a cairn to the right, though, and after a little scouting, it was discovered that we could reach the bottom without taking the time to set up and do the rappel. This route, although a little exposed in a few sections, proved to be a very interesting and enjoyable timesaver. We left some cairns near the base where it re-enters the drainage, but it’s pretty much impossible to spot from below. Appears from below to be a solid cliff band at the end of a long screet slope. After this, the route got a little easier for a while, until we started dropping through the “redwall” proper, and then turned to more pack passing areas as we went on downstream. We eventually reached some water, and Brian pumped enough to fill a few bottles while we ate lunch. Farther on, one of these pools proved impassable without wading, which wasn’t so bad anyway, considering that it had now been almost 3 days since any of our bodies had felt any appreciable amount of water on them. This water was a little too cold to spend much time in, though. Farther down, around a bend in the stream was the Royal Arch. This was undoubtedly one of the most magical places I’ve ever been. The huge, beautiful arch is flanked on both sides by huge towers of stone, and the creek meandering between the three of them then drops about 150 ft. to the next level of the valley. We made our camp on the soft sand and level stone of the area beneath the overhang that has been washed out from under the cliffs by countless years of erosion. There were the tracks of what looked to be a young bobcat in the sand where we slept. The bats swooped around us in the evening, and the doves and hummingbirds replaced them in the morning. We had another delicious dinner of rice, okra, and dhal with chocolates for dessert, and then slept soundly beside the babbling stream.

May 4, day 3(The perfect fishing hole)
Again, we woke up at about 5:30, this time to get an early start on our big rappel. Smita went down first, followed by me, then the packs. I had volunteered to go ahead of the packs in order to be the one to help hold them off of the cliff with a second rope. Note to Brian: Leather gloves are essential for this task! Though my arms were very tired by the time the last pack came down, everything went smoothly and the rappel really was a lot of fun! Then came what was probably the scariest part of the trip. At the base of the rappel is a level of huge boulders that we scrambled over and around to reach the next drop-off, again about 150 ft. This time, though, it was believed to be more of a drop than we had rope, so instead of rappelling, we were forced to traverse a narrow, steeply slanted slope of loose rocks and dirt with a huge drop right at our side. At the end of this was a 25 ft. down climb with a small sagebrush as an anchor, then a descent through a wooded area to an area reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. Small waterfalls trickled down over the rocks and through growths of ferns, moss and yellow columbine flowers. We stopped there in the shade for a nice lunch celebrating our having survived the morning unscathed. During this lunch, we looked back on what we had just done, and determined that the rope was, indeed, long enough to have done the rappel and avoided the traverse. Next time! We continued downstream, several times having to remove the packs and pass them down first, and often working our way across small ledges on slick, wet rocks and mud to get around small pools of water. On one of these, Joe was carrying Smita’s pack for her and took one errant step, which caused a slip and a face first belly flop into the water! He did, however, keep her pack almost completely dry by sacrificing himself. This was the top part of the "Elves Chasm" area, which is a quite well known part of the Canyon. It’s reasonably easy to access it from the river, so raft companies use it as a rest stop for their groups to get a chance to "hike" a little to see more of the scenery.

Just as the Tapeats started to emerge, there was one last roped downclimb and we were at a beautiful, crystal clear pool surrounded by small "diving cliffs" with a small cave on one side and a waterfall trickling into one side of the 15 ft. deep pool. This was to become our "swimmin’ hole" for the trip. Our quick skinny-dip was interrupted by some rafters that had hiked up from below, so we got dressed and went the rest of the way down to the Colorado River. The area at the bottom of Elves’ Chasm is a great spot to camp! This is one of the few places in the Grand Canyon that you can see the rim of the canyon from the river. There is no camping allowed in Elves’ Chasm itself, but near the river just west of Elves is a huge overhang that has been used as a camp ever since some of the first people ever came down the river in the late 1800’s. There are names written on the wall with charcoal of some of the early USGS surveyors dated 1897, 1923, & 1927. Next to the river was a small pool, home to about 30 or so nice looking rainbow trout. These quickly attracted the attention of Joe, our resident fisherman, and that evening we had 4 trout to supplement our dinner rations of eggplant, dhal, and couscous. It was great! The frogs in this area were very abundant, and their calls sounded quite a lot like sheep. We watched the moon rise over the huge monument across the river from us, listened to the frogs and the roar of the rapids, and drifted off to sleep.

May 5, day 4 (The route from hell!)
We woke up a little later this day, about 7:00. We broke camp, split our remaining food in half, cached 1/2 of it in a tree near where we had camped, packed up the other half, pumped water for the day, and took off downstream at about 10:00 am - right on schedule. (That became sort of a by-word throughout the trip) We saw a large group of rafters and hit them up for beer, but got none. This seemed like it might be a day without much to write about. As we were leaving the Elves Chasm area, I saw a really pretty bright red songbird, and then later in the day spotted a large bird of prey circling above. The hiking was hard that day. The sun was pretty hot and we were doing a lot of boulder hopping along the river over rocks described by Paul as "cheese graters." We were looking for a route from Elves’ Chasm to Forster Canyon, which Brian had heard from an acquaintance, could be done in a day. After a mile and a half of difficult travel, and just after an obvious fault line, we took a gully that took us upward from the river to get onto the "Tonto" layer, which typically is very flat and easy to hike. As we moved up, the hiking became harder, instead of easier, and both Paul and Smita seemed to be getting quite tired and fed up with the conditions. At about 3 p.m. we were at a point where we needed to scout ahead to see if it was possible to continue, so Joe and I went ahead, only to be met with an 80+ ft. drop-off. This forced us to turn around and backtrack to a place where we had earlier been able to make it back down to the river to get water and have a flat place to sleep.

We decided at this point that the original intension of hiking down stream to scout out the break in the redwall between Forester and Fossil bay was not to be. Instead we would spend tomorrow just figuring out how to get to Fossil bay for the next time ;-)

The place we picked to camp at first seemed rather lacking. It was merely a small piece of flat sand with not too many weeds growing in an area large enough for our tarp. The area wasn’t quite large enough, though, as Brian deduced from the hole in his Thermarest pad the next morning. We cooked and ate atop a rock beside the river, where we also took turns telling our life stories as we first waited for dinner to cook, then waited for it to digest. Here the bats were very prolific, and we had at least two separate species swooping to within inches of our heads several times throughout the evening. As campsites go, this turned out to be a very beautiful location on the river, and all in all not a bad place at all to spend another night.
At some point, we made the decision to carry only one pack the next day on a day hike to explore downstream to see if we could find the route that had evaded us today. The moon was incredibly bright that night, and Brian lost a bet to Smita regarding the exact time that it would appear over the canyon wall. (I think the wager might have been a lifetime of backrubs or something similar.) In return for the lost bet, this was Brian’s night to snore. I, on the other hand, didn¹t sleep too much that night, I guess due to the brightness of the moon.

 

May 6, day 5 (Joe¹s 26th Birthday)
Steve didn’t sleep all that well, and woke from what little sleep he got at around 5 a.m. and decided to get caught up on his journal keeping. By about 7 we were all up and preparing for our day hike. This was to be the first real easy day of the trip; the first time we had planned to spend without lugging the packs everywhere we went. We left our camp at about 9:00 a.m. - right on schedule;-) We decided to make a water cache, as the Colorado was beginning to look a little brown (this involved digging a hole in the sand well above the high water mark, and burying a garbage bag half filled with water).

Instead of trying to work directly up to the “Tonto” level (the Tonto had re-emerged at this point), we took a very improbable looking mid-level that cuts the Tapeats in half. You get onto this level just after the obvious fault line that runs across the river. On the other bank of the river, this fault line offers what appears to be easy river access from the Tonto. On this side of the river, you can get to the Tonto up a drainage just after the fault. Don’t do this.

As we headed downstream, we saw a peregrine falcon chase a flock of birds low over the Colorado river. It made a dive after one of the smaller birds, but missed.

This micro level will abruptly and stunningly end at the edge of a small side drainage after another mile or so, and at this point one backs up about 50 ft, and follows a cairned route up to the Tonto. Just make sure that in the reverse direction you decide to go down at this point, even though the Tonto still looks good.

Another mile of not so easy Tonto walking gets you to where you can look directly down into Black-Tail Canyon on the other side of the river. At this point, the Tonto becomes the speed route that we are used to, and you can look at the easy ramp all the way down to Forester where the Tonto vanishes under the river. About 1/3 miles further down where Conquistador Isle begins proper, just before the first significant drainage of any consequence one can easily make it down to the Colorado for the first time since our camp through a break in the Tapeats. Here we and went down to the Colorado, and a great beach. Good lunch was in order, had a swim (real quick), and talked to some rafters who gave us beer and sodas! Started to get very hot now, and had to wait till late afternoon before starting back. 

We waited as long as possible before starting back, as it was still very hot, and made it back to our campsite just before dark, tired but happy. It was lucky that we made a water cache that morning, as the Colorado was now a chocolate brown.

May 7, day 6 (Back to Elves)

Again we left camp at about 8am, and made the 1.5 mile trip back to Elves by 10am. It was already decidedly warmer than the day before. Little did we know what was in store for us temperature-wise in the next few days.  Hung around at the mouth of Elves fishing, and playing cards. The next time I have some extra time at Elves, I’d hike up river a little, and climb up to the caves in the redwall that we saw later on in the trip as we were making our way towards Garnet Canyon.

May 8, day 7 (Day at Elves)

Instead of scouting the redwall break between Forester and Fossil bay, we had an extra day to “kill” at Elves.  But what a “kill” day it was, with us spending lots of time at the deep swimming hole: Joe jumped in from at least 25 ft, and Paul did flips on the way down.

May 9, day 8 (Towards Copper Canyon)

All went as planned from Elves to Garnet. There were a couple caves just down route from Elves up in the redwall, and it was clear that a flow of water used to come out of one of them. Next time I’ll have to remember to budget time to climb up and explore them. In general, when in doubt go up, and you’ll end up on the best route. Just don’t make the mistake and end up on the trail going back up Royal Arch. There is a big cairn there to help you out.

There was running water in several side drainages, and also in Garnet, but it tastes absolute repulsive. Truly non potable. Just before Garnet, we took a break in the last shade before rounding the corner into the sun. Today was really really hot. The hottest day so far.  Although we climbed out of Garnet up onto the Tonto fairly early in the day, it was already uncomfortably hot. We decided to keep on going to the next major drainage where we thought it would be more protected with better shade. We decided to spend the heat of the day there, although the next significant drainage on the map appeared bigger. This turned out to be the correct decision, as there is a huge drop-off  “protecting” the next drainage. Had we gone on to here, we would have been in real trouble with respect to water.

We quickly went through our supply of water, all 32 liters worth! At the hottest part of the day, it was 120 F in the shade under the overhang. It was too much effort even to talk. We just lay and drank. At one point a little cloud went past the sun, and all 5 of us got up at the same time, looked at each other and laughed. We were all waiting for the same opportunity to venture out to take a leak! By lunch we realized that the water we started with was not going to be enough, and even though on a prior trip we made it to Copper canyon in about 2 hours from this point, at the moment it seemed impossibly far. Around 3pm Steve and I made the effort to start following the drainage down towards the Colorado. We absolutely had to get water, even if it meant going all the way out to the river. After negotiating some pretty scary drop-offs (one of them you have to work your way down little by little, all the while traversing left and right on thin steps), we found some fairly deep potholes. Wisely, we filled up all our available water containers, and even with the sun going down, we could not get going till almost 6:30 pm because of the heat. As a testament (and a warning), we drank 66 liters of water between the 5 of us today alone!

It got dark after we rounded the next large side canyon, and we spent that night out on the promontory overlooking the Colorado. It was miserable night, too hot to sleep, and attacked by mosquitoes. For the first time on the trip Paul lost his smile.

May 10, day 9 (Copper Canyon)

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, and were on the move before the sun was up. 35 min later, we were in under the overhang in Copper canyon, already too hot, and already short on water. We decided to spend the day here, and our entire focus was on where to find water. We knew that if we went downstream far enough, we would eventually hit a pothole in the granite gorge, or the Colorado. I remembered that there was a little spring about ½ miles upstream, and given the water on the Tonto between Elves and Garnet, we thought that we should try there first. I don’t know if this water would be still there in the fall, but judging from the moss and vegetation, it’s possible. A quick jaunt up there was enough to confirm the presence of water. Smiles returned! By the time we filled up on some water, it was about 8am and hot as hell! We decided to hike up Copper and look for shade.

This turned out to be the second highlight of the trip after Elves. One would never imagine how beautiful it was up there from the dry look at the trail crossing. After about an hour to an hour and a half, and a couple of good scrambles, and 1,000 ft higher, we were in a huge amphitheatre at the base of the redwall. Very cool, in more ways than one. The echoes were awesome, and for the first time in a week we were actually cold at times (except Steve of course).  Facing the amphitheatre, Steve swore that the route on the buttress to the left would go at 5.6 (one day we will have to come back here with the appropriate gear and try it) all the way to the top of the redwall. We did go up a ways to scout the route, and the rock is good. But 5.6? Right! More like 5.impossible ;-)

We discussed what we should do for the next 3 days, and decided that instead of going down Copper and working our way around to Shinumo rapids, we would cut the hike short and hike out directly from Copper the next day. Three factors contributed to this decision: 1) the heat. 2) 2 bags of breakfast had mysteriously disappeared. Also, we were running a little short on snacks, since we had been spending the last few days just sitting and munching instead of hiking and exploring. 3) Last but not least… we were out of coffee!!!!!

We waited until the mid-late afternoon until things cooled down, and went back to camp. We’d have to get to bed early as we were to get up at 3:30 so that we could start before the crack of dawn. Steve and I hiked down copper towards the Colorado river, and soon were in the thick of a beautiful granite gorge/slot. Also found one of  Bass’s old mine shafts. We did not get as far as the river, but stopped where a slide into a pool of water was required. At that point, we would have needed a short rope to reverse the move, and decided it was time to head back. Another good place for a day hike.

May 11, day 10 (Hike out!)

The next morning we were up well before dawn, and were on the move while it was still dark. We knew that we had to make it through the redwall on the Bass trail before it got too hot, otherwise we would be in trouble.  The views rounding the point from Copper to Bass canyons is spectacular, but there was noticeable haze. Paul, Steve and Joe were far enough ahead to race the sun all the way to the top of the redwall. It’s amazing the difference 10-15 min can make, and Smita and I found this section up Bass considerably hotter and longer.  At the top of the redwall, Paul, Steve and Joe decided to head straight up the Supai to the Esplanade, while Smita and I took the long way around via the trail. Needless to say, they were at the Esplanade well before us, and Joe came back along the trail to see where we were. The direct route is quite steep, but doable. Already it was unbearably hot. We met two other hikers on the way down who said that we were in the midst of a heat wave. Tell us about it!

After a good lunch, and after trying to finish all our remaining food, we took off and found our water cache at the base of the Coconino, and closed the loop that we had started 10 days earlier. Only 1,000 ft to go, and we were at the rim at 2pm.