finally had time to finish this entry…

my parents were coming to visit. So we were abandoning the Monster for the high country.

We wanted to do the Canyon down and up since we first hiked it a few years ago. So the idea was born, and i decided we needed to paddle for the first time since pre-G. with some help from mtbr posts, the plan was made.

Left home about 3 and arranged to pick up Beckie and her new fabulous north-side office, so we got out of Phoenix by 4, and made Grand Canyon National Park with daylight still.

we would up camping at Mathers in the park for $18 and the convenience of being close to the first shuttle. we took a little while to arrange our gear, eat some cantalope, read a bit, and then to bed at a relatively early 10. up at 4:15, workmanlike breakdown of camp and personal needs, bustop at 4:55 and on Kaibab at 5:30. Fun fun fun. We knew what to expect, and wanted to keep moving to not get blasted by the heat as the day wore on. We saw almost no one, kept rolling down the hill good times and great views.

Got to the bottom at just past 8am. Chilled for a bit in Bright Angel creek, and got ourselves focused for the climb. DH is all good, but it was time to climb.

We loligagged our way out, annoyed a chuckawalla who did pushups to announce his territory. and then met a solo Aussie on Silver Bridge. he was worried that all the warnings for hiking down-and-back in one day, were they as dire as he read??…his funniest comment was “or are they just meant for the fitness of the average American?” Anyway, nice guy we kept yo-yo’ing with him to the top which was fun. have you noticed you always meet Australians by themselves in the coolest places?

Bright Angel was neat. I’m glad this was our first time taking it and we started from the botton (not actually true, we went down to 3-mile w. G over Thanksgiving). You follw the river west for the first mile or two and cook in the sand, all the heat from the canyon baking you in a hot-box. Then it turns and follows the creek up the wall, a lot like the North Side. There is a huge giddy-up to get out of the Inner Gorge.

ready for a break, Beckie spotted. a nice spot about 30 feet down from the trail where the creek formed a slot and some natural pools over slickrock, so we hung there for a bit. That was the gem of the hike.

Then worked out way up up up. Heat was tough but nothing we weren’t ready for. The last 4 miles were more of a workout, trying to have fun keep our cadence and not get too distracted by the traffic. We stopped at 3-mile to get ready for the last push, and think about G’s trip here with us in November.

You know you are near the top of the GC when you see:
children
seniors
japanese tour groups
people in flip-flops
people carrying 32oz plastic water bottles from Grand Canyon Market clutched in their pink fleshy hands
people walking cluelessly 3-abreast
japanese tour groups

You know you are near the bottom of the GC when:
you are used to the smell of mule piss

took us about 8 hrs roundtrip, then we enjoyed a bottle of wine at the top.

Got a hotel in downtown Flag near the bars, $90 for a crappy room but at least we could walk everywhere. My twice-scoped knee was in bad shape by the end of the night, the arthritic prelude to my future is scaring me; it may be time to give up Ultimate once and for all.

Blue Ridge was ~1.5 hrs from Flag to the put-in — not bad at all. The lake is terrific, twisty and narrow with cool high-altitude blue-green water.

Its restricted to very small motors and a bit off the beaten path. We saw only about 20 people all day. It was great, just incredibly quiet and intimate with the narrow walls. We paddled out about 1.5 hrs to the end, then backtracked to a nice ledge where we hung out for a few hrs.

Then 2 hrs back home. Great weekend.