This is about the hiking that I did a year back in the US….just was recalling those days; felt like sharing with u all (with some snaps)…. :)
President’s Day was arriving…!! Much awaited Long weekend….Our brains started working much faster to finish all the work so that, we don’t end up working on this weekend too…..
Our planning phase started a week back. Initial plan was to go to LA; but one fine day at our breakfast table we happened to discuss about Grand Canyon and that’s when our interest towards hiking in Grand Canyon grew. But most of them backed out as soon as they heard about ~20miles of hiking and left was only 3 of us….Myself and 2 of my other colleagues - Uma & Rakesh…!!
We decided to check on the reservation for overnight stay at Phantom Ranch and try our luck. (It’s a Lodge at the bottom of Grand Canyon which is usually reserved a year ahead, so you can imagine how difficult it is to get the reservation). Well, guess what….!!??!! WE WERE LUCKY….!! We did get the reservation for dorms….. There were lot of mixed comments and reactions from the people when they heard about our hiking plan – like motivating, de-motivating, scaring, etc…..Inspite of all these, we were firm about our plans and infact these made us not to look back but just go forward….
Our preparation started as usual at the last minute, that’s on the previous day. Nothing much, we went out shopping for just some food items that we could carry – Energy bars, fruits, Gatorade, teplas (Indian bread), etc. Due to lot of enthusiasm and excitement, I couldn’t even sleep the previous night….
Atlast the D-Day arrived – 17th Feb’08…..We started at 6am in one of our friend’s Camry. The drive on the freeways in the US…..Huhhhh, I JUST LOVE IT….(I thoroughly enjoy when VK (one of our manager a very good friend) drives his BMW – he is the fastest…!!!!) Rakesh and Uma did their work of driving non-stop and myself continued fueling the drivers all the way through. We reached Flagstaff at around 9.30am and stopped at iHop for our brunch. Anybody experienced of black ice??? Hmmm, pls do ask me coz my first step out of the car was on black ice. Whatta fall…..!!!!! I am not talking about any water fall but my fall…. Seriously, got hurt very badly… :(. We had enough pancakes and omelets as we knew we would not be having such good & hot food for next 2 days. After having stomach full, that’s when our brains woke up and our body started reacting for the flagstaff temperature – 40 F. That reminded us of gloves which we dint had. So we stopped by at Wal-Mart, Flagstaff. Hmmm, Gals and shopping go hand-in-hand. I as usual ended up buying another jacket, another sweater; hmmm what not…. (I am famous for shopping specially in the US….ask my colleagues, they have many stories to tell :)
We continued our drive to Grand Canyon after our shopping. The drive from flagstaff to Grand Canyon was surrounded by full of snow…..Awesome scenic view; I just loved it. With full of gab-chap all the way through, we were at our destination as per our schedule. Due to the long weekend, it was so crowded that, we wasted much of our time in searching for the car park. Atlast found some space, parked the car, packed our stuff and geared up with our back-packs, etc., and headed towards the Bright Angle transportation desk, where we were supposed to register before hiking. We managed to finish all the registration by 2pm and headed towards the shuttle stop to take the shuttle to south Kaibab (The trail which we had decided to hike down). Had to take 2 shuttles to reach the trail - blue shuttle to the information center from bright angle and the green shuttle from there to south Kaibab. (Bright angle – information center – south Kaibab)
With all excitement and anxiety reached our start point – South Kaibab Trail and started hiking down at 3pm. (The trail begins on the South Rim near Yaki Point, and descends to the Colorado River. Because of the unavailability of water and steepness of this trail, rangers recommend not hiking up on this trail but hiking down only. Distance from Rim to Phantom Ranch was 7.2miles / 11.6kms. Trailhead Elevation: 7200 feet)
the trail was full of snow, which was unexpected…..!! Moreover the trail was so steep that it was really difficult to even put a step forward. That’s when we realized that we did not had crampons nor sticks and how important those were. Just after 300-400 feet, we just felt like going back; but even going back was not possible because we had to go through the same pain. We had to cross that snow path (about 1-1.5miles) by falling skidding; Huhhhh was just horrible but still adventurous. Then the trail was just fine and N’joyed hiking down the canyons n’joying the weather and the nature. It was getting darker as we hiked down. After a break at Tonto trail junction, we were bit faster so that we could reach Phantom Ranch before it gets dark as we dint had a torch. Fortunately, I found a small torch light in my bag which I got at CES in Vegas. Though it was not of much use, it was more than sufficient to read the sign boards. It was a full moon day and the moon light came to our rescue in the dark.
Finally, we found our shelter at 7pm – Phantom Ranch, checked-in and got our dorms. Though it was a shared accommodation; it was neatly maintained. I entered the dorm and thought of lying down for some time….uuupphhh, that’s when I started feeling the pain. I was half dead; was unable to even move my legs. We dint waste much time; just took a hot shower bath (this gave me enough strength and I was up and running again) and went to the canteen to have our dinner – Teplas and Aloo curry. It was really nice to see so many people in such deserted place. People there were really surprised to hear that we hiked down in just 4 hours that too without any sticks or crampons. My dorm-mates had already started calling me “The Superwoman”. Then, we went for a quick walk and hit the bed as the next day was real crucial for us.
On 18th Feb’08 – Our breakfast time slot was at 7am. So, we got up at 6am, got ready and were at the canteen by 6.45am waiting for them to open the canteen door. We all had a nice breakfast – yummy and hot pan cakes and a cup of coffee. Took our sacked lunches and headed towards Bright Angel Trail at 7.45am to hike up. (Bright Angel: The trail begins on the South Rim just west of Kolb Studio, and descends to the Colorado River. Trail elevation is 6785 feet and the distance from Phantom Ranch to the Rim is 9.6miles / 15.7kms.) Though this trail was bit longer compared to sough Kaibab, we decided to take this trail since this had enough rest houses, rest rooms and drinking water which was really needed as we hike up. The climate was perfect – neither hot nor cold; around 50 F. Having our energy bars, drinking Gatorade, water, humming our favorite songs and enjoying the wonderful views all along the trail made us very easy to lose track of how far up you have hiked. I was enjoying every bit of it.
We reached Indian Garden junction (5 miles point in just 3.5hours) at 11.15am. Decided to have our lunch and then continue our hiking. We continued our hiking from Indian Garden at 12.15pm. Since Uma was particular about his planned schedule of reaching the rim on time that’s before dark, he was enjoying hiking up alone in his own pace and dint stop for anybody. Unfortunately, Rakesh had to be behind me to push and energize me. As we hiked up, we could feel the steepness. I started taking breaks for every 15-20min. and was getting tired. As we reached the 3mile rest house, people who were hiking down, started giving precautions about the snow ahead. Poor me literally started getting scared as I had undergone the hell on the previous day while hiking down. As we approached the snow, it was really difficult. Though it was not that slippery, we did skid couple of times on the black ice. Hiking upwards is far better than hiking down in the snow. Since it was bit steep and full of snow, we were freezing and were getting tired. The last 1.5 miles, was really tough. I had started taking breaks not for every 15-20min but for every 15-20 steps. Atlast we reached the rim exactly at 5.30pm.
We headed back to Chandler at 6pm. Reached our home sweet home (thts my second home - Windmill suites) at 10.30pm; had a nice shower and hit the bed…..Post effect was terrible; there was no other go than to take a day off to recover myself though was not sufficient….
But both the guys were back to work the very next day even though they had body pain….hmmm Mard ko bhi dard hotha hain; magar chupatha hain…hahahaaa The whole trip though was tiring, it was adventurous and energizing. Well, a nice break from work; something different which each and everyone should do it often.
I THOROUGHLY N’JOYED….!!!
Here are some snaps, if you would like to see… :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/GrandCanyonFeb08?feat=directlink
Chao, Jay :)
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