Sunday, October 28, 2012

Nice bike ride out to Shoshone Point.  While riding I thought some more about the catered backpacking trips.

I guess these are for those bucket list people who want to hike the Canyon and get it over with.  I mean, no one is going to come back by themselves for another trip and carry fresh salmon, and avocados, and make their own cheese.  I run into people all the time who were on a trip with me and learned enough about backpacking to return on their own.  With dried food.

I remember camping at Bright Angel one night, and the site next to our had all the tent set up, and the cook was getting dinner ready.  At about dusk, a bunch of men came in with day packs.  They had just come from the North Rim, and their camp was set up, dinner was cooking, and all they had to do was sit down and light cigars, which they did.  I'm sure their guide picked up the butts when they were done.

My group was all women, and don't think we didn't make comments about carrying our OWN stuff down. 

I know someone who refers to these trips as "hand holders".  Maybe "hand holders" and "spoon feeders".


Saturday, October 27, 2012

I don't know what was going on this morning on the South Kaibab, but every bus dropped off at least a dozen people who, apparently, were heading in and out in the same day.  One group, who kept exhorting one another to "pick up the pace" wanted to know how far it was "to the bar" and decided they would be able to get a beer by 10:30 at the latest.  They are at one of the seven wonders of the world, and a world heritage site, and all they want is a brewski.  Who are these people and who allowed them into the Canyon?

Finished my first fully catered hike.  A very special, once only affair with a chef.  Not only do guiding companies in the Canyon bring and cook all the food, it is fresh.  Eggs and potatoes.  Fresh vegetable pasta.  Zucchini fritters with freshly made ricotta cheese.  Made from fresh, whole milk.  Of course, anything not eaten must be carried out.  Wet.  Heavy. 

I have been berated by clients of these groups that THEY have fresh salmon for dinner, or breast of chicken.  While I have something dry in a bag.  Yeah, but I can come back by myself with my dry stuff in a bag.  Let's see them try a rim to rim on their own with their salmon fillets and whole milk.  It is as though the food is a more valuable experience than the Canyon.  And I bet they can't name the four members of the Supai Group. 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Nice sunrise on the South Kaibab.  Lenticular clouds over the North Rim, and for once I am not up there, in the storm. organizing a group for a rim to rim.

Passed Condor number 113.  He is a six year old, raised by a puppet.  Next on Oprah: raised by puppets.  Are condors who are puppet raised more likely to shoot up a nest site with an AK-47?

Very few hikers on the trail until we started back up.  One runner almost pushed me off, and I was close enough to give him a sharp elbow to the chest, but I resisted.  Barely.  I would have had to administer first aid after I knocked him off the cliff. 


I could have elbowed him and then run, but I don't think I can hide.  A few weeks ago I was called into Ranger Operations.  I wondered, "What did I do now?  That I was caught at?"  The ranger asked if I had been on the BA on August 1, and I said yes, and did I see the mule that went off Cinch Up Corner?  Again, yes. 

I was doing a short hike before meeting a group, and as I stepped off the trail for the Trail Crew Mules, one of them stepped on a rock on the outside of the corner and went off.  I watched for a while to see if they could lure it back onto the trail, which they could not.  It wanted no part of that loose scree right under the edge of the trail.  I finally had to leave to meet my people.

Then I was asked, "Did you wave anything at the mules?"  Absolutely not!  I guess their story is that the mule didn't slip: a hiker scared it.  I didn't notice anyone at the corner, which doesn't mean there wasn't someone there, but it sounded like the mule just stepped off.  So I wrote up an incident report, and asked, "How did you find me?"

Well, someone had mentioned a hiker in a skirt, and Della said, "Oh, I bet that was Slim".  So Della dimed me out, and I guess I can't pull anything in the Canyon now without it getting back to the Authorities.  Which I suppose means I can't accidentally trip up a rude runner. 


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

How embarrassing is it to fall flat on one's face, and particularly on the South Kaibab?  Where all the grannies take their precious little ones to carve their names at Ooh Ah? 

Of course, this is where Brad fell last week.  The exact spot, in fact.  So one might conceivably blame it on the trail.

This was at "the steps", that really steep section just above Ooh Ah.  It used to be actual steps  composed of water bars, and then the trail crew filled it all in, and then the mules came back, so it is steps again, only with more dust. 

A lot of hikers complain about the mule droppings.  With the reduced number of mules these days (ten a day to Phantom, none to Plateau Point) I don't mind that so much.  It is so dry here that the green stuff tends to dry up and blow away.  It is also fun to watch the young girls squeal when they step in it.  Or near it.  Or within reasonable proximity to it.

What bothers me is said dust.  Not because of what it contains, though as Matt Slater says, it does not do to think about it too much on a really windy day.  But because it makes the trail slick.

The dust covers the rocks, so I can't see them.  When I do see them, there is a thin layer of rounded particles (which will eventually make sandstone) coating a smooth rock.  Can you say "ball bearings"?  In Supai walking back from the village in the dusk and the gloaming I almost turned my ankle several times because of the treacherous rocks hidden under the dust.  I am sure it is a plot by the Havasupai to get back at us for invading their territory. 

Anyhow, down I went, realizing halfway down that I was heading for some very hard rocks, but at least I was falling toward the INSIDE of the trail so I should stop before the bottom of the Coconino.  Bent my fingers back, but no real harm there.  Some nasty scraps on my knee (and don't think about what's in that dust and thence in my wounds).  Mostly damaging to my pride, particularly since I was talking to Bob of the Peregrine Fund and he witnessed the entire debacle.

Of course, had I not been yakking instead of watching my feet, I might not have fallen.  So maybe I'll blame it on him.  Can't be me, after all. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Yikes, the last day the North rim is open and the trail is full of runners.  One of them was dangling a bunch of bananas from one hand, and when I said, "I hope you will be carrying the peels out", he ignored me.  Then I found one below O'Neil, so I guess not.

Also picked up a goo block.  Can't stop to pick up anything we drop, because it might take 15 seconds off our rim to rim time.

If we have banned plastic water bottles in the Park, why can't we ban Kleenex?  Can't even blame that one on the runners.  Usually it is ladies.  They can't stand for their nose to run, and they won't put up with bandanas or handkerchiefs because they are "unsanitary" so it is blow and throw. 

Also a huge pile of human feces just within sight of the Chimney.  We find a lot of this during running season: coincidence?  If they were serious, like bike riders, they would go in their shorts. 

On a positive note, the sunrise was beautiful and the weather is lovely.  After yesterday's hard rain, the dust was down and the air was clear.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Just finished another rim to rim.  For a change it did not rain at the start, but at the finish.  Anyhow, it wasn't hot in the bottom.

They are trimming trees in Bright Angel Campground, and our group was too slow for them, so they started cutting branches while we were still packing our stuff.  No pressure,eh?

At Indian Garden the last night, a runner came through about three AM.  I guess he was talking into a helmet cam, or maybe just to himself, but he said, "I am now passing through the campground.  Hopefully I am not talking loudly enough to wake anyone."

Hey, you were and you did. 


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Many people on the trail today.  I guess because Monday is a holiday, though not for us.  Lots of runners, or at least people running down (which happens to be of the worst things one can do for one's knees).  Time will tell if they run on the way out.

One unfortunate young woman with a huge backpack, a small day pack on her chest, and a tent and sleeping bag dangling from the aforementioned backpack.  Given five minutes I could have whittled her pack down at least 20 pounds.  One could feel sorry for her, except for the almost certainty that she shall abandon a lot of the stuff in the bottom. 

Thought a bit about the runner who beat the old rim-to-rim time.  It was just under four hours, and every time it was beat, the holder of the record, Al Cureton,  would go out and beat it again.  He insists that he is not a runner: just a very fast walker. 

However the record was broken, and both of them were in the newspaper.  Of course, running rim to rim in under four hours means that the runner

a) did not run into a mule train, or if he did, he didn't stop as hikers are supposed to. 

b) did not yield to uphill hikers (though what runners do, really?). 

c) took full advantage of the improved trail.  The North Kaibab used to vanish into a series of beaver dams about 4 miles upstream from Phantom Ranch, and it took even the most dedicated runner at least 10 minutes to thrash a way through.  It was rather amusing to sit beside the ponds and watch a runner confidently vanish into the shrubbery only to emerge, puzzled, and ask, "Isn't this the North Kaibab Trail?" 

A few years back a causeway was installed to protect the beavers, and coincidentally, to subtract about 10 minutes from every runner's time.  So I think Al's record stands, and I think of that every time a runner comes pounding through.