Grand Canyon Backpacking - detailed log

Finally I experienced it! I've been to Grand Canyon and surrounding areas about 5 times, but never went much below the rim. This week, finally I did my first backpacking experience in Grand Canyon - hiking from North Rim to South Rim. It was an excellent experience - I don't know how much I would be able to describe it in words...


The day before


Me and my friends - Kamal and Vandana - flew to Phoenix, AZ on the evening of Friday, June 6th (2008, for completeness). We chose direct flight to avoid the possibility of lost luggage in flight connections. We stayed at a friend's place and re-arranged the backpacks, weighed it the last time. It was a little over 31 lbs in my case, which was ok. The next day, Saturday June 7th, we left from Phoenix at 6:30 am by car and reached at South Rim of Grand Canyon around 11:30ish. We visited the backcountry office for any last minute update on trail status, parked the car and took the "Trans-Canyon Shuttle" to North Rim. There were 10 hikers in the shuttle - two groups who finished their rim-to-rim hike and were going back to their cars in N Rim, and another group like us, who were to start their hike from the N Rim. It was fun talking those guys and exchange stories about our prior experiences and such. Five hours of journey finished in a blink!


Fortunately, we couldn't secure the camp site at N Rim, so we were to stay at a motel room. It was fortunate, because minimum temperature at night would fall to 28 F (-2 C) that night. There were still some patches of snow under thick trees on this side of Kaibab national forest. We enjoyed the pizza dinner and did some last minutes preps before sleeping.


The First Day


The trail head of the North Kaibab Trail was 2.8 miles from the lodge. Our initial plan was to start early and hike that distance. However, we concluded later that time taken in hiking those miles would even out the early start - and that would be added 3 miles on the already planned 14 miles downhill journey. So, we took the shuttle and reached the trail head right around 6 am.


And thus, we began! The beginning of the trail was covered with thick forest - douglas fir, ponderosa pine, aspen -- almost felt like any Santa Cruz mountain trail. We were starting in a valley opening up in South, but the glimpses of the canyon were really rare. It was cold, but not freezing cold - temperature would be around 45-50 F, however it was very windy. Despite the thick forest cover, we put on jackets / wind cheaters and woolen hats / hand gloves. After hiking about an hour, the first layer of rock formation became apparent - the yellow Coconino rocks, dating 270 million years old.


Hiking in Grand Canyon is a journey in time. Reverse history if you go down and fast forwards from 1.7 billion years ago to 'now' if you go all the way from Colorado river to the rim. Every layer has its own color, tells the story of that age, hiding some pieces of the puzzle to keep us always curious.


In an hour or so, we descended about 1000 feet, 40 million years, and reached the Supai formation group - brown / red rocks. This group of rocks is responsible for mainly reddish color of the canyon - the color erodes from this layer and it paints the rocks below. Supai tunnel was the attraction in this part of the hike. After crossing the small tunnel, we saw the trail winding down steeply in the valley, with a small bridge visible "way down". This trail is supposed to go in parallel with Bright Angle creek. I read that Bright Angle creek is perennial, but water was not visible anywhere. I saw some "weeping rocks" along the way though.


After two hours, we crosses the first wooden bridge, met an elderly couple who left from Cottonwood camp ground around 4:30 in the morning. It was about 8 am at that time - so we figured that we were going slower than expected. The trails is not mile marked, so we couldn't tell exactly how much we traveled - but our gut feelings told us that we were slow. So, we increased the speed on the down hill. The trail was really steep -- after hiking another hour, we saw the first sign of flowing water - I should say gushing water! It was Roaring Springs, deserving its name, rushing out from a large hole in the rocks. We descended a lot by this time, the thick forest was almost gone. Douglas Firs were gone for sure - however there were still trees with occasional desert type vegetation. We examined the map at the Roaring Spring and discovered that it will soon meet the Bright Angle creek.


And soon we were hiking on the left side of the Bright Angle creek. Descent was almost over when we reached the creek around 9:45 am. Rest of the hike was along the creek, still going down, but not as sharply as the initial 6 miles. At 10/10:30 we reached Cottonwood campground. This was the last source of water along the trail, so we refilled our water bags, wet the hats / handkerchiefs and moved on.


Now the hike was in the side canyon of the creek - the constant music of the water flowing in the creek had a very good effect on our moods and thoughts. Thick vegetation of N Kaibab forest is long gone - now there are some shrubs and cactus and other thorny vegetations. Lizards were abundant! The typical view of Grand Canyon was not always visible, as we were still far from the Colorado river. Side canyons were still very imposing! Around this time, I had my first glimpse of diverse fauna of the canyon. A snake rushed from the shrubs on left side of the trail to right side, triggering relocation of couple of lizards. The snake moved so fast that Kamal, walking few feet behind me couldn't see it. The stomping of hiking sticks must have stimulated it.


We reached at Ribbon Falls at 11 am. It was a blessing in the heat of the desert / canyon. I never experienced a water fall so up, close and personal before. We freed our feet from the hiking boots and socks and soaked in the water. We also climbed up and went behind the fall. The fall was not huge, but it was big enough to enjoy the shower underneath it. We cooked our lunch in the vicinity and enjoyed the 2 hour stay.


At 1:00 pm we started the journey of last 6 miles to the Colorado river. It was the hottest time of the day and its not advised to hike at that time, but we took the chance, as we were going downhill and we really wanted some more time at the river. So, we continued. The heat was really terrible with 30 lbs on the back. We took every chance to wet our T-shirt / hats in the creek. Moving on, the canyon became narrower and there were box canyons at times. Fortunately, that provided much needed shade and it was still windy, which diluted the heat effect. Vandana was feeling some heat exhaustion at this time.


We were about 2 miles from the camp ground at 3 pm. I was ahead of Kamal/Vandana, and went down to the creek at an accessible point. I spent some time there, wetting my face, head, hat and cooling down and waited for few minutes. And I think I waited for a few minutes, but there was no sign of Kamal or Vandana. It was possible that they might have missed me, and continued passing me. With the sound of flowing water so close, I might have missed them too. Thinking that, I continued towards Phantom Ranch, with increase pace. I crossed a bridge and was able to see the trail ahead, but didn’t find them. So, left my backpack there and hiked to find them. I reached the spot where I accessed the creek and went a couple of switchbacks beyond that point, but still there was no sign. I waited at that point for them about 5 minutes. Officially, I lost them.
I knew I was less than 2 miles away from the camp ground, where I can find a lot of help. So, I decided to reach the Phantom Ranch and consult the ranger. It would take me less than an hour to reach there – so again, with increased pace, I started my hike towards the campground. One big thing that I missed was my wrist watch! So, I reached the camp ground, asked few people whether they saw any Indian couple or not and took the digicam to note the time. I reached the Bright Angle campground at 3:55pm. I decided to wait for half an hour before I go search for Kamal / Vandana. I started replenishing myself with mixed nuts, water and Gatorade. Meanwhile, I thought that I will consult ranger if I don’t find Kamal or Vandana in half an hour.


Fortunately, they came in about 15 minutes. Vandana was having trouble breathing in Sun – and so they waited for about 15-20 minutes in the shade. It must be a point before I went to the creek. It’s that easy in the wilderness to lose somebody, even if you follow the same trail. I had a whistle, but they didn’t have it. Lesson learnt – everybody must carry a whistle while backpacking, and define a protocol (3 short whistle means help me, 1 long means OK? / OK etc).
Anyways – at last we were together again. We setup the tent, emptied our backpacks and hung them on a post provided by the forest services. Then we went to pay the visit to the legendary Colorado River. We went to the boat beach and I quickly changed to my swimming costume. There was a whirlpool formed near the beach. The water was cold as expected. My feet really thanked me for going in the water. Swimming was difficult though – not because of the force of the water, but due to the cold. I couldn’t keep my head in the water for more than a few seconds. After enjoying the river for a while, Kamal and I went to visit the Black Bridge – the path to South Rim via the South Kaibab Trail. The name Black Bridge reminded me the Black Gate of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings. The landscape and the weather definitely reminded the Mordor at times. Black Bridge is also special because it ends in a tunnel on the south side. On the way back, we visited the archeological site of Anasazi natives. They were built some 800 years ago. The Anasazi people adjusted to the living in the canyons, but in 1350AD, they abandoned the canyons due to some “climate change”.


We reached the camp site at around 6PM, and were really deprived of sugar. So, made some hot chocolate and enjoyed it. Right around that time, a rattle snake was spotted just next to our camp site. We were excited and took the pictures. However, few minutes later, it ended up in the campsite of our neighbor, who brutally killed it. I felt very bad about it. I don’t think it was really necessary to kill it – after all we were in their territory.


Anyways, we were a bit more cautious after the snake incidence. Moved the hiking shoes on the bench, and quickly moved all the food in the metal food container to prepare for crash. It turned out that Kamal took kid’s tent by mistake – and we 3 couldn’t fit in it. So, I decided to sleep outside – on the table. Just after I slept, I spotted a small furry animal next to the tent. The next day, I came to know that it was Ringtail cat. pan>I moved the food container, which was too close to me, to as far as possible. I listened to many other creatures at night, but didn’t pay much attention.


The Second Day


We woke up at 5 AM on Monday – the second day of our voyage. We started the hike at around 6:30 – and crossed the mighty Colorado River over the Silver Bridge. The trail continued along the south side of the river for a while. Its pretty amazing to imagine that such a small river has carved up so huge canyons. The trail was mostly sandy along the river – though we were roughly 40 to 60 feet above it. We spot two rafts, probably waiting for their buddies. And after hiking about a mile and half, we said good bye to the river and started climbing along a small creek towards south. As Sun was low on the east, the canyon walls protected us from its rays. Unlike Bright Angle creek in the north, the creek along which we were hiking was not perennial, but it was still flowing as were early in the summer.


We quickly gained some elevation. The views of the canyon were much prettier from the south. We met a guy from Estonia along the way. And in no time, we reached the Indian Garden camp ground – at 9:45 AM. This was a very short hike – 4.5 miles, compared to the 14 miles of previous day. Indian Garden is on the Tonto Plateau, and unlike my expectations, it was full of shade. We found a nice camp side on the west side of the camp ground. There was an imposing canyon wall on the west of our camp site – almost looked like a red fort. We took a nap and woke up around noon to have a long lunch, starting with tomato soup. I don’t know when I was so relaxed and free before. There was absolutely nothing on my “to do list” for the rest of the day! And all three of us felt that our minds were almost blank – not thinking about any project or task or work or issue. That was a great feeling.
In the evening, we had a short walk along the Tonto Trail towards Plateau Point – didn’t go all the way to the end of the trail though. Saw a few deer on the trail. There were many squirrels and lizards at the camp site too. Again, we had a long dinner and enjoyed star gazing before going to sleep. The Milky Way was not visible yet, but still it was fun to see the night sky after a long time.


The Third Day


On the last day, again we started around 6:30 in the morning. Applying the mole-skin was the process before we start the hike everyday. Without that, the experience would have been bad.


The trail started going south with a little gradient – giving us the feeling that we were still in the plateau. But soon the imposing walls of the canyon were next to us and the ascent began. The trail was very scenic, facing north – we can see the side canyon carved by the Bright Angle canyon – the path we took two days back.
Today, we had to cover the same distance, about 4.5 miles. There were two water stops along the way. I was already missing the canyons by the time we reached second water stop. As we approached the south rim, more and more visitors were on the trail. Given that, there were many signs warning people about the extremes of the canyon. Canyon is like an inverted mountain – it’s easy to go down, but it becomes difficult to go back up. The extreme heat of the south rim makes the ascent more difficult, and many visitors of the south rim are unprepared and underestimate these conditions. However, it was nice to see more people. I especially felt good when somebody congratulated me when she came to know that I left north rim two days ago.


I was at high after the second water stop. My speed was increased and I was comparing this with the last hour of the marathons. I parted from Kamal and Vandana. The views of the canyon made me think that the visionaries of Upnishads must be inspired by the similar views in Himalayan range…


And around 10:15 am, I was at the top. Few minutes later Kamal /Vandana also showed up. The ice-cream on the south rim tasted very good – followed by a nice lunch. And thus, our first backpacking experience was ended – very successfully. It was really a very fulfilling experience.

Backpacking training in May

I did a lot of hiking / backpacking in May with Kamal and also got a lot of information about various aspect of our Grand Canyon backpacking trip. So, overall, it was a very fruitful month for the training - it's just that I never got chance to blog individual event. Here are the stats of the training:

May 4th - Mt. Diablo loop - ~8 miles - ~2000' elevation change - with 22 lb
May 10th - Mission Peak - 6 miles - 2200' elevation change - 22 lb
May 17th - PG&E trail (partial), Rancho San Antonio - ~4 miles - ~1000' elevation change
May 24th - Mission Peak - 6 miles - 2200' elevation change - 32 lb

Saw a lot of wildlife in these hikes - a fox, a snake, a long horned deer, rabbits and deers. Views from the peak of Mt Diablo was really impressive. Interestingly, you can drive all the way up to the top, the hike was a loop around the peak. Our goal was to go to Eagle peak, but we never reached there - as we got lost twice during the way.

Vandana was going back and forth about joining us for the trip. She didn't all the training hikes - but finally decided to join. Arun and Hiral had to drop off because of some issues - however, they are the biggest source of information with a lot of experience in backpacking. Darshak et al have also dropped. So, finally, its gonna be just 3 of us - me, Kamal and Vandana.

We knew more or less about the hiking, water, tent and clothing, however we were totally clueless on the food front. We had a long talk with Arun about that - and he explained a lot of stuff in detail. We also visited his home and borrowed couple of stuff. Our alternative for food was: methi paratha and pickle, almost ready made, ultra light weight food from REI, ready made food from Indian grocery stores. We weren't sure about the ready made food from REI. So, on our last Mission peak hike - we tried some. We got the backpacking stove to the top and "cooked" the lunch. I put the cook part in quotes, because it's really not much cooking. You just boil water, which happens in 2 to 3 minutes, and pour it in the aluminum foiled packet of the food, close the zipper and wait for about 10 minutes - and it's ready! And test of the Rice Pilaf was awesome! The Chhole was also pretty good! So, we just unanimously voted for the ultra light weight food from REI. And of course, the biggest plus was the weight.

During that last Mission peak hike - I put all the necessary stuff in my backpack and the weight turned out to be 40 lb! My limit was maximum 35 lbs. I had to remove stuff randomly to bring back the weight to 32. That made me concerned too. On Saturday May 31st, Kamal and I got together to plan and weigh everything in the backpack. Finally, it turned out to be following:

Backpack: 5 lb
Water: almost 3 liters - 6 lb
Tent + sleeping bag - 8 lb
Clothing: extra pair of running short, T, socks, swimming costume, "REI" towel, fleece blanket, wind cheater - 4 lb
Food: 3 breakfasts, 2 lunchs, 2 dinners - 4 lb
All other misc stuff (first aid kit, map, whistle, couple of utensils, knife, sleepers, electrolytes etc.) - 3 lb
Total: 30 lb.

So, here's the compromise we are making:
- No prep for rain - hopefully it won't rain - it doesn't during this time of the year at GC
- Not much prep for cold weather at night.

For the second part, we need to prepare a bit more. Need to take woolen hat, fleece jacket etc. because the minimum temperature at S Rim drops to 1-3 degree centigrade. Even if the bottom of the GC would be warmer, it wouldn't be that much warmer.

But all in all - we feel much more confident after the last Mission peak hike and the weight planning. On the budget front, I would have spent roughly 600$ on equipments. That's because I already had the trekking poles and hiking shoes. REI is really a great place to buy most of these specialty items.

We are leaving this week, and still there are couple of major "TODO" items left, so let me start working on that....

Point Reyes National Seashore

Date: April 19th 2008

Time: 8:30 am - 12:00 Noon

Distance: 8 miles

Elevation change: ~1500 feet

Weight: Mehul 22 lb

It was Saturday evening, and I was alone. Priya and Ved are still in India, actually just leaving for their return journey. Kamal / Vandana were busy with Vandana's grandma, so when I didn't receive Kamal's call the night before, I didn't bother to disturb them in the morning and started my solo journey to Point Reyes National Seashore.

I've an attraction for Pt. Reyes somehow! Especially the road that leads to the location is very beautiful. On the way to the Pt. Reyes, I went thru SF, Golden Gate Bridge and Hwy 1. Driving on GG Bridge at 7:00am reminded me of the SF Half Marathon. Enjoying the beautiful view of seashore on highway 1, arrived at Bear Valley visitor center of the Pt. Reyes at 8:30ish. I grabbed the map from the visitor center and started hiking on Bear Valley trail. Temperature was about 46 ⁰F and it was a bit windy, so I put on another layer of clothing on top of my running attire.

Bear Valley trail is an almost flat trail that leads to the seashore – roughly 4 miles from the visitor center. The vista at the seashore where Bear Valley trail ends is gorgeous – the creek creates an arch in the rock and meets the ocean. But I wanted some elevation training, so after going just 0.2 miles on Bear Valley, I turned right on the Mt. Wittenberg trail. Besides, I’ve been on the Bear Valley trail may three or four times, so wanted something new. Mt. Wittenberg trail was totally awesome – sudden elevation gain (about 1350’ of gain in first 1.6 miles), much denser douglar fir forest and barely a foot wide trail. I was feeling the 22 lb on my back! J

After about 2 miles of uphill, I reached the Sky Trail, which goes on the top of the mountain ridge. It was very windy, but due to thick forest not much wind was felt at ground level. It would be a mini storm at the Pt. Reyes lighthouse. Well, I continued my hike towards the Sky Trail south. I met a few hikers / back-packers on the way. After about a mile on the Sky trail, I took right on the Woodward Valley trail that goes directly west to the ocean. I continued on this trail for a about a mile – and at 10:30 am or so, I stopped. I had some time constraints, so didn’t go all the way to the ocean, instead enjoyed the view of it from the top, roughly a mile away from the shore and returned. At the junction of Woodward Valley and Sky trails, I found a nice cut log and had a mini breakfast on it. I got rid of my “plastic pants” as it was getting hot.

Then I started my journey way back on Sky trail. I was feeling very energetic and lots of creative, positive thoughts were popping in my head. It’s amazing what a 2 week India vacation and nature’s company can do J. Sky trail was not so wide in this area and I yielded to an elderly couple that was coming on the way. I just had shorts at that time and I brushed my right leg with a small plant. It gave me a very burning sensation though! It didn’t look like poison oak, but the burning was such that I realized that it’s not just a bruise. I poured some water on it and rubbed a bit. Another group of on-coming hikers told me that the plant was so-called “stinging needles”. It has a lot of microscopic needles that would cause skin irritation. The burning sense was gone after 15-20 minutes but there was a strange sensation and the area was extra sensitive for the rest of the day.

Anyways, on the way back, instead of taking the same Mt. Wittenberg trail, I took the Meadow trail on my right. The elevation loss was again very sharp. There were indeed a few meadows on the way. It met the Bear Valley trail on a junction of small creek meeting Bear Valley creek (“triveni”!). That spot was 0.8 miles away from the parking lot. There was a constant natural music of the creek flowing parallel to the trail up to the trail head.

I finished at Noon – so the whole 8 miles were done in 3.5 hours. I noticed that I had to stretch hamstrings, gluts and few other muscle groups. Right leg was complaining a bit. It felt funny after I removed my backpack for a while!

Girnar

Girnar, India

Date: March 27th, 2008

Time: 6:00 am – 10 am

Distance: Roughly 3 miles?

Elevation change: Roughly 2005 feet

Weight: Mehul 0 lb

Junagadh is now my home town in India – in the west most state Gujarat. Junagadh is on the western foothills of Girnar, which is a small mountain of about 2000 feet height. I had to Google a lot for the exact elevation. One site confidently reports 2005 feet. Roughly 2000 feet seems correct. Wikipedia reports 3600 feet, but I can tell that that’s way off. Girnar is a big pilgrimage place for Hindus (and Jain, if you consider them different J). There are wide, well maintained lava stone steps all the way to the top. Somehow, people believe that there are 9,999 steps to the top of the mountain. However, the steps are clearly numbers with the interval of 50 steps and it counts about 4,500 to the first summit (Ambaji temple). It’s pretty much straight up path (no ups and downs) and if you consider 6” height for every step, it would result in to some 2,225’.

Anyways, I wanted to climb Girnar couple of times during my 2 week stay in Junagadh, but it happened only once. One more time I went hiking on the “Pradaxina Marg”, a route that goes around the main mountain through the surrounding hills. Similar to Gir forest (http://www.iit.edu/~bhatmeh1), Girnar and surrounding hills are also covered with deciduous forest. There’s a big variety of fauna and flora, including a lot of mammals. Lions and leopards are found in Girnar too. However, they don’t dare to come near crowded pilgrimage places.

To avoid the heat, me and my cousin Maulik started the climb at 6 am in the morning. There was a faint twilight at that time and there were many people who started the hike. We kept going at comfortable speed and we climbed first 1000 steps in about 20 minutes. I had some time constraints and we weren’t sure whether we’ll go all the way to the top or not. But we kept going and soon we reached the straight vertical up lava stones portion of the mountain. Sun already rose by that time, but we were on the west side of the mountain, so sunlight was not hitting us directly. I noticed that besides two of us, almost nobody was wearing sports shoes. Most people were in their flip-flops. Other change that I noticed was that bottled water and “water pouch” were omnipresent. Old style water stops with earth-pots were rarity. Being environment friendly, we stopped at a place where a young village woman was selling water from the clay-pot. Her 1.5 year old son was playing in the “shop”. I asked her how can she manage to get water so high. She told me that it was from “Gaumukhi Ganga” (water dripping from the lava stones in a nearby cave). Indeed the water was cold and with a very distinct mineral taste of mountain stones.

Moving on, we met a monkey family enjoying the early morning sun. Took a few pics and video shooting of them. Then we moved on, and in no time, we reached the top (Ambaji temple). We noticed that we took 1 hour 30 minutes to reach the top. My regular hiking speed is about 2 miles per hours, so it must have been roughly 3 miles. There was a helipad built on the top, we enjoyed the view of the surrounding areas from there. I saw the “Bordevi” pilgrimage, where I enjoyed a week long scout camp during my high school years (a nice place in the middle of the forest, about 8 km away from where we begun our hike). We identified various dams in the area and couple of towns etc. I wasn’t so keen about going in the temple, but when Maulik insisted, I paid a visit.

On the way back, we stopped again at the water-woman. On the way to the top, I paid a little extra money to her. On the way down, when I had difficulty finding the change, she said it’s ok if I don’t have change. Her generosity touched me - she must be from a very poor family, she must have figured that I’m a “tourist”, and she knew that I happily overpaid on my way up. Still, she had no intention to rob us. Fortunately, my cousin had change to pay for the water and we happily move on.

We took it real slow to go down. It took us an hour to reach the bottom. It was getting real hot around 10 am – the temperature must be reaching 30 degrees centigrade at that moment (or may be more). This was a real prep for the Grand Canyon in that sense.

Mission Peak Hike

Date: March 2nd 2008
Time: 11:50am - 3:30pm
Distance: ~6 miles
Elevation change: ~2200 feet
Weight: Mehul 17 lb, Priya 0 lb

First thing first, we received the Grand Canyon backcountry hiking permits for the June 8, 9 and 10th -- hurrey!!

This is my first hike with the new backpack and with Kamal and Vandana. We started little late, well quite late compared to our initial plans. I added a lot of water, fleece jacket, wind cheater, avocados, wheat bread and few other stuff to have 17 pounds in the backpack. The hike was steep as expected. Me, Priya, Pappa, Kamal and Vandana - we were the group of 5. It was windy to begin with.

I did this hike after a long time - this was the very first hike that I did with Amit, Haresh, Kaushal and Shashin in year 2000. Mission Peak hike is a very famous place for casual hikers, runners, even bikers and occasionally backpackers who go to Ohlone Wilderness area. Easy access from Fremont is the other reason why the trail is always crowded. However, its a totally open area without shade and very wide trail - almost like a one lane road. People have made a lot of illegal trails across the switchbacks. Though, the park people have controlled it quite a bit lately, it seemed. There were signs to prevent people from taking shortcuts and they seemed quite less compared to the distant memory I had about the place.

While enjoying the great view of the bay, we maintained the steady pace. We reached at a place that looked like a remote area of Tibetan plateau - there was a big black cow looking like a yak! Shortly after that spot, the wind was getting intense. By the time we reached the peak trail, it was enormously powerful. We weren't prepared for this situation - Kamal and I were wearing running tee-shirt without any other layer. We kept going on, very slowly, against the wind. Roughly .25 miles before the peak, we decided to take shelter behind a small 3' high rock. After catching some breath, we decided to return.

On the way back, we enjoyed the avocado - wheat bread sandwich under a tree. We consumed the entire loaf.

Two lessons learned: always be prepared for any weather condition (this is what may increase the backpack weight), and given the amount of food we consumed in this hike, we really need to plan how much food would we carry for the 3 days 2 nights backpack in Grand Canyon.

Tafoni Trail Hike

Date & Time: 2/10/2008, 10:00 to 11:45 AM
Location: Tafoni Trail, Santa Cruz Mountain
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation change: ~500 ft
Backpack weight: Priya 10 lb, Mehul 0 lb

We didn't have enough time to do the whole 6 miles Tafoni & Fir loop, but we decided to at least the Tafoni trail. The day was much better than last weekend - bright and sunny. We drove on Skyline Blvd. south, from the intersection of 92 and 35 towards La Honda. It turned out that we never drove on that before - and were delighted with the new found beauty.

The trail head was in the middle of the road, and you have to park the car some 50 yeards away from the trail head on a vista point parking lot. Apparently, this was a very popular spot for biking. The trail was lush green with redwoods, Douglas fir and such. After hiking for 1.5 miles we reached the sandstone trail on our right. Bikers are not allowed on this part. After few yards, we saw the sandstone monolith. Sandstones are prone to quick erosion, and the effect of rain, wind and CO2 causes the honey-comb like structure. We had our last breakfast of avocado and wheat breads sandwiches under the giant rock. I felt like taking a nap, but we returned instead. On the way back, we noticed a huge beehive on a redwood tree.

It was a short but peaceful and beautiful hike. Perfect for the week before Valentines day :).

Windy Hill Hike

Let me start with the vital stats:

Date & Time: 2/2/2008, 12:45 to 4:15 PM
Location: Windy Hill (loop), Santa Cruz Mountain
Distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation change: 1,100 ft
Backpack weight: 12 lb

Me, Priya and my dad started the hike around 12:45, after exploring a new route to the Windy Hill open space preserve on CA hwy 35 (skyline blvd). Sure enough, the place was very windy. This was the kickoff of the training for our Grand Canyon rim-to-rim backpacking adventure - just yesterday we applied for the back country hiking & camping permit for the first week of June.

The parking lot was windy, foggy and it was drizzling a bit. A storm / rain was predicted for the late afternoon and we were equipped with rain gears, but we decided to put them on at the very beginning. Temperature would be in the high 40's. The trail was wet and muddy - however all upper layer of the dirt must be washed out, so it was not as slipper as I expected by looking at it at the beginning. Similar to the Grand Canyon hike, we were to first downhill and then uphill on our way back. Struggling with the heavy wind, we crossed the so-called anniversary trail, I was hoping for calmer environment once we enter the woods. We bypassed the top of the hill before going downhill by taking an alternative route - this decision was influenced by the heavy winds. Once we entered the woods, things were much better, as expected. Soon we were welcomed by the tall redwoods and its 'siblings'.

The forest was very much like the temperate rain forest -- all green, lots of lichens on the trees, giant trees, not so dense though, and small green plants under the giants. The 'Wild Trees' book taught be to appreciate uniqueness of all the trees. Some trees are having structures like fractal images - repeating some basic structure over and over, while others are just more wild. Like humans, even two trees of the same species are not similar - they have their own treeality.

We encountered a (freshly) fallen branch of a tree on our trail, which suggested that the wind was stronger than usual. We were losing elevation pretty steadily. Then we reached at a series of switchbacks and the down hill was a bit steeper. The vegetation was quite different even in such a small difference in elevation. While going thru switchbacks we talked about how people usually cut short-cuts while climbing Girnar or doing 'Girnar Pradaxina'. Short cuts should be avoided while hiking, because it's not only dangerous for the hiker, it's also bad for the environment (remember the good old 'leave only foot steps and take only pictures' while going in the wild). Making 'your own trail' increases erosion, destroys stuff growing in open area and such. May be it's not entirely the youth's fault, may be youth in India needs more opportunities to show off (like doing triathlons?).

Anyways, the woods were more deciduous towards the bottom of the valley and we were at the end of the Hamms Gulch trail. The original idea was to do a loop back thru another trail, but we felt that we might run out of the time, so after having the lunch of trail mix and Cliff bars we headed back on the same trail.

While coming back, I noticed that algae and lichens grow only on some trees, not all. Looking at such 'altruistic' trees reminded me the words from the Arkee's Garaba (you will need Gipika fonts to read this)

ysJtmgut Jnuaeklu Ftje :i øâtltu,
mnusu øtC2txlt, yk"t2e mtuzltu

After having a friendly encounter of a big yellow snail and burning a lot of calories going uphill, we ended up back on the parking lot around 4:15. The last stretch of .9 miles were most difficult due to wind. It felt even more powerful, may be it was really stronger, or may be we were exhausted. All in all, it was a great beginning of the 'season'.

(Couple more pics at http://public.fotki.com/mehul-asha/windy-hill-hike/)