I never did solo backpacking before - so wanted to have that experience. I didn't have luxury to take a few days off and go to some wilderness far away - but I am fortunate to live close to some of the wild and well preserved large open space / wilderness to have solo backpack experience. So, I chose Ohlone Wilderness Trail in Livermore / Fremont area in California. It's not too far from where I live, and I visited some part of it (although, almost a decade ago).
So, on Saturday July 10th 2010 - I started my little expedition. Priya dropped me off at Del Valle Regional Park at Livermore. I started a little later than I expected - at 8:00 am. Plan was to backpack 15 miles to Sunol Backpack Camp, have over night camping there, and complete remaining 4.5 miles on the following day and come out at Sunol Visitor Center. My backpack weighed about 30 lbs. I started fresh with lots of energy and had a pretty good pace.
Proximity to nature and good oxygen flow was inspiring lots of creative thoughts - ranging from Gandhi's Dandi march to my potential future endeavors in India (one of the really wild idea is to traverse Gir forest from North to South). Sky was completely clear and Sun was bright with temperature in high 70's in the morning. Soon, I crossed the Ohlone Trail sign-in panel. After that, I arrived at Boyd Campus at expected time and then reached Williams Gulch after traversing some downhills. Small amount of water was flowing, I didn't bother to fill my water bag.
After Williams Gulch, there was a grueling steep uphill. And it was relentless - no time for break. Temperature was rising, trail was quite steep and 30 lbs of backpack was being felt - pretty heavily! All of these were taking toll on the water supply too. That forced me to take a closer look at the map, and I realized that there was no water available on the trail for a long long time, except Johny's pond near post 35. Other alternative would be Stewart's camp, but that would add 1.2 miles to my planned 15 miles of backpacking.
Heat, steep climbing, weight, and water scarcity were forcing me to evaluate my other options. All of the adverse conditions were also slowing me down considerably. After what felt like a long time - even though it was just 3 hours from start - I reached near Johny's pond. However, the water condition was very bad - it was a small, shrinking pond, with lot of mud and cow dung all around. I was left with Stewart camp option - and so, I will now need to change the plan. Cell phone signals were not available a few times when I checked - now I need to inform Priya about my new pick up location.
From Johny's pond, I left Ohlone trail, and went towards Murietta falls. I saw three day hikers for the first time on the trail - and asked them about Stewart's camp. They didn't go that far, however, they informed me that cell phone reception was available just above the fall. That was a good news, at least.
Murietta fall had no water, which was expected; and I continued towards Stewart's camp. I came across another small pond on the way - and that surprised me - because according to map, the camp site should be just before the pond. So, I left my backpack near the pond, went back to make sure that I didn't miss the camp site. Turned out that I indeed didn't miss it. With the camp site "gone", my only option was the pond. This one was even smaller. I circle around it to check the water out. Lots of bushes, mud, bugs and also saw a water snake in it. I was ready to filter the water and use it for cooking - as boiling would make it safe. However, I thought about searching the camp site on the other side of the lake - continuing on the trail. I was patient enough to go couple of switchbacks further, and to my happy surprise, I found the camp site. It had one water faucet with "untreated water" label, porta-potty, and leveled ground for one camp. Much better than the pond though! By this time, it clocked almost 1:00 PM and temperature soared 90+. Going to Sunol Backpack camp was out of question. So, I laid my tent, prepared and had lunch, went to the spot where cell phone reception was available and informed Priya about change in plan. After that, filtering the water turned out to be a time consuming project!
By 2:15, I was done with all the chores. I decided to go to Rose Peak - the highest peak in this area - and it was about 4 miles from where I was. I emptied most of my backpack, although kept all the food items with me -- didn't want squirrels to feast on it while I was gone. Water, backpack and food must have weighed about 10 to 14 lbs. However, I was recharged with carbs, and I continued the journey forward. Temperature almost reached 100 F by this time.
At 3200+ feet elevation, there were quite a few trees, and it felt like Sierra range - cone shaped trees and such. Soon I was back on Ohlone trail, and reached the southern boundaries of the park, turned right towards West. After coming out of one small valley, I had stunning view of bay area from the 3400+ feet elevation. Soon, I reached Rose Peak - at about 4:00 PM. Mission peak was monumental on West with Santa Cruz mountains in back ground. On South, two domes of Lick Observatory were clearly separated apart - a view of Mt. Hamilton which is not common from Bay Area. Mt. Diablo is impossible to miss on NE. Surprizingly, no cell phone reception at Rose Peak (3817 feet from mean sea level), even though multiple towers were visible in different directions. They don't broadcast the signal upwards, I guess.
Even though views were stunning, I didn't stay long enough at the peak, as there was no shade, it was quite hot, and surprisingly, there was no wind on the top. So, I headed back after treating myself with a power bar. 13th and 14th miles of the day were feeling tiring - but I was back to camp site by 6:00 PM. First thing first, had some hot chocolate. Took "shower" at the water faucet, prepared dinner and organized the tent a bit. Only food left now was breakfast for next day, and some munching along the way. Put that all in the backpack and hung it on a tree branch - to protect it from raccoons and squirrels at night. Just before it was dark, I was sleepy. Night was completely event-less.
Total miles of the day: 14
Elevation gain: about 3000'
Moral of the story: Even in adverse conditions, with strategy, adaptation and determination, same height can be achieved that was initially planned :)
Next Day
Woke up with birds' chirp and sunlight at 6 AM. Took my sweet time to have breakfast, hot chocolate and wrapping up the tent, and by 8 AM, I was heading back. Ensured that "I leave only foot prints and take only pictures", called Priya to inform about my timings, and I was on the way back. It was 6 miles to the Del Valle Regional Park.
While coming back, I realized how steep and relentless most of the trail was. Especially, the part from Boyd Camps to parking lot was also going from 750' to 2200' -- which I didn't realize yesterday as I was fresh in the morning. By 11 AM, I was back to civilization. This time around, didn't meet a single person during the whole hike.
It was quite an experience - mainly a realization that I can push my limits and maintain my sanity while alone and in not-so-perfect circumstances. However, I also realized that solo backpacking is not my cup of tea - I need people to talk! Besides, I missed Priya and Ved the night before too!
Here are the pics
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, June 2, 2008
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....
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....
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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
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,
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
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
Anyways, on the way back, instead of taking the same
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
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
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
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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 eros
ion, 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 :).
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