Tuesday, April 13
.5 miles + 3 miles on a raft
That’s right baby, 3 miles on a raft. We waited 20 hours for a hitch to cross a few hundred feet across the Colorado River and it was well worth it.
I initially set up my stuff under the Tapeats overhang but had to move when I saw some mice scurrying about. Didn’t want to wake with any holes in my bivy or any less food so I moved over to the sand beach where Jordan was. Woke up to everything covered in sand (again), including my camera. I got super frustrated when the lense cover wouldn’t close because of the grains of sand embedded in it. I was able to clean it out but it was annoying af.
We spent the morning waiting for a hitch again, more hopeful than yesterday. We did start getting anxious around 9 though and Jordan even half-joked that we was going to make a raft using wood and paracord to get across. I don’t think he would have actually done it but I also don’t think he wouldn’t have done it.
Around 10am we spotted some rafting groups in the distance. The first boat that came by saw us and we asked them straight up for a ferry across. It was too hard and they were moving too fast to be subtle. Thank fuck they said sure. They said they didn’t have any pfds (personal floating devices) so couldn’t take us down the river but could ferry us across. Good enough for us. Goddamn it felt so good to be off that side of the river.
We spoke very briefly to them. They were both from Tahoe and seemed like they knew a lot about the river. They told us that our guidebook was smart to tell us not to try to cross the river since it was way too cold and fast and we would probably would died. Good to know.
We made safe and sound across the river and immediately had to bushwhack away from the shore again. We saw more rafting groups go by as we fought our way through the dense reeds and cottonwoods on the shore. We had about a half mile bushwhack to the confluence with the Little Colorado River. It wasn’t too bad, a little scrambling and route finding when the way to the LCR beach cliffed out into the river. Nothing we hadn’t already spent all morning yesterday doing.
After 21 goddamn hours, we made it to the confluence of the Little Colorado and the big Colorado Rivers. The LCR is amazing. Because of minerals and silt in the water, it is a mesmerizing baby blue color. The color of the water contrasted with the vastness of the canyon walls around us made for such a beautiful sight. That was a popular spot for the rafting groups to stop and we had a lot of company there.
There was a commercial group and a private group, including the two guys who had given us a ferry across. We got to talking to the private group and one of the members had actually hiked the PCT in 2013 and knew the deal about thru hiking and the Hayduke. We talked for a while, learning more about each other’s trips. They were on day 6 of a 21 day down 270 miles of the Colorado River. They offered us fizzy water and took our trash, the best trail magic we’ve gotten on this hike so far and more than we were expecting.
After talking to them for a bit, we mentioned that we had been jealous of all the people rafting, especially during the bushwhack down the Colorado. They checked and it turned out they had two extra PFDs. And then they offered us a ride with them down the Colorado River.
This was completely unexpected and we said yes obviously (Okay, so we not so secretly hoped they would but didn’t actually think it would happen). Getting permits to raft down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon is extremely hard and we sure as hell weren’t going to pass up an opportunity to do it. Aquablaze a hard section of trail to luxuriously float down the Colorado River? Of fucking course!
The only problem was that the group wasn’t going to go far that day and had a layover the next which means we’d be off our schedule again. Not a big deal since the wait for the ferry already put us off but we are low on food and would have to ration for the extra day. It made me super anxious to have to ration food. I have bad food anxiety and running out of food is my number one thru hiking fear, especially since I did once run out of food on the PCT while fighting off hypothermia after a night of getting drenched.
Ultimately, it’s worth the risk to raft down the Colorado River. Might never get the chance to do it again (although tbh after doing only a few miles, there’s no way I don’t get super into rafting and come back and do it all someday).
While we were waiting to set off, we heard from another group that there was another hiker right behind us who had gotten a ride across too. We knew there was one other hiker a day behind us and it made sense that because of our long wait he would have caught up. We found him sitting near another group. Turns out he was the hiker we had met during our caching trip at Needles Outpost. We talked to him a bit about the hiking and this section. He didn’t have to wait long at all for the ferry, probably planning it out much better than we had. He got going and crossed the Little Colorado, getting back on the route. I wish we could have talked more with him or hiked with him since it’s rare to see other Hayduke hikers but we’ll hopefully see him down the way.
The group we got a ride with was pretty big, 11 people on four boats and one kayak. Jordan went with the two guys who had ferried us across and I went with the trip leader and another guy. They were both from California and the trip leader was from Tahoe too.
I’ve never done any kind of water sports (I can barely swim) but holy shit rafting is so cool. We were on a big giant inflatable boat loaded with tons of dry bags full of stuff and giant oars maneuvering our way down the river. We weren’t going very far but that was still the longest time I’ve ever spent on any kind of boat and I’m hooked.
I got a crash course in river running from my group. They told me how to see the fast water and how to move the boat around with the oars. They also showed me what to do if we got caught in a something I don’t remember.
The entire group was also fucking hilarious. Most of the group were wearing tutus (because it was Tutu Tuesday duh) and there were unicorns and bears mounted on the front of the boats. They were also very well stocked with booze, weed, and all kinds of other stuff. We occasionally bumped into each other on the river and would talk shit or joke around when it happened. At one point one guy in one of the boats jumped onto the side of another boat when it got too close and stole their draw bag, a mesh bag that holds beer in the water to keep it cold. It was an amazing act of piracy.
The ease and comfort they showed on the rafts was really impressive. I was death gripping the rope that ran along front the whole time meanwhile they were jumping around from boat to boat, casually moving around and relaxing while drinking beers. Not to say they weren’t also very serious about the river. We hit a few patches of turbulent water, nothing too bad, but they were on top of it, navigating deftly through everything. The trip leader also guided the other boats around us, warning them of rocks or orienting them towards faster water. It was so fucking cool.
Seeing the Grand Canyon while floating down the river is maybe the best way to see it. We had told the group that one of the shittier things about hiking was that we spent most of the time looking down at our feet to watch out steps and couldn’t take in the canyon as much as we wanted. That was not a problem while floating down the river. I could look up and see all the layers of rocks all around us, the billions of years of history. Even got to see a pack of Bighorn sheep jumping around some very narrow ledges. Goddamn it was so much fun.
We went down only about 3 river miles (around 6 trail miles) which was not very far but that’s okay. We got to another little beach area near a side canyon where we docked for the day and the layover. We helped unload and tried to earn our passage by helping out with any errands we could do. We double checked our food and I got incredibly anxious again. All the socializing plus the river stuff and the food frazzled me pretty bad. It’s a great experience and I wouldn’t change our decision but I am very worried about hiking out. I’m also feeling pretty restless since we had almost 24 hours of resting, a ridiculously short day or hiking, and now another rest day tomorrow. This is a such a cool experience and I wish I didn’t have so much fucking anxiety about it. Everything will probably be fine, it usually is, I just need to learn to relax.
After we set up, we went for a short hike with the trip leader and her boyfriend up the side canyon we were near. They were both climbers, skiers, cyclists, all the usual outdoorsy people things and we got to talk to them about all that for a while.
The side canyon connects to another side canyon and the hike can be done as a horseshoe-shaped point to point with hikers being dropped off at one end then picked up down river at the other end. One of the comercial groups did that, dropping off the geologists Jack and Jordan had met the day before yesterday. The canyon was really cool, not as dramatic maybe as some of the other canyons we’ve seen but geologically maybe more interesting. We hiked up a bit, crossing over “The Great Unconformity”, a section of rock where one layer of rock is 500 million years old and the layer below it is 1.5 billion (BILLLION) years old. I have no idea how that works but it’s a thing and we saw it up close.
The side canyon opened up into a giant open area, almost like a meadow and way off in the distance we could see the north rim. It still absolutely blows my mind how massive this canyon. I keep looking up at the canyon walls and think that’s the top but it’s not at all. The walls I’m looking up at are just the closest, shortest ones near me. There are so many more layers stretching out for days and days.
We headed back to camp for dinner. The group was having spaghetti and meatballs but the noodles were vegan and we were able to have some, saving at least one dinner for later. We definitely don’t want to anyone to go without on our account but also really need any food we can get.
After dinner, things got really rowdy. The booze and weed and other substances got going and everyone got drunk or high or both. I haven’t been around drinkers in a long time and it was a little difficult but it was more fun than a problem. No one really pressured us to try to drink or do anything else which was good. Would have made for a really uncomfortable time if they had.
We spent hours talking with everyone getting to know them and sharing stories about our hike and other adventures. The older guys from Tahoe in particular had a ton of great stories about climbing and surfing all over California and Mexico. I regret that I didn’t start my outdoors life until in my late 20s but at the same time I’m glad in doing cool shit now and discovering all this stuff. Would like to be their age and have as many stories as they do.
Jordan, it turns out, plays guitar and we bullied him into playing for us, improvising songs and just being belligerent long into the night. Thankfully we’re the only ones in the area so no noise complaints although people can probably hear us down river.
Right when we were about to tap out, they pulled out the light up Bocce balls and coerced into staying up until midnight playing. They played an “extreme” version where we had to throw a small blinking white ball into the dark and everyone had to get their colored blinking ball as close as possible to the white one without stepping over a line. The rules were arbitrarily but sternly enforced. The game was a total shit show with people throwing the heavy balls all over the camp area, sometimes into sleeping people’s camps. The balls would hit rocks and bounce off into the dark. One yellow ball was tragically lost and another blue one stopped blinking. I didn’t do very well since I was too worried about hitting someone to throw hard enough but Jordan, my team mate, did great and got us a ton of points. If there were points, that was unclear.
We finally did make it to bed, way past hiker midnight and even real midnight. I was too tired to write this up so I’m doing it in the morning before everyone wakes up and the rowdiness starts up again. The beach we’re on is a popular spot apparently so if another rafting party comes by, we might try to hitch further down the river today instead of staying here. I’d love to keep hanging with this group but we do need to try to get going. If we don’t though, it’ll all work out one way or another.
Plants Outside 