Friday, April 16
4 miles.
The frogs or whatever they were stopped croaking so I managed to get some good sleep.
We started the day going up making our way a short ways to Horseshoe Mesa, a big, you guessed it, horseshoe shaped mesa. On the way up we met some weekenders near an old mine. One of their boots had totally blown out and was flapping around. We found some gorilla tape ages ago and have been carrying it this whole way just to lend to them. The mine was also cool, just a big long tunnel bored into the canyon wall. There was a gate with minegates.com imprinted on it. The thought of a company/website that exclusively sells gates for mines is hilarious.
The mesa section was really neat. We had planned to get there the night before and I wish we had made it. Lots of protected spots to camp with great views. Also had a bathroom, basically just two giant plastic tubs with slatted walls.
From there we joined the Grandview Trail that would take us 2.5 miles up to the south rim. Not the easiest 2.5 miles we’ve hiked so far. Definitely the most elevation gain we’ve gotten this hike, around 2400 feet in just 2.5 miles. Helped that the trail was an actual trail, well marked with loads of switchbacks to make the climbing more gradual. Passed a lot of weekenders on the way up and day hikers coming down. Knew we were close where we passed a group of teenagers with a loud af speaker blaring shitty music.
Made it to the top and the trailhead pretty early. Got a hold of Captain Jack who had gotten to the south rim two nights ago and was planning on heading out with Rowan, the other hayduke hiker we met at the Little Colorado. We’ll be half a day behind them now but might be able to catch up in a few days.
We spent about a half hour trying to hitch from the trailhead to the south rim village and the post office. Lots of cars passed us but none picked us up. Two shitty white guys tried to troll us by asking us where the Grand Canyon was and then slinking away when we didn’t care about their trolling.
We were starting to get ansty since today is Friday and we needed to get to the post office to get Jordan’s shoes. His shoes are pretty well fucked with a few blow outs and no tread left so he really needed new ones. Jordan was gonna start asking people directly when a guy pulled up and offered us a ride. He was a super nice older guy who was planning on spending a few days backpacking from Grandview to Hermit Point and was checking out Grandview. He offered to take us to the post office and store but asked if we minded making a stop for a quick hike to a point along the way. It was early enough that we could make it to the post office before it closed so we said sure. We got to talking to him about our hike and a lot of backpacking related stuff, things we can spend hours talking about. The point he took us too was also awesome with great views of the canyon. Also a lot less crowded than some of the other trailheads. While we were were talking and hiking, we mentioned being worried about being cold since the south rim was supposed to get down to the 20s. He bet us we wouldn’t have to worry about that which initially confused us. Did he know something about the weather we didn’t? Turns out he had booked a place at a lodge on the south rim with two rooms, one of which had twin beds. He had initially booked it for himself and two other friends but the other two had to back out at the last minute so he offered the room to us. He said he had done a lot of hitch hiking and traveling in his day and had gotten helped out by a lot of people so he wanted to pay it back. Hayduke luck continues!
We of course said yes. Any chance to not be cold is worth it. He took us to the post office where Jordan got his shoes. My shoes were not there. Either never made it to Tropic or got lost from Tropic to Kanab. Thankfully I had my new shoes from Kanab so it wasn’t a big deal. I called the site I got them from and they told me they had been lost and refunded me my money. This was great because I totally fucked up buying my resupply at the next door south rim grocery store.
I had pretty much run out of food and was probably pretty dehydrated from the hike up the rim and decided that was the perfect condition to buy my resupply in. I ended up buying way too much food and blew a fucking bag on extra snacks. All the food was way overpriced and they also had a bunch of vegan stuff like the primal jerky so I went to town. I spent more on that 6 day resupply than I have on whole thru hikes. Ouch. At least I have plenty of extra bars.
Jordan and I did buy a bunch of sandwich stuff and made them on a bench outside the lodge. The campground laundry and showers were closed so no washing clothes. We could shower at the room in the lodge at least and could wash our gross underwear and socks in the sink. Beats totally smelling like sweat, ass, and dirty socks.
After packing up food, showering, and cleaning our unmentionables, we went back to the store to get things we had missed the first delirious run through. We took the rim trail back and walked a bit through the “Trail of Time”, a little path along the rim that has the different rock layers of the canyon at spaced out intervals with samples of the rock itself. It was pretty cool to see the rocks and get the names of them. I have a few pictures of the different layers but can never remember them so hopefully this helps me sound like I know what I’m talking about someday.
Grabbed stuff then headed back to the room. Saw some really cute elk along the way and very habituated deer. Had to fight the urge to try to pet either. They are so cute tho.
Stayed up too late again doing nothing. Our gracious host arranged a ride for early in the morning to his trailhead so we probably won’t see him again. We’re so grateful to him for picking us up and letting us stay in the lodge. Shoutout to Gerry for really helping us out.
Tomorrow we’re gonna try to get up early and hike the trail before sunrise to get down and up the Grand Canyon for the second time. Rim to rim! Let’s gooooo
Plants Outside 