Saturday, April 17
24 miles.
Rim to rim babyyyyy!
I woke up stupid early again but we didn’t get moving until 7, an hour later than I wanted.
From our lodge room we walked right down to the Bright Angel trail, switchbacking our way down several thousand feet. I’ve gone up the Bright Angel trail but not down so that was a new experience. The trail was fairly crowded with lots of day hikers and weekenders all over. The views were great, maybe not as good as some of the places we’ve been to in the Canyon but still pretty cool.
It’s been really heartwarming how much generosity we’ve experienced over the past few weeks and how nice people have been to us so I decided I wanted to try to be nice to. I normally dislike dayhikers but I decided to try to change that. I made it a goal to say good morning to as many people as I could on the way down to Phantom Ranch. There’s no way I could count how times I said it since there were so many people holy shit. I expected a lot near the rim but even down at the river there were boatloads of people.
Crossed the bridge over the Colorado (no having to wait for a hitch this time) and made it to Phantom Ranch. Phantom Ranch was way too crowded for me. Jordan wanted to stay and maybe try to talk to some AZT hikers but I needed to get out of there. Once I got a mile or so away, there were substantially fewer people. The trail followed Bright Angel creek for a while so I got to hike through a beautiful canyon alongside rushing water by myself. I did get passed by a rim to rim to rim runner and did see a few maybe day hikers but for the most part, had some solid alone time.
As I kept going, I kept seeing more rim to rim to rim runners, including one AZT hiker we had met at the post office yesterday. Most were looking pretty strong though a few were definitely hurting. Definitely made me want to come back to do a r2r2r attempt some day.
Took a quick detour to see a small waterfall which was okay. Nothing too spectacular but worth the side trip. A bridge over a creek near there was out and I had to find a spot to wade across. At some point I put my tripod on top of my hipbelt and lost it without realizing it. Such a bummer since I’ve been using it to record more stable video this whole trip wah.
I got caught up to by a park ranger who asked me about my permit and my hike. She was a super rad ranger who knew a lot about the area. She was also a thru hiker and was planning on hiking the SHR later this year. I ended up asking her about the upcoming section and she suggested some alts around Saddle Canyon though suggested we definitely go through Kanab.
Jordan caught up while I talked to her and brought a storm with him. It had been getting progressively cloudier and cloudier as the day went on and it finally started to rain. Didn’t bode well for our night. The rain didn’t last too long at least and we managed to stay relatively dry.
The ascent to the north rim got a lot steeper. Started hitting some serious climbs and switchbacks. Thankfully I had some audiobooks to get me up it. Saw a few more r2r2r runners who looked to be having a bad time. Hopefully they all made it back before it got too late.
We made it to the a nice little view point where we had dinner and let out our best gritos into the canyon. 2/3 Grand Canyon crossings done. Only one more to go.
The north rim was still pretty much as snowy as it had been a few days ago (oh god that was only a few days ago) and a lot colder than the canyon floor. We expected that but it still sucked. We reached the campground and the thankfully on water fountain, our only reliable water source for the next 30 miles. Jordan and I somehow got separated here when he went to the bathroom and I spent way too long ambling around the campground trying to find him.
The designated backpacker’s spot was on a spot with really nice views but also completely exposed and cold af. We debated sleeping in the heated bathroom near the visitor’s center. I initially really didn’t want to since I was worried about getting kicked out. I relented though when I realized how utterly cold and miserable we’d be if we slept outside. I was still super anxious about sleeping in there and agreed to stay only if we woke up early and left as soon as possible.
The bathroom was actually v nice except for when we kept setting off the lights and air dryer while trying to sleep. Thru hiking is so glamorous sometimes.
Plants Outside 