Out of the Grand Canyon

The next morning we woke up bright and early, had some quick breakfast, packed up and hit the trail.

We started by going across the other suspension bridge. The sun was shining, just not making it into the inner canyon.

The trail followed the Colorado river for twenty minutes or so.

Then we were heading up a valley out of the inner canyon.

There were 3 or 4 streams we had to cross by

hopping from stone to stone or stepping on logs.

Eventually we found the sun, although we were getting a good workout and
didn't really want more heat from the sun.

We were only in the sun a little while before we rounded a corner
and went right back into the shade.

We hiked for a while just inside the shade line and stopped for a snack
at a place where we could stand above or below it.

After 2 hours of hiking we made it to the other campground where there was water.

Then began the final long leg of the journey. We basically had to hike to the level of the top of those high walls in the distance. When walking towards these walls it was a mystery to me which way we would go in order to get up them. It appeared we were walking into a dead end with steep walls all around.

The trail had a lot of switch backs and managed to wind its way
in between and around the steep parts.

Still, we never went around any large corners, we could always
look back and see how far we had come.

The trail went up through the gap in the top right.

The look back became more and more spectacular.

Because of the direction the slope faced we were in the shade until the top. After the 3-mile rest house (3 miles from the top) we passed a lot of people coming down on day hikes or couple hour hikes. Some young Japanese tourists were not wearing jackets and they were walking down along the icy trails in sneakers.

This diagram was in the 1.5 mile rest house,
which is in the hermit shale layer of the Grand Canyon.

The view of the canyon getting really close to the top.

Sometimes you have to let mules pass.

The view from the top...and my last photo of the Grand Canyon.

The hiking trip was awesome. The views were amazing and it was not crowded or hot this time of year. The thing that surprised me the most was the level of difficulty of the hike. I did not find it challenging and it only took us 4 hours to get down and 6 hours to get all the way back up. The steepness of the trails is much less than the Squamish Chief or the Grouse Grind. I suppose it needs to be so people can backpack in.

Next we drove back to Vegas for the conference...the reason I was in the US.

Into the Grand Canyon

On Jan. 10th, 2011 we arrived at the Grand Canyon at about 8pm Arizona time (7pm BC time). It was after dark and much too late to pick up our back country permits so we were forced to camp on the rim.

I went there with 4 coworkers from my hospital job. We would later attend a conference in Vegas. So anyway, it was Joanne's birthday so we had a chocolate birthday cake for her.

I slept in this 3-person tent between two other guys, which is perhaps how I survived since it was about -19C and the sleeping bag I brought said 4C on it and I had been told it was rated "comfort:11, limit:6, and extreme:-7". There was a heated washroom I could have slept in but that would have been admitting defeat. I wore many layers so just my feet were cold.

The next morning we woke up around dawn and drove and then took a bus to the South Kaibab trailhead. We hiked down the South Kaibab Trail all the way, across the Kaibab suspension bridge and over to the Bright Angel campground. The next day we crossed the other bridge and took the Bright Angel trail back up.

Here is my first view of the canyon that morning. It is hard to capture the hugeness of it in a photo. It is hard to even comprehend the hugeness of it when you're there.

For the first half of the hike there was snow near the trail and sometimes it was icy. A lot of the trail is steps but not very steep steps. Mules have to walk up and down the trails. Sometimes like this we were walking with steep slopes and a good view on both sides. There are no guard rails.

Down there is a cliff where the snow ends.

It was often easy to see very far in front of us to where we would be in 10 minutes or half an hour. The trail ahead wound around the right side of the pillar of rock past the end of the snow.

Here we are going behind that pillar. We were often on the edge of cliffs.

Some mules passed us on the trail.

We ate some lunch here, just before this gap to ascend into the inner rim.

Once through there we could see down to the Colorado river. You can see a trail way down there near the river that we hiked along the next day on our way back up.

There was more red sand at this level. The canyon has many different layers.

Here's a group photo minus Matthias who took it. I borrowed Jon's Olympics toque for the trip because mine somehow got left in my luggage at the hotel in Vegas.

Here's a view of the suspension bridge from above. It has many cables, so it isn't the kind that dips down or swings. They initially brought down all the cables on men's backs...not by mule.

This is looking back across the bridge at the short dark tunnel that got us there.

After setting up camp, we walked over to the nearby Phantom Ranch where hikers can pay to stay in cabins. They had a canteen there which we got some hot chocolate at. We also went back later and had some beers and played trivial pursuit.

There were deer that wandered right through the campsites. Also, late at night we saw a skunk and also a ringtail. There were also a few birds including a woodpecker.

There were many cacti at different levels of the canyon but the most at the bottom near the river.

I have sooo many more photos so I will probably put them up on facebook or flickr. Also, I will make another post about the hike back out.

Christmas 2010

As per usual, I will now blog about events that happened weeks ago.

First, I saw some of the lunar eclipse, which was the first total lunar eclipse in 3 years and the first total lunar eclipse on the day of Winter Solstice since 1638! Unfortunately for most of the time, the moon was hidden behind clouds.

For Christmas, I was on Saltspring Island from Dec. 22nd - 28th. Christmas was much like Thanksgiving, my whole family + one (this time Eric) crammed into my parent's new place and we did a few things outside, but the weather was crappy and my dad managed to re-injure his leg. I think perhaps all of us visiting is bad luck. I think he will be fine, but the injury has meant he won't be skiing again soon.

Farley and I arrived on a ferry Wednesday night.

The house was all decorated with lights, a Christmas tree and this little village of houses.

My little sister played the piano at least once a day while we were there. She is the youngest but probably the most musical of our whole family, since she is also learning the flute.

My brother Ben showed up on Thursday. Ben, my two sisters and I played some games of Robo Rally. I won one of them and my sister won the second after a great come back.

On Friday, it was Christmas eve. Rebecca and Eric showed up and we iced lots of gingerbread cookies.

We had smarties, mints, chocolates and three colours of icing. Farley chipped at the mints with a knife in order to create a powder which he sprinkled on his gingerbread man. My man looked like some kind of bird.

We played a game of Rumikub, like Rummy except with tiles. I did pretty bad on the last round but won the game by a lot of points.

On Christmas morning there was much giving of presents. My little sister made me a board game by drawing a map on a piece of paper and making many cards as well as folding some paper frogs for the game pieces. We played it and I managed to win.

The cat terrorized the window sticker town.

My brother Ben got me the portable edition of Settlers of Catan which we played a few times. I won the first game but lost all the rest. It's very convenient for playing in a car or on the ferry and the only thing I don't like is how the desert always has to be the middle hex.

I also got my sisters Dominion, a card game that is very quick and fun to play. We played it more than anything that week and my sister and I won as a team the first time.

We also had a couple family games nights. For the first one we were in pairs and earned points in completing the lyrics to Christmas songs, talk about it (like taboo), outburst, charades, and probe. On the second night we played the dictionary game (like Balderdash) and minutes to limit a game where you try and come up with words that start with a certain letter and fit a certain category.

My little sister and I went on a walk at dusk and she showed me around the bushes down the far side of their property. Then we cut down the neighbors drive way (which is partly on their property) and walked to one of the nearby lakes.

At dusk the lake looked very spooky. I also went on a walk with my mom and Ben to another lake during the trip and another walk with Natalie at 10pm where we saw a star made out of lights that appeared to hang in mid air. Walks at night are pitch black because there are no street lights. There is also not much of a shoulder so we took a flashlight to let cars know we were there.

Triscuit like to lie by the fire.

I played disc golf three times on the trip with scores around par 4. At the start of the second game Farley lost his disc way off to the side in the bushes. The wet weather made the ground a swamp and so we were all clambering over logs looking for it when my dad slipped and hurt his leg. He also fell onto the lost disc. Farley also lost his disc on the first throw of the third game but I found it without anyone getting hurt.

On boxing day my grandpa and his wife visited and I learned a little more of my family history. Two of my great grandparents were born in Scottland and that side of the family is from Glasgow. This is where the Dunsmuir name comes from. Farley left us on this day to meet his girlfriend in Surrey.

On Monday, the last full day on the island we went on a tour of the island, visiting some of the beach access.

It is too bad the weather was ugly while I was there. Of course, I didn't expect to be able to go swimming so I hadn't brought my swim trunks. In the summer, it will be awesome to visit their place though, because they are surrounded by 3 lakes, all within walking distance and you can swim in any of them. Christmas was very fun with lots of family time and board games...soo many board games!

Up next...a camping trip in the Grand Canyon followed immediately by a conference in Vegas.