This s--- just got real

Sorry, cheesy title, but it was either that, "Let's do this!" or something equally lame; I'm pretty excited.

For some reason there's free public wi-fi at the Park HQ in the Grand Canyon. (For a while there I saw the icon and arrows for an amphitheater and thought "Why is there wi-fi literally on the Canyon Rim?")

I got a backcountry permit this morning with relative ease. I'm starting tonight from Lipan point, headed down to Palisades. Tomorrow I'll hike up the Little Colorado and back to Palisades. Wednesday I'll end up at Cottonwood Creek. Thursday I'll climb out to the South Rim on Kaibab and camp at a walk-in site at Mather Campground. Friday I'll hike down Bright Angel and up to the North Rim and camp at Cottonwood Campground. Saturday I'll hike west to Granite Rapids. Sunday I'll hike as far west on the Tonto as I can get. Monday it's back to Boucher Rapids. Tuesday I'm climbing out via the Boucher Trail to Hermit's.

So no R2R2R run, but I didn't really want to do one anyway with San Diego coming up--long hikes seem like a good balance. Most of these days are coming in around 25 a day, with many opportunities to make them shorter or longer. This is my first serious trip in GC (I came here Thanksgiving '01 and did Grandview/New Hance), so I don't really know anything about cool off-trail areas or anything, I just want to haul apples and cover the main area from East to West. There were basically zero parties scheduled to be in/out of the South Bass trailhead, hence the turnaround on the west end.

Depending on how long it takes me to catch the shuttle then hitch back to my car, I might be back in Vegas Tuesday night, but Wednesday the 8th seems more likely.

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