Adventures in Onionism

Couldn't have scripted it better. I woke up, and immediately my stress over having to haggle about route choices dissolved because Nano and I agreed we should just start walking and stick out our thumbs/furiously wave hankerchiefs at any passing boats. So I washed off in the creek and we started following crummy game trails downriver. (There really isn't one at first, just walk the water's edge until you get to the boulder field, the whole reedy area is a big seep.) Ten minutes of that, and some use trails across a boulder field, and we started smelling bacon. Literally, from across the river, we smelled the bacon of the river group camped the closest after Deer Creek Falls. And the water was flat there, so there was no noise, and we could hear them.  OK Nano, how do we do this? Make a joke about smelling the bacon. Done. They respond jokingly, but no "where are you headed?" to segue to the truly important topic. Oh well, nothing to it but to do it: "uhh, if ...

What a day! Only 13.5 miles thanks to crazy terrain. The night at Teddy's Cabin wasn't such a great sleep, as I was afraid to use my mattress on the metal cot, and the springs weren't all that comfy with just my sit pad. Anyway, we got a decent start and rolled off the porch steps down the drainage into Saddle Canyon. It was brushy at first but honestly not bad, because there has been a fire in the last few years and the regrowth is pretty slow. Still, we were only making about a mile an hour. There were a few pour-offs that required climbing around (left-right-right? Or was it right-left-left? Doesn't matter they were small.) Then there was a big honking pour-off that necessitated going on a ridge way above it. The route had a few cairns and you can either stick to the ridge, or whenever you can, drop off to the left and another wash that will put you back in the main wash soon enough. Anyway, after this giant pour-off, the canyon narrowed and there started to be a bun...

I'm sleeping on a cot outside an NPS cabin built and named after Teddy Roosevelt, who supposedly visited this spot (hunting, of course). I honestly can't remember any other NPS-owned cabins in National Parks that are open to the public. National Forest sure, but I guess this is a remote part of the park. Anyway, today was all dirt road. It started quite cold, with lovely aspen and ponderosa pines. It didn't ever really get hot, just a lovely fall day. We did 26 miles or so along the rim, twice getting great views over the whole canyon. Then we reached Swamp Point and the top of the North Bass Trailhead. We descended just a tiny bit to Muav Saddle and the cabin. Tomorrow we leave the trail and start the big-time craziness. Notes: no water sources today. Carried 7.5L from north rim last night, thanks to mild temps still have plenty left. The road is generally good but silty in places. Saw maybe three cars drive by all day, half a dozen are parked at the North Bass Trailhead. ...

We headed back to the South Kaibab trailhead. We could have gotten food at the deli, since they opened while we were standing there, but the line was too long, people were waiting for them to open. Caught the bus and just headed back down. Nano was happy that we ran into a ranger. She was cool, and didn't ask to see our permit, but he insisted on showing it, since we are exactly on schedule, and it was such a hassle to get ("Aggressive itinerary! Hikers were warned.") Once across the river we took a pitstop at Phantom Ranch to mail postcards and buy delightful expensive lemonade. Lunch at Cottonwood Campground, and then the amazing climb up North Kaibab. It's gorgeous. Unfortunately it's also popular with mules. The last few miles from Supai Tunnel are just beat to hell and full of that awful pulverized manure dust several inches deep. At least there's water right at the top, where we washed our feet and tanked up for yet another 25+ mile waterless stretch tom...

The rodent did indeed keep us up much of the night. Luckily he didn't eat our packs or anything else that belongs to us, he just ate the cactus right next to us all night. We woke up 1.5 hours earlier than usual so that we could try and get to the rim before the post office closes and before it got too hot. Mission accomplished. The Tonto Trail isn't my favorite, never being maintained and slowly getting more and more overgrown with cacti and other sharp or scratchy plants. But at least it's fairly level. (Aside from the one unnamed gully right before you get to Tipoff, the junction with the South Kaibab trail.) We used the facilities at Tipoff by 11, had an odd conversation with a guy telling us we absolutely had to go to Sedona, and we were on the rim by 1:30 or so. I felt great, had drunk coffee, had just enough water left, and charged up the trail. We played name-the-movie-this-quote-comes-from much of the way up. We are both terrible at it. One of the shuttle loops is ...

All aboard the struggle bus! Rough terrain today. Left the saddle and contoured, then in and out a couple canyons, down into 75-mile canyon and out to the river, then Papago creek, with some class 3 climbing then right back down a slide, then Hance rapids where we saw a commercial group take the rapids and then onto the Tonto trail and then hot hot hot and we finally got to Page Spring a little after 2:30. I carried 7 liters from there. Up onto Horseshoe Mesa, back down to Cottonwood Creek (which had water) and back to the Tonto trail and contoured to the Grapevine canyon (which kinda sorta had water but not really, though it sure looked like lower down canyon there was water.) There's a mouse in our campsite and I'm not happy about that, for the sake of every piece of gear that is salty (which is all of them). We're getting up early to try and get to the post office before it closes and to do the climb to the rim before it gets hot. 

The river crew started a little later than we usually do, but it was neat to learn about their setup. Then we rode away with them. I think we did two named rapid (Kwagunt and Sixtymile). I would have appreciated a little bit more terror. I was in the biggest boat (18 instead of 16) and I got splashed, but that's it. The water is pretty low (7-9K cfs, I think they said) and these aren't the big rapids but it was still fun. We saw bighorn and a heron, making for more wildlife in an hour than we've seen so far hiking combined. They dropped us at the Little Colorado confluence, we forded the Little, which was nice a bright blue from minerals, and began the hot, hot climb on the Beamer Trail.  Did I mention it was hot? The clif section finally ended and we had a long section of river access. I doused myself at least three times. Finally made it to Tanner beach (I mistakenly took a high-water route for the last bit--the route right along the water goes, even though it looks like ...

The Grand Canyon. We woke up early and got moving because it was cold. After some road walking, we got to Nankoweap trailhead, which was full of campers and vanlifers. The views would normally be great, but were quite hazy due to smoke, so we didn't hang around and began our descent. Actually there was a little climbing at first, but then we started descending. Then a lot of hot, hot contouring, then more, and hotter descending where the bottoms of your feet are getting hot and every one of your toes is curled in your shoes because the trail is so steep and the rock is so shitty. (Apparently NPS says Nankoweap is the hardest named trail in the park? Wouldn't want to climb it. Seems like people who do cache water on the way down. They're gonna need it.) Finally, burning feet made it to flat, cactus-filled ground, and running water in Nankoweap creek. It was only a couple inches deep, but washing socks and myself, brushing teeth, and hydrating potatoes was delightful. We also...

Did a good large day today, around 28 miles. We were spoiled by AZT water caches again, though they weren't exactly where we hoped they'd be (c'mon guys, get it together!) The aspen were beautiful all day. The plateau opened up a lot so we walked through very nice meadows much of the day. The AZT was very easy to follow. Muzzle loader season has started, so in addition to literally just having heard a shot, we saw hunters all day long, including one posted up right next to a pond that was supposed to be one of our water sources. We figured we'd opt for a cache instead. We reached the East Rim, which is supposed to have good views, but they were totally smoked out today. We finally split from the AZT at the end of the day, and started a short road stretch that takes us to Nankoweap trailhead, where we'll begin the descent into the canyon in earnest tomorrow.  Podcasts: 1865 (I can only take so much, it makes me sad); Sam Harris (Interesting, but I'd like to hear ...

Santa Monica Mountains 3/8/14 San Jacinto (Cactus to Clouds) 3/10/14 Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim 3/12/14 Start Zoraster's Temple from Tip Off Down Splits Up Humphreys Back Down Up, Again Good Day's Work

I went to LA and ran in the Santa Monica mountains. Then I watched Nano run the LA marathon, and Icut through a bike u-lock on Venice Beach. Then I ran from 500 feet elevation in Palm Springs, CA to 10,300 feet elevation at the top of San Jacinto and back down. Then I drove through J Tree on my way to the Grand Canyon, where I ran rim to rim to rim in 12 hours. Then I did a bit of nothing on Humphreys Peak outside Flagstaff and in Warm Springs Wilderness outside Kingman. Then I climbed a couple small peaks in Mojave National Preserve. Then I went to a development economics conference. Then I ran some in the Malibu mountains.  That's all. Back to work. A few photos are below, more are here .