Grand Canyon hike, day 3

 December 12, 2020

The goal for today was to see how far I could go up the North Kaibab trail. I had hoped in my most optimistic dreams to make it all the way to the Supai tunnel. I was a little sore from the two days of walking but I was otherwise optimistic. Alas, it was not to be. I have precious few photos from the whole day because I had barely left camp that morning when the wind began picking up and a wintery rain/snow mix began falling. I had to put my camera in my pack to protect it from the rain and only took it out for a few seconds to grab a couple of quick pictures.

The water was off at Cottonwoods so I had to filter water the night before. Amazingly it was still on at the Manzanita rest area so I drank like a parched rhino even though I was freezing once I stopped moving.


Looking up toward the rim I caught a glimpse of what was headed my way. Notice how the snow is obscuring the detail up near the rim.


I only made it as far as Roaring Springs (a little over two miles above Cottonwood) before I decided to chicken out and turn back. I don't mind being cold and I don't mind being wet, but being cold and wet is how you become a statistic. My pictures of Roaring Springs are terrible because most of them are at least partially blurred by water blowing onto the lens. 

Roaring Springs is an interesting bit of geology, and an even more interesting bit of engineering. All of the water for park on both rims comes from Roaring Springs via a pipeline that is laid beneath the NK and portions of the BA trail. It's one of the oddest sights that you can be walking along the trail and see a water line valve or in many places the aluminum pipe itself. Water from Roaring Springs flows down the canyon and back up the other side to Indian Gardens under gravity flow alone, then an electric pumping station at IG boosts it up to the south rim. The pumping station at Roaring Springs isn't needed to pressurize the water heading downhill and only pressurizes the water going to to the north rim, or at least that's how I think it works. The electric lines you see are to power the pumping station. Again, sorry for the photo quality. You can see the droplets and some blowing on this wide shot but the others were even worse.


I beat feet back down the trail and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the rain fall on my tent. It stopped about an hour before sunset, just enough time to heat some water for dinner. It was cold and getting colder. I decided to sleep with my water filter inside my sleeping bag and that turned out to be wise because in the morning my water bottles were frozen solid! I later was told it had dropped to 17 degrees that night. My sleeping bag did pretty well, but I also slept with my jacket on that night.


Click here for day 4


Return to day 2

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring the Kentucky River headwaters, Pool 14

Image
  Sunday, November 5, 2023 I grew up in Lee County not far from where the three forks join to form the headwaters of the Kentucky River. My grandfather Lewis fished the river for years with great success. I've fished bits of this section myself, although the last time was probably 30 years ago. Since 1989 I've lived not too far from the confluence of the river with the Ohio and have spent a bit of time fishing the pools between Frankfort and Monterey, and between Gratz and Carrollton. For those not familiar with the Kentucky River it hasn't been free flowing for over 100 years. It is artificially divided into pools by 14 locks and dams. Lock 14 is in Heidelberg (Lee County) just a few river miles below Beattyville where it forms. Lock 1 is near Carrollton in Carroll County just a few miles from the mouth. Only locks 1-4 are still functional, and even those are only operated seasonally on weekends for pleasure boaters. Commercial traffic ceased sometime in the mid-90's w...
Read more

Grand Canyon hike, day 6

Image
 December 15, 2020 Today's hike was just to climb the rest of the way out to the south rim. I took very few pictures because my past experience told me it wasn't worth the bother. In winter the top of the BA is continually shaded and the contrast between the sunlit and shaded canyon is just too great for either my camera sensor or my limited editing skills to overcome. If ever there was a scene that begged for the latitude of C41 print film this is it! I have hundreds of photos coming up BA from my previous trips and all either have blown out highlights or blocked up shadows. The geography of this particular place is such that midday in summer is the best time to photograph it because the sun is high enough in the sky to light it evenly and fully. But, for the sake of completeness here are a couple of photos from near the top. I did quite a bit of fiddling with the second photo to preserve as much detail as i could. Upon reflection I can't say that bringing the 10mm lens wa...
Read more

Grand Canyon hike, day 5

Image
 December 14, 2020 Today I headed up the Bright Angel Trail to camp at Indian Gardens. The first time we came to the canyon we hiked BA all the way to the rim, but we weren't carrying camping gear or heavy packs. I wasn't in any hurry so staying at IG makes the trip a lot easier, and it gives you the bonus of being able to hike out to Plateau Point which IMO is the best view in the canyon. The first two miles are actually not on the Bright Angel Trail. When you cross the silver bridge you are on the River Trail until it ends at the base of BA. This is looking back toward the campground and Phantom Ranch. You can see the silver bridge and then the black bridge beyond it at the base of the SK. The water pipeline of the south rim crosses the river under the silver bridge. Another view from the River Trail. Here's where the BA trail begins. After about a mile you arrive here, and this is where the real fun begins. This is the bottom of a section called the Devil's Corkscrew...
Read more