Memories from November 5, 2018.
Just after collecting water and hitting the trail, I came to the East Rim View with fantastic, sheltered campsites and the best view I’ve seen in days. I’d stopped a little early last night thinking this would be exposed and kicked myself for not at least checking it out.
After that it was just more pleasant dry meadow walking with short stints in pine or aspen groves.
I’d drawn water this morning for most of two days which turned out to be the correct decision as the several springs and tanks throughout the day were dry.
After diverging from the Arizona Trail onto a wide dirt road and walking it for a few miles, the Grand Canyon finally came into view.
Today was a pretty short mileage day since my Grand Canyon NP permit starts tomorrow. I camped on a large flat area maybe a mile before the Nankoweap Trailhead. The area overlooks a couple of side canyons and so I spent some time watching the shadows grow long before turning in.
I’m nervous about this whole Grand Canyon hike that’s coming up. The Nankoweap Trail, which the NPS calls the hardest named trail in the park gets no extra info from the guidebook. A high flow experiment (HFE) should be hitting the Nankoweap area late tomorrow which means that I’ll have less shoreline for the ensuing bushwhack south to the point where it’s recommended you try to hitch across the Colorado. I may need two hitches if the HFE pushes up the Little Colorado which messes with scheduling. After that the Beamer Trail (not the most difficult trail according to the NPS) gets a lot of text for how sketchy it is. Mileages in the guidebook are known to be too short. This is before the rim-to-rim and off trail stuff after resupplying. Yada yada yada. The point is that after a long time of being easy walkin’ the Hayduke is about to get hard again and that scares me.
Isaac Takes A Hike 