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| Grand Canyon Backpack |
After having my hike dates, initiated my plan on pre and post hike commute plan. Booked my flight to Flagstaff, my first night stay in Flagstaff, bus commute from Grand Canyon to South Rim, bus commute from South to North Rim, Campground in North and South rims. Since I am solitary in this trip I preferred to commute through shuttles. This involves timing coordination considering the risk if any commute breaks down or delayed the entire trip could become adverse.
After closing all the commute bookings realized this is just start of planning. Next focused on sub hike trails that I want to walk.
Hike Day 1: My hike will be starting on 5th July 2014 (Saturday) from North Kaibab Trailhead and descends through Supai Tunnel, Roaring Springs and camp in Cottonwood Campground. Today's plan was to descend down 6.8 miles. Additionally sub hike plan includes visit to Ribbon Falls.
Hike Day 2: Start from Cottonwood Campground and reach Bright Angel Campground walking through Box. Today's walk will be mostly descend and flat for 7.2 miles. Additionally sub hike plan includes walk in Creek trail.
Hike Day 3: Start from Bright Angel Campground and reach Indian Garden Campground crossing the Colorado river bridge and doing sub hike in river trail. During evening plan is to walk to Plateau point for sunset.
Hike Day 4: Hike up from Indian Garden Campground to South Rim Trailhead through Bright Angel Trail. Today ascend will be 4.9 miles
This hike schedule doesn't end my preparation. I started my research on what to backpack for the 4 days hike. After some study listed the things that are necessary to backpack and did shopping on those stuffs which I don't already have. I will post another doodle listing my backpack items which I wanted to have as checklist for my future backpacking's.
After finishing all these plans I was excited to start the trip and look at the rocks, trees, stream, creek, pleateau's, trails, fauna's, birds, insects etc which I have read in some of the hiker's blogs.
After getting backpack buckled on 3rd July (Thursday) rushed to LaGuardia airport starting from Jersey City at 3:30 PM to board 5:40 PM flight to Flagstaff. Due to road traffic decided to take Path train, Subway train,Cab ride and reached LaGuardia at 4:30 PM. Arriving at the terminal C what my eyes looked flashed my mind saying you have to redo the whole planning again within few hours. Before even looking at the display I was sure my flight is cancelled due to the predicted bad weather caused by Arthur hurricane. It could be worth a shot on my luck, peeked at the flight status and made sure on cancellation.
Stacked me on the end of long queue and was thinking about the choices I have. Standing in queue called Arizona Shuttle, Trans Canyon Shuttle, Hotel and Campgrounds checked with them whether they can accommodate rescheduling the dates. While crawling in queue tried calling US Airways but as expected they had me in wait for 45 minutes and didn't connect to any representative. After 2 hours of wait got my new flight schedule to start from LaGuardia on 5th July (Saturday) at 6:30 AM and reaching Flagstaff at 2:20 PM.
Commenced my plan redo by cancelling tonight's stay in Flagstaff. After that started revising my hike route and distances. Choices I had was not to do rim to rim, just do rim to rim without any sub hikes. I preferred to do only rim to rim as that was the bottom line of this trip. I switched my mode of hike from leisure to strenuous. After looking at the map and distances final decision was to do RIM to RIM to RIM. Yes I made the adventuresome choice of starting from South Kaibab Trailhead to North Kaibab Trailhead and return the same way. Generally this RIM to RIM to RIM is not a recommended choice so I included backup plans to back out if I decide to abort or change the plan on course.
Below is the Jersey City - FlagStaff - RIM to RIM to RIM - FlagStaff - Jersey City plan while I am typing this doodle on 07/04:
Boarding flight at LaGaurdia on 5th July at 6:30 AM and reaching Flagstaff at 2:20 PM. Commuting by 4:00 PM Arizona Shuttle and reaching South Rim at 6:00 PM and collecting my revised permit request. Below is the revised hike dates and distances
Hike Day 1 (6th July 2014) : Begin the walk on Sunday morning at 5:00 AM from Bright Angel Trail Head and reach Bright Angel Campground by 11:00 AM. This length of walk will be 9.5 miles. After resting till 4:00 PM and start walking to Cottonwood Campground which will be 7.2 mile walk. Targeting to reach Cottonwood Campground by 8:00 PM. First day hike will be 16.7 miles mostly descend, flat and slight uphill walk.
Hike Day 2 (7th July 2014): Commence the walk at 5:00 AM to North Kaibab Trailhead which is 6.8 miles steep uphill and targeting to reach North Rim by 11:00 AM. After resting will ascend down to Cottonwood Campground starting 4:00 PM. Targeting to reach campsite by 8:00 PM. Return will be steep downhill should be less effort. Also planning to carry only needed stuffs for this round trip so I will be walking the steep uphill with less weight backpack.
Hike Day 3 (8th July 2014): Start from Cottonwood Campground at 5:00 AM and reach Indian Garden by 11:00 AM. This will be 11.7 mile walk. Rest till evening and go to plateau point for sun set. Tonight planning to stay in Indian Garden.
Hike Day 4 (9th July 2014): Start from Indian Garden at 4:00 AM targeting to reach Bright Angel Trail Head by 8:00 AM to get on 10:00 AM bus to Flag Staff. This is 4.9 mile walk.
Alternate Backup option is I have advanced Trans-Canyon Shuttle from North Rim to South Rim on 8th July 2:00 PM bus. If my body doesn't cooperate during the start of return Rim journey then will bail out through this shuttle.
Alternate adventure options, if time permit will do river trail on Hike Day 3. If body and mind cooperate and tempt me to complete the hike by day 3 then will skip plateau point and will target to reach the Bright Angel Trail Head on Hike Day 3 itself.
So far I have taken this natural delay as an opportunity to implement my next year canyon plan in this year itself. Still I am having my fingers crossed to not have any further surprises.
You can read my post hike doodles to know how the plan became reality inside canyon.
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| Self Photo while in the airport queue |
hey my bro in law and nephew were just there. they did the rim to rim. they started their hike at 4 am in the morning on July 2nd. (Rambler member)
ReplyDeleteThey might have had great time. I started on South Kaibab trail head on July 5th morning. By then I guess they might have almost about to complete their hike.
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