Today's the day. Might as well get an early start especially as the sun will be beaming onto the trail soon enough.
The Milky Way, as seen from the campsite at Indian Garden.
It's pretty quiet this morning, with no roaring rivers in the background, or off in the distance far below at the side of the trail.
I can see the twin yellow lights way up at El Tovar on the Rim keeping the stars company. After going uphill on farily moderate slopes for a while, I can see a small line of headlamps coming down the switchbacks. I had just enough time to get the tripod out to grab this shot with a telephoto:
This headlight group got up at 1:30 this morning and they're heading to Phantom and beyond. The gal out front is setting the pace for the day.
Many, many switchbacks later, the three mile resthouse appears, just as the light starts growing.
Taking off my backpack for a few minutes, I have a look around. There's a mountain rescue stash in a hidden NPS box, and the remains of an old cableway at the top of the steep dropoff.
By the time I'm ready to head up, the light's good enough for a stereo picture. Far down you can see Indian Garden as the wiggle of trees down where the Tonto Plateau opens out.
As I leave the resthouse, several early risers have arrived from above, and a couple already have their socks off, tending to blisters. Nobody wastes any time sitting down.
Small wonder. The switchbacks steepen and just keep going. It's a mile and a half to the next resthouse.
More than an hour later, the "mile and a half resthouse" appears ahead.
I meet Ann and Mark and we strike up a conversation. They are from the Cotswolds in Devon England, and love being out hiking and walking, whether in the green hills of Devon, or here in the desert. We talk about the topography and how just being out here with the views from the trail are reason enough to hike down a bit.
On the last leg up, about an hour from the top, I get talking with Jay and Don from Scottsdale AZ.They're both avid hikers . In fact there have been hundreds of hikes up Camelback Mountain near there. This also means they both know exactly what kind of hiking will be done today!
Amost at the top. Just a few more switchbacks to go. Less than 200 yards I think.
Then a big "Whoosh" and a big "Thump". What the Hell?
Then another whoosh and another crash, only this time I see it's a rock flashing into the bushes just below the trail.
A few shouts to those up above, and a fast walk upward, hugging the wall.
There's a small family group up ahead. I ask them if they saw who threw the rocks, and the mother tells me it was her son. Judging from the look on his face, she did a good job talking to him. Apparently he threw them to see how long it would take for them to hit the bottom of the canyon.
Good thing they both went into the bushes.
Finally at the top, still with headlight on. The first thing I'm gonna do after ditching the pack in the car is to get a big ice cream from the soda fountain 100 feet away. (not that I need the added weight you understand)
Just below the rim, Condor #80 has a snooze.
Just above the rim, another bird ignores the guard rail and builds a nest anyway.
Maybe a birdhouse just below the bell will solve the problem...
Our cabin at Maswik Lodge won't be ready for several hours, so it's time to walk around
(without a pack)
A stereo view looking from south to north.
Lobby of the Bright angel Lodge at the South Rim
So is this an example of money wasted on a useless sign in Bright Angel Lodge? Angels may be bright, but don't people have any common sense?
The Grand Canyon attracts people from all corners of the earth.
Maybe Borat needs a reminder?
The train is all loaded up and on its way...
Here's a short 1 minute Youtube trackside video.
Passengers are boarding, and the train is going to be leaving soon. I chatted with Larry the Engineer about things locomotive, and then talk shifted to history and places. Well, it turns out he's been exploring some of his ancestral roots in the Ottawa Indian tribe, and here I am visiting from Ottawa.
Judging from the expression and the numbers, the hot weather is continuing...
Santa Fe Railroad Station at the Grand Canyon
These happy gents have rented Harleys out of Vegas (Darren, Mike and Kevin). It turns out all four of them are from Fredericton New Brunswick. Mike #2, driving a car, is a State Farm Insurance agent. This led us to chat about my State Farm agent (another Mike) in Ottawa -State Farm's Mike Hynes has been insuring bikers in Ottawa for decades so I told them a funny insurance story Mike had told me some years ago. We had a good laugh over it, how he met some of his customers one hot Saturday night while walking along a downtown street.
Have a great holiday guys!
Our room is ready later in the day, and we enjoy cold beer and soft beds. The next morning, the crowd across the road is having a raffle, and then they're going off to various hiking trails for the day.
Now it's time to get back on the road and head south.
Our plan is to spend the night in Pine Grove State Park south of here near Flagstaff.
Many people think of Arizona as simply cactus and desert. Where we're going, it's just like the Northeast up in Ontario.
