Grand Canyon Hell Hike

Spring, when a young man's fancy turns to death marches and hell hikes. That's right - time for the annual Grand Canyon Hell Hike. This year coincided with National Park week, so I haven't had to buy a pass yet.
I drove up the night before to bike out Hermit drive to take sunset pics.

dead tree on the South Rim

view into the canyon from above The Abyss

sunset from Pima Point

I started the next morning (4-24-2012) at 4:30 and hiked quickly down the Bright Angel Trail enjoying the emerging birdsong and flowering tree smells and not enjoying the occasional mule smells. I made pretty rapid time down past Indian Gardens and saw plenty of people hiking up with overnight packs on the leg down to the river. I stopped at the river briefly and then hiked on to Phantom Ranch - or at least that side of the river. I was disappointed that I couldn't find any ripe figs in the trees down there. I started back up the South Kaibab Trail around 9:30 and managed to stay ahead of the mule train following me despite stopping to take photos a number of times. Then I cut west on the Tonto Trail. Things were pretty toasty in the sun but not too bad in the shade (80's?) The prickly pears were starting to flower along with a few other wildflowers.

Obligatory Warning shot on the way down - at Indian Gardens the first time

handstand at the Colorado River

Black Bridge - polarizer for max reflections

Black Bridge - polarizer rotated 90 degrees

cactus blooming on the S Kaibab

I was slowing down by the time I got back to Indian Gardens but after a short break in the shade and some indecision I decided to hike out to Plateau Point anyway. I took more pictures there with the interval setting on the camera and tripod and then headed back.

scrambling up to an overlook at Plateau Point

I made it.

My feet were sore and I was tired when I started back up from Indian Gardens at 3:10 but in about a mile I started decompensating. I felt awful. I am not sure what it was but I am suspecting some sort of electrolyte imbalance. I had plenty of calories and water, but I felt nauseous. I pushed on slowly to the 3 mile hut and sat in the shade and attempted to force down a Gu Roctane - with electrolytes and caffeine and all sorts of "goodness". It didn't taste very good and sort of stuck in my throat despite plenty of water. I moved out of the shade shelter because I feared immanent Roctane regurgitation. It would have been a treat for the squirrels but you aren't supposed to feed them and with an effort I managed to keep it all down. I was also experiencing some leg cramps and weird muscle twinges. Eventually I felt better and made my way slowly up the trail. I was unenthusiastic about drinking or eating but I tried to continue both. Meanwhile I leapfrogged with an older couple that was slowly plodding their way out of the canyon too. I took another break at the 1.5 mile rest area and then pushed on to the rim. I didn't finish 'til about 7:10, so the last 4.8 miles took me 4 hours - hardly my best time, but I did make it out and didn't have to call for a rescue or use my headlamp. It was only 23.7 miles according to my map, but there was a good bit of elevation too. I hope that whatever happened to me doesn't happen again though, as my performance wouldn't get me through Day 7. My pack also wasn't particularly light with all the camera equipment, some insulation, food, water, etc. I was really missing my Inov-8 Roclite boots too. The shoes I had probably weighed twice as much and were half as comfortable.

not feeling so good with 1.5 miles to go

After I got to the rim I tried to eat a ripe banana but that didn't feel like it wanted to stay down either. I had plenty of salt with dinner, but I felt merely tired by then.

Here is my somewhat spotty spot track for the Grand Canyon hike.