Day 2: Bottoms Up
May 17, 2023
Bright Angel Campground to Mather Campground via Bright Angel Trail and Greenway Trail
11.6 miles
Our day started with a 4:00 AM alarm. Honestly we got to bed so early that it wasn't much of a burden. Most of the campground was either start asleep or just started to rustle as we got packed up and headed for the bridge to cross back over the Colorado River.
The beginning of the trail from the bottom is mostly flat as it follows the edge of the river before going up along Garden Creek. It was surprisingly sandy which is fun at first but quickly becomes arduous. The climb up is steady, though, and we take our breakfast break by a small creek to grab an extra litre of water before continuing on. We noticed a pile of mule shit near where we were sitting and made an effort to get our water upstream. But another hiker came over, made a comment about the mule shit and promptly proceeded to dunk her bandana immediately down stream from it and place it around her neck. Like what the fuck? So many hikers here clearly a bit green in their backcountry skills, but damn. That's a new one.
The hike up to Havasupai Garden (formerly known as Indian Garden for anyone familiar with the park) was steady and lush. The trail follows Garden Creek to the campground about halfway up the trail. Ancient cottonwoods line the trail and small canyons containing the creek are always rushing below. It's very different from the South Kaibab Trail which is a ridge trail, the Bright Angel is a valley trail for the most part.
We ate our lunch at the Garden and grabbed an extra three litres of water for the final stretch. There are two rest houses at 1.5 miles intervals up to the top with water taps, but for some reason they're off right now so we'll have to carry all our water from Havasupai Garden to the trailhead. I'm a notorious sweater. When I go to my weekly spin class there's always a pool of sweat below my bike. Everyone else looks like they just finished a mildly challenging 45 minutes of yoga where I look like I just spent 10 rounds fighting Godzilla's cousin who grew up in Inglewood. Point is, I lose a ton of fluids when I'm working hard and the last stretch of the Bright Angel is very hard.
The switchbacks started coming and didn't let up the rest of the way. Even though Havasupai Garden is the halfway point in terms of distance, it's only a third of the way up in terms of elevation. The last two thirds of elevation gain come in the last half of the hike.
We took way fewer pictures as we focused on each step. I swear it felt like we were the only ones having fun. Everyone else we hike out with looked absolutely fucking miserable. Don't get me wrong, I was huffing and puffing with lungs burning and calves cramping, but we still had the wherewithal to take in the views and giggle our way up the trail, saying the same dumb shit to eachother that we always do that gets us laughing.
As we approached the final switchbacks the afternoon clouds started rolling in along with the clap of thunder in the distance. Before long clouds turned into sprinkles and sprinkles into a steady rain. To be honest though, it was welcomed. The stifling sun can be unbearable when pushing yourself that hard up the canyon so shade and a little rain does wonders to help cool you off. The only downside was it exacerbated my already worsening chafe. The shorts I had been using had caused some chafe in my groin area sonI switched to the pair I had been using as my pajamas and they ended up causing worse chafe on my thighs. But other than that the rain felt great.
We pushed up the last couple switchbacks and reached the rim. It's a weird feeling because this is just Day 2 of an 11 day hike and we had another mile and a half to walk back to Mather Campground. On top of that, the sheer amount of hikers, especially as you reach the top, can be overwhelming. My idea of a good hike is seeing very few people and if we do, I'd prefer it to be other backpackers like us. That's kind of a gatekeeping mindset I suppose, but it's hard not to feel that way. Hiking away from the humanity was part of the joy of finishing almost as much as completeling the feat itself.
Fortunately it stopped raining right after we got back to the rim. After a quick photo op and bathroom break we started our way back to Mather Campground where we've previously stayed along the 1.6 mile Greenway Trail. Chafed and sore we slowly made our way to camp, happy and full of endorphins.
We're staying the the hiker/biker site tonight which is only $6 and doesn't need a reservation. We set up camp and gathered our clothes to wash before our nine day stretch without laundry or showers. After showering while still waiting on the laundry, I gave my Grandma a call to tell her the news of our successful hike. Kristin is now the ninth Hart to hike the Grand Canyon. Grandma made sure I told her sure to welcome her to the club.
Once our laundry was done we headed over to the dining hall for supper and to charge our electronics and try to post some blogs. And catch up on Indy 500 practice results, obviously. The Squarespace app was slow to upload photos, probably due to the less than ideal internet, which made posting a pain. We walked across the parking lot to do our resupply at the General Store. This will be a seven day resupply which is the longest we've had since the PCT in 2017. There really isn't any good options between here and Flagstaff so we're just going to have to hup it. Give it a couple days and the weight will come down to a more resonable level.
Despite always looking forward to town days on the PCT, we found them stressful and after a day were more than ready to get back on the trail. Our feelings at the store were reminiscent of that. Trying to figure out what we needed (and what we didn't) for this next stretch is tough, especially since we've been out of the game for so long. Seeing our cart fill up combined with the post-hike good vibes starting to fade and weariness setting in, we quickly became overwhelmed and stressed. Time to get back on the trail where stress is more elusive.
We dumped our newly bought food on the ground by our tent and began and repackage and organize while sipping on some Pacifico, a west coast beer that was a favourite of ours on the PCT. As we were getting our stuff together, a ranger came to the site wanting to talk with another hiker who had been camped there since we first arrived a few days ago. We had encountered him earlier in the day and he seemed a bit weird. Thru hikers a weird lot in general, but this guy definitely seemed off. Just odd comments and the like. For example he insisted he had previously talked to us about shaving (we hadn't) and wanted us to make sure he hadn't missed any patches. He insisted to another hiker that he had previously told him that he was from Alaska (he wasn't). The guy seemed to display symptoms of Asperger's which is basically a genetic disorder that prevents you from having any filter. But that's just a guess. From what I overheard in the tent, it sounded like he had sexually harrased some women verbally. I was in the tent and trying to go to sleep so I only caught some bits and pieces. They eventually arrested him and took him away and some other staff collected his backpacking gear. A very wild end to the night.
