The
two-feet deep snow out here at our cabin reminds me of an incredible
backpacking jaunt I took in the Grand Canyon, one of my favorite hiking areas. My
good friends, Jim Kern, the founder of the Florida National Scenic Trail, and
Gudy Gaskill, founder of the Colorado Trail met at Grand Canyon Village in
December to do a week’s backpacking trek down the heavily used Bright Angel
Trail and across the Tonto Plateau to exit the canyon on the Hermit Trail.
We bunked our first night up top in
a cabin at Bright Angel Lodge. We awoke
next morning to eighteen inches of newly fallen snow. It was beautiful, but we weren’t
prepared. We’d planned to sleep out
under the stars and while we had warm enough clothes we did not have snowshoes
nor footgear for this much snow.
At breakfast in the Bright Angel
café a man who was planning the hike with his ten-year-old son overheard us
talking about our options. He introduced
himself and asked, “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. Would you be willing to give me some advice?
I gather that you are experienced hiking in the Grand Canyon.”
He was concerned about taking his
son backpacking in such deep snow. He had
very little experience backpacking and had expected to take his son on a warm
weather jaunt into the canyon.
We chatted awhile and he asked if they
could join us if we decided to take our trek.
“I’ve got a four-man tent,” he said. “We might be able to all fit in it if you
don’t mind being a bit cramped. I’d be glad to share it with you.” He was really pushing to have us along – just
in case.
Sounds nuts, but we took the
trek. And it turned out to be one of the
best of a lifetime.
We started down trudging through
knee-deep snow, but as we hiked down lower into the canyon there was less
snow. And finally, when we got down to
the Tonto Plateau at Indian Gardens Campground, the snow had turned to slush
and was drying up in warm, pleasant sunshine.
We took our time, taking a week to
backpack the few miles that, on another hike, I did the distance with but just one
overnight on the trail.
We weren’t able to all fit into the
tent. One of us needed to sleep out
under the stars. So, both Jim and I
chose the stars. And Gudy joined us
after the third night on the trail. As
luck would have it, we were trekking at the time of the full moon. So, we were able to take some delicious
moonlight hikes before hunkering down each night.
Our friend had to leave us after the
third night to get back to his job. By
this time we were at the base of the Hermit Trail which they hiked out. This left the three of us sleeping under the
stars the remainder of our jaunt.
One night we hiked down to Hermit Rapids
where Gudy surprised us by baking a peach cobbler on her camp stove. We laid back and enjoyed eating it on the beach
in moonlight!
Oh, what I haven’t mentioned is the
fairy light of a wide swath of mica in the cliffside alongside the trail from
the Tonto Plaeau to the river.
I couldn’t have a more joyous winter
backpacking memory! But I’ve got some
others that do come close. I’ll chat
about some of them in my next post.
I discuss winter backpacking
techniques in my Backpacker & Hiker’s
Handbook. Available at Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment