Hell Hath No Fury Like Hiking the Grand Canyon; Redux

In the fall of 2011 my childhood friend, Kevin Kowalk, and I hiked the Grand Canyon.  I blogged about it then and it literally got 1000 hits.  So kicking off my new blog, I thought I start with that classic story, but with Kevin's comments added in red. Enjoy it again.

One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World: The Grand Canyon

Hiking down is optional.
Hiking back up is mandatory.
~Sign atop the Hermit Trail

About 3 months ago one of my good friends, Kevin Kowalk, called me from South Korea, where's he's been living for over 15 years. His company was sending him to Washington D.C. for a conference and he thought he would have time to fly to Arizona following the conference and thought hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camping there would be a fun idea.

Kevin and I have been friends since we were 10 or 11. We even had our own band back then, K & S (original I know) even though neither of us could play an instrument or sing. But we could write songs, or at least thought we could and with such great titles like, "There's a Crazy Man in the Woods", "The Indian Song", "Evishnu Jingle" and our big hit "Bacon Unknown" we always thought we were cool, but hey we were 11 years old. After high school Kevin joined the Air Force and was sent to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea, and except for a few years back in the States, he's been there ever since, so we haven't had the chance to spend much time together over the years, but we've always stayed in contact. Getting together for a hiking adventure sounded like a great idea to me, even though I will freely admit that I am not in great physical shape. Not to mention that I wasn't as young as I used to be, but the male ego can always override common sense and with that the trip was in the works.

Kevin is a fairly avid hiker, but never had done an overnight hike. But he has all the equipment and was anxious to try it all out. I let him pick the trail and I applied for the camping permit with the Grand Canyon office. Of course Kevin picked the most difficult trail, Hermit Trail, and once again my male ego told me I could do it. This would be a full out hike and camp. We'd have to carry all of our own gear: tent, food, water, clothes, sleeping bag, etc. 8 miles down the canyon and then, more importantly, 8 miles back up the canyon at severe elevation. It was going to be tough, and the more I thought about it and the more I read about the trail online, the more concerned I got and questioned myself, but there was no backing out now.

I picked him up at the Phoenix airport and we headed to Flagstaff to get ready. We went to a local camping store in Flag and I rented a full hiker's backpack, sleeping bag and bed roll and we bought some dehydrated food, water filters, wool socks, and a few other odds and ends. Saturday morning we got up early and started out on the 2 hour drive to the Canyon. We made it to the Hermit TrailHead, did some light stretching and around 8:15 a.m. we got started.



Our 30# packs with all of our essentials.

The Hermit Trail Head;it looks innocent enough.

The elevation changes on the trail, keep in mind we had to come back up this way too.

Loaded with our packs we started the descent. With any new adventure we were amped up and thought we knew what to expect.(It only took us until our first water break to encounter the unexpected. Chris’s water bladder was leaking and our water filters did not fit properly on the water bottles that we purchased. These water bottles were full of clean water but were going to carry much of the precious water for the hike out the following day. Chris drank what he could from the bladder but had to dump some of the water or else everything in his pack would’ve gotten wet. As for the filters, they were designed to screw on top of a standard water plastic water bottle. We unknowingly discovered that the eco-friendly water bottles that we purchased didn’t have a standard mouth. Luckily, the filter also had a straw attachment. I guess that’s why they say to check all equipment before your trip.)  We knew it would be tough, but we certainly underestimated how tough. Most of the trail is filled with loose rock, of varying size, and in many cases we had to make educated guesses on which way to go. On a trek this long and difficult, you certainly don't want to have to backtrack. Because the footing was so challenging you really had to watch your step the whole way and not take in the views. But we stopped many times, and when we did the views were breathtaking. The canyon is so huge that it is difficult to take it in visually in person. My pictures certainly won't do it justice, but you can get an idea.

The white rock is the trail, footing was challenging.

Kevin on one of the more groomed areas of the trail, the pictures don't give you any sense of the severity of decline though.

When we did stop to take them in, the views were spectacular.

The first part of the descent is a 2.2 mile hike down very rugged steep terrain to the Santa Maria Spring. This is the only area along the 8 mile descent where you can actually get cover and sit down, so we certainly took advantage of that.

The Santa Maria Springs "rest stop", a welcome respite.

Kevin enjoying the rest stop rocking chair.

After a small break it was back to the hike because there is no way you could do any of this in the darkness, so you have to keep moving to make sure we could make it to camp in plenty of time.(I brought a headlamp just in case though.) Plus we'd only been hiking about 1.5 hours at this point, so we still had lots of energy. The next part of the hike is 3.3 miles with much less descent, but far more difficult terrain. There were many times that we had to climb over rocks, jump from rock to rock, find the trail, as we hugged the canyon wall and made our way.

Again the views were incredible. We are heading to the bottom floor of this photo.



Kevin navigating his way along the "trail". Not easy with a 30# pack believe me.

The massiveness of the rock and being that close to it was captivating.

A look down below to what awaited our next steps. There was never an easy moment.

We made it to Breezy Point, which is the start of the third leg of the trip. It gave us a chance to sit down and in my case lay down, eat some lunch and rest before hiking the final 2.7 miles to the campground. The last leg includes the Cathedral Stairs, which are extraordinarily challenging to navigate going down. All the while, I was thinking that I'd have to go up this way tomorrow, but let's try not to think about that. While we were resting we encountered the first other hikers as they were going up. It was 4 guys from Korea and when Kevin started speaking to them in Korean, I think it freaked them out, I mean what are the odds? It was roughly Noon and after lunch we headed down the final part.

To think we were just at the top of that a few hours ago.

We hiked along this whole wall, can you see the trail?

One of the few markers along the way, this was pointing the way to the campground.

In order to camp overnight you have to get a permit, which we did, and register your car with your length of stay, so I assume they could look for you if you don't come back. Comforting. But the campground has limited space, that's the main reason, but it being the off season and this trail being so difficult, we didn't expect to see too many, if any, other people. When we arrived there was a group of 3 that we had heard on the hike down, as voices carry in the canyon. The campground was along the Hermit Creek, which gave us a chane to replenish our water supply. Although the creek water had to be boiled or filtered. As the night time came, more people arrived and overall there were about 12 people. Kevin had a great tent, which worked out great and we dined on our dehydrated Chili Mac. It actually tasted pretty good, but I assumed it was because we just hiked 8 miles and down 5K feet and were starving.(We considered hiking the additional 1.5 miles down to the Colorado River after setting up the tent and taking a break but wisely decided that we should rest for the difficult climb up the following day instead.)

Our home for the evening.

Some of our supplies, dehydrated food, power bars, Gel Shots.

This rock at our campsite made a nice table for us.

The creek where we got fresh water and soaked our feet.

Slot canyon where the creek flows through.

The views from the campground were limited because we were in more of a slot canyon. The Hermit Trail doesn't provide the wide expansive veiws of the Grand Canyon as some of the other trails do, but it does provide a much more challenging hike and certainly great views of it's own. It got dark about 6:30 p.m. and then it started to rain, so we got in the tent and pretty much went to sleep after that. We both slept decently, not great but not bad, and we felt fairly good the next day. Day 2 would be much more difficult as we would now be going back up. The common belief is that going up will take you twice as long as coming down and since it took us 5.5 hours to come down, that meant about 11 hours, so we got up before daylight and took off about 7 a.m. I should mention that in talking with the other campers that night, most were taking another day, hiking further east, and going up the Bright Angel Trail, which is much easier. When we told anyone what we were doing, they all laughed and said, "Good Luck". Not very comforting to say the least.

I felt all right and knew that it would be a tough day for me. Kevin is in great shape and I didn't figure he would struggle too much, it would be difficult, but not nearly as much for him. So we loaded up our packs and started heading up. The first mile or so wasn't too bad, then we got back to the Cathedral Stairs. (At this point I started to get a little concerned so we transferred all of the water from Chris’s pack to mine.)The Stairs are described as "unrelenting" by the brochure we had and I will say that was a very, very mild understatement. When you are hiking down it was tough and you don't quite get the same understanding of what you just did, until you start to climb back up. In fact it states, "The uncertain footing as well as the exposure presented here has caused inexperienced hikers to conclude that they are engaged in a truly hazardous enterprise." That's the way to sell it! The first part is a series of switchbacks at incredible steepness, they just keep going and going. When you finally get to the 'stairs' portion it is horrible. I was really struggling at this point and Kevin, being a true Solider of Fortune, hiked up the stairs, dropped his pack, then hiked back down and carried mine for me. It was an awesome act on his part and it certainly helped me make it up.(Make no mistake; this is a difficult climb with or without a pack. ) Just past the stairs is Breezy Point and once again we took a nice break here. We knew the next 3.3 miles didn't have as much elevation to climb, but that it was the most treacherous terrain. I was really struggling with the ascent, but not the terrain, so I felt as though I would be okay.


Taking a break at Breezy Point, the views were awesome.

The Cathedral Stairs, at the top of this, with exhausting switchbacks leading up to it.

A look back at one of the many, many canyon walls,, we literally just hiked up that wall.

I was still quite fatigued, but we had over 5 miles to go and we had to keep daylight in mind. Kevin had bought some gel shots of caffiene at the camping store and he suggested I take one before we started back out. I took a strawberry one and it was horrible, made me gag, and certainly didn't make me feel any better, but maybe the caffiene would in fact give me some energy. I don't know if it did, but I don't recommend these to anyone unless you want to throw up.

As we were hiking you really get the sense that you are all alone and that hopefully nothing bad happens because for the most part a helicopter couldn't even reach you in most spots, so you just have to keep going and keep your head down and watch your step. I was extraordinarily fatigued, but I felt like I could make it to the Santa Maria rest stop and depending on what time it was that it may be too late to try and make it out in daylight, and that would be a good spot to stay the night if needed. This thought really helped me because I just wanted to make it there at this point and rest and reassess. Meanwhile Kevin was having no issues whatsoever and I have no doubt that my constant stopping to rest was bothering him, but he never said a word and was nothing but supportive. (Taking a break from an exhausting hike is never a bother. I was feeling more guilt as it was me that suggested the endeavor.) I greatly appreciated that. During the climb up, I took a lot less pictures because I was just too exhausted, but the views were great and you did see them in a different way going up. But we did get a few pictures.

A view along our ascent.

Bobbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!?!?

Cinnnnnnnnnnddddddddyyyyyyyy?!?!?!?!!?!?!?

As we continued to Santa Maria Springs I was just getting more and more fatigued. I couldn't wait to get there and lay down on the bench next to the rocking chair. The thought of laying on that bench fueled me, no doubt about it. A few hours later we finally made it and it was a bit of sweet relief. It was just about 1 p.m. and I told Kevin that I thought I needed about an hour break and that if we left by 2 p.m. that would give us 4 more hours of daylight to make the final 2.2 miles. While we were resting all of a sudden the rest stop became a popular spot. A couple from Portland, Oregon came through and stopped for a bit on the way down to the campground. A couple other groups of people came by as well, but they were all just doing day hikes, hiking down to the spring and then back up. But on the side of the canyon at this random time, it amazed me how much activity there was.( It was Sunday afternoon as well. ) We filled our water at the spring and it was pretty filthy. The water was quite brown, and full of sediment. We both had water filters to drink it though, but it still didn't taste very good. But I was nonetheless thankful for it.

The spring, the water comes out of the little white pipe, very slowly.

After a long rest, I put on my pack and we got ready to head out. Truth be told, I would have gladly stayed the night here, rested and done the rest the next day. Sure we only had 2.2 miles to go, but it was the most difficult part of the trip, without question. I was exhausted, but it was only 2 p.m. and I figured that even at a snail's pace that I could make it. So we journeyed on and the first half mile went by very quick, but the next part just about killed me. From the Boucher Trail junction to the Dripping Springs junction was only .2 miles, but it may have been the most sadistic .2 miles I've ever encountered. I didn't remember any of this from yesterday, straight up through a bunch of rock, no footing to speak of, it was awful. When we finally made it to Dripping Springs, I jumped off the trail and laid down in some shade; I felt terrible. I really questioned whether or not I could make it because I think that last .2 mile took about an hour for me. Kevin continued to be nothing but supportive, but there was nothing he could do. I was fine in a medical sense, but my legs were just not willing to go on.( I was really getting concerned now. Since we were starting to see more hikers I decided that I could leave Chris, hike to the top, drop my pack, return down, and hike out with Chris while carrying his pack. I noticed that Chris was not making much headway. I could look down and see him since there were several switchbacks on the way up. I probably went about a ½ mile and realized that we still had a long way to go and that I’d better keep my pack in case we had to spend another night in the canyon. So I went back down to Chris. ) I laid there at least 20 minutes, burning more daylight, before putting on my pack again and churning forward. The next section was a series of intense switchbacks, and they were killing me. I could only do about 1 before I needed to rest. Needless to say, we weren't making any headway. I was seriously ready to stop, camp for the night, and do the final mile the next day. A father and son soon came up behind us, asked us how we were doing, and I told them I didn't think I could make it. I even wrote a note for them to call Sharon when they got to the top to tell her that we were going to need another day, so that she wouldn't worry when we didn't call Sunday night. They took the note and went on towards the top.

Original note I wrote to Sharon.

About this time a group of 2 couples from Quebec came by and ask what was going on. The one guy was a doctor and he immediately started taking my pulse and checking my vitals. I was medically fine, just exhausted. They said that they would happily take my pack for me so that I could make it to the top. Pride got in the way and I thanked them for their offer, but said I couldn't let them do that. Thankfully, they refused to take no for an answer. They took my pack, gave me some fresh water, some gummy type of supplements and some hiking poles and said that they were going to help me make it to the top even if it took all night. It was truly some type of divine intervention. At that moment I was completely spent, and there was no way I thought I could make it, even without my pack, but I got up and started moving. Slowly but surely we started making some headway. I don't know if it was the supplements they gave me, them carrying my pack, or just a second wind, but it was probably all of those things combined. But with their constant support and a few breaks, we started getting closer and closer. They were all French speaking Canadians, but they spoke pretty good English as well. They asked if we knew any French and I quickly stated: J'emappelle Chris and Kevin, On va a la plage? Which means, "I am Chris this is Kevin, let's all go to the pool." That got a big laugh from them and proved that my 8th grade French was worth something I guess. We moved slowly but surely and eventually the top of the canyon was in sight. A glorious sight it was too! I was almost moved to tears, I can't properly describe it, but I was so relieved, excited, exhausted and thankful that I made it to the top that it became emotional for me. (I was amazed at the strength and perseverance that Chris displayed to make it up that last 2 miles. To be so exhausted and climb such continually steep terrain was unbelievable.) I thanked them profusely and they seemed like they were happy to have helped. It was now about 5:15, so it ended up taking us about 10 hours. We also saw the father and son I gave the note too, they hadn't yet called Sharon and he gave me back the note.

Me and Kevin with my Canadian Saviors! Tres Bien!

After loading up the Jeep, I called Sharon to let her know that we made it, but I saved the details for later. (One of the other urgent things that we did was check ESPN as we had missed two full days of college football and NFL games. The news was good as Michigan State had defeated Ohio St. at the horseshoe and Detroit Lions had come back from 24 points down to beat the Dallas Cowboys. ) We went into town and ate a pizza, and it tasted like the greatest thing ever, before driving back to Flagstaff.(That was the best pizza I ever had (at least at the time). Even better than the deep dish we had in Chicago earlier this year. ) The next day my legs were as stiff as could be and I was walking around like Frankenstein. I had gotten massive blood blisters under my big toe nails and it was an ugly sight. Apparently this is common for hikers and is called Black Toe. As I type this, I just got back from the doctor and had both toenails removed, an ugly process, and I will spare you the pictures. In an ironic twist, Kevin also lost a toenail, but not from the hike, from the tent stake. (I tripped as I took my first step out of the tent the morning of the second day and the tent stake ripped off one of my toenails.)Not a good weekend for toes.

Kevin was still in town for two more days and despite my physical failings(he was of course fine) I took him down to Sedona, to see the red rock and we ate Cactus with Prickly Pear Sauce, which is a rite of passage when visiting. We also went to the fanatastic BigFoot BBQ in Flagstaff, which is the quirkest place you'll ever find, but the BBQ is awesome. We then went down to Phoenix for Tuesday, as he was flying out on Wedneday morning. We went to Dan Majerle's Sports Bar to watch the Tigers-Yankees(no comment) and watched CMU's Josh Collmenter pitch a 2 hitter for the Diamondbacks and shut down the Brewers in an elimination game.

We had a great trip and it was fun to be able to spend some real time with Kevin. We've been friends for so many years, but yet we really haven't spent all that much time together this adventure provided all of that and more. Thus the reunion tour for K & S was a big success. Now it's my turn to visit him in South Korea, after all, fair is fair. But one thing I can tell you, I won't be doing any exterme hikes there or anywhere else anytime soon. It was fun, but it was also once in a lifetime. For now, I just need a nap.



K & S in full force!

Epilogue

I’ve done a lot of hiking and climbed several mountains in Korea but the Grand Canyon trip was the most memorable backpacking experience that I’ve had. I’m glad that Chris decided to take me up on my “fun idea” and also capture it in his blog so that I can revisit it from time-to-time. I’m ready for another trip down into the canyon (and hopefully back out) with Chris as long as he is in Arizona.