Grand Canyon Thang 2008

“Easily the best week of backpacking in my life. Very physically demanding with the high miles and rough terrain. My Asolo boots were destroyed in one week! Special thanks to Tango for helping stage the shuttle. TRs and photos will show up soon.

Blister, meangreen, and blister: I could not have asked for stronger or more capable hiking partners than those on this trip. Thanks for your patience with my errors and the physical trials of the trail.”

“I meant prosecutor, meangreen, and blister... :)”

“Where are you guys?”

“I am still at Grand Canyon Village with my family. The rest left for Phoenix yesterday afternoon and are flying home today.

TONS of snow today. Bright Angel trail is ice covered and very slippery to mile and a half rest stop and then some.

Ygm Tango.”

“Coolness! POST PICS! WE NEED PICS!

Back at ya! I just got your out of office reply.
last edited: 3/16/08 2:56:40 PM”

“you went without me? bass turds!”

“We had room on the permit for you but you bailed!”

“feh”

“I am so ready for colorado it ain't funny!”

“"Dozens of vehicles collided in heavy, blinding snow on a northern Arizona interstate Sunday, killing two people, seriously injuring 10 others and forcing police to close the highway for 20 miles in both directions."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338310,00.html

YogiSans, you sure planned great weather, and we got out just in time.

I'll post the photos tomorrow.”

“I am still in the village with my family. Had an outstanding dinner at El Tovar. There was a lot of snow today and white out conditions. We sure did get the best of the weather. I tried to hike down Bright Angel today with my kids but it was very, very icy and we bailed the ice was very thick and packed down by the mules. So we hiked the Rim Trail and had hot chocolate at Hermit's Rest. I did a lot of fun touristy things today I never do here... It was a cool day. I go home tomorrow.

Pros, glad you made it home safe. Can't wait to see your photos.”

“congrats on a great hike.”

“I am so ready for colorado it ain't funny!”
Yogisan

you aint the only one. 5 months away and im already chomping at the bits”

“bits of what?”

“glad you guys a good trip, can't wait to see pic's
Snow on the way out? sounds like a repeat of last years trip or was that the year before. How time flys when you hiking”

“that was 2 years ago we had the snow and cold on the way out. last year was nice comin out”

“I'm ready for CO, too. :)

Glad you guys had a good trip. Can't wait to see your pics.”

“Tons of snow this morning. Breakfast at the Maswik, a few views, and off to Phoenix. I can not believe it is over. It is really snowing here!”

“PICS!!!!!
WE WANT PICS!!!! ;-)”

“Shouldn't you be boycotting? LMAO!
last edited: 3/17/08 8:25:42 AM”

“69 miles in the Grand Canyon just after the flood.

Slideshow pictures for cable internet:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/562803624HMqhLp;jsessionid=abcQPU3AMoElu6kA5U-Ir

Album format for those with dial up:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562803624HMqhLp”

“Great photos and the captions and sequencing are great! I will upload my pics tonight but they won't be this clean for a while!”

“Excellent picture Pros! Thanks for sharing them.”

“Great pictures, Prosecutor.”

“Great Pix!...I'm sure it's self explainitory but we have to hear the story of why Prosecutor=blister”

“Prosecutor does not equal BLISS-ter.
BLISS-ter was the fourth guy on our trip. His real name is Tom, he is from Michigan, and he posted here years ago as BLISS-ter, his trailname, from his constant usage of his yell on the trail, "What is this? .... BLISS".”

“i stand corrected...thanks for the explination”

“Very very cool. I enjoyed the pictures. Looks like an amazing trip.”

“I prolly won't have time to edit/caption these for a while but I did upload my pics to Smugmug. Looking over them now for the first time after the trip I am still awestruck at the experience of the week. Enjoy!

http://yogisan.smugmug.com/gallery/4538496_SZpR4”

“right?”

“sarge, quit being a net bully

great pix jimmy!”

“thriftyhiker - quite being a net nanny


Did you accuse Yogisan of being a net bully when he staged the boycott?

I didn't think so. you've got no cred
last edited: 3/18/08 10:51:25 AM”

“this will be the last i say of this on this thread...i don't want to trash yogi's thread

he posted an actual backpacking thread (something that's been missing on here) and you bring up some petty argument you two had that has nothing to do with this thread

jim, i'm glad you had great weather for the hike...did the fam go at the same time you did?...what'd the boys do while you were hiking?...that's gotta suck..."dad's doing some cool hiking and we're stuck here with mom" LOL
last edited: 3/18/08 11:06:41 AM”

“pros, i see you took the golite...how much did it way?...did it not kill your back on a trip like this?”

“the scenery on this hike was amazing, even in the scope of the grand canyon. it would be hard to take a bad photo (although I managed on several occasions). i am NOT a photographer... just a hiker with a cheap digital camera. this is a classic case where the quality of the subject more than makes up for the lack of talent of the photographer.

elves chasm was heart-stopping. i was thrilled to take a (VERY brief) swim in the icy waters. i was sad to not be able to climb to the upper two falls, but I was the only one up for it and I wasn't going solo.”

“for some reason i was thinking you had two boys but after looking at the pix it's one of each...was one of the boys you had at mammoth not yours?”

“this is a classic case where the quality of the subject more than makes up for the lack of talent of the photographer.

LOL, i don't think i've ever seen a bad pic of the grand canyon”

“i have two sons and one daughter.

after my week of hiking with my friends i flew them out to the GC for a weekend in the village and some dayhiking. we originally were going to hike down Bright Angel trail but the conditions were way too icy for me to trust the lives of the next generation if yogisans to. so we went as far down as i felt safe and turned around promising a future overnight trip at Indian Garden (kid's trip to the GC anyone?)

we hiked back up the BA trail and then hiked the rim trail... had hot chocolate at Hermit's Rest, then took the bus back to the village for cheeseburgers and hot dogs in the bar at the lodge. it was a great day with my children.

my oldest son injured his knee and was in a leg brace. so he toured the area in car/bus with my wife as i hiked with my daughter and youngest son. he was really upset he couldn't hike with us... thus a repeat of the promose if a few nights at indian garden next year (really... kid's trip to the GC anyone?)

those photos at the end were a side-trip we took to the Tusayan ruins in the park... well worth the visit esp with kids.”

“THOSE PICS ROCK!!!! Great pics!

Trip report? Soon?

It was my pleasure to be able to help you guys.”

“tango, your help in setting up the shuttle was key. our week could not have happened without your support and i know we all really appreciate the assistance.

i'll write up a tr soon... the "real world" has taken over.”

“So what's up with the water situation? I saw on the trip page that some sources will give you the runs. Just wondering what is in the water at those spots.”

“awesome!”

“the water is alkaline... minerals... a somewhat salty taste. the water quality changes based on where the water came from, what it is flowing through, and what else it mixes with (a salt spring, for example). every canyon we visited had a different water situation. as a rule in the gc the water is more alkaline/salty the further west you go, but i can't recall where i read this. on our trip the water east of turquoise canyon (including turquoise) seemed pretty good... west of here and we had problems. the other exception seemed to be the "pools" east of garnet (rainpools i was told but i doubt this as i saw signs of water seeping into them) and the "tanks" at bass canyon. the bass water was stale and a little green but drinkable. water was a definite challenge on this trip.”

“







”

“Just to underscore how tough these trails were I want you to look at these photos of my Asolo FSN 95 GTX Hiking Boots... these had one prior trip to the Grand Canyon on them (mostly corridor trails and a few streambeds) and a couple of other minor trips... so basically lightly used boots one year of age. notice there is a lot of heel left but the toes are totally shot from scrambling... these are "lightweight" hiking boots in every sense of the word and were not fit for this trip, but this is an indication of how rugged the trails are. I loved these boots but they are really lightweight and not very durable in this kind of terrain. Oh well, I still have my coupon for REI so it's time for some NEW BOOTS!

Is this freaking awesome or what?!?!? :)



”

“"(kid's trip to the GC anyone?)"

Hell yes!”

“"'pros, i see you took the golite...how much did it way?...did it not kill your back on a trip like this?'"

The GoLite pack weighed about a pound, but with the food and a gallon of water, it was fully loaded around 44 pounds on day one before we hid our cache. After that drop, it was about 36 pounds, and I finished the trip with a more manageable 25 pounds base weight. That GoLite is nice under 30 pounds. If on my next trip the water sources are more than a day apart, I will take an external frame pack because it would be cooler to wear, and I would be able to take another gallon of water.”

“alkaline, gotcha.
I'm somewhat familiar.

Thanks for the info.”

“Here are some pics of the river in regular times.






”

“Great trip guys. Absolutely my BEST ever!

Tango, Thanks again for your help. I really enjoyed meeting you. Hopefully you can join us next time we get out that way.

I'll let Yogisan write the TR, but I have to say, if you added up all the mileage, and all the elevation from every BP trip I have ever taken and crammed it into one week that would equal how hard this trip was. Every day was a ball buster. This was also far more beautiful, and rewarding than all the other trips combined too. It was backpacking at it's finest. I'd do it all again tomorrow if I could. My sincere thanks to Yogisan for all his hard work, and for the privelage of hiking with such a great group of folks.

This trip is definitely making me rethink the type of trips I take, and I can assure you there will be much less of me on the weekenders. The big trips are where it's at!”