8 days in the Grand Canyon

Just got back yesterday from 8 days living at Phantom Ranch and doing trail work on the South Kaibab. We mainly worked on "Rip-Rapping" a section of South Kaibab at the base of the "Red and Whites" (switchbacks through limestone) with the National Parks Service and doing cyclic maintenance from Black Bridge up (digging out water bars, removing rocks, digging out the ditches and putting dirt on the trail). Most of my days started and ended with a 3 mile hike to and from the work site. That combined with carrying rocks up scree slopes for the rip-rappers whipped me into shape pretty fast.


Life fell into a really nice routine...

6am: Wake up, Eat breakfast, prep daypack
7am: 30 minute group stretch on the volleyball court behind the Ranger bunks with NPS and CREC.
7:30-9am: Solo hike out of the inner gorge to the job site.
9-3:00pm: Look for good rocks within a 60 yard radius of the work site and haul them to the NPS guys.
3:00-4:30pm: Hike back to camp with a friend (talk about large rocks that we moved, dinner, how much more painful it is to hike downhill).
4:30-5:30pm: Drop a deuce, spit bath, fill water, change into camp clothes
6-6:30pm: Dinner! (Everyone cooks twice in a group of three, I did frittata and thanksgiving)
8pm (at the latest): Conk out...yes, I was sleeping 10 or 11 hours every night.


My tent came withough poles or stakes, so I ended up using it as a ground sheet and taking residence in a nice covered patio structure (linked picture is our campsite, but not our group). There was a ringtail that would come down every night and steal the food that I left in my daypack, along with a skunk that would trundle around and make itself at home on the ledge right above my face. On the last night I confronted both of them, stealing a ziploc bag full of raisin bran from the ringtail and throwing my moccasin at the skunk, but somehow I don't think my tough love is going to stop them from raiding campsites in the future.


The Grand Canyon is a powerful place, and some of my favorite moments were when I had a chance to just be quiet and reflect on what was around me. Hiking out of the inner gorge at daybreak, eating lunch on a switchback above the Tonto Platform, icing my feet in the Colorado River at the end of a hard day.


Some other notable things that happened:

-On our hike into the gorge on day 1 a woman from another group fell and broke her ankle on the trail about 2 minutes ahead of us. We were the first ones on the scene and two members of our group led the first response. After diagnosing the injury and taking details, Patrick (one of my coworkers and a 10k runner for UC Davis '09) and I were sent back up the trail to contact rangers with the emergency phone at "tip-off". Luckily we ran into the NPS group that was coming down to lead the trail work and they took over the rescue operation from that point, drawing on members of our crew. I headed down the trail with 7 members of our crew to set up camp while 4 people stayed behind to perform a litter carry. They carried the lady about .5 miles down switchbacks in the inner gorge to a flat area where the helicopter (see picture) could lift her out to a waiting ambulance on the rim. She had an amazing positive attitude throughout the whole rescue and was very grateful for our and NPS's help.


-Bighorn sheep sightings, 5 females ran across the trail in front of us on day 4 (Jan 9th) and we walked within 20 yards of a big male on the "red and whites" on day 5.

-On day 5 I went for a swim in the Colorado river and then stood in the river for 15 minutes icing my legs. By the time I got out my teeth were chattering uncontrollaby and it took a good hour to get my body temperature up again. Ultimately, no damage done and my legs felt great the next day.

-On the last night we had a dance party (complete with disco ball) and headlamp volleyball tournament with the NPS crew at their bunk house. Our cyclic crew met a hiker that day who said they had heard about the party and was hiking in with a backpack full of rum and tobacco. I don't think that person showed up, nor were they bringing the supplies for us, but it was nice to know that our revelry wasn't going unnoticed. Our crews aren't allowed to drink alcohol at any point on project, so we danced sober and got excited for partying back in Flagstaff. We lost the volleyball game 18-21 but it was great to hang out with that fun NPS crew after a week working side by side.


No word yet on where I'll be working next week, but there's probably a crew going back to the Grand Canyon and another going to the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego. For the next 6 days I'll just be relaxing around Flagstaff.