(click 'title' to see Day 04 album)
Packing 115 pounds between us (the guys carried the brunt of the weight).
Indulging delicious freeze dried delicacies including s’mores – really?!?
South Kaibab Trail Summary:
- Total Time: 3h 10min total time (2 hours moving time)
- Speed: 4 km/h
- Total Decent: 1,430 m (4,693 ft),
- Total Distance: 11.3 km (avg. grade 13%)
With a late start on Saturday, driving up from Sedona and arriving around 1 pm. We had to grab some food and sort out where to park and catch 2 buses to get to the trail head. The second bus was a little delayed due to an RV blocking the road and we started to worry a little that we were going to be setting up camp in the dark (based on the estimate of 4 hours down we were given).
Arrival at the trail head at 2:30pm, we began the decent. The first thing you see is a jaw dropping set of switchbacks the carries you down the cliff face leading you to the ridge line trail that is etched into the canyon walls. Every 5 steps was another view that deserved 10 pictures, but not one of them would truly capture what we were seeing. The decent was a comfortable grade, 6" log steps every meter that would come to haunt us later (Blue Toe Steps). We continued through the middle section that was just as picturesque and found ourselves making good time reaching the bottom of the last decent by 5:00pm. A short jaunt along the banks of the Colorado river and we arrived with plenty of time to set up camp.
There were only a couple sites available when we arrived and we were lucky enough to get a one along Bright Angel Creek. We pitched the tents and were careful to unload all our food into the ammo cans provided so that the critters didn’t ravage our packs. Gary strapped on the headlamp and cooked up a Mexican feast. Some precooked southwestern chicken, added a few veggies then rehydrated some beans and rice, wrapped it in a nicely warmed tortilla and that was dinner. The piece de resistance was the dessert – freeze dried s’mores. Imagine chocolate pudding with those little marshmallows that are in hot chocolate mix but because the water isn’t warmed they don’t really hydrate and melt, they remain crunchy. Add some graham crumbs to top it off and you have something that’s not particularly delicious but you “just can’t stop eating it”. With nothing to do after dinner (there are no campfires allowed) we headed up to Phantom Ranch to have a drink and play cards. We successfully completed the drink part of the mission but were too tired to break out the cards. Anticipating an early start we headed to bed around 9:30.
(click 'picture' to see Day 04 album)
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