I was up around 6 am, had breakfast, finished packing and was on the road at 7:45. I arrived at FS 22, just south of Kaibab Lodge, at 8:20 and parked the car off of Swamp Ridge Road at 9:20.

I started my hike just inside the National Park boundary on Swamp Ridge Road. While it is possible to drive to Swamp Point the road has some very rough and deeply rutted sections and is not recommended for anything less than a 4WD (four wheel drive) vehicle. It is possible that a very small car (i.e., Geo Metro or Dodge Neon) may be able to get out by driving around the ruts, as the road is fairly wide in some places, but I would not guarantee it. I could not get one of these small cars when I was out there and was stuck with a Chevy Malibu which has no clearance whatsoever and I was fairly certain would not make it. The original plan for this hike had me exiting at Lancelot Point anyway, so this was a good place to leave the car based on that. If I could have driven to the trailhead I would have dropped my gear off out there and then driven back to the park boundary anyway.

Click here for driving directions to the Park Boundary or Swamp Point.

I started walking at 9:30. It was a very, nice morning - cool and clear - and I did not expect to have any problems along the 8-or-so mile walk out to Swamp Point and the North Bass trailhead. The pack felt heavy when I first put it on but after a while it got so I really didn't notice it. I stopped 2 or 3 times along the way to rest, have a snack or drink some water. Apart from that it was walk, walk, walk... something I needed to get used to for the upcoming days anyway. The road out to Swamp Point is pretty level for the most part and only has the occasional little ups and downs as goes across drainages coming off of the ridge. There were a couple of prescribed burns going on in the area and for the earlier part of the hike I had problems with a burning sensation in my nose and watery eyes as a result of the smoke. I really couldn't see any smoke but I could smell it and feel it. The majority of the Aspens were still in their full glory. Some had already started to give up their golden leaves, a few here and there were already bare and I even saw the occasional one that was still mostly green.

I arrived at Swamp Point at 12:20. The breezes out there alternated between very cool ones blowing off of the rim and very warm ones blowing up out of the Canyon. There was a lot of haze in the Canyon, which I attributed to the fires. I settled down for lunch and rested about an hour before heading down to Muav Saddle for the night. The views of Muav Canyon and Powell Plateau were magnificent.

At 13:15 I started out and quickly discovered that I was not yet at the trailhead. There are actually two parking areas at Swamp Point, one close to the trailhead and one not so close. I was still about a 5-minute walk from the close one and did not arrive at the North Bass trailhead until 13:20. The real trailhead also offered vert nice views of Steamboat Mountain and the Esplanade.

The top part of the North Bass Trail was not too bad at all and at the time I hoped this was a good indication of what was to follow. It started off which a short descent through the upper portions of the Kaibab Limestone, which was followed by a long switchback, which was in-turn, followed by several shorter switchbacks, which descended through the Toroweap Formation. The trail had lots of loose rock of all assorted shapes and sizes on it but was generally in very good condition. In almost no time at all you find yourself on Muav Saddle.

I arrived on Muav Saddle at 13:50 and proceeded to look for a place to camp. I looked and looked but there were not really any good places to camp on the saddle, as it is pretty heavily overgrown with manzanita, scrub oak and an assortment of other similar plant life. I finally found a spot up on a little ridge that runs off of the south side of the saddle, which looked just big enough to pitch my tent in. It had a very nice view if nothing else and would be a good place to watch the sunset from. It was still sunny and very warm there so I just dropped my pack and went off to explore.

I was looking for Teddy's Cabin and ended up on the trail to Powell Plateau instead. The view was magnificent and I went up this trail for a short distance even though I knew the cabin wasn't up there. After a while I turned around and headed back down to the saddle to hunt around for the cabin.

The trail down to Teddy's Cabin heads off to the north very near the spot where the North Bass Trail leaves Muav Saddle and heads into the Canyon. It doesn't really look like a much of a trail and more resembles a drainage running off through the undergrowth, but if you follow this for a short distance it will bring you to the cabin.

It was nice to finally see Teddy's Cabin in person after hearing of it and seeing pictures taken by others. I went inside to look around. The cabin has two rooms: a front room with a cot, bench and desk; and a back room with two more cots. The cabin was pretty clean and it seemed that people were taking very good care of it. It was a little warm and a bit on the stuffy side but started to feel much more comfortable after I opened up the windows to air the place out. I found a visitor register/log book on the desk, sat down, drank some water and started reading it. While I was reading I decided that I might as well just spend the night in the cabin and not have to deal with setting up camp and then breaking it down again the next morning. I headed off back up to the ridge to get my gear and brought it back down to the cabin.

I rested for a while on one of the cots, which I decided, was really not that comfortable and proceeded to try out the other two. The better of the three seemed to be the one against the west wall in the back room so I decided I would sleep on that one. I hauled by pack into the back room and started settling in. The cot did not feel quite as bad once I put my sleeping bag on top of it but I still knew it would be a difficult nights sleep. I don't sleep very well in the backcountry anyway so it didn't seem to make much difference whether it was on the ground or an uncomfortable cot.

I took the log book back out and read some more of that and even recognized a number of the names of the people who had written in it. It seems that the cabin is used by lots of people on their way into the Canyon or while visiting Powell Plateau.

For dinner that night I just threw some food into my daypack and headed back up to the ridge to watch the sunset. The sun had actually disappeared over the top of Powell Plateau over an hour earlier so I didn't actually get to see it set. I did, however, get to see the play of the light and deepening shadows on he rim of the Rainbow Plateau, just to the east, which was equally as nice. After dinner I headed back to the cabin and got out my book and read for a while before trying to get some sleep.