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September, 2000 - Nankoweap Trail & Nankoweap Butte |
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This was the first time I had done two backpacking trips back-to-back but it sure was enjoyable getting to spend almost two full weeks in the depths of the Grand Canyon. I had originally allowed for only one lay-over day on the north rim between the end of the Shinumo Amphitheatre trip the prior week and the start of this one but I had to add an extra to rest up and had to cut a day from this trip. I still had five days and it would just have to do.
This was my second trip down the Nankoweap, after promising myself to never do it again after getting severely beaten up by the first trip. The first trip was a learning experience and I was sure I would do much better the second time around after learning from the mistakes that first time around. The first mistake was trying to go all the way from the north rim to Nankoweap Creek in one day. Knowing that I had no plan to go all the way to the creek in one day made for a very enjoyable first day. The weather was beautiful and perfect for hiking with cool temperatures and bright sunny skies. I found a nice spot to camp just above Tilted Mesa that I had all to myself. The views from that camp were fantastic looking back at the north rim and down to Tilted Mesa and Nankoweap Creek below. I had a nice night and remember a beautiful night sky full of stars. I wish I had been more into night sky photography in those days and could have taken some photos to remember. The sunrise was glorious on the second day and even though the trail going down to Nankoweap Creek was rough it didn’t seem to bother me as much being fully rested. It only took a couple of hours to get down to the creek and it was still pretty early in the day when I arrived. After setting up camp I spent the rest of the morning and a good portion of the afternoon climbing Nankoweap Butte. It was a beautiful day for it, sunny and warm, and the views from the top were incredible. When I got back to my camp at the creek I met another group of hikers that had come down while I was away. It rained that second night and it was heavy and windy. I remember having to get up in the middle of the night to put the rain fly on and also dig some drainage channels around the tent. The rain continued off and on into the mid-morning and I had to change my plans because of this. I had originally planned to hike to the Kolb Natural Bridge and it's just as good I cancelled that idea as I would learn on later trips that is pretty much a futile attempt (for me, at least) to try to go from that camping location to the bridge and back in one day. When the rain finally did break and I headed down to he river to visit the granaries down there. I enjoyed that hike and the rest of the day was pretty nice. I got back to camp early enough to hang the sleeping bag out to dry for a bit and also to try and clean my clothes and myself up as best as possible. I also spent some time talking with the other group that was camped a little further up the creek. They had faired worse than me in the storm the prior evening as they did not have tents and only one large tarp between them. I was also taking two days to hike out so that started on day three. I pretty much had two full days at the bottom and a couple of nice day hikes so I was satisfied. And there were two days left in the Canyon even it was the hike out. I ended up hiking out with the group of guys who were camped near me, not really a plan but just because we ended up starting around the same time and were hiking at about the same pace. We all took a break on Tilted Mesa and then ended up camping for the night at Marion Point. I remember an incident with some hikers who ran out of water and had taken part of a water cache left by someone else at Marion Point. Unfortunately for them the "someone else" was a group of park rangers and when they showed up looking for their cache they were not happy. They had planned to track down the people who had taken their cache when they got out and I often wonder what happened. We did have a first name and I guess they were hoping there was a backcountry permit they could use. There were some clouds and lightening in the distance over night but we did not get any rain. The weather was nice for the final day of the trip and I was back on the rim by mid-morning. I ended up having lunch with the other group at Jacob Lake. In spite of a little wet weather the second time down to Nankoweap was much more enjoyable than the first and I knew there were going to be other trips in the area in the future. I had planned on getting to Mystic Falls and the Kolb Natural Bridge on this trip and that didn't happen so I had to go back. The full trip report is here. |
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Next >> Trip number 32 - May, 2003 - Thunder River and Deer Creek
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