Though we got up early at 5.15AM, it was 7.45 when we started to hike. It was a beautiful day and just when we started, I met this Shambhu Shikari (as named by Rupali due to his hat, long shorts and socks) who was confident that he could go up to the Colorado and be back the same day. He had done 20 miles in a day a few times in the past and South Kaibab trail to the base of the Colorado river and back is just 13 mile, as he put it. If he is still alive then I met a confident soul, otherwise, be it lay in peace. There have been enough write-ups on the Grand Canyon hiking and all of them have one thing in common – never attempt to go down the base and come back the same day, esp during summer– its suicidal to put it politely.
Anyways, with Mishti on our back, we had written that off and we are not that level of hikers anyways. According to me, there are 10 levels of hikers – level 10 guys do Mt Everest and come back. Alive. (there are only 1000 such people!). Level 7 guys do South Kaibab and yes, come back alive. We classify ourselves as level 3 since we did Mahuli (Near Mumbai), Dog Mountain(Near Portland) and a fifth of South Kaibab trail without killing ourselves, the last two with Mishti on our back.
Our objective was to go to Cedar Ridge which is around 2miles one way on the South Kaibab trail, a short hike but a steep one with an elevation change of close to 2000feet. When we started, we had the first glimpse of the Grand Canyon as we had arrived late last night well after dark. After every 2 minutes, we would stop – admire the view, click a few pictures and move on. The scale is unimaginable. It’s like a sea – as far as your sight goes. But unlike a sea, it has several flavors – flavors of color, flavors of depth, flavors of enormousness. We were absorbed. Captivated by its beauty. Small is beautiful. Large can also be.
Soon we saw this group of people lead by a ranger (Rangers take groups and start at 7.30AM) and we caught up with them quickly and thereafter stuck to them. Our ranger, like most others, was an entertainer with good stories, some made up, some real and some good first hand information about the landscape and the plant and animal life. For example, our ranger showed us a plant – more like a shoot – that grows a foot a day for up to 15 days;. Also, the highest incidence of fatalities in GC according to him are air crashes (which I verified later to be true) and on land occur among males 25 to 34, which had me worried.
Rupali had Mishti while going down to the ridge. That’s how it is with us. She will carry her when we descend and me takeover when we ascend. She is more surefooted as well (example - she married such a great guy!) which is critical while descending. The hike down to the ridge was good – a significant part of which had steps naturally made by years of hiking – I knew as I was descending that climbing up may get tough as these were steep stairs rather than steep hike. Upon reaching the Ceder ridge, we parked ourselves under a bush with some shade. Mishti had fallen asleep and so we went around exploring the area which has many photo-ops. After some time Mishti woke up and she wanted juice as if she had hiked all the while and was thirsty.
She has this habit of saying Hi to strangers and then if they reply – she goes on with several hi hi hi hi – till they get bored and stop responding. There was this girl – may be five or six years old – to whom Mishti said hi and she responded back with a hi. After that Mishti said Hi again and this girl replied back with a Hi. When Mishti said Hi for the third time, the girl lost it and said – haven’t I said hi to you twice? At that moment Mishti’s face was worth watching. She was perplexed. Nobody had ever told her anything other than hi to a hi, so what was this girl saying, and that to sternly? Mishti kept gaping at her and after a while turned back and joined us under the shade. It was hilarious.
We started to ascend at around 9.30AM. We tied a white cotton cloth around the baby backpack as the sun was out. In the first 15 minutes – I was panting, as usually happens if the hike is steep. But we kept going, slowly – one step at a time. In between we stood by the shade and had a bite of energy bars – for some reason we were very excited about them. This was the first time we had anything like that and I had in my mind imagined that as soon as you take a bite of the energy bar, energy starts flowing into you as the likes of Spiderman or Superman. Except for sticky, chewy, chocalatee flavor nothing else happened, or nothing that at least I could make out. We kept walking. As the trail is cut aside mountains, each time the direction changes, you may either be on a stretch that is covered by sunshine or completely exposed to it. The stretches with shade were always welcome as the sun was shining as if it was only shining for me – right in front of my face. After about an hour of hiking, we could spot the summit. This charged us and we did the rest pretty quickly, reaching the top by 11.00AM. Looking back, it was not so tough – we could have done twice but then we would have been tired with sore legs, unable to do anything else. Estimates put us on the 5% of the 4mn annual visitors that the Canyon gets, who hike down the Grand Canyon, which we were happy about.
That evening and the next morning, we hiked/walked another 5-6 miles around the rim of the Canyon and saw it from different angles. The Colorado river, that was not visible from the Kaibab trail, was visible from other points west of the Grand Canyon Village. From the top, though it is flowing deep within the canyon, it looks hikable, perhaps because you can see it and assess its depth. But by that logic, you can also see the sun! They are right. Looks are deceptive.
