Day 3: North Rim, Grand Canyon
It was hot! The day before, the temperature in Kanab, Utah, had been in the 90s. The forecast for the North Rim on Monday, August 12, was for temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, even though the elevation at the rim was more than 9000 feet above sea level. The dryness of the desert air helped make the heat more bearable, however.
For a few days before starting on this trip I had a scratchy throat, as if I were coming down with a cold or flu. By Saturday, this seemed to be improving, and I thought I had escaped the worst of it. However, over the weekend I had developed a slight cough with a catch in my chest that became particularly irritating at night. I was having trouble sleeping. Each night was interrupted by at least one violent coughing spell. Thus when I awoke on Monday morning after our first night of camping, I was not completely rested. Nonetheless, I thought some excercise might help, and we had discussed in advance doing some hiking at the Grand Canyon. I had, in fact, purchased a new and slightly larger day pack before leaving on my trip, expressly for this occasion. The pack proved handy because it was almost an exact fit for the left side compartment on the K1200LT and aided in organizing my stuff for packing in the bike. I had also brought along my new Sony DSC-F707 digital camera in hopes of getting some nice pictures of the Canyon, as well as the rest of my trip, and my Apple Macintosh I-Book computer was stashed in the tail pack of the BMW to serve as a storage utility for my photos. The memory stick on the Sony would hold slighly more than 100 megabytes of data -- equivalent to about 52 or 53 full-resolution images captured by the 5.2-megapixel CCD. With a little more than 1.5 gigabytes free on the I-Book hard drive, I was able to dump each day's photos through the USB cable for storage on the I-Book, thus freeing the memory stick each evening for my next day's photographs. Finally, I had managed to fit my pair of telescoping carbon fiber hiking poles and my cherished Adidas hiking boots over the 6-CD changer in the right side compartment. In short, I had packed for hiking, and I was not about to forego the experience simply because of a minor chest cold.
Boris and Paul were smart. They wore their hiking boots for riding. I, on the other hand, had anticipated rain, and thus had worn my waterproof CruiserBoots and brought along my Aerostich Darien jacket and pants in anticipation of a downpour. I virtually always have to ride in rain for at least one or two days whenever I leave California. This trip turned out to be the exception. I did not get rained on once, so the raingear was perhaps overkill. It was Boris and Paul, in fact, who had encountered rain at Sturgis and had to endure without the benefit of waterproof gear.
I also needed to get some pointers from Boris on backpacking equipment and efficient packing. His tent, airpad, and sleeping bag fit into a stuff sack roughly the size of my sleeping bag alone. As a result, Boris and Paul easily carried their equipment on the ST1100 and the Concours, while I was slightly overpacked even on the larger K1200LT. This matter is a target for attention before my next long trip.
Guidance from the park staff was to begin hiking early in the morning when the air was cool in anticipation of the expected hot afternoon temperatures. As usual, however, we dawdled in the morning. Although we arose about 7 AM, we first rode to the Lodge, about a mile north from the campground, and had a nice sit-down breakfast in the dining room. Then we rode to the trailhead, about a mile in the other direction, south from the campground, mainly to check its location and assess whether we could walk there or needed to take the bikes. We decided to take the bikes. We then went back to the campground to gather our gear. Also, we needed to see if we could keep the same campsite for our second night. The advance reservations had indicated we might have to move to a different site, but mercifully the ranger told us we could stay in place. Finally, we rode to the trailhead and began our hike about 11 AM. The temperature was already pushing 100 degrees.
The trail hugs vertical walls much of the way down to Roaring Springs.
You can see the footbridge far below in the lower right of this photo.
We hiked down the North Kaibab Trail into Roaring Springs Canyon, which was in the sun during most of our descent. Passing the tunnel and bridge alond the way, we arrived in the area of Roaring Springs about 2 PM. I carried a quart of water and a quart of Gatorade in my backpack. This would probably have been sufficient, but there is also piped-in potable water available on the trail just above the tunnel and again near Roaring Springs.
We passed only one group on muleback climbing the trail as we proceeded downward into the Canyon. although there was ample evidence, necessary to avoid stepping in, of the frequent presence of mules on this trail.
Swiss guys are apparently very brave as well as very fast.
This cascade feeds the creek at Roaring Springs.
Boris remembered a pool at Roaring Springs where he was able to soak and cool off during a previous trip, but we had difficulty finding this. We had taken a turn to the left at a fork in the trail and come to an end that did not lead to these pools.
On returning to the fork, we discussed hiking further down the right fork. Some hikers coming from that direction indicated the pools were another half mile or so in that direction. However, the time was now about 3 PM, and we wanted to allow time to return to the rim before dark. The extra distance and time to soak in the pools would probably have consumed another hour or two. Regrettably, we decided to forgo the experience this time and start back up the trail.
Wildlife in the Canyon included this tree lizard
and an acrobatic squirrel.
Boris and Paul, both about 20 years younger than I, were faster hikers, especially on the uphill trail. I finally let then go on ahead and climbed at my own pace to meet them at the trailhead.
Although the temperature was still in excess of 100 degrees, the afternoon saw the trail in the shade of the canyon rim. Therefore we were at least spared the task of climbing in direct sunlight.
The return up the trail, even at my slower pace, took approximately the same three-hour time as the descent. I rejoined Boris and Paul at the trailhead about 6 PM. Our round-trip hike had covered approximately 9 miles and nearly 4000 feet of vertical descent. In spite of my mild chest cold, I was feeling better for the exercise.
We returned to the Lodge to watch the sunset from the deck.
We then hied back to the campsite.
This crow greeted us near our tents.
We managed to jump into the coin-op showers for quick clean-up just before they closed at 8 PM. That seemed an awfully early closing time, and I was also puzzled by the need to feed quarters to the shower -- five quarters for each six minutes of shower time -- when so many other conveniences seemed to be provided by virtue of our park fees, as signs around the National Park were constantly reminding us.
After showering, we went back to the Lodge, but were unable to obtain a table in the dining room for dinner. We bought food at the cafeteria next to the Lodge, and took our trays to the deck overlooking the Canyon to eat. It was very dark, however. The Canyon was now merely a black hole, but the sky was filled with many more stars than I was accustomed to seeing from my home near the city.
Ater dinner, we stopped into the pub bar in the Lodge for a quick draft beer, then returned to our campsite and retired for the evening about 11 PM.
Return to 2002 trip map.
