Adventure on a grand scale, part four!

Waking up at Phantom Ranch didn’t bring any surprises of the reptile variety, although we did find that the ring tails were significantly more agile than we gave them credit for.

The third day dawned beautiful, as always.

Despite the fact that dad’s pack was on a nail in the middle of  a structure, far from any beams we thought they could crawl on, and despite the fact that the only plastic bag that he hadn’t put in his food box was a first-aid bag containing some moleskin, and despite the fact that that bag was in a zipped-up outer pocket, we found the contents of said bag on the ground under his pack when we woke up.

Luckily the cats realized that, despite what dozens of backpackers before us had taught them, this plastic bag did not contain food and left it unceremoniously on the ground for us to retrieve.  The only thing worse than having animals get into your pack is having them get away with some of your stuff, and the knowledge that your plastic bag probably contributed to their death.  (There were large warnings over everything describing the deaths of 22 mule deer a couple of years before who slowly starved because of plastic bags in their bellies).

Sometime during the night a couple had taken the groupsite next to us but we didn’t begrudge them the spot because they had obviously had a rough night.  It didn’t look as if they had even had time to fully unpack, with all of their bags just piled in a corner they must have spent half the night fighting off the wildlife. It was all the worse since they hadn’t set up a tent or anything, but rather had just taken out an air mattress, set it up on top of the table, and had conked out as best they could.

And despite the noise of backpackers heading out extremely early (Mickey said he had been woken up at 4am by people starting up the trail) they stayed asleep.  Although given the vomiting that Mickey had also heard early in the morning, that was probably for the best.

We, however, decided to go ahead and head out early.  After all, a brief discussion with a ranger yesterday had brought up a piece of landscape that we wanted to tackle early in the day: the Devil’s Corkscrew.  Anything with a name like that practically screams “painful climb out.”

Enter foreboding music.

Being that this was our first day climbing rather than going downhill we weren’t exactly sure what to expect.  I, personally, was a little worried.  It had been easy so far, but this day was sure to be harder, right?

I grabbed the camera to make sure that I didn’t just stare at my boots the entire way

So we made quick work of our camp and breakfast and strapped on our packs to cross the Colorado and start up the trail.

Required Colorado River beginning of day picture

 At first all we saw were rocks and crows.

Crows!

But soon the trail started to head upwards towards the top of the inner gorge.

“See the top of that?” “Yeah?”  “We’re going up there.”

The trail was a full of a soft red dirt that proceeded to coat my socks and shoes

We followed the Colorado for about a mile and half, steadily climbing… only to face a downhill as we turned the corner.

It is really disappointing to start heading down when you know you have to climb out of the canyon before the day is over.

But soon the ground started rising again and before we knew it the Devil’s Corkscrew was upon us.

We climbed…

Those sticks seem really useful right about now.

 And climbed. 

And climbed.

Quicker than we expected, however, we were off the corkscrew and looking down at how far we had come.

Holy crap, we just did that?

We finished the worst climb of the day before the sun even started getting over the walls of the gorge and found ourselves in the slot canyon on the way to Indian Gardens, our camp for the third night.

Hey, there’s a river in this slot canyon!

Imagine our surprise after thinking that the day was going to be a long, hard slog, to see a sign telling us we were approaching Indian Gardens after only about three hours on the trail.

It’s a little hard to miss Indian Gardens, you just look for the massive amounts of brush in the middle of the desert.

This means that we rolled into camp before 10:00.  It was even too early to have lunch.

We were immediately greeted by animals hanging around the camp.  The same ranger who had warned us about the Devil’s Corkscrew had told us that the animals around Indian Gardens were kind of insane, but we hadn’t quite believed it.

We hadn’t expected animals so unafraid of people they seemed almost animitronic

But they were, years and years of day-trippers and backpackers feeding them and leaving food around had made them totally incautious. 

Even the deer got really close

Of course, that didn’t mean that they weren’t wild.

Or so the signs seemed to imply

 The brush in the campground was higher than any we had seen the entire trip, scattered through with bamboo and huge leafy plants that showed just how much water was near the surface here.

You practically had to fight your way through.

But, true to what the ranger had told us, the squirrels were ready and willing to “jump in your pack as soon as you take it off.”  They came right up to our feet scavanging for food.

That’s a squirrel.  Trust me.

Being that we had made very good time, having set up camp even before lunch, we decided to take a day trip out to Plateau Point.  It was about a mile and a half hike out to the edge of the inner gorge, giving us a view of the Colorado and all the surrounding scenery.  And it was gorgeous.  But don’t take my word for it. Check out the pictures…

We made friends with the crows that came up to see if we had any food….

And watched the boats down on the Colorado go through the rapids. 

Are you ready to go through the rapids?  No?

Too late!

One of the things that had kept me going on the corkscrew was the sight of a red kayak traveling up the trail far in front of us.  We had passed its carrier sometime in the middle of our hike, only to find that he wasn’t just hiking with a huge red kayak on his back.  He was hiking barefoot. 

Some of us found him in Indian Gardens as he headed back from Plateau Point and made conversation.  He found out that the young man had started upriver at Lee’s Ferry and had gotten off the river at Phantom Ranch to hike out of the canyon.  The only reason he was hiking out, rather than taking the river the rest of the way, was that his brother was getting married and he needed to make it to the wedding.  This means that, when faced with a major family event, this young man didn’t buy a plane ticket or press his suit- rather he tried to figure out how he could crowd one last boat ride and crazy hike in before the wedding.

But rather than feeling inferior we simply nodded and smiled and then headed back to whittle away the rest of the day, mostly through napping, reading, exploring the camp, and card games. 

And preparing mentally for our own climb out of the canyon.