One More Ascent

Paying heed to the rangers this time we left at 05:40. By that time almost 50% of the Bright Angel Camp had departed and almost every one else was leaving just behind us. We crossed over the Silver Bridge and started to make our ascent through the many switchbacks starting with the Devil's Corkscrew. The lower portion of Bright Angel Trail is quite beautiful as is crisscrosses  Garden Creek at several places. At the two hour mark we did our break under the shade along the creek, I changed my socks and munched on a Cliff bar. The socks were hardly damp yet, but I decided to stick with the same game plan that worked so well the day before. The feet weren't hurting too much yet. As I rolled my pack back on, the unthinkable happened. A loud pop was heard as I watched a rivet shoot across the trail. We both stood in complete horror as my pack fell way from the shoulder strap. Great. Just friggen' wonderful! Now, there is a reason why I mentioned our occupations during the introduction portion of this site. Well, between a nuclear engineer and an aerospace engineering we were both confident we could rebuild it. That alone should scare the hell out of you. Well thank God for the multi-tool. As El got his out I remembered I had taken some wire with me to hang my food bag. As I pondered how I could wire everything together, El came up with an interesting brainstorm. We would use one of his empty chicken cans as a rivet backing and feed the wire back through the holes. I had El make sure he doubled the wire around the can. I then took a good size rock and bent in the flanges so it wouldn't tear any gear or the pack. Must take safety into mind. I fed the wire through the holes and double tied the wire. They say engineering is knowing when to use a bigger hammer (or in this case a rock). Needless to say the pack held all the way to the top. Nothing like a little over engineering to make things happen. We tied it up so well, when I got home I literally had to cut it off. We couldn't stop joking about the replacement rivet. Other hikers who had noticed our plight were just as curious about our repair work.

We made it into Indian Gardens where a lot of the other Bright Angel groups were taking a rest. We also started noticing more day hikers from the rim. As we continued to climb the feet were really screaming. I actually thought I heard them talking in a different language. We stopped at the 3 mile rest house and refilled our water bottles. More foot repair. I had to yell at El to stop taking pictures of my feet. The man was absolutely fascinated that a pair of feet could look like that (In a way so was I). By this time we were travelling with a group of people whom we befriended on the trail. As we leap-frogged each other to the top, we would always meet at a bend with some shade and chat. After a while group photos were being taken as about 6 of us bonded in our trek out. We also noticed a lot of rangers and ranger interns/volunteers heading down the trail. At the 1.5 mile rest house. A ranger intern said they were sending people out to evaluate the day hikers who may be having trouble. El and I reported on one couple at the 3 mile rest house who were obviously having some difficulty. They were on the large size and definitely straining making the climb out. As we passed through the first tunnel my pace quickened.... to hell with my feet. Kolbe Studio was in view. As we finally took the last step out, people who we had shared the trek with stood there and cheered. Everyone waited for all the groups to take their last step and congratulated them. More group photos. A few howls were let out on finally making it to the top. Myself included. There would be a dozen of us at the top as the last group of girls we met took their final steps. We actually drew a crowd of day visitors who were curious about everything. Yep, that's right folks.... 5 days in the canyon. I feel like such the veteran now.

Distance Traveled: 9 miles. Time: 7 hrs 20 min. (We could probably drop about 20 min due to the stop to make the field repair)

Our trip ended as it had started. Cold beers on the patio of the Arizona Steakhouse. Another gorgeous sunset. ................and one hell of a good steak!

Side Note: I have to make mention of the use of cloth duct tape. I had read previously in someone's trip report about using cloth duct tape to prevent and protect blisters. Trust me it works. I used both a liner sock and a hiking sock but did very little preventative maintenance on the hike down. The first two days is when I suffered all my foot damage. I decided to try and experiment on the third and fourth day. On my left foot I went with moleskin/molefoam and on the right foot I went with cloth duct tape. The moleskin, even when taped over, eventually shifted due to perspiration. In areas that I used it as a preventative measure a minor blister formed. In areas that had a blister the skin ruptured. The cloth duct tape on the other hand prevented blistering where I applied it as a preventative measure. In areas that had a blister, the skin never ruptured. In conclusion my left foot looks like it should be donated to science while my right foot looks perfectly fine.