Friday 16 April 2004

Typical with most of my trips so far at the canyon, it started with a hearty breakfast over at Maswik Lodge Cafeteria.  I drove over to the backcountry office to store the car then hoofed it down to the bus station below Bright Angel to catch the shuttle over to the Hermit Trailhead.  It was definitely cold and blustery that morning. I was bundled up and huddled behind a sign as a windbreak as were the others waiting for the bus.  I chatted with two guys from Phoenix, Terry and Brian, who were doing a similar route. 

 Once at the trailhead I did a quick stop to check out Hermit’s Rest and then headed down the trail.  The trail is pretty defined and the cobblestone path that the Santa Fe Railroad installed is still visible.  Once down at Waldron’s Wash I bumped into Terry and Brian again taking a break.  We decided to hike together for a while and I enjoyed listening to their tales of previous Canyon hiking.   

We hiked together for most the day.  The three washouts that I read so much about with varying opinions of difficulty, turned out to be nothing – easy to traverse – no exposure or anything of concern.  The Cathedral stairs was also something that I heard about but turned out to be nothing but a series of tight switchbacks.  We descended to the Tonto and just before the junction I wasn’t paying attention (staring at the scenery), I slipped on some loose gravel and landed flat on my back – nothing injured but my pride.   

Once we got to Hermit – Brian and Terry went down to the rapids- I stayed at camp and explored around that area.  They were nice and asked me to camp with them – had a great time and we watched as mice tried to raid our backpacks.

 Distance: 7.6 miles  Time: 4 hours