16 April 2004

Easter morning.  I normally make sure I am home at Easter but this year I wasn't paying attention to the way I did the permit.  We all decided that we would do a night hike out.  I have done the River and Bright Angel trails before in the dark.  We quietly broke camp around 3 and headed out of the camp.  It was a nice and serene hike out across Silver Bridge and up the River trail and hammered it out fairly fast.  We took a quick break above the Pipe Creek drainage and took in the next snack.  We pushed on up until we got to the prospecting hole where we took our first good break.  The next step was the Devil's Corkscrew.  Twilight was fast becoming morning and there was no need for the headlamps anymore.  We started the climb up the switchbacks and noticed the girls group from Utah was heading up behind us.  Now talk about canyon magic.  This group came down out of Cottonwood the same day we did, but the group was going to stay up on the Clear Creek trail since they couldn't get a permit for Bright Angel.  As it would happen they scored with some folks that had room in their cabins.  The concessions OK'd it and ALL 9 stayed in the cabins with some very nice folks!!

What luck!

We continued on and made Indian Garden in just a about two-and-a-half hours.  Not bad time - when hiking alone I usually do it in about 2 hours so we were well on our way.  We made sure that we topped off our water and took in enough snacks.  the water was turned off at all the rest houses so this was our last chance for water.  Other hikers were coming in from the bottom and soon we would also mix with people heading out of Indian Garden.  As we headed up the trail, we started to run into more day hikers from the rim.  By the time we got to the 1.5 mile rest house the trail was a beehive of activity from backpackers, day hikers, and mule trains.  As we stopped and rested here, a girl coming out of Indian broke out a couple of trays of marshmallow peeps and was handing out to everyone!  Happy Easter. 

We continued upward finally making the first tunnel - what I call the teaser of a home stretch - then eventually the second tunnel or the home stretch for me.   Day tourists were everywhere making the trek upward more of a pain.  I kid you not, but there was a guy pushing a twin stroller down the Bright Angel - sheesh.  Alas, Kolb studio and the end of the trail.  I stopped on the wall and took pictures of my very happy group finally making their first exist.

Hands down the best trip I have had to the Grand Canyon.  The people I backpacked (Annie, Eric, Mark and Sylvia)  as well as the wonderful people I met in the canyon, truly made for an incredible time.