“We’re actually going to a canyon. I hear it’s pretty grand.”—Grand Canyon 2010 (Days 41-46) PART TWO

**This is Part 2 of 3. Given the long nature of this post, I’ve decided not to post pictures in between paragraphs. If you wish to look at pictures, there is a link to them all at the bottom of the page**

And so the hike down began. Our trip involved hiking along three trails—Hermit, Dripping Springs, and Boucher. Our hike started at Hermit, made the initial descent, split off onto Dripping Springs, and then completed most of the journey along Boucher. As we started our descent, it was still dark, and we were navigating by headlamp. One of the nice aspects of night hiking is that it’s cool. The forecast high for Thursday (the day we started our hike) was 105^oF (40.5^oC), but when we started at 4, it was only 65^oF (18^oC), so it was pretty easy to hike in. As we headed down the mountain, it was pretty slow going—hiking at night is inherently slower because everyone is more cautious! The trail was pretty steep and rugged—only a taste of what was to come! We made it down the initial portion of Hermit Trail before dawn. We started on Hermit Trail because it takes you down to Boucher Trail—Boucher doesn’t begin until about 2-3 miles into the hike. The initial portion of Hermit Trail is primarily switchbacks and takes you slowly down to a plateau in a small side canyon. It was very difficult to see quite how long this portion of the trail was—it was dark, and I couldn’t see how far we had come or how far we had to go. This lack of knowledge would come back to haunt us later in our trip.

As dawn broke, we found ourselves at the junction between Dripping Springs/Boucher Trail and Hermit Trail. Thus far, we’d traveled about 2 miles. It was going to be a very long day. As we left Hermit Trail and stepped onto Dripping Springs, I could already feel the weight of my pack getting heavier. Our hike along Dripping Springs involved mostly small elevation changes—it was primarily a traverse across a very, very large side canyon to the Boucher Trailhead. (The Hermit Trail proceeds down one side of this canyon, and we traverse along the other side.) It was a pretty cool moment when we stepped out onto the side of this canyon. Dripping Springs Trail follows an initial section, but then curves around the side of this very steep (almost vertical sides) side canyon. At times, the trail is literally carved out of the side of this canyon—a pretty cool feeling…and slightly nerve-wracking!

We finally reached the Boucher Trailhead around 8 AM. By this time, we’d already been hiking for over 4 hours…it already felt like an entire day! We started walking along Boucher Trail, which was a very long hike along the side of this side canyon. At times, we were literally hiking along the side of a cliff…the trail was dug out from the side. The trail itself was pretty basic—as a backcountry trail, Boucher Trail doesn’t receive much maintenance from the National Park Service. It was a very good thing that I had such sturdy hiking boots—they proved to be a godsend as we hiked along this pretty rough trail. About halfway along this traverse, we stopped for breakfast (~9 AM). Unfortunately, when we stopped for breakfast, we thought we were about twice as far as we were. Yuma Point, a major checkpoint on our hike, was actually still about 1.5 miles away.

It took considerably longer to walk the next mile and a half. The sun was starting to come into full force, and we weren’t working well together as a team. We were all pretty tired by the time we reached the real Yuma Point. As we flopped down for a snack break around 11:30 AM, the full scale of our hike took force. 11 miles sounds pretty doable on paper, but it’s a very different proposition when you’re sitting on the side of a cliff, less than halfway into the Grand Canyon, feeling exhausted. Although we were tired, we could finally see our campsite for that evening—White’s Butte. White’s Butte is a huge plateau reaching out into the Grand Canyon. It was a pretty cool sight; the only problem was that there was absolutely no shade. We had a brief team meeting to discuss our options and wound up deciding to push on to White’s Butte, even though it was the heat of the day.

We set off around noon to begin our descent into the hardest part of the hike. Although we could see White’s Butte, it was still 1000 feet below us, and about 2 miles laterally. We rounded Yuma Point and began our traverse into yet another canyon. We hiked along the rim of this canyon, before finally dropping into the canyon about halfway around. It was an extremely steep descent—we were on a very rough trail. At times, even though we were carrying 23 kg packs, we had to climb down some really steep sections. All in all, it took us around 3 hours just to get down that section. From there, it was a pretty short level hike over to White’s Butte. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see a campsite before. It was so—well, wonderful after such a long hike.

We set up camp on a roughly flat section of White’s Butte, close to the trail itself. Although this generally runs contrary to LNT (Leave No Trace) principles (you should be far enough off the trail so that other hikers cannot easily see you), Boucher Trail was so quiet and deserted that we felt safe establishing camp only a few hundred feet from the trail. (Plus, there was no vegetation on White’s Butte to shield us from other hikers) As the others set up our tarp/Megamid, I started to cook dinner. (Yes, I was indeed the chef!) Dinner was a pretty simple affair, consisting primarily of Pasta, and a LOT of cheese! It’s incredible how much energy you burn while hiking in the backcountry and the Grand Canyon was no exception! We cleaned up dinner and settled into our sleeping bags pretty early. I was asleep within just a few minutes—I was so tired!

Friday started bright and early. We were up and getting ready to leave by 5 AM. At this point, we needed to start moving pretty early on—our water was starting to run really low. As we started hiking again, only 4 of us were carrying packs—we left a good portion of our gear up at our camp on White’s Butte. The descent off of White’s Butte was very steep. We hiked slowly and carefully—lest one of us slip. We made decent progress—by 8 AM we had hiked down Boucher to the intersection with Tonto Trail. Tonto Trail is a trail that runs along the bottom of the Grand Canyon—connecting all the trails together. Tonto Trail also runs along the Tonto Platform, a flat ledge that runs the length of the Grand Canyon. After reaching the Tonto Platform, we turned onto a trail leading down into the Inner Canyon—the location of the Colorado River!

**End of Part 2 of 3. Link to Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Harry.Lambert2/UWCAlbum02?authkey=Gv1sRgCLDKzaGfnMjc2AE&feat=directlink**