Grand Canyon Hike 2008 Video Completed

I finally finished the GC 08 hike video for Michelle and my sister Rosy... enjoy

Grand Canyon Misc

Here are a couple of misc item from the Grand Canyon.

Here is a picture of the Canteen on the bottom of the Canyon

Inside the Canteen

Ribbon Falls in HDR

Me in all my glory...

Grand Canyon Hike out

We woke up at 3:15am to get a early start. I could barely get out of my tent... But knew I had to. We made breakfast, ate and started to pack our gears and strike down our tent. I felt like I was slow moving. We bought 2 sacks to have the mule take at least 30 ibs of our stuff up to the rim. This will ellevate some of the weight that we have to carry. My sister manage to put everything she had in her backpack which ended up being around 18 ibs and Michelle and I manage to squeeze about 22ibs of stuff in our sack. We tried to find some more things that can fit but the quest was fruitless. So we tied the sacks and left it for the mule.

We did not get started until 5:30am. Later then what we wanted. It was still dark when we started hiking but the sun rose quickly. We had a good hike. Rosy did great, even though se was starting to have a little problem breathing and needed a lot of rest stop, but she managed through. Michelled did awesome at a nice steady pace she manage to pull it through. Michelle mentioned that this is definetly harder then marathon. So, I think Rosy can do a marathon.

Just resting at the Indian Garden

We would hike and stop for rest and then continue on. We did it in about 10 hours. I am so impress with Michelle and Rosy that they did this tremendous Hike. We were pretty tired but I still manage to squeez some energy left to run ou to the barn and get the mule sack for us and then run to the Bright Angel Lodge gift shop to buy the girls a GC fleece sweater as a surprise for them making it the hike. We went over the General store and had lunch/dinner and then headed to Sedona. We took Route 89a, beautiful route to Sedona. We finally arrived around 7:15pm, just in time to make it to the gift shops for my sister to buy her gift items. Afterwards, we went to the hotel and took a shower, got our packs ready and hit a Mexican place for dinner. Even tough my sister was not feeling well, after a shower she felt a bit more refreshed.

The next day we drove to the airport just in time for our place. Michelle and I ate our lunch and watch a movie on my lap top.

I have to say this is one of my best vacation time. Had a great hiking partner and could not have asked for anything better.

Good job all

Here are some randome photos

Danny and Michelle

Michelle and RosyDanny at the Canyon

Michelle, Danny and Rosy, GC Crew

Grand Canyon Hike to Ribbon Falls

Ribbon Falls

On the next day Rosy decided that she needed to take care of her toes and will just take it easy. So Michelle and I decided to proceed with our adventure and find Ribbon Falls. We went to the Canteen to ask how far is the hike. Michelle and I brought some essential items that we felt that we might need in a small backpack each. Just in case she brought a headlamp, which I thought was very smart to bring, just in case. According to the women at the Canteen, it was about a 6 mile hike or so. The hike takes us to several bridges, stream crossings, steep inclines, and rock scrambling up little hills to get to it. Not considering the 110 degree of heat, it was a pleasant hike. Michelle never ceases to impress me with her great attitude and being such a great hiking partner. We get to Ribbon Falls after what I think is about 7 miles of hiking. What a view!
By this time, I was starving and ate a whole bag of Beef Jerky. The waterfall was so inviting we took our shoes off and dipped it in the pool. It was refreshing and just what we needed. After we had our break we went up the side of the waterfall and behind it.
After all these years of hiking, I learned an interesting phenomenon, that all hiker time reference are subjective. If a hiker say, oh its a 10 min hike, it could be 20 min or an hour hike. Maybe I never realized this because most of my hikes have been isolated areas where I never saw other hiker or never asked.

As a precautionary measure we assessed our water situation and determine that we needed more water, luckily I brought my Iodine tablets, which now comes in handy. As we hiked out, we took a nice steady pace. About 3 women hiking came along on their way to the North Rim with barely anything and they were running out of water, so I supplied them with Iodine tablet and told them that there was stream not to far away.
At this point, I was thinking how my sister was doing and what she was doing. Was she able to cook something in the stove?

We finally arrived at our campsite and my sister was there. She was just resting, taking a dip at the creek, sleeping and reading her book. It was a good day for all of us.
We plan on getting up early the next morning to begin our hike out of the Canyon about 3:30am. That is way too early for me, but the majority won and I lost...haha.

Here is a great picture of Michelle writing in her journal during the twilight hours using a slow exposure on the camera

Grand Canyon Hike down

Grand Canyon at Sunset

We arrive in Phoenix on Wednesday and took off to the Grand Canyon, a 4 hour drive. Once we got there, we check in at the Yavapai lodge and brought all of our stuff into the room to pack our backpacks. We had to run into the General store to get last minute items. By the time we got all that done, it was time for dinner. So we went over to the Bright Angel Lodge for dinner. Now the real fun begins, to pack our backpacks so it is not that heavy. We manage to get all of stuff in and still be a bit lighter. My pack weight around 42 ibs or so, Michelle's around 40 ibs and my sister around 28 ibs or so. Since I was carrying the tent and all the cooking ware, hers was lighter.

We took off the next morning around 5:30am to hike down the Canyon. It was a beautiful morning, not too cold and not hot at all. We loaded up with water and made sure everyone was comfortable.

Everyone had to drink even if the water tasted funny, or I thought, until the last 2 1/2 miles when I found my sister was not drinking enough. Rosy started to feel a bit dizzy, and her heart started to race. I was concerned, because of the three of us, she was the least experience and the least in shape or not enough training to do this hike. I was getting worried that I might be pushing my sister to the limit. We stopped and I gave her an aspirin and made her drink and eat something. We waited a little bit until she recovered and I decided that in order for us to get down safely and my sister to recover as we hiked down, I will have to take her backpack and carried it down. I ended up carrying her backpack for about 2 miles until the last stretch where she was feeling a little better and I gave her backpack back to her. We finally reached the bottom and my concern shifted to finding a good suitable campsite near the outhouses. I manage to acquire a great spot and went back to get my sister, while Michelle hiked to the campsite. The one major thing that was bothering my sister was her hiking boots. She bought the exact size of her foot and she should have bought at least a half size larger to compensate for the swelling. Her big toes were killing her and she was pain.
The elevation is almost straight down from 7000 ft down to about 2000 ft.

Here are some stats

Elevation

Elevation Stats

After we set up our tents and my sister recovered enough we cooked our dinner and had Pinot Grigio that I had chilling in the creek for our dinner. It was a perfect evening. Michelle and Rosy turned in early and I was still wired up, so I went over to the Canteen to have a beer.

I met some Mule riders and they were filling me in their adventures. It was fun listening to the other side of coming down via Mule.

More updates to follow......

Grand Canyon 2008 Pictures

Hanging out at the Bright Angel Campsite on the bottom of the Canyon

I posted pictures on Picasa... Enjoy

http://picasaweb.google.com/runandcycle/GrandCanyon2008

Grand Canyon Hike - A Great Adventure

WE MADE IT!!

Just wanted to drop a quick blog entry that we made me it and what an adventure it was. I will have more details later on.
In brief:
Michelle, Rosy and me, flew in to Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday 9/3/2008 to hike the Grand Canyon on Thursday 9/4/2008.
The hike was awesome, it was a bit exhausting at the end, but everyone made safe and sound.
I am glad I got to share my experience of the Grand Canyon with my great friend Michelle and my sister Rosy. I could not have been more proud of them that they both did it and with no major injury. This is consider to be one of the most difficult hikes in America, mostly due to the terrain and weather.
Good job my GC Crew

More later
Danny