Dear Trail Friends,
It's interesting for me to see the numbers today. The day felt like it had more up and down and steeper grades than I had grown accustomed to. I am surprised by how little up and down there actually was and how little total grade.
As I was doing the ascents (some a little steep) I began to worry a little about the Grand Canyon and the climb out. The trail I am going down is 4800 ft down, total grade 697.4 ft/mi. As my hiker acquaintance Slo Bro explained to me, any grade over 500 is over 10% and is very challenging. Now the AZT (and my gps app) go down the South Kaibab trail which is shorter and steeper. I'll be coming up the Bright Angel trail which is longer and less steep (and not covered by my app), but still formidable.
I'm not worrying only because I am a worrier. I am also worrying to distract myself from how thirsty I am (which is very). I have three liters of water I am treating with aquamira (glorified chlorine I think) because my water filter is not working. I have some untreated water in case I get so desperately thirsty I can't wait. It takes 4 hours. Only 1 hour and 20 minutes to go.
It isn't clear what's wrong with my filter. At first I thought maybe it got frozen (which destroys them). I've been great about keeping it in my sleeping bag overnight but forgetting that 5 and 6 am when I start hiking are the coldest hours usually. I need to start sticking it into the stuff sack with my down pants in the morning.
But then I began to think maybe it wasn't frozen maybe it was just "operator error." I did make a teeny tiny mistake and it just happened to be when the filter troubles started. So I am at this incredibly muddy smelly cow pond but it's the only water around, right? So I filter it. Only accidentally to put the filter upside down. (Dirty water going into the clean water exit side). I catch it but what can I do? No. clean water handy to rinse everything out. So I hope. I shake the dirty water out of the clean water bag. I turn the filter the right way. And filter. Only at the end the "clean" water tastes like the cowpond snellls. And so does the water I filter at my next stop (this morning) and the one after (this afternoon). It occurs to me it may all be the effect of reversing the filter and if I wash and backwash it thoroughly it may be just fine. In the meantime water that has gone through it tastes worse than untreated water. Clearly I've drink some contaminated water (although I've managed to avoid it both by finding drinkable water caches and by treating some water this morning) but I manage the risk of getting sick increases with the amount of contaminated water drunk so it seems important to wait (only an hour and 10 minutes now!)
Tomorrow I hike into Tusayan, a small town only about 5 miles before Grand Canyon Village. I hope to get a motel room but have not had coverage. Judging by the fact that the Grand Canyon lodge is totally booked, I am guessing the week after Easter is a vacation week for a lot of people. So I'm hoping but also realize everything may be taken.
Once again this morning I was aware that I really enjoy hiking through woods but that it is hard to capture the feeling of place and presence (in three dimensions) in a photo. I did get another bones and tree photo. I guess trees are real "tree of life" figures for me and the pairing with bones (death) intrigues me. Photo 1 is a jawbone leaning against a tree, in its shadow.
Photo 2 is the trail through trees. (I tried.)
Photo 4 is a glimpse of what I think may be the Grand Canyon. It startled me that I might see it from a distance as I approach. What a concept.
I'm not sure you can see what I think might be the Grand Canyon. So photo 5 is the same photo but with a zoom.
Now you can see why I think that might be my first glimpse of that vast amazing Grand Canyon.
Last but not least I want to show you the wildlife tank that was water source this evening (which will be treated in 54 minutes). I had planned to camp there but there were signs all over saying that camping within 1/4 mile of water is illegal in Arizona. Now mind you I have camped within a 1/4 mile of water before but I was totally unwilling to camp within 1/4 mile of those signs. So I walked back to the trail (the tank was a half mile off trail so I actually hiked one mile more than I said I did) and kept walking until I found a nice place, a little closer to town (now only 12.4 miles, so I should arrive early afternoon. If I get lucky and find a room it will be a nice rest stop before I hike into Grand Canyon village to go to the Back. Country Office to see about a camping permit.
Here's the tank. In the distance you can see my backpack and water filter system. That was before I realized the filtered water tasted worse (and probably was more contaminated than the untreated stuff. )
I really don't have any more energy for writing. It's just that I want to keep myself occupied for 45 minutes while I am waiting for drinking water. I guess one option is to drink it early. Probably better than drinking untreated water. I think next backpacking trip I will have a different backup system in case my filter fails. Maybe I will get one of those steripens. They weigh more than the aquamira pills and I don't think they kill quite as many pathogens but I think you just wave the pen in a liter of water for a minute or two and you're done. Sounds good to me.
So you don't have to be thirsty just because you are walking with me. In fact, how about you go drink some water right now, and really savor it, on my behalf?
I could write a little about the Quaker concept of "unity with nature" and my ambivalence about all that. That occupied a lot of my reverie today. But the fact is all I would really be thinking of is water (41 minutes to go) so why bother?
Instead, the usual thanks for joining me on this journey. Take care of yourself and drink plenty of water. Bye for now.
we had a steripen. gave it away. only could sterilize small amounts of water. took too long. another thru hiker uses bleach. hmmm..ughh
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