Chapter 12
If We Were Going to do it Again...
...
We Might Not
In the last hours of the Bright Angel ascent, I declared, "Backpacking isn’t turning out to be 'my thing.'" Or perhaps 'our thing.' True, from lack of experience we were overloaded and under trained and this was causing more suffering than had been absolutely necessary. True, my fear of not being busy had caused the trip to be too short, though we had with this trip began to at least recognize this tendency on my part. I could see the advantages of backpacking. There were places to go and sights to see and experiences to be had that couldn't be had any other way, but like any other avocation, or vocation for that matter, the price in terms of preparations and equipment and the sacrifice of other things not done didn't seem to make an overwhelming case for embarking on a major backpacking avocation. Not right there in the middle of a steep trail.
As had already come out, Viannah was willing to go along with whatever we did, but would herself have preferred a mule ride.
But
If We Did...
Still, I was unable not to mentally re-plan the trip based on my experiences for months afterward. In mid October I was able to hike to work again on occasion, "just because." I was also able to think about what I would do next time without the thought seeming entirely remote.
Courtney's
Version
Next time I would take the whole family, in fact, I might take two or three whole families, five to fifteen people.
The schedule would be more relaxed and therefore the problem of handling cars around both ends would be less important. After completing the trip, one or two drivers could take the shuttle bus around and pick up all needed cars, in all about a one-day side excursion. Ham radio could even preserve this as community time to some extent.
Backpacking and training would be more thoroughly researched, rehearsed, and practiced. It might not be our primary "thing" but it would make sense to be saner about equipment and its use.
The basic strategy of "early to bed and early to rise" would still be followed but the days themselves would be more leisurely and un-rushed. Most major side trips would be taken, the one to the pump house, the one to Ribbon Falls, a jaunt up Phantom Canyon and perhaps a circuit about the two bridges at the bottom or out to Indian Point on the way up. The basic strategy of going down from the north and up to the south still makes sense, but in four or five days rather than two or three.
Every campsite would be used and the hours 1 p.m. to 4 or even 5 p.m. would be for resting only. Someplace mid route, we'd just stop for the afternoon and take it easy. This closely follows the approach used by many who we met and talked to along the route. Cottonwood Campground is there for a reason. It would have been wonderful to have just stopped there on Monday after arriving later due to a three or four hour rest under the trees at lunch. The rest rooms were, after all, excellent for such a "rustic" place.
The trail down Bright Angel Creek would be different and probably much more fun from a fresh, cool morning start. The Box would be less threatening too and it wouldn't matter so much how long it felt. In the late morning it might still be cool, being at least partly shaded except at mid day.
Meal reservations at the bottom would be the lynch pin for all planning. Starting with arrival evening and ending with departure breakfast and lunch and three meals for each day spent at the bottom, available seatings at all meals would be required before the rest of the schedule was finalized. Rooms at the ranch would be used if available, but, as other hikers pointed out in their own discussions, the lack of hot water showers makes the differentiation between the campground and the hotel accommodations much less important. And, you'd have to carry camping gear anyway for Cottonwood and possibly Indian Gardens. The bought meals will always be expensive, but they would reduce the amount of food to be packed. Better knowledge of and experience with packing food would make this less of an issue too.
On river-crossing day, we'd hike out at first light but upon arrival at Indian Gardens would head over to the campground and see if we could get a spot. If so, we would claim it and then decide much later in the day whether to finish the hike out in the late that afternoon or early the next morning.
Finally, without drive-around support (although it might still happen as there might be a driver involved who didn't want to hike across) a final leg from the south trailhead to some end destination might be required. Reservations at one of the lodges right there might not be too extravagant considering the rest of the scope of this re-plan.
The Mather Campground is over another mile from the trailhead, though it could be reached by bus, and, there are special provisions for those heroes known as "trans-canyon hikers," provisions worth investigating.
Viannah's
Version
Viannah would arrange, as far in advance as necessary, for a mule ride to the bottom and back out. Although this would probably run around $1000 per person, it might not be that different in cost from my approach. Doing things in a labor intensive way does not always equate to cost savings.
A
Few Practicalities - Lessons Learned
For me, a canteen makes a pretty good pillow. I'd gone down with the plan to use the pack or some stuff out of it for a pillow as I sometimes do when 'regular' camping. One folded shirt on top of the canteen, or just the canteen alone on its flat side was fine for laying on my back or side.
As we descended early in the hike, we noticed people with sandals tied on the outside of their packs. "The height of luxury," we thought or commented to each other, but before we even had the tent out on the first night, it was painfully obvious to the bottoms of our feet that a pair of sandals for 'local walking' is, rather than being a luxury, is one of the more important necessities. One has a choice between getting entirely into hiking boots or going barefoot fifteen feet to the bathroom, fifty feet across small, sharp, hot rocks to the stream or a quarter mile up to dinner. People backpacking without sandals don't have much backpacking experience.
More than one banana per person should be prohibited, regardless of the length of trip. Though we didn't bring any uncooked eggs, we did have four boiled ones, and they were much easier to deal with than a dozen bananas. A banana is only going to last a few hours in a backpack, enough time to get to that break where it will be eaten. What happened to us was that every time somebody wanted a snack, even if fruit was unappetizing, a banana was about to go bad so that had to be the first choice. Cookies stayed unopened, apples slowly softened, fruit cups waited until the last day. It was bananas, bananas, bananas! If there had been trash cans below the rim we would have jettisoned seven or eight pounds of food throughout the trip, particularly near the end where we knew what we needed and didn't need more stuff to carry up, particularly bananas, good or bad. As it was, unwanted bananas, ruined cheese, and general trash consumed the ten-pound trash bag that was part of my load.
In fact, despite the effort we put into it, we did not know how much or what types of foods to take. We had more than enough, we had many items that were packed in and out unopened, some ruined, some eaten later, some eaten weeks later. We ate all we wanted, never able to take as big a meal as we had thought we could. A one or even two night overnight practice or just any other backpacking experience would have helped greatly with this. All the books talk about it, but I'm the type who has to go once and learn several things the hard way before I can absorb (or accept) what the book has talked about.
Higher fidelity training and more of it would have helped. Besides fully loaded day hikes, fully loaded overnight hikes would have helped too as would have basic fitness training, activities like jogging, strength building and so forth. Some of this had been in plan, which had been disrupted at the end.
The one thing that probably would have helped me most the way it did play out would have been some Gatorade mix or equivalent alternatives for my water. Not only did water become a very old liquid towards the end, my body at that point needed more than just a wet palette. Investigation into more drink variety should be high on some future adventure list.
In retrospect, this three day - two night backpacking trip would be the minimum warm up for the four or five day hike that would be my "right way" to do it.
Nothing ever works out as well as it could. Adventure results from lack of experience. Experience results from adventure. This was an adventure on the edge of our natural abilities.
Through the planning and re-planning, the exultation and despair, the views and blisters, the tears and the laughs, Viannah and I have grown closer through this experience together than would have happened without such structure. It is something that we will always have and that we will always remember, with increasing fondness as time goes forward. And for that, it has been worth the cost.
Afterward.
The Big Thing for the Other Kids.
Other Big Things for Each Kid.
The full adventure has now spanned over two years, from the time when we started training in earnest until the nominal completion of The Book. All phases have been more consuming than I had expected. Driving all of this through to completion has been at the level of effort of three or four graduate courses and the drive has been a sanity check for me. Finishing what I have started has also been a challenge. The first outing has turned out bigger than the plan projected and now I face the future plans for Big Events with Katherine and John.
Katherine is not as agreeable to my suggestions as Viannah was. She has her own ideas and her own approaches. Today I do not have a clear idea of what we will do, how we will train and whether or not I will attempt to write another book. With completion of this page, that part of my life, which focuses on the Big Event with each child, will turn solely to those questions and preparations.
John is now older than Viannah was when this was first conceived, he will turn eight this summer, yet I have even less clarity of vision of what I will do with him. Right now it seems like enrollment in soccer or karate might be just the thing, but if we called that the Big Event, what would be my role?
I have learned to be more realistic in my plans, I have learned greater accuracy in the perceptions others have of me and I have learned that every undertaking need not have a fully detailed plan from the outset; indeed, such plans are the chief cause of frustration. The plan needs only to have a direction and a resolve. Katherine has resolve and John has direction. Something will be done with each of them and those events will be good. They will be special in their own ways. And they, too, will be worth the price.
Courtney B. Duncan, La Canada, California, July
20, 1998.