Start: Old Corral on Kaibab Plateau
Finish: Nankoweap Trailhead
Daily Mileage: 24.7
Trip Mileage: 682.0
Elevation gain/loss: 3136/2114ft
I was awakened this morning at 4:00 a.m. to coughing. It wasn’t mine. Some hiker was night hiking and decided to take a break near my tent and smoke some weed, which led to a long coughing fit. For some reason, they just stayed there by my tent for 5 minutes coughing. I was about to shout out to them to move on when they did. Their light was shining directly on my tent, so I’m sure they knew someone was there. I just have no idea why they were so rude to sit there and wake me up and keep me awake. It took me a while, but I was able to eventually get back to sleep.
As I started hiking, I was just thinking about how I’ve been on the Arizona Trail for about 40 miles in total, and I’ve had two pretty negative experiences with hikers being rude assholes. One of the things that I’ve missed about long-distance backpacking is the community. When I hiked the AT, there were a lot of unique hikers, and some were pretty eccentric, but everyone I met meant well, and even the oddest seemed harmless. I did meet a couple of great hikers on this trail already, but then another stole my food and the one woke me up this morning. So I’m batting .50 right now. This got me to wondering if things have changed since I hiked the AT or if I’ve just run into some unique assholes. I’d like to think the latter, but I have heard that with the uptick in long-distance backpacking, there’s also a minority of people doing it with not the best intentions, just for social media and their own ego.
Anyways, I don’t know what to make of it yet, but it didn’t give me the warm fuzzy feeling that long-distance backpacking on a social trail would be as enjoyable as it was for me previously.
I didn’t see the sunrise, but I did see the effects through the trees with clouds above reflecting the sunlight. That’s what I set off to hiking this morning. It didn’t get as cold as I thought it would, but I camped under some pines to try to hold in some more heat. In some of the open fields that I crossed, there was a little bit of frost, but that’s not surprising.
The beginning of today was a mix of meadows and forest. The trail goes through the forest for a bit then comes out to a big meadow and crosses it. The grass in the meadows had gone to seed and was a bright golden color blowing in the breeze. Even though it was fairly flat, it was quite scenic with the glow of the meadows contrasting with the green of the forest. I did enjoy this and appreciated the simplicity of this section.
It was really windy today and cooler and cloudy. I ended up keeping a wind shirt on the entire day as well as my gloves most of the day, which means that it’s pretty cool and not too hilly. I’ve never kept my wind shirt for more than an hour or so on this trip so far. I’m bouncing around 9,000 feet or so, and I’m sure that has something to do with it.
The forest and meadows were great, and I really enjoyed just rolling through them all on a trail that is very easy to follow and had a good, if narrow, treadway. There’s not really too much else to say about the forest and meadows, which were most of the day; it was just a pleasant hike.
There were some minor snow flurries and sleet off and on throughout the day. It wasn’t below freezing, I don’t think, but I guess it just didn’t have a chance to melt before it hit the ground. Nothing to be concerned about; it was light and didn’t last too long, so I didn’t need to bundle up. I’d rather it be frozen precipitation than rain anyway.
I did about 17 miles before I parted ways with the Arizona Trail. We were together for a bit over 40 miles through some lows and few highs. I continued following the Hayduke down a gravel road for the rest of the day. The gravel road skirted the National Park boundary for the Grand Canyon, and it wasn’t too exciting. I pretty much just pounded out the miles until I got to the Nankoweap trailhead at the very end of the day, where I planned to camp. All of a sudden, at the trailhead, everything changed. I was standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon where the Colorado first enters the high Kaibab Plateau. I could see all the way down into it, though not to the Colorado River. Layers and layers and terraces and different colors were amazing just to stand up there and look down on it. I grabbed a campsite with a view that was protected enough from the wind and cooked and ate my dinner looking over the canyon. The sunset was unfortunately behind me, not over the canyon like I had guessed it would be, but without the clouds in the sky, there were still good colors that contrasted with the canyon.
I’m camping at such a great spot. I’m right on the edge of my fifth National Park of the trip, and my backcountry permit starts tomorrow. First thing, I’ll dive into the park and head down to Nankoweap.
I’ve definitely expressed some negativity the past couple days, but I’m writing about my thoughts and experience on the trail; both the highs and lows. The trail is an experience, and mindset are a large part of the experience, and this is my experience on it. I’m not going to try to hide what the trail was like for me and make it sound like everything is glorious all the time.
