Start: North Rim Campground
Finish: Near North Bass Trailhead
Daily Mileage: 26.9
Trip Mileage: 828.0
Elevation gain/loss: 2836/3202ft
The wind howled last night, just like the last time I camped on the edge of the North Rim several days ago. However, it barely hit my tent, just like last time too, so that was nice. It was relatively warm, actually. The wind was blowing up from the canyon, and maybe that had something to do with it. I could walk just 100 yards away from the rim, and it got a lot colder.
I watched the sunrise from the rim since I didn’t have to hit the trail first thing. It was absolutely spectacular with some clouds near where the sun was coming up and amazing colors that were reflected off them from the sun. Probably one of the best sunrises that I’ve ever seen.
I had a leisurely start to today because I had to pick up my resupply from the general store. They didn’t open till 9:00, but the clerk said that she was usually there by 8:00, so I got there by 7:30. A few minutes after that, the clerk rolled up to drop off some supplies, saw me and immediately jumped back into a truck and took off. A minute later, she came blazing back down the road and said, “Oh, you probably wanted to resupply, right?” She got in a truck so fast I didn’t have a chance to say anything, so I was glad that she came back so I could get an earlier start. I got my supplies and then headed off to the backcountry office to get some water. I grabbed seven liters since I’m probably not going to see water until tomorrow night. It was cool and cloudy, and I didn’t expect to drink a lot of water during the day today, but I wanted to be safe with the 7 liters.
I got all my food and water loaded up into my pack, and I estimate that it weighed 45 lb. I should have just weighed it on the scale at the backcountry office, but I didn’t really want to know. It’s a pretty decent load since I was planning to do some big miles today, though it was mostly flattish. Also, since I just threw the water on the food straight into my pack, I didn’t have it packed that well, so it’s a bit of an awkward carry. The load is probably at or above the load limit on my pack, so it doesn’t carry as well as a pack that is heavier duty.
My entire day today was walking forest roads out towards the North Bass Trailhead. The entire day. Even though it’s on a road, I didn’t see a single person. The road was buried in the forest, and there was only one time that it even went out to the canyon rim, so it was really just quite the grind today with little in the way of jaw-dropping scenery.
My heavy load was really cutting into my shoulders, especially my right shoulder. I tried adjusting my straps all around and probably ended up spending a good portion of the day holding my right strap to get it off my shoulder. Towards the end of the day, I began to think maybe my shoulder was just sore and not just pressure from my pack. My pack is a lighter weight, so it might not have been meant to carry 45 lbs. either. Today I pretty much just had to plug in an audiobook all day and go. I just had to make progress to get as close as I could to the North Bass Trailhead so tomorrow I can maximize my time to descend back into the Grand Canyon.
I wanted to get slightly further than where I stopped for the day, but I was getting pretty sore, and I didn’t want to stress my body too much, so I decided to stop two to three miles early. I can easily do those tomorrow morning.
There’s really not much more to say today. Not an exciting day, an uncomfortable pack weight, muscles were complaining towards the end of the day, and soar.