Section 7: Pine to Sedona: Sedona to Grand Canyon

***prewarning, this is a long post, you’ll require comfortable seating and hot beverage***

April 17th. Day 27. Sedona

Snakes and I made another salad for breakfast, the appeal of American breakfast wore off quickly on this visit and all we’re craving is fresh salad and vegetables when we’re off trail. Like the hippies we are.

We packed up and mooched up the airstrip while waiting for Barbra to return from collecting more hikers. Snakes was in the market for watching some planes. A plane did take off, the neighbours, probably heading out to get the paper.

When she returned we all loaded into Barbra’s truck, she took us to get coffee then we motored out of town.

The AZT is a wash out this year. Most hikers have already quit prior to Pine, or at Pine due to the mud and floods ahead on trail, or injury or, quite commonly, loneliness. Grand Canyon National Park has closed the North Rim until June 2nd, so finishing at the official border is now an impossibility.

Barbra was straight with us, the hike from Camp Verde to Sedona was a waste of our days, she advised just getting to the place we actually wanted to hike (Sedona) and cutting out the boring needless dirt Road miles, surrounded by the same uninspiring scrubland we’d been hiking in for some time.

She also offered to take us the 40 minutes to the State Park. How on earth could we refuse?

I’m normally very strict on trail miles and connecting footsteps, but, not this time. I want to be where I want to be and hiking on highways, just doesn’t have the same appeal as it once did. Yes, it did.

In no time at all we were at the ranger station in Sedona. We collected intel on where we could camp legally within Sedona  (relieved to find that we could in quite a lot of areas) and which trails were recomeneded. From here we went to the hiker hut (outdoor paraphernalia shop) and poured over the maps once again. We asked the shop owner if we could leave some unwanted weight in their store for a few days to lighten our packs, as, water was scarce when on the trails so the carries would be bigger. Town clothes, umbrellas, microspikes and some small uneccesaries were left with them and Barbra dropped Snakes and I North of town at the Sterling Pass trailhead.

Cash and Blink would meet us at camp later as we’re not doing many miles today. They had to book flights and sort some logistics, and we wanted a leisurely walk with a long lunch break.

The climb to the pass was steep, well used and beautiful. Already most agreeable hiking. We made it up in no time and, unusually for us, took a break at the top. Down the other side we trudged and found a lovely spot by a running creek for lunch.

We hid our packs by a big log and took a short side trail up to the Vultee arch, a rock formation lesser frequented by tourists due to its distance from a car park, donuts and drive thru’.

Down now, on perfect, sandy, well graded trail to the trailhead. Here we made tea (it was 3pm) by the river and we stocked up on water for our overnight camp.

Now we had a short hike up a dirt road, turning left onto another trailhead, a mile on from which we’d be in a designated wilderness area and allowed to camp. Which we did. With a pretty impressive view once we’d submitted the mesa.

A couple of hours passed after tub time and dinner, and the familiar sound of moaning Irish tremors came up the trail. Cash and Blink had sorted their Padmin (personal admin) in town and joined us.

April 18th. Day 28. Sedona

We woke at 4am, our pack up routine smooth, silent and fast after many nights moving the exact same way. A place for everything and everything in its place, as my grandfather would say.

We were on the trail before 4.30am, but this early start was not to gain more miles, this early start was to beat the crowds to one of Sedona’s most popular attractions that was a mere 3.3 miles from our camp, Devil’s Bridge.

Three million people visit Sedona each year and this world famous attractions sees a good deal of them. Often queues of up to 2 hours form so people can take their pictures on the bridge.

Now, I’m one of those tourists that doesn’t like tourists, so arriving here by 5.20am meant we were the only people on the rock. It was a steep short climb up to the bridge. Obligitory photos was followed by coffee and sunrise on a nearby plateau, watching the crowds appear before 6am we smugly looked on as they arrived at the top, dripping in sweat and breathing heavily.

You can easily tell a day hiker by the cut of their jib, or, more simply the smell of their fresh laundry detergent. We 4 ferrel rats on the ledge undoubtedly had recognisable musk which suggested time without washing. Its a smell I have oddly become accustomed to and even fond of over the years. Hiker musk.

We descended before the trail down became too crowded with people and we too would be forced to queue to allow people up, we made it down just in time. It was peak season in Sedona and 4am was definately the time to be wandering about these trails.

We arrived back at the road and waved goodbye to Cash and Blink who’d decided to hitch to Grand Canyon. Snakes and I wanted at least one more say in Sedona and so turned off the road on the Chuckwagon Trail.

17 miles of relatively flat, beautiful, easy trail, winding through the outcrops and mesas, easily topping up with water from the (possibly) arsenic laiden streams.

Having begun our day very positively , we began to think on the 2.5 weeks we had left, the trail ahead and, how exhausted we were. A gloom descended.

By the time we made it to Sedona town, our feet hurt from days of pounding trail and we weren’t sure of our destiny. We went straight for Lisa’s Pizza, where we had the best food on trail yet. But things weren’t looking up.

Here, I’m afraid our gloom spiralled. We were off the familiar safety of the official AZT with the community and spirit that brings, we were destined to hike out to an unknown plateau to camp tonight, we knew not how to best approach the next few days, let alone weeks feeling glum like we did, we smelled, we were exhausted, and a big bag of important things we owned, including Snakes’ passport was across the other side of town.

It was in this low moment, we both quit.

We spent 4 hours trying to sort logistics. Trying to move our flights, trying to book new ones from Denver, from LA, from Vegas, from Phoenix. We were trying to get a ride to Flagstaff, trying to get a trail angel to house us in Flagstaff, trying to get a shuttle to Pheonix, trying to rent a car and trying to just get a taxi across town. Every new avenue of progress was met with an unsightly roadblock which tired and exasperated us more. Snakes was broiling in the restaurant, so we left for the streets where we were even more helpless and confused. It was nearing 6pm.

We’re both extremely practical people, but trying to prioritise was complex as all our movements forward had multifaceted issues. And I’m generally useless when I’m tried. We spoke to our pal Maps, who is (in theory) flying out to meet us in just over week or so. Just hearing her ever pragmatic, level headed and straight talking voice did a lot to calm me. Just hearing the voice of a good friend, in my tired state, made me quite emotional but nicely assured.

In the meantime Snakes was talking with a man on the street who informed us of a bus which would take us across town for a dollar. Public transport, in a large proportion of the US (unless in a major city) is like looking for a leprechaun. And deciphering intel on where to find or access what little transport might be available is like looking for TWO leprechauns.

Problem 1. Get across town. SOLVED. By the $1 bus.

Problem 2. Stop being so tired in order to make better decisions on either going home or, not going home. SOLVED by the ridiculously expensive hotel directly across town from the Hiker Hut in which we picked up our stuff.

We just needed to wash. And stop. Before long we were in the hotel, which was not expensive because it was any good, far from it, it was just expensive because we were in Sedona.

Minutes after my credit card was rinsed by the hotel, my call for a ride to flagstaff was answered and a trail angel invited us to stay. Dang.

Too late. We were in the jacuzzi. Snakes demanded we talk no more of future action until the morning, that we do laundry, shower, and remain in a horizontal position for the remainder of the evening. Which was an excellent plan. My head and heart hurt. I miss Winnie the poodle.

April 19th. Day 29.

Before bed, Snakes had read my last blog. A week ago when life was full of joy and promise. Apparently it was enough to convince her that going home on such a low, would be foolish. Her being convinced, was enough to convince me and we made plans to carry on, but, Grand Canyon would be our next and last stop on this trail.

My Best Friend (remember him from Day 3?) Was driving up with pal and fellow hiker Calamity in her car, from Phoenix having got off trail in Pine. They’d be coming through Sedona and up to Flagstaff, where if we still wanted it, we could stay with trail angel’s Tim and Cathy for the night before heading to Grand Canyon. Yes please.

We had time before they arrived, so we decided to map out the rest of our trip, then all planning would cease for the remainder of it.

We contacted Expedia to move our flights, and found a perfect alternative, at a good price to leave 5 days earlier than planned. 5 hours later, 95% of which we spent on the phone trying to process the transaction, we didn’t have a flight change. On account that all three of the cards we tried wouldn’t work.

I won’t go into the detail of this unbearably torturous, frustrating 5 hours trying to work this out, save to say my head was back where it was the day before, I will never book a flight with Expedia again. This was a devastating waste of time and we were both sick of bloody logistics.

The issue wasn’t our card(s) it was Expeida, I demanded the woman we were speaking to sort out the issue with her supervisor, and call me back within the hour to tell me it was sorted. I just could not be on the phone any longer. I knew she wouldn’t call me.

We floated over to the cafe, it was midday and we’d not eaten, Snakes was starving and I was just sick with disgust at the time we’d just wasted. Back at square 1, with no desire to carry on.

20 minutes into breakfast, Mrs Expedia lady called us back, the transaction had been processed and the flight had been changed. With this, the mood also changed.

Before long My Best Friend (MBF) and Calamity arrived and we were with the safety of friends on the way to Flagstaff.

No one I’ve met who’s been to Grand Canyon has ever described it as ‘alright’ or ‘ok’. Snakes was determined we couldn’t come this far and not see it, or hike in it.  She had a view finder as a child (and still does) and its been a little girl dream of hers to come to the canyon. So canyon bound we were.

We met Always and Octane (the Spreadsheet Twins) at the Brewery in Flag and compared noted on our opposing routes. They hiked the AZT here and while they said it was ‘doable’ wading through ice melt rivers and then just road walking due to this was a big enough part of it for me to feel like it was a crappy route to take. Notably our sidestep bushwhack to Sedona wasn’t much nicer  but at least we got some Sedona time.

At 6pm we went outside to meet Tim, a trail angel who said we could stay with him and his wife Cathy tonight. They’ve been hosting hikers for 3 years, since there son and daughter in law hiked the Appalachian trail, and experienced such kindness from strangers they too wanted to give back to a trail community.

They lived in a small flat pack house in Suburban Flagstaff , they’re in their 70’s but still work to live. They evidently don’t have much, but offer everything they do have to smelly hikers. We had their sons old room, in which Cathy had filled baskets with ‘things hikers might need’, sun cream, mini toothpastes and the like, offering loaner clothes while hikers did laundry, WiFi, showers, charging, anything you could need. They had a charming board with pictures of hikers on, surrounded by notes of thanks those hikers had sent on after their stay. It all clearly meant a lot to them, as it certainly did to us.

Kathy cooked us a quiche for dinner, and we were in bed, early after an emotional day, to be in the safety and warmth of a home, feeling welcome, clean and fed was a real treat.

April 20th. Day 30 . Grand Canyon

We sat with Tim and Cathy in the sun on their back deck, drinking coffee and learning about life in Flag. I met their ducks and admired their perennial pot plants, growing in the garden. And by pot plants, I don’t mean plants growing in pots.

Tim dropped us in town and after a quick resupply we met Calamity and MBF for a ride to the canyon. We were there in an hour and MBFs veteran card got us in for free.

We went straight to the Backcountry information centre and began the long journey to acquiring permits. The journey wasn’t long because it was a convoluted process, it was merely that our kind ranger helper, who will now just know as ‘Dinner Plates’ was slower than a ghost at answering questions, handing over vital pieces of information or moving to the printer to collect items necessary for us to be allowed to leave the comversation.

She was a woman, not much older than us, with a permanent look of shock on her face. Eyes the size of dinner plates. She’d rather us scramble about trying to work out each and every question we thought it necessary to ask, rather than offer up what information she knew to be essential or helpful.

Around 6 million people a year visit the Canyon and only 1% venture below the rim to the colorado River. That said, camp spots are booked out over a year in advance. AZT hikers have a special site in the ‘Bright Angel’ campground which sits right at the bottom on the river, over one vertical mile below the South rim, on top of which we now stood.

In a usual AZT year hikers only need this one night as the hike out to the North rim would be completed the following day, and it would be a  mere saunter from there to the Utah border. With the North rim closed this year, AZT hikers were just hiking down to the river and back up to the South rim.

We cleverly ventured to ask Dinner Plates if, after our AZT special bonus night at Bright Angel campground was complete, could we hike out east or west on the Tonto trails to maximise our time in the canyon and have a couple more nights there? Dinner Plates said we could as long a there were free spots at the campground we selected.

So, painstakingly we worked alongside Dinner Plates who was only fitted with the very outdated Windows 3.1 sofware and had some trouble inserting the correct flopy disk into her personal slot, and who had to take a shockingly long phone call to a colleague part way through this process (a colleague to whom she was explaining how short staffed they were) and eventually, successfully managed to aquire a route which allowed us 3 nights and 4 days in the canyon. I was most satisfied with this.

Dinner Plates told us we had to have a ‘rat sack’ in the canyon to stop rats eating our food. She was shocked we didn’t have one and said she’d never met an AZT hiker who didn’t. I’ve never met one who did. We politely took the heavy chain mail rat bag that Dinner plates was insisting we carry, then Snakes politely left it under a bench opposite her desk. Good old Snakes.

From here we went to the rim and got our first glimps of the canyon. If people weren’t allowed to descend below the crisp rocky edges of this magnificent spectacular, I would think it a painting and a very clever trick. It absolutely doesn’t look real. And it is a masterpiece.

From rim viewings we went to book a $6 spot at Mather campground, the public campground on top of the rim, they have a designated hiker / biker site which was alarmingly cheap.

The temperature dropped rapidly and Snakes MBF and I went to the dinner hall. Snakes and I ate food purchased in flagstaff hidden behind belongings like total bums, and we enjoyed people watching for an hour or so.

MBF has a friend from Yellowstone who is up in the Canyon for a week of ‘training’. She has lodgings in the park. We asked her if she’d be willing to take a carrier bag of all our filthy crap we don’t want to take with us for 4 days in the Canyon, and, much to my satisfaction, she obliged.

Back at camp, some, probabaly very nice but a little loud, motormouthed, roudy lads (AZT hikers) were at camp. Sunshine (German, will not come up for breath when talking about how great he is) Mel (actually, seemingly the mellow nice one) and Calves (AZT know it all, smokes a lot of weed and is a little fried from it). These boys stayed up until midnight, the only noise on the campsite and left an unacceptable mess on the bench overnight. Food lockers are provided for storage so animals don’t get habituated to human food and then harass them for it. These lads leaving all manner of food out overnight and, litter, is liable to give AZT hikers a bad name. Knobs.

April 21st day 31. Bright Angel.

We tutted at the naughty boys sleeping tents as we walked by. Having packed up early we were leaving by 6.30. Snakes gave the metal ammo box in which we stored our food an unnecessary slam to retaliate for her poor nights sleep as we left.

We waited for the ‘every 15 minites’ shuttle bus for longer than it would have taken us to walk the distance to the Bright Angel trail head. I was aggie, so I demanded we delay our start until such a time as after I’d found coffee. We went to the Bright Angel Lodge and sat on the rim of the canyon caffinating ourselves until I was no longer easily agitated so we could begin our hike down to the Colorado River.

9 miles long, and all downhill over a vertical mile I wondered how my knees would fare on this big decsent.

My knee issue was totally shrouded by the amazing distraction that was the Canyon. Its a completely different world as soon as you step off the rim. Every corner opens up more towers, more colours and more impressive formations.

The corridor is well maintained, well stocked with rest stations, emergency phones, toilets and water spigots. A far cry from wilderness, but with so many thirsty, ill prepared pooping people visiting every year these are the necessary requirements to keep people safe, and protect the canyons wildlife.

The trail was stunning, and surprisingly quiet. Thanks to our early start perhaps as, this was a weekend in the high season. 3 miles in we met Blink and Cash coming up the trail. Quite likely our last meeting as they hitch their way to Denver.

4 miles in we made it to ‘Indian Garden’, this land, which was originally called Ha’a Gyoh, had been occupied by the Havasupai tribe until their forced removal by the National Park Service. The last member of the tribe was removed in 1928, erasing important Native American History and the area was thereafter very ignorantly and offensively known and named as ‘Indian Garden’. Earlier THIS YEAR a name change was requested by the Havasupai tribe, and this request was granted, (how kind) out of respect to the founders of this ‘campsite’. Pretty ridiculous it’s taken this long. But, not the most ridiculous element of the tragedy of course.

We met the HEAD RANGER Lisa Hendy. I made short work of ensuring all my numerous questions were answered about the life of a ranger, and tried spectacularly hard to make her my new best friend. When I grow up, I want to be Lisa. Though, I’m confident (as is Snakes) that I won’t pull off the uniform.

We continued our happy decsent,  a new incredible wall, cliff, outcrop, colour, plant, vista, overhanng or rock squeeze around every corner. It was awesome, in the truest sense of the word. Not like when a German hiker approached us and asked where we were from, and in response to us saying ‘Britain’ she said “awesome”. Incorrect Mrs German lady.

After a snakey green, tree filled amble down the plateau (which can be seen from the top of the rim) we plunged steeply down into the pit of the canyon (which cannot be seen from the rim), where the colorado river flows for 1450 miles, 277 of which run through the canyon.

Before long we were at the river.  A few rafts, heavily laiden with bags of kit floated past. To raft this river you can spend between $400 for 1 day and $7,000 for 18, booking usually requires 18 months advance preparation.

A short scoot along an undulating trail calved out of the side of the cliff, paralleling the river, lead us to an impressive suspension bridge. Wide enough for one way crossings we waited for a pair to come across then ventured over ourself.

Bright Angel campground was described to us by Dinner Plates as ‘Disneyland’. Suggesting it’s full of people, showers beds, a canteen where dinner, breakfast beer and spare gear can be purchased, flushing loos, power,  potable water can be acquired. Now, while all this is true, and it was surprising to me, I was shocked at how empty the place felt at high season. There were 100 people at the site, Della my new favourite ranger told me there were 50 in the $200 per night lodges (tasteful little huts spread up the valley) and 50 on the campsite, so well orientated, it felt like there were 16 people total down there.

You can mail $2 postcards, sent up to the rim by mule and posted out, you can pay for snacks and drinks with a card, charge your phone in the loos, wash with soap, or 13 months in advance, book a lodge (sheeted bunk beds in a shed). I was surprised how reasonable priced everything was. Even so, Snakes and I packed in our own tin of beer as we had 2 left and saved ourself the $16.

Even a slow amble down saw us arriving at 13.00. We set up Camp in site 33, designated for AZT hikers and went to enjoy a beer in the shade. Snakes painted and I wrote and eavesdropped peoples conversations.

Eventualy we ambled back to the site, and Met Grant, who is hiking the Hayduke trail…. its a bit of a bodge job wiggley line from Arches National Park to Zion its an extremely rugged and challenging 800 mile route. Grant had mailed a resupply here, ready for the ten day stretch that followed this last one, his fiancé had recently quit so he was working out what to do with 20 days of food (and packaging, as rubbish can’t be disposed of in the valley). This resupply weighed more than me and Snakes. He decided to take a zero in the canyon and eat as much of it as he could. Not before off loading some of it on to us. We liked him a lot.

Soon the rowdy lads from last night arrived and were less rowdy now. We chatted together for a short while before retiring to bed, only the fly tonight, the canyon was toasty warm and Snakes likes to stargaze.

April 22nd. Day 32. Grapevine

We tend to wake with the light, and at 5.45 I was ready to begin today. The air mstress deflation signals ‘time to get up’. We packed up quietly, retrieving our food from the storage containers (which I may say, im case Dinner Playes is reading this, negates the need for a heavy rat sack!)

We stopped by the local facilities and took advantage of the soap on offer, filled up with water we needn’t filter and went back across yesterday’s bridge. We turned left this time though,  and began a sweaty immediate ascent up to the plateau.  Day hikers and weekend runners were already descending to the river, as were a pack of 10 mules with their guides, bringing supplies to the canteen below. With the back drop of the canyon, this was an impressive sight 

Before long we made it the 2 steep miles back to the plateau, now on the South Kaibab trail which is more commonly the descent for hikers into the canyon, as it is the steeper of the two corridor trails. Once on the plateau though, we turned left and east, leaving the popular ‘Corridor’ for the Tonto trail, which cuts both east and west of the corridor for 70 miles.

The Tonto trail is, once again, less frequented than the corridor and the east side specifically lesser still. The second we laid feet on it, weekend hub-ub was extinguished and we suddenly found ourself totally alone on single track, sometimes hard to follow rugged trail. Perfection.

We had a 16 mile day total and with the climb out of the way, 14 undulating miles along the plateau lay ahead. We contoured the hill, verging off in and out of the canyons, and sometimes up and down dry beds, with spectacular views of the Eastern end of the canyon.

We took a leisurely breakfast under an overhang. Shade would be extremely scarce today so we made use of it whenever we could. Coffee and Bobo bars for breakfast.

We had intel on the water ahead and were carrying for 10 miles of hot exposed terrain, we were surprised to see water before we expected and filtered and downed a load to keep healthy in the heat.

At 10 miles we lunched on sandwiches which in the real world would be moderately stale bread, sweaty tofu and sweatier cheese with gritty dried tomatoes and a rouge mayonnaise sachet; but out here, I was ordering todays special of a gourmet club sandwich with melted Swiss cheese, hickory smoked tofu and sun blushed tomatoes with our house dressing. (It was delicious). We were slowly crumpling into smaller and smaller shapes to ensure we were contained into the ever reducing shade, before we gave up and hiked on. We’d downed a rehydration salt before leaving and I soaked and reapplied my top and hat for at least 20 minutes of cooling effect.

More crumpled shade required and acquired 3 miles on. Snakes tried to get herself under a rock slab, actually she tried three times and was defeated on each attempt.

Moved on again by the sun, we rounded a corner and headed into our last valley of the day up Grapevine creek. We could see the canyon splitting north and south now and the impressive views of the day just got more impressiver. The trail was worryingly close to an instant plummet to ones death so I kept an eye on carefree picture snapping Snakes behind me as I walked, with a tremble imagining myself being flung off the edge (as I always do when I’m at a height).

Eventually we made it to the head of the creek and dropped down to it. We immediately stripped off and got into a small pool which was the most perfect temperature. We then activated tub time for a better scrub and lay in the sun, drying washed items and ourselves before the sun dipped over the rim of the canyon.

We’d seen 3 sets of people all day, all heading out of the canyon. Very surprisingly, on a weekend in the high season we had Grapevine creek to ourself tonight.

We ate noodles, rehydrated, completed chores of filtering water and blowing up mattresses, soon Snakes was painting the view while I wrote the day and we sipped on the 300ml of wine I’d been carrying for two days!

Cowgirl camping in the canyon tonight.

April 23rd. Day 33. Cremation

We woke to a stonking view, of course, and as we only had 13 miles today we made tea and sat in our sleeping bags savouring it.

Today we hike back the way we came yesterday, and we know the camp spot we’re aiming for. An out and back is fine by me as, we’ll see everything from a different perspective in different light today.

We left by 7am and talked of many things for the 5.6 miles to our first water and breakfast by boulder creek. We could afford to take things slow with the low mileage today, this being our penultimate day in the canyon and on this trail.

After a lengthy breakfast, we moved on a mere 3 miles to lonetree creek where we found shade and water. This would be our last water until were up and out of the rim tomorrow.

As we’d less than 5 miles to walk today, and it was 11am, we made camp here. We emptied our rucksacks and Snakes went down to the river and rinsed them, scrubbing away at a month of salt. We rinsed tops and bottoms in the water, and had a pre tub time rinse, as tub time would be rationed tonight. We filtered 7 liters of water between us and ate a sweaty bap.

When we were fully satiated, we packed up our temporary camp of strewn out belongings and moved on, through the heat of the day now.

All the miles of the day came quickly and before long we were beyond cremation creek and at yesterday’s breakfast spot and the one I had in mind for camp. Shade under a massive overhanging boulder allowed a long afternoon rest. We listened to podcasts, the only I have of some relevance on the Prohibition, Pocahontas and Alcatraz. We had a pretty stonking view too boot.

April 24th. Day 34. Sout Kaibab

After a very breezy night we woke to calm seas. We packed up in record time and were on trail by 6am.

The South Kaibab trail leads us back up to the south rim of the canyon. It’s steeper than the trail we came down on, but I’d prefer steeper uphill than down for the sake of those old knees of mine.

We were a mile from the junction to the Kaibab trail, and made this in no time at all. Here we were back to civilisation, back on the corridor with its regular pit toilets and shelters. It being Monday, and early, we had the loos to ourself.

We began the 5.6 mile climb gentley up the well made switchbacks, which are made with much dynamite. A hiker descending asked us if we’re ready for the ‘stairmaster ‘ ahead.

All in all, the South Kaibab was exposed, stunning, waterless and not as steep as many people telling us we’d made a mistake chosing to go up it, had made out, which is often the case.

3 hours, later having paused for our last on-trail breakfast, we were atop the South Rim once again.

This, ladies and Gentleman, marks the end of our AZT hike. But, you’ll get one more bonus chapter as, we’re now heading to Vegas….