My not so grand, Grand Canyon adventure.
I wake up to the sound of wind and grauple snow hitting the fly of my borrowed tent. At one point during the night I had awoken to the tent body nearly touching my face. Needless to day its been a windy and cold night and Im reluctant to leave the bag. Finally after procrastinating for 45 minutes Im up, but late. Fill the water bottles and head for the bus stop. On the bus I notice the bottom of my pack is wet. Shit, is my camelback leaking? Upon checking it out I find two-needle size holes near the top but worst there is a black fungus growing in the dirking tube. Shit there goes 1.5 liters of water. Im left with one liter of sports drink. I drain the tope half figuring if I need to Ill drink the fungus water. Once on the trail and passing people in no time at all. They all seem miserable. Half way down to the canyon I pass the first of what will be a many mule caravans carrying fat American tourist up and down the trail. I love it, a bunch of well off Americanos looking self-conscious on the back of a donkey!
The rest of the descent to the Colorado River is uneventful, I pass a park ranger going to work he has the snivels and looks un-impressed by it all. By 10:30am I have reached the river. Not bad considering I left late and started at 0900am I stop for an early lunch and soon discover a few non-natural item along the banks of the Colorado. A flip-flop there and another one not to far away, remnants of a rafting trip gone array? I do a bit of beach combing and then Im off to start the climb out of the canyon and back to the south rim.
I wake up to the sound of wind and grauple snow hitting the fly of my borrowed tent. At one point during the night I had awoken to the tent body nearly touching my face. Needless to day its been a windy and cold night and Im reluctant to leave the bag. Finally after procrastinating for 45 minutes Im up, but late. Fill the water bottles and head for the bus stop. On the bus I notice the bottom of my pack is wet. Shit, is my camelback leaking? Upon checking it out I find two-needle size holes near the top but worst there is a black fungus growing in the dirking tube. Shit there goes 1.5 liters of water. Im left with one liter of sports drink. I drain the tope half figuring if I need to Ill drink the fungus water. Once on the trail and passing people in no time at all. They all seem miserable. Half way down to the canyon I pass the first of what will be a many mule caravans carrying fat American tourist up and down the trail. I love it, a bunch of well off Americanos looking self-conscious on the back of a donkey!
The rest of the descent to the Colorado River is uneventful, I pass a park ranger going to work he has the snivels and looks un-impressed by it all. By 10:30am I have reached the river. Not bad considering I left late and started at 0900am I stop for an early lunch and soon discover a few non-natural item along the banks of the Colorado. A flip-flop there and another one not to far away, remnants of a rafting trip gone array? I do a bit of beach combing and then Im off to start the climb out of the canyon and back to the south rim.