ROYAL “PAIN IN THE” ARCH (DAY 3) – GRAND CANYON – AZ (4.21.17-4.23.17)

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Bass Beach camp

The alarm blasted once again. This morning was much cooler than the last. The cold air was pouring in off the Colorado River, and with nothing but silk liners for summer bags, both Mark and I were chilled. In the middle of the night I had put every piece of clothing on I had, attempting to ward off the nipping cold. It was no matter, I still woke several times in the night and was once again robbed of precious sleep. Sam was huddled up in his warm bag inside his one man, sleeping like a champ as we poured out of the tents to get moving in the twilight hour.

180 view of CO River from Bass Beach (click to enlarge)

Today we planned to not only ascend to the south rim, but we also planned to bag Mount Huethewali, a quick side trek right off the trail! We stirred up breakfast and once again strapped on our bags for the haul out of the canyon. They were lighter than the days before but, still weighed heavy on your shoulders knowing the hard push we had ahead of us. Secretly the ascents out of the canyon are always my favorite, and I smiled as we let out from the beautiful secluded Bass Beach!

Crawling out of the route to Bass Beach

We trekked up, gaining quickly and we were soon skirting east along the inner gorge trail headed for Bass Canyon. The River Runners were leisurely having breakfast in the morning and we waved from high above the Colorado down to their position. The morning light bathed the canyon as we ascended and soon the sun once again shined on our faces. We turned up South into Bass canyon, hiding from the light as long as we could before the bake was on.

  • Morning light looking west

We snaked our way back up the trail we had trekked on the day before. At almost every turn there was another breathtaking view of the canyon riddled in spring flowers. We soon reached the confluence of the Bass and Tonto trail, we had actually planned to camp here the night before but had decided to push all the way to the river. By this time we were all in our own heads, just taking in the sights, and pressing up the ascending trail. As we gained up further, the canyon once again gave us a break and shaded our trail. We knew this wouldn’t last long.

  • Bighorn sheep horn on the Cowboy fireplace we passed the day before . . . sooo cooolllll

Suddenly a patch of trees popped up almost out of nowhere. This signified the hard push up the switchbacks through the bush towards the sundrenched Darwin’s Plateau. Once we pushed through the trees the baking sun was on full blast, and so was the grueling ascent to the plateau. Switchback after switchback we ascended, taking in the glorious expansive views as we did. Towards the top of the climb we found a nice large boulder to have a quick rest under and replenished our tired bodies. We ran into two other backpackers going in for an eight day trek hoping to get a ride to the other side of the canyon for some cave exploration. We wished them luck and were soon strapping our bags back on and headed up.

  • Girnding up the Bass Canyon

Finally after a good long push, we reached the plateau and were faced with the intimidating massive beast that was Mount Huethewali. It stood far above the plateau, looking as though there were only a few class 3 lines that would go. Sam was pretty worked and decided to stay behind as Mark and myself made the push for the peak. We dropped everything except one pack with some water and let out up the steep sandstone slopes. We trekked up quickly and found a few sparse cairns. We picked our way through as we went, every time the route looked as though it were to end, we found another cairn hiding around a corner. Before we knew it we were standing atop the huge mountain whooping and hollering and taking in the 360 incredible views!

  • There she is, Mount Huethawali!
  • Cairned route
360 views from the top of Huethewali! Can you see Mark?(click to enlarge)

After claiming the peak, we headed back down, grabbed Sam along the way and slowly trekked our way up the remaining switchbacks to the rim of the canyon. Everyone was smiles and we stopped at the trailhead for pictures and a quick snack of whatever we had left in our packs before heading back the 3.5 mile walk on a dirt road to the car.

360 from the bottom of Heuthewali (click to enlarge)
Looking towards the final ascent
Nice trail action!

Just before reaching our truck a wild stallion quickly crossed the road. In the distance, his mare and foal were in the field across the road. He noticed us walking and neighed back to his family who quickly trotted away from us. The stallion came blistering back to the road, looked straight at us, and took a few steps towards us as if he were going to charge. Then stopped, turned, and hauled butt towards his family. Whewwww, what an awesome finish to another crazy trek in the canyon! We soon found our way back to the truck, piled in, and drove home.

  • Lets get moving up the final push!
Wild stallion action (click to enlarge)
Finally done @ the truck!

HIKE INFO:

HIKE STATS:

  • Weather: Hi in mid 90s, Low in upper 40s, Sunny
  • Water: 6 Liters (including dinner)
  • Food: 1 Power Bar, 1 Kroger Protien bars, 1 Cliff Protien Bars, 1 granola bar, 1/2 bag of gummyworms, Apple, 1 Mountain House: Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, 1/2 bag of Salt and Veinagr Chips, 1/2 bag of Pizza Pringles, 1/2 bag of trailmix, 1/2 bag Boston baked beans, 1 PB&J sandwich, 1/2 bag of Quinoa.
  • Time: 8 hours
  • Distance: 13 miles
  • Accumulated Gain: ~4354 accumulated

GEAR:

  • 58 liter exos osprey backpack
  • Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent
  • Big Agnes QCORE SLX sleeping pad
  • Cosmic Down Kelty Sleeping Bag (rated to 20 deg F)
  • Jet Boil – Sol
  • Black Diamond trekking poles
  • SPOT Gen3 Tracker
  • Sawyer Squeeze – Water Filter
  • Black Diamond Helmet
  • Petzl Corax Climbing Harness
  • 2 Black Diamond screw carabiner
  • 4 Phantom DMM screw carabiner
  • Black Diaimond ATC Guide
  • 60 meter 9.8mm Mammut rope
  • Webbing, personal anchor
  • 200 ft 6mm pull cord
  • 4 rap rings

CLOTHING:

  • Wool T shirt – IceBreaker
  • Cotton hankerchief
  • Pearl Azumi arm coolers
  • Arc’teryx hoody
  • Nike running shorts
  • Merrell Mid Moab Hiking Boots
  • Darn Tough wool medium weight socks
  • Threadless hoody
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Royal “Pain In The” Arch (Day 2) – Grand Canyon – AZ (4.21.17-4.23.17)

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Mark, ready in the morning, just thinking about the 20 miles to come!

The alarm blasted, waking me from my deep slumber. The roaring of the Colorado had actually been a soothing sound for the night, the tumultuous rush of the rapids faded into a gentle roar that eased us to sleep. I was covered in the rain fly of the tent that I decided to grab around 2am once the temps decided to plummet. The clear beaming stars were starting to fade as twilight made way for the glorious impending sunrise that would drape the canyon walls in golden sunlight. It was time to move! I pulled myself from my sleeping bag and started the morning ritual of hot coffee, breakfast and packing. This morning I had both my hoodies on as it was surprisingly brisk!

  • Hello there spiked friend . . . no hugs please

We really had our work cut out for us as the limiter on this entire trip was the availability of water sources. We chose to camp at the CO River both night 1 and 2 to make it easy for filtering. Unfortunately this plan required a 20 mile push across the Tonto on Day 2 until we finally reached the cool and refreshing Bass Beach. The second day was forecasted to be a warm 94 degrees and we had no choice but to push through it to reach the sweet murky water of the mighty Colorado. Heat was far from our minds as Mark, Sam, and I packed up camp in the cool shade of the canyon.

Looking back west, can you see Mark and Sam?

We were soon strapping on our bags and making our last touch of the Colorado for the next 20 miles before we set out from camp. We started gaining right away climbing over sharp boulders and skirting the river on a small footpath. With a backpack on, maneuvering the trail was a bit precarious, but not too bad. Scrambling up rocks, being dumped into sandy beaches, and cairn finding seemed to be the name of the game. We trekked on, racing the sun and trying to stay in the shade as much as possible, this goal would shortly be proved near impossible however. The cactus that were trailside bloomed incredible pink and yellow colors. The flowers were out and showing their stuff!

Dry fall and Sam haha

The trail wrapped the inner basin and skirted a few unnamed canyons under large dry waterfalls. In one of the washes below the dry fall, deposits of minerals and salt pooled up where the water once stood. Mark and myself threw a finger in and tasted it! Mmmm delicious, salt, I spit the rest out not knowing what was in it. We trekked on enjoying the vast and beautiful views a few hundred feet above the river. The sun had yet to start blazing on us and we were more than grateful.

Garnette Canyon shadowed by Fiske Butte!

We trekked on, finally reaching Garnet Wash which signified the end of the Royal Arch Route and the start of the Tonto trail at its most westerly termis. After a short break in the last shade we knew we would have for a while, we pressed on. The canyon was large and open, we tracked cairns across its wash. The cairns led us to a fin ledge scramble  out onto the tonto where we would be baked by the sun the rest of the day. The scrambles were chill, but fun, and we were soon blasted with both the full sun as well as gorgeous views of the powerful canyon in front of us.

  • Approaching the scramble up to the Tonto trail

Scramble to the Tonto

We trekked on pushing through the heat for a few miles, taking in the sights as they came until finally reaching the skirt of Copper Canyon. This deep and long canyon was riddled with green rocks (oxidized copper), and green scrub everywhere. It was, of course, also a nice treat to our day. We pulled over for some much needed shade behind a boulder before pressing on once again.

Edge of Copper Canyon (click to enlarge)
Mouth of copper canyon, in we go!

Once we were spit from the mouth of copper canyon after a long skirt, we could finally see the edge of the turnoff to Bass canyon and potentially the portion of the river where we would lay our beaten feet for the night. We trekked on, under the hot sun and the miles were beginning to add up on our plumped and swollen feet. We still had work to do, so no need to complain. We pressed on trying to enjoy the views until finally we reached the cutoff for Bass Canyon. We trekked down the steep trail and were pleasantly surprised to find shade which would last the rest of the day. Whew, what a relief.

  • Skirting the Tonto

We continued to pick our way down the rough and rugged use trail until we were finally dumped into the bottom of Bass canyon. Only another 2 miles to the beach! We turned North down the canyon and the views were very different from the majority of the day. Interesting black, white, grey, red rocks were all around us. We snaked down the creek bed until finally once again we were skirting the Colorado river, only this time much lower! We saw river runners camped on a beach across the river and knew we couldn’t be far.

Bass Canyon!
Closer and Closer to the CO we come
Is that a BigHorn Sheeps horn? and Horseshoe, and old nails on a random cowboy fireplace in the middle of the canyon?! Why yes it is!

We walked the final leg of the day, tired and weary. But finally, after a short and steep switchback use trail we found ourselves at Bass beach. I could have bent down and kissed it like a lost sailor that finally reached land! We plunged ourselves in the frigid cold of the Colorado which totally revitalized our beaten feet. As the day came to a close, as we shoveled MountainHouse’s into our gullets, and thought about the next day to come. Beats being stuck at work! Another beautiful and incredible day in the Grandest of Canyons!

The sunset just before the final descent to Bass beach

ADDITIONAL PICTURES:

  • Old tools on the Cowboy Fireplace
  • Salt in the pools, mmmmm salty goodness

HIKE INFO:

HIKE STATS:

  • Weather: Hi in mid 90s, Low in upper 40s, Sunny
  • Water: 6 Liters (including dinner)
  • Food: 1 Power Bar, 1 Kroger Protien bars, 1 Cliff Protien Bars, 1 granola bar, 1/2 bag of gummyworms, Apple, 1 Mountain House: Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, 1/2 bag of Salt and Veinagr Chips, 1/2 bag of Pizza Pringles, 1/2 bag of trailmix, 1/2 bag Boston baked beans, 1 PB&J sandwich, 1/2 bag of Quinoa.
  • Time: 11 hours
  • Distance: 20 miles
  • Accumulated Gain: ~1500 accumulated

GEAR:

  • 58 liter exos osprey backpack
  • Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent
  • Big Agnes QCORE SLX sleeping pad
  • Cosmic Down Kelty Sleeping Bag (rated to 20 deg F)
  • Jet Boil – Sol
  • Black Diamond trekking poles
  • SPOT Gen3 Tracker
  • Sawyer Squeeze – Water Filter
  • Black Diamond Helmet
  • Petzl Corax Climbing Harness
  • 2 Black Diamond screw carabiner
  • 4 Phantom DMM screw carabiner
  • Black Diaimond ATC Guide
  • 60 meter 9.8mm Mammut rope
  • Webbing, personal anchor
  • 200 ft 6mm pull cord
  • 4 rap rings

CLOTHING:

  • Wool T shirt – IceBreaker
  • Cotton hankerchief
  • Pearl Azumi arm coolers
  • Arc’teryx hoody
  • Nike running shorts
  • Merrell Mid Moab Hiking Boots
  • Darn Tough wool medium weight socks
  • Threadless hoody
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Royal “Pain In The” Arch (Day 1) – Grand Canyon – AZ (4.21.17-4.23.17)

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Eyes cracked open. It was cold, chilly. In a sleeping bag with a broken zipper. Alarm blasting from my phone, feeling tired after just 4.5 hrs of sleep, staring at the ceiling of a tent. Rubbing my eyes half exhausted half excited about the day to come . . . Looks like we are all set up for another sufferfest at the Grandest of Canyons! This trek brought Sam, Mark, and myself to the doorstep of the old Ranger Station above the drop-in to Royal Arch Creek via Point Huitzil. We planned to drop in, canyoneer all the way to the Colorado River at Elves Chasm, camp, traverse the Tonto trail to Bass Beach, camp, and finally hike out via Bass trail; finishing the trip off with a side trek to Mount Huethawali before closing out the loop with a nice road walk on the rim.

Old Ranger Station

I shivered in the morning, throwing all my gear in the pack, making sure all the food, water and rappelling equipment was accounted for before strapping up and standing, ready to roll. I knew that once we got moving I would warm, so I stubbornly refused to put a jacket on. We let out from the old ranger station headed on an old 4×4 “road” (more like a foot trail) in the northwest direction. After the “road” ended we found an old telegraph line which would lead us to the start of the wash that would eventually dump us into the canyon (according to research). We trekked on through a juniper speckled field which made it seem like we weren’t even hiking to the canyon. Finally the route dumped us into a wash and slowly we made our way to the edge of the rim and were blasted with a gorgeous grand view of the canyon.

Old 4×4 “road” walk
Hello there old friend! Dump into the canyon, just South of Huitzil Point

We started our way down the loose steep route, descending ledge after ledge looking for cairns as we went. The sandstone made our shoes stick like spiderman to the slanted ledges of the route. We found our first obstacle and quickly down climbed. I was fully extended in a hang when the tops of my toes landed on the stepping stone below. Whew! One down, only a ton to go! Sam and Mark quickly down climbed and we were off again. The route finding was tedious, we were skirting ledges with a beefy penalty for error. We walked toward a cairn that looked like it would lead us right off the end of a ledge. We looked right and tucked away was the crescent moon shaped rock that hid away the famous ladder climb. It was really cool, an old dead tree with branches cut for feet and handholds. I dropped down first, no issues, Sam and Mark soon followed. Just around the corner from the ladder, skirting north, we were treated with a huge panel of petroglyphs! How cool it was to be there and see something that had been there for hundreds of years!

  • Cairn leading right off the edge?

We kept trekking, descending ledges, and finally found the Moki steps on a sandstone slab. The natives cut small ledges into the sandstone making some nice steps for your feet to climb up and down the slope. A little butt skirting and de-packing got us down swiftly.  We continued to pick our way down the ledges and skirt across a number of exposed, but not too difficult obstacles, until finally exiting the face via an arm that dumped us into the top of the wash to Royal Arch Creek.

Moki steps (click to enlarge)
Downclimbing the Moki Steps (click to enlarge)

Let the boulder hopping begin! For the next few miles the sun went to work on us as we hopped, jumped, and scurried our way down the creek bed. Finally we came to a large pour-off (dry waterfall) which had 2 options, left to the “ledge of death”, right to the “rabbit hole” . . . “rabbit hole” just sounded too cutesy! We headed left all too curious about what this infamous obstacle had to offer. After a few minutes of skirting the side trail we finally came to the ledge. It had a nice 20 foot exposed traverse with some teared drops below that. What fun! I was first up and found that the grippy rock had some great holds and the feet weren’t that bad either! Keeping the packs on, we all traversed the obstacle with no issue! Just after the ledge, there were a few other small exposed traverses where we had to circumvent large boulders trying to push us into the canyon below. It wasn’t horrible, but deff warranted concentration with a 40lb pack on your back!

Enter the wash!
Left to “Ledge of Death” – Right to “Rabbit Hole” (click to enlarge)
  • Ahead is the "Ledge of Death"!

We continued downstream, boulder hopping once again until finally the dry creek bed was wet with a beautiful spring and a small ledgy down climb. The water looked so tasty and our parched mouths were ready for a break. As we pushed further, we turned a corner, and there, standing high above our heads was the Royal Arch. What a beautiful sight, it was enormous and demanded respect! We had a nice break in the shade under the arch, next to the creek running just below the massive rock. Just taking in the sights and replenishing our grumbling stomachs.

Beautiful cool spring pool
  • Time lapse - Ledge downclimb past the spring

Fed and ready for more, we walked downstream from the arch and peered over the huge cliff into the canyon below. What a drop! We were standing 170 feet above a tiered drop-off and the bed of a nice waterfall that trickled down just next to where we planned to rappel from. We found some good webbing and a quicklink that looked solid. I put up the biner block rappel setup using Sam’s 60 meter 9.8 mil rope to a carabiner with a constrictor knot. I backed it up with a figure 8 and tied on the 200 ft 6mm pulldown cord to the biner block. We were all set to go so I threw both ropes off the cliff and they fell to the second ledge. Time to go to work! I rapped first taking on the task of rope management as the small pulldown cord got quite tangled. I threw it from the first ledge down, then the next. To my relief the main rope reached the ground, and soon after, so did I! Whew, made it!

I stopped half way down the first rap to take a pic =)

Mark and Sam soon followed and we were all safely on the ground when I went to pull the pull cord I had set up. *Yank* nothing . . . *Yank* nothing . . . I started to get serious when I realized the rope could be stuck which would require me to either re-ascend the rope or we would be stuck in the canyon between two 100+ foot rappels. I reached high, grabbed a bite on the 6mm rope, tied an overhand knot,  and clipped it into my harness. I sat my full weight on the rope and once I did it finally budged. I quickly walked back away from the cliff pulling the rope as I did to make sure it didn’t get hung again. LUCKY!!!!! I was so relieved!

Timelapse of Mark rappelling down the 170 ft waterfall

Once we retrieved both ropes and recollected our wits we headed downstream to find the second of the big rappels, a 135 foot cliff. This time our anchor was a nice tree with 3 sets of webbing wrapped around it. Another nice anchor that we could use! This rap went much smoother and was almost completely free hanging. We each made our way down the rope and into the next section of the beautiful canyon. Waterfalls and lush green plants were abound. Frogs darted this way and that in the pools as we trekked through, it was truly a hidden paradise!

The 2nd rappel – 135 foot

Soon after the second rappel we found a nice 8-10 foot downclimb. We pulled our packs off and hurdled the obstacle before strapping up once again and letting out further down the canyon. We dodged boulders, down climbed ledges picked our way slowly down. I popped my head over a huge boulder, the only down climb led to water . . . “that can’t be right”, I thought. I poked left, poked right and finally found a small tree on canyon right with a small 20ft rap. In hindsight, we found that we were on the wrong side of the canyon and should have belly crawled a ledge on the the west side of the canyon . . . Oh well! After placing some new webbing and breaking our rope and harnesses out once again, we made the last rap of the day.

  • Donw the canyon we go!
Elves Chasm!! Jumped into the cool pools here, how refreshing and cold as hell!

We enjoyed the rest of the canyon as we trekked on. Down climbing, shimmying over boulders and down ledges, using cairns to guide our way, until we finally reached Elves Chasm. It was a tiered waterfall with a deep crystal clear pool at the bottom. We decided to strip down and jump in; after the long exhausting day we had, it seemed like the right thing to do! After jumping from the waterfall and pulling ourselves from the cold water we trekked the rest of the way to a permissible beach where we set up camp, grubbed down, and finally, under the star lite sky, crashed out in our flyless tents. What an epic day, man I love the Grand Canyon!

ADDITIONAL PICTURES:

  • Enter the petroglyph panel!
  • telegraph line insulator

HIKE INFO:

HIKE STATS:

  • Weather: Hi in mid 90s, Low in upper 40s, Sunny
  • Water: 5 Liters (including dinner)
  • Food: 1 Power Bar, 1 Kroger Protien bars, 1 Cliff Protien Bars, 1 granola bar, 1/2 bag of gummyworms, Apple, 1 Mountain House: Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, 1/2 bag of Salt and Veinagr Chips, 1/2 bag of Pizza Pringles, 1/2 bag of trailmix, 1/2 bag Boston baked beans, 1 PB&J sandwich, 1/2 bag of Quinoa.
  • Time: 12 hours
  • Distance: 11 miles
  • Accumulated Gain: ~ Drop 4000 feet

GEAR:

  • 58 liter exos osprey backpack
  • Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent
  • Big Agnes QCORE SLX sleeping pad
  • Cosmic Down Kelty Sleeping Bag (rated to 20 deg F)
  • Jet Boil – Sol
  • Black Diamond trekking poles
  • SPOT Gen3 Tracker
  • Sawyer Squeeze – Water Filter
  • Black Diamond Helmet
  • Petzl Corax Climbing Harness
  • 2 Black Diamond screw carabiner
  • 4 Phantom DMM screw carabiner
  • Black Diaimond ATC Guide
  • 60 meter 9.8mm Mammut rope
  • Webbing, personal anchor
  • 200 ft 6mm pull cord
  • 4 rap rings

CLOTHING:

  • Wool T shirt – IceBreaker
  • Cotton hankerchief
  • Pearl Azumi arm coolers
  • Arc’teryx hoody
  • Nike running shorts
  • Merrell Mid Moab Hiking Boots
  • Darn Tough wool medium weight socks
  • Threadless hoody
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