Hiking in the Grand Canyon

By
Ben Sacks

There is always one main activity in every expedition. The main activity is hiking in the backcountry. On this expedition, we, the Nothing but G’s, did a 3-part, 16 mile hike in and out of the Grand Canyon.

Part one of this 3-part hike was the easiest. Even though it was 8 miles (the longest), it was downhill the whole way. Unfortunately, there always has to be a catch; this one was ice. A few sections of the trail were covered with ice. Some were so bad that a few of us slipped and fell. Since all of us were bored and really wanted to pass the time, A.C., Ricky, Wes (one of our expedition staff), and myself decided to have a competition to see who could fall the least amount of times until we stopped for lunch. The results were as follows from least to greatest: Ricky-0; Andrew-0; Ben (me)-0; Wes-0; A.C.-1; Laith-1; Suzanne (the other expedition staff)-3; Isaac-5. About 3 hours later, with around 1.5 miles to go, there were two obstacles in the way. The first was an enclosed tunnel which was extremely dark. It was almost impossible to see anything until we reached the end. The second was a cable bridge named Black Bridge and bisected the Colorado River. Once we passed both the tunnel and the bridge, the campsite, Phantom Ranch, was only 100 yards away. We arrived at around 5:30 PM. With one part down, we had two more to go.

After breakfast the next morning, we started to prepare for the 4.5 mile uphill trek towards Indian Garden Campground. Once we packed our gear and stretched, the hike began. About 300 yards into the hike, we came to another cable bridge. The name of this one was Silver Bridge. Isaac and I really liked this bridge because it rocked back and forth as if it were a rope bridge. As we walked across, I started singing, “Rock the bridge. Don’t rock the bridge baby. Rock the bridge. Don’t tip the bridge over…” Then Isaac joined in. We had a grand old time. Some other people, however, didn’t enjoy walking across the bridge as much. Ricky and Laith were absolutely terrified, and voiced their concern at regular intervals. A little later on in the hike was a few streams that we had to cross in order to continue the hike. Crossing the streams was fun because of the rocks that we needed to hop on to get across. It also showed how agile everyone was and how much balance everyone had since the 30-45 pound backpacks were still being worn. The main part of the hike was the switchbacks. I have to say that going down switchbacks is a lot easier than going up. By the time the campsite was reached, our legs hurt. Luckily, we knew that 75% of the backcountry hike had been completed.

The last hike was slightly easier and, at the same time, slightly more annoying. The distance of 4.5 miles was the same as before except for one thing, the ice was back. It was somewhat difficult to keep our footing, but not as difficult as the last time because slush was also present. Like every other hike, the main chunk of this one was switchbacks. Fortunately these weren’t as steep as the previous ones. There wasn’t much sunlight until there was about a mile left in the hike. Once the information center was in sight, we knew that the home stretch had come. The whole group was finished at around 12:30, which was perfect timing because we were hungry. After having a victory lunch of peanut butter and jelly at one of the bus stops on the South Rim, we boarded the bus and returned to the van, a great conclusion to a great backcountry trip.