Backpacking, Hiking, Places, Trip Reports

TR-Grand Canyon Backpacking January 2011

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(There is a separate Trip Report for the car camping on that trip here.)

Gear, Lessons learned

Route

South Kaibab-Bright Angel Campground-Bright Angel Trail

  • 1/10/2011 (10:41 a.m.1) South Kaibab Trailhead->Bright Angel CG (4:15 p.m.)
  • 1/11/2021 Bright Angel CG (9:39 a.m.) to Grand Canyon Village (5:27 p.m.) via Bright Angel Trail

Locations/Elevations Mileages

South Kaibab Trail

Location2ElevationDistance
South Kaibab Trailhead7260′start
Cedar Ridge 6120′1.5 miles
Skeleton Point5220′3.0 miles
Tipoff4000′4.4 miles
Bright Angel Campground2480′7.0 miles

Bright Angel Trail

Location3ElevationDistance
Bright Angel Campground2480′start
River Resthouse2480′1.8 miles
Havasupai* Gardens3800′5.0 miles
Three-Mile Resthouse4748′6.5 miles
Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse5729′8.0 miles
Bright Angel Trailhead6860′9.5 miles
*Formerly Indian Gardens

Planning

While at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center at the end of 2007, I’d overheard a couple discussing with a NPS ranger backcountry permits for the Bright Angel site, at the bottom of the canyon near Phantom Ranch. I made a mental note to consider this in the near future. It’s a popular overnight and back hike; some folks pay $$ for the indoors at Phantom Ranch or a cabin but I was only interested in the backcountry sites. (My parents had hiked down and stayed at a cabin in 1978.) Aside from New Year’s Eve, there were almost always walkup available permits for Bright Angel this time of year. I made a mental note to come back soon for an overnight hike to the bottom and back. I returned for this trip in January of 2011.

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Admin, Trip Reports

TR- BBNP, BBRSP (partially canceled)-January 2025

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This was planned for a couple of days a Paint Gap 3, then on to Big Bend Ranch State Park/Fresno Vista, for three more days.

Gear

Trip Report

Not much to report here; I’d booked two nights at Paint Gap 3 (formerly Paint Gap 4, note the name change) to be followed by three more over at Fresno Vista in Big Bend Ranch State Park. I’ve stayed at both of these spots many times.

So things on this trip didn’t end up as planned, in many ways. But that’s o.k.–what’s the saying, “a bad night in the backcountry is better than a good day at work”? Yeah, I know that’s not it but whatever.

Things started roughly, out of Austin. As I was checking the air in my tires before departing I discovered a sheet metal screw in the tire. I went down the street to a local shop and got it repaired quickly. Fortunately it wasn’t too close to the sidewall.

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Admin, Big Bend, Trip Reports

TR-Big Bend NP December, 1977

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A trip to Big Bend National Park with a high school friend back in my teenage days

Gear, Lessons learned

Trip Report

Planning

In late 1977–probably during semester break in December–my high school friend and baseball teammate Kelly and I took a camping trip to Big Bend National Park. I write this almost fifty years after the trip; I have no notes, just some foggy recollections, a handful of Polaroid prints, and possibly a roll of 35mm film somewhere around here that hasn’t yet been digitized.
We’d done some winter camping on some property owned by some friends’ of Kelly’s family. I wouldn’t say we became expert campers, but we learned some things; how to manage all the Coleman fueled items (stove, lanterns), how to pitch my ancient, huge Sears canvas tent, how to stay reasonably warm.
It would be my second trip to BBNP, and I was itching to return.

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Admin, Big Bend, Trip Reports

TR-Big Bend NP-April 1985

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First solo trip west; Big Bend National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Lubbock

  • 4/18/85-4/21/85 Big Bend NP
  • 4/18 Depart Austin 12: 25 a.m.
  • 4/18 Arrive BBNP ca. noon.
    • 4/18 Lost Mine Peak trail
    • 4/19-Chimneys trail
    • 4/20-Emory Peak summit
    • 4/21-Window trail, Hot Springs
  • 4/21-4/24 Guadalupe Mountains NP (separate post)

A note about some of the photos here–I scanned many of these slides thirty years ago when I had to squeeze them onto floppy disks, so their resolution is poor.

Gear, Lessons learned

Trip Report

Planning

Some of this is duplicated in the following post (Guadalupe Mountains)

I was twenty-six years old, still in the middle of my offshore oilfield career. I had read the old “Trails of the Guadalupes” guide, published by the Carlsbad Caverns Natural History Association, backwards and forwards while working on out in the Gulf of Mexico and had decided I needed to go see Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) and climb the highest mountain in Texas. But I also wanted to go back to the place I first fell in love with the desert mountains, Big Bend National Park. My last trip there had been when I was still a teenager with my friend Kelly, in 1977. I had also been reading, repeatedly, the Hikers Guide to Trails of Big Bend National Park. I was working offshore at this time, but had a week off and that may explain my odd departure times.

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Trip Reports

TR-Guadalupe Mountains April, 1985

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McKittrick Canyon, Guadalupe Peak, Sitting Bull Falls, Carlsbad Caverns

  • 4/18/85-4/21/85 Big Bend NP (separate post)
  • 4/21-4/24 Guadalupe Mountains NP
    • 4/22-McKittrick Canyon
    • 4/23 -Guadalupe Peak, Sitting Bull Falls NM
    • 4/24-Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Gear, Lessons learned

Trip Report

It’s been quite a while since my first climb up Texas’ highest point, Guadalupe Peak (8,751′ now, was listed at 8,749′ then). I have basically no notes from that trip; just fuzzy memories and some fuzzier photos from an old point & shoot Nikon I used to borrow from my dad. I have just enough to piece together the itinerary.

Planning

I was twenty-six years old, still in the middle of my offshore oilfield career. I had read the old “Trails of the Guadalupes” guide, published by the Carlsbad Caverns Natural History Association, backwards and forwards while working on out in the Gulf of Mexico and had decided I needed to go see Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) and climb the highest mountain in Texas.

Continue reading TR-Guadalupe Mountains April, 1985 →
Backpacking, Camping, Guadalupe Mountains, Hiking, Places, Trip Reports

TR-GUMO Pine Springs/Guad. Peak; Dog Canyon/Marcus backpack-February 2022

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Took a trip out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park last week. I’d reserved Sunday and Monday nights at Pine Spring, Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday nights at Dog Canyon. I intended on climbing Guadalupe Peak again Monday, then I was planning on a backcountry stay on Wednesday night, possibly at Blue Ridge (as discussed here; https://bigbendchat.com/tentative-plan-for-one-night-backpack-dog-canyon-b-t18146.html).

I’d been getting in pretty good shape over the past six months, doing cardio, hiking, and most recently hiking with a pack to start conditioning myself for backpacking. But I had an unexpected trip to take my 89-year old mother to California to meet her new great-granddaughter from New Zealand who was visiting family in Berkeley…but I digress. Bottom line is I was out for a week, then home for only a couple of days before leaving on my trip.

I left Austin around 4 pm arriving Ozona around 8 pm. I began this habit of breaking up the drive to GUMO a few years ago; gives me plenty of time to pack, take care of chores, and hardly feels like any time at all for the first day. And then it’s nice to get to my campsite early enough to where I don’t have to rush to beat sundown (especially in Winter). I got to GUMO just before 1:00–oops, Noon Mountain time; went to the visitor center to make sure I didn’t have to check in or anything (got that Senior Pass heh heh, and had already booked the camping) and wanted to confirm I could get my Wednesday night backcountry permit here on Tuesday morning as I left (I could).

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Anything and Everything, Essays, Gear, Hiking, People

Book Learnin’

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I was trying to explain to someone why I had so many copies of Colin Fletcher’s Complete Walker series. It started in 1984 while I was working offshore. One of my trainees, an experienced backpacker whom I had been grilling for information on the hows and wheres of backpacking, noticed my subscription book club had the new, third edition of The Complete Walker available and suggested I order it. So I did.

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Gear

GEAR: Hydration Upgrade

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After my somewhat unfortunate experience with water on my Shumard backcountry trip, I reconsidered my hydration options and decided to look into upgrading. Not only the technology/materials of the reservoirs themselves, but also strategy. E.g. is it wise to store critical water in a single point of failure reservoir, or spread it out in several containers? Or is it worthwhile sometimes to pre-cache emergency supplies?

My old Platypus 3 liter reservoir, which had performed admirably for years (including my 2002 John Muir Trail through hike) didn’t seal properly and dumped quite a bit of precious water in my pack. While it was fine technology-wise for ca. 2000, it is a bit unwieldy. old Platypus hydration reservoir

The material is stiff, and the press-together seal can be difficult to manage.

I’ve since acquired two more reservoirs–an MSR 4 liter DromeLite,

and a Gregory 3D (3L) Hydro Reservoir.

I’ve been using both on conditioning hikes and have a few observations:

Continue reading GEAR: Hydration Upgrade →

Go outside! Go!