It's a big climb down. I ride my bike most every day back and forth from work, about six miles- I have a huge hill to climb every evening coming home- so I'm in pretty good shape for 59. I've never been a fanatic or a super jock type of guy. I don't do gyms or workout stuff. I do yoga once a week so I can get up off the floor. Going down was painful. I have a little arthritic stuff going on in my left knee and in both feet. Going down I was thinking "Shin Splints" and "Water On The Knee" and wanted to be able to finish the trip so I slowed down a whole lot. A lot of aches and pains I don't think I've felt in a while. We had left at noon to start down, so there was no lunch break, so we had seven miles to go to get to the first camp.
Anyway, its 130 degrees in the sun down there and 100 in the shade. There a creek that runs the whole distance beside you (from the North Rim) and the three 17 year old guys we were with spent a lot of their time there in their down time. I floated in it the afternoon we stayed at the bottom for a day and it was paradise.
The second day was another trek from the Cottonwood Camp to the Angel Campground that was 1/4 mile from the Colorado. Another 7 miles. I had a bit of heat exhaustion by the time I got there and immediately passed out, with my head on my backpack for about an hour after reaching the camp space.
We were actually a day ahead of our permit for being there and did have a problem the last day as we were coming out. We thought it might be cool to get back home a day early and have a whole weekend to recoup. Nobody hassled us the first night. Yosemite Rangers don't ask to look at your permit. I've been backpacking in Yosemite the last five years. Grand Canyon guys make it into this big deal. The guy came into the camp at the bottom and naturally assumed that the four guys I was with were separate from me because I had the long hair and didn't have a tent. We were a day ahead of ourselves and in a group campsite that was supposed to accommodate 7 or more and we had only five. I made up a cock and bull story about we started down and didn't realize until we had gotten down the first day that we had out dates mixed up and that we were supposed to have three more people but they had started on the right day and were behind us.
He had to go make a phone call. He came back and changed all the dates on my permit and said we were ok, but we had to clean up our food and get it into the metal shell boxes they had in each camp to protect the food from the squirrels. They have to be experts on something.
There is running water and toilets and no bears and no mosquitoes.
Coming out, halfway out, the Ranger didn't believe that the Ranger down below had changed all the dates on the permit because he didn't initial it. I had also did my little convoluted story about our original mistake of coming in a day day early and about our missing other three people that never showed and we tried to call from the Colorado camp and etc. He had to go make a phone call. He came back and made us move out of the group camp site, mostly because there was a party of 11 that showed up and wanted it. He said it was a double booking and we were made to sleep on the helicopter landing site pad which was mostly gravel. And before he left he proceeded to confirm that we were going to carry out our trash.
They just weren't built for us folks that didn't respect the rules much.
The views were grand. The day hikes were better if you started at five and finished by 11:00 am. My buddy and I talked and talked and talked. There were deer all over the place by the river. I stuck my tootsies the Colorado.
Coming out we were adopted by a girl (mid-twenties) who was just bored with walking by herself. She worked at the South Rim and had decided the walk from rim to rim and back in her days off for the hell of it. She had finished college, but was park hopping from server to server job just for the hell of it. She had encountered a mountain lion on the trail the night before and hid in the bushes for a couple of hours. She walked with us until a guy appeared that was her age and who was walking in the same direction and was another staffer somewhere.
The people out there all were nice. Some of the folks that were at the river came down on horseback and were staying in little cabins and got to ride out. You can buy a beer at the bottom.
Probably won't go back. But its worth seeing once!
Anyway, its 130 degrees in the sun down there and 100 in the shade. There a creek that runs the whole distance beside you (from the North Rim) and the three 17 year old guys we were with spent a lot of their time there in their down time. I floated in it the afternoon we stayed at the bottom for a day and it was paradise.
The second day was another trek from the Cottonwood Camp to the Angel Campground that was 1/4 mile from the Colorado. Another 7 miles. I had a bit of heat exhaustion by the time I got there and immediately passed out, with my head on my backpack for about an hour after reaching the camp space.
We were actually a day ahead of our permit for being there and did have a problem the last day as we were coming out. We thought it might be cool to get back home a day early and have a whole weekend to recoup. Nobody hassled us the first night. Yosemite Rangers don't ask to look at your permit. I've been backpacking in Yosemite the last five years. Grand Canyon guys make it into this big deal. The guy came into the camp at the bottom and naturally assumed that the four guys I was with were separate from me because I had the long hair and didn't have a tent. We were a day ahead of ourselves and in a group campsite that was supposed to accommodate 7 or more and we had only five. I made up a cock and bull story about we started down and didn't realize until we had gotten down the first day that we had out dates mixed up and that we were supposed to have three more people but they had started on the right day and were behind us.
He had to go make a phone call. He came back and changed all the dates on my permit and said we were ok, but we had to clean up our food and get it into the metal shell boxes they had in each camp to protect the food from the squirrels. They have to be experts on something.
There is running water and toilets and no bears and no mosquitoes.
Coming out, halfway out, the Ranger didn't believe that the Ranger down below had changed all the dates on the permit because he didn't initial it. I had also did my little convoluted story about our original mistake of coming in a day day early and about our missing other three people that never showed and we tried to call from the Colorado camp and etc. He had to go make a phone call. He came back and made us move out of the group camp site, mostly because there was a party of 11 that showed up and wanted it. He said it was a double booking and we were made to sleep on the helicopter landing site pad which was mostly gravel. And before he left he proceeded to confirm that we were going to carry out our trash.
They just weren't built for us folks that didn't respect the rules much.
The views were grand. The day hikes were better if you started at five and finished by 11:00 am. My buddy and I talked and talked and talked. There were deer all over the place by the river. I stuck my tootsies the Colorado.
Coming out we were adopted by a girl (mid-twenties) who was just bored with walking by herself. She worked at the South Rim and had decided the walk from rim to rim and back in her days off for the hell of it. She had finished college, but was park hopping from server to server job just for the hell of it. She had encountered a mountain lion on the trail the night before and hid in the bushes for a couple of hours. She walked with us until a guy appeared that was her age and who was walking in the same direction and was another staffer somewhere.
The people out there all were nice. Some of the folks that were at the river came down on horseback and were staying in little cabins and got to ride out. You can buy a beer at the bottom.
Probably won't go back. But its worth seeing once!
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