Here's the synopsis: The Grand View trail is very steep. You loose 2500 feet in 3 miles. Jenny doesn't do downhill too well, especially with a heavy backpack. A couple of hours in it started to rain. The steep rocky trail became a muddy river. It was pretty gross. It took 4 1/2 hours to cover the 3 miles to the camp site. I knew then that my 4 day plan wasn't going to be possible. We decided to base camp at our Horseshoe Mesa camp and day hike. The problem with that was water. I was going to have to spend 2 1/2 hours every afternoon doing a harrowing hike to a spring. Starting on day 1. I did that hike 3 times. It was a trail suitable for a mountain goat. It rained all night that first night. Day 2 we hiked to the tip of the west fork of the mesa. It is a special place. I had been there before and wanted Jenny to see it. On the way back we looked for and found "The cave of the domes" it goes back 1/2 mile under the mesa. We went in maybe 200 feet. The cave is not marked on charts and visiting it is discouraged by the NPS so I was happy we found it. The next day we hiked down to cottonwood creek and around the western tip on the Tonto trail and then back up. We were out 5 hours. Today we hiked back up the steep Grand View trail. It took us only 4 hours to get up. Jenny does uphill better. We're in trailer village again. This time for 2 nights. I didn't take my phone so no pics for the blog. Tomorrow will definitely be devoted to the Laundromat.
Hey, back to the real world again, laundry, etc. Sounds like you all had a good time despite the rain, and Dave I know how you like to hike so you actually enjoyed that short hike for water, yes?
ReplyDeleteThis short hike was a climb. In 1993 a guy killed his wife on that trail by giving her a shove. She fell 160 feet. I tried to figure out where it might have happened. There were numerous spots where a fall would have been fatal. Did I enjoy the hike for water? Not really. I was glad to top out with with the 20lbs of water intact.
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