Old BA

 

I don't know why I did not do this more often. I guess the pre-planning and committing to the long trip had kept me away. My friend Tim lived on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is only like a 2 hour drive. I decided that I would go travel out to his neck of the woods to do a hike with him. Tim was always visiting and using our guest room when coming down to St. George for groceries. I guess it took a worldwide pandemic for me to get off the couch and join him. The drive was not too bad. Tim let me know how to get in to the gate since technically the park was closed. 

We met at the trailhead and were ready to go on the trail. This was a route that I had heard of but never done. The trail about 100 years ago used to stay in the Bright Angel Creek area instead of going up and away from it at Roaring Springs. We were going to descend down it. This was the right way to go as it was easier to route find when descending into the Grand Canyon rather than climbing out. We hung on the rim trail for a little bit and then the trail quickly descended. There were some signs of trail construction and at times a faint path, but for most of the early descent at least we had to keep our eyes peeled. Using my GPS watched helped considerably because it kept us on the path. Tim was the perfect person to do this trip with because he was in shape and up for anything. He is a law enforcement ranger on the North Rim, so this is something that he can make work even on a workday since he can easily check  out the trails and such on the hike out if need be. I think this was a day off for him, though, as there was no real need for us to be out there. The beginning was definitely the steepest section with lots of bushwhacking and amazing views of the canyon. 

Eventually it flattened out with us hugging the cliffside with views of a waterfall. There were times where we questioned whether we were on the right trail and times where we were definitely off of it for short periods, but all in all, the route was not all that difficult to find. It was not long before we were seeing Roaring Springs come into view and we were finding ourselves back on the North Kaibab Trail. Now just another 7 miles of uphill hiking to go. With no one else on the trail, it was a really enjoyable uphill hike. It had been a while since I was on the North Kaibab, so it felt exciting to relive some of my past adventures in this area. We hiked out and still had plenty of time to chill. I was staying at Tim's place and would sleep out on his patio. In the evening, we got to hang out with some other park people at the lodge. Since no other visitors were there, it was really nice to just sit on the lodge patio and chat it up. It had been a while since I worked for the NPS, so it was interesting hearing all the conversations from the park employees. Same old conversation with a new group. We had a chance to choose a new hike the following day, so we did not stay out too late and spent some of the evening hanging out at Tim's place with his girlfriend Kate. Definitely a fun day and looking forward to the next one.