Last Saturday, John Eastwood and I did a "geology" day hike down the New Hance, about which I have already written.  Since we only made it to the creek bed, I was anxious to return and try to get the whole hike done - to the river and back - in one day.  The last time I had done this was in 2004 - nine years ago.  Based on the experience John and I had, I knew that I would need a very early start.  Hiking up any of this trail in the dark, even if by the light of a headlamp, would be slow going at best.  At worst, it would be impossible, requiring me to spend an unpleasant night awaiting the next day's sunrise.  I have hiked well-worn trails at night, but something as rough as this one is pretty much a deal breaker for me.

     So, I decided to camp in the forest near the trail in order to get an early start.  That worked out perfectly, although I wasn't sure it was going to at the time.  Casual study of the map will show that the National Park/National Forest boundary is less than a mile from the highway in the Grandview to New Hance area.  I had thought to park at an off-the-road spot and hike through the woods with a backpack and cot to accomplish this.  But, just a couple of miles east of the Grandview overlook there is a dirt road.  On it is a marker indicating that it is part of the Arizona Trail.  While I was still about 2.5 miles from the New Hance trailhead, I decided to check this out.  In just a half mile I came to the park/forest boundary, which is signed as the "Grandview Entrance" to the park.  In all my years here, I had never known about this road and entrance.  I turned off the main road and went 0.3 miles down a side road to a great camping spot.  It even had a nice clean fire pit and some cut wood.  I was relieved not to have to hike my stuff away from my truck and, yes, I did enjoy a small fire that evening, an unusual pleasure for me (shown above).  My dinner consisted of an MRE meal.  Pretty tasty (chili mac), but still a pain to use under any but the best of circumstances (contents shown in photo to the left).  As it turned dark I decided to put the cot on the back of my pickup so that I could use the wheel well as a shelf for my watch, phone, et al.  I was pretty glad about that decision when I heard the long wail of a coyote, although I didn't hear any more over the course of the night.

     That turned out to be an error in reasoning on my part.  As I got to the New Hance trailhead, I saw vehicles parked up ahead of me (to the east).  There were five in total at three different spots here.  I guess that hikers are now eschewing the spur road (to the west) and Moran Point (to the east) for parking.  Well, I can't blame them.  Walking down this road is just awful, with about a three inch shoulder on the payment and a steep embankment that dumps you into the brush.  So, I turned around and found a good off-the-road spot about 0.15 miles east of the trailhead.  By 5:30 a.m. I was walking down the road with my headlamp on - no cars came by in the time it took me to reach the trailhead in the woods.

     I reached the rim by 5:42, having turned off my headlamp a few minutes earlier.  This is exactly what I was hoping for - a hike to start at the crack of dawn.  My pack was a bit lighter than last week, ringing in at 14 pounds, which included one gallon of water (weighing 8 pounds).  My plan was to cached two liters in two spots on my way to the creek bed and get more there if needed.

     Before I even got through the upper Kaibab limestone I had taken off my light coat.  The temperature was on the cool side, but with no breeze it felt great while hiking.  It took me only 20 minutes to reach the benchmark that is right at the top of the Coconino sandstone and another 20 minutes to reach the Ponderosa tree that is below the Coronado/South Rim saddle.  From here you follow a ravine down through the Supai to the rim of the Redwall.  After about ten minutes of hiking down the Supai I found a good spot for my first water cache.

     By 8:45 a.m. I was finally in the sun, although the temperature was still quite pleasant.  I had passed a few new blooms along the way that I didn't see the week before, or didn't notice.  I saw one cactus bloom (shown above).  I do remember that John and I looked at it last week and wondered when it would start blooming, because it looked close.  Now I know - one week!  At 9:10 a.m. I reached the creek bed, where we had rested in the shade of a huge boulder last week, and where a very large cairn marks the route.

     I rested here for thirty minutes, putting on sunscreen, prepping 0.5 liter of water from the trickling creek and doing some light snacking.  This is about 6 miles from the rim, and there are about 2 miles to go to reach the river.  I left this spot at 9:40 a.m. and reached the river less than an hour later.  The route mostly stays in the creek bed, and so consists of slogging work through the gravel and sometimes climbing over rocks.  There is a stretch where giant house-sized boulders fill the canyon and a rough bypass trail appears on the east side.  Parts of this trail are in good shape, but other parts are rather narrow.  I wonder what it looked like when John Hance was traveling up and down this canyon a hundred years ago, either with valuable asbestos or valuable tourists?

     But, I wanted to pay closer attention the the geology in here, as John and I weren't able to cover this ground last week.  There is a great example of a diabase sill exposed on both sides of the canyon through here.  What especially fascinates me is how this baked the surrounding rock (Hakatai shale), turning it a darker color.  There is also an exposed section here that has a distinctive green hue.  The authors of Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology wrote that, "Water coursing down Red Canyon has polished the greenish intrusion.  The edges of the sill are especially green and are composed of smaller crystals than those in the center.  This is an example of a chilled margin; where the magma met the cold wall rocks, it cooled quickly, resulting in smaller crystals." [105]

     There was a hiking group here and I talked with one guy who appeared to be the trip leader.  They had all come out to the rapids to watch a river party go through - mostly two person rafts, but with one wooden dory in the lead.  I only caught the tail end of their running of Hance Rapids, one of the most violent in the Grand Canyon.  I sat in the shade of some trees, ate my lunch and relaxed a bit.  I did soak my feet in the river briefly, and douse my head with the icy cold water.  It was starting to get hot and that felt quite nice.

     At 12:45 p.m. I started up the trail, leaving behind the little creek.  I dunked my shirt into one of the small pools here and that felt quite nice while it lasted.  It took me an hour of hiking up through the Hakatai shale, Shinumo quartzite, Bright Angel shale and Muav limestone to reach my water cache spot at the bottom of the Redwall.  I took a 40 minute break here and actually fell asleep for a short while.  I made some Gatorade with my treated water and had half (10 oz.) right away.  I couldn't eat anything, but once I started hiking again, at 2:20 p.m., I felt noticeably better.  It took me 25 minutes to reach the top of the Redwall and another 50 minutes to follow the traverse over to the bottom of the Supai ravine.  My condition improved all along the way here, especially when I was back in the permanent shade of the ravine.

     I rested here for only fifteen minutes, but was able to eat a whole granola bar (the most I'd had since lunch) and drink more water.  I left here at 3:50 p.m., picked up my water at the upper cache at 4:30 p.m. and carried it up to the Ponderosa tree, which I reached ten minutes later.  After another fifteen minute rest break I was on my way and soon back into the sun.  But, the temperatures were probably twenty degrees lower up here than deep down in the canyon, and I felt a lot better than earlier in the afternoon.

     I left the Ponderosa at 4:55 p.m., reached the benchmark atop the Coconino at 5:20 p.m. and the rim of the canyon at 5:50 p.m.  Six minutes later I was at the highway and it was only another five minutes until I was at my truck, looking forward to a change of clothes for the drive back home.  Once home, I weighed my pack and it was a mere 8 pounds, which still included a liter of water!  Since I started with 4 liters and treated another liter, I guess I had enough.  Well, at least overall I had enough.  I noticed that I had only about 10 ounces left in my bladder when I was ready to leave the creek heading uphill.  So, I added the 0.5 liter I treated into the bladder and treated another 0.5 liter as a backup before I reached my lowest water cache.  From then, all the rest of the way up, I had plenty of water available.