Are We There Yet?

55 weeks of planning/training and years of anticipation come down to just a few days. It's here. Hard to believe but it's true.

This past week the final piece of the puzzle (aka trip plans) fell into place. We had not secured reservations at the North Rim cabins because the lodge was booked. Instead we made our overnight reservation for the night before hiking down the North Kaibab trail at a lodge outside the park. That meant we would have a 30-40 minute drive in the morning to the trail head.  Fortunately this week a cabin became available on the North Rim so we'll be just two miles from the trail head. Much better.

Papa and I have started our packing. The first item is the duffel, 25 lbs. or less, the mule train will take down, and back out, for us. We need to make sure we have everything that we'll need once we get to Phantom Ranch (no malls there) so we're focusing on this. Then we'll start on the other packs. This is a complicated vacation involving not only the R2R hike but other adventures. Should be interesting!

The physical training continues up to the hike so today we went back to one of our favorite trails, Peralta in the Superstition Mountains. We needed a hike with a little challenge but we didn't have a lot of time to spare since other preparations require our attention. We focused on two challenges:

1) Wake-up time.  We opted to get up at 3 am so we could be at the trail head early. Why? We'll need to do this at the Canyon to get a jump on the heat of the day so this was a good test to see how we'd do with the "middle of the night" wake up.

2) The other challenge we imposed on ourselves is pushing for time. Why?  We needed to get an idea of what we are comfortable with as far as hiking time so we can make our final plan for the Canyon.

Pretty good on both. We were up at 3 am and out the door at 4 am. That's a little more "prep" time than we can afford, though. Sleep is important so we'll need to do a better job of having packs ready before we go to bed the night before speeding up that "up and out the door" time frame. Our goal for the Canyon is to be on the trail around 4:30-4:45am.

Speed.  For us "Sunday afternoon hikers" we did pretty well.  We ascended 1,400 ft./2 miles is just under 1.5 hours.  Our descent was about half that time or 50 minutes.  Now we'll plan our milestones for the R2R which will help us determine during the hike if we get the luxury of the Ribbon Falls sidetrip.

Part of our interest in hiking is enjoying the views.  Peralta never disappoints. At the top, Freemont Saddle, we took our standard break. It was absolutely gorgeous.  A clear early morning with the sun rising, a gentle breeze and cool morning temps made it almost chilly. Birds were singing. Peaceful. Relaxing.

As we sat and enjoyed the view, Weaver's Needle was calling. We noticed what appeared to be a trail past the saddle going towards the Needle.  We had to explore. I remember doing this with my niece and her husband during a visit a few years ago but Papa and I needed to experience it.

The side hike was definitely worth the extra mile or so. From the saddle we noticed a single tree to the East of Weaver's Needle. We were able to hike to that tree. Amazing. A single tree with a 8" diameter trunk standing probably 14 feet high rooted in a rock mountain at about 4,000 feet altitude. It survives unbelievable heat, strong blistering sunshine, pounding winds, lightning and monsoon storms and bitter cold including snow. What a tree!

About 20 feet passed the tree, we came to a plateau and it was apparent that, Papa and I at least, were not to go any farther towards Weaver's Needle. The Canyon around the circumference of the Needle makes it a little hard to reach. 

It was almost to straight drop from where we were standing. It's hard to see from the picture but that drop is over 1,000 feet before it goes up to Weaver's Needle. Weaver's Needle itself is a 1,000 ft. column of volcanic rock which is popular for rappelling.

Now it's full throttle ahead for the R2R. We'll be a little quiet for a couple weeks as we dive into adventure. We're looking for our next challenge. If interested, vote to the right.  What should we do for our next challenge?