1998 Grand Canyon, California Trip, part 7

Thurs. 9/3/98--Devil's Corkscrew, Plateau Point--twice!
This was my hardest-working day of the hike, since I actually hiked over 10 miles this day, including lots of uphill hiking. We arose about 4 am, and it this morning that I learned that a headlamp (which leaves two hands free) is really much more handy than a flashlight when you have to break camp in darkness. I was forced to make due by trying to hold a flashlight in my mouth!

We then headed out over the Silver Bridge and started going along the Bright Angel trail. I knew that a very tough 1400-vertical-feet uphill section (the Devil’s Corkscrew) was coming up, but there was a longer distance of rather flat hiking than I thought. I was a little frustrated at having to wait to get the hard part over with. After making it most of the way up the Corkscrew, I stopped and had a delightful 10-minute break in the shade by this cool stream...this was the high life!

I arrived at that day’s campsite (Indian Gardens campground) a bit before noon to find covered campsites once again. Very cool. I pitched the tent and discovered that peanut butter goes better with beef stick and bagel than I originally thought it would. We met an interesting 70-something year old park ranger named “Maverick”. A bit later, while Irene rested, Gail, Mary, Ralph, Jim and Maria, and Sharon set off to hike the approx 1.5 miles from Indian Gardens out to Plateau Point. Cathy had seen Plateau Point a bunch of times and wanted to see something different, so she went down the Tonto West trail to try to find some old uranium mine shaft that are supposedly visible along that trail. I left for Plateau Point about 30-45 minutes after the other folks did, eagerly anticipating seeing again one of my favorite places in the world.

Plateau Point. What can you say about this place? The Grand Canyon drops down from its main rims about 3000-4000 feet, then kind of levels off again to an inner canyon plateau before again dropping sharply down to the Colorado River about 1300-1500 feet below. Plateau Point is at a sharp corner of this inner plateau, below which the Colorado River makes a bend. Because of this, you can see quite a bit of the Colorado River in a couple of directions. You can also clearly see many portions of the lower Bright Angel trail that we had hiked up earlier that morning.

At this point I did something really stupid here that my friend David Crowley had done when we hiked here in our 1997 hike. I climbed past the guardrails, then up onto this 15 foot high rock pillar that extends out from the Point and has a flat area on top about 5x6 feet in area. From this rock area, there is nothing but 1300+ foot drop all around you. Great views, but really pretty damn dangerous. The ranger’s scolding was actually warranted, as it was a little more difficult for me to climb back down than to climb up. My legs were shaking a little bit when I climbed down.

While at the Point (safely back behind the guardrail), I talked to this guy from that was visiting several places in the US from Hungary. I can’t recall if he was a grad student or just in the US for work. One distinct thing I recall about him was his “Praktica” brand of camera – not your usual Canon or Nikon. He was in the US for awhile, but he was missing his 3-year old daughter who he’d been away from for a couple of months (now that I have a 3 year old daughter, I can relate). Because he was going to drive across other parts of the US before returning to Hungary, I recommended that he go across by way of Colorado and see Durango and Ouray.

I took in the views for a few more minutes, then returned to camp to have a big lunch and chill out from the 100 degree heat. After I finished lunch, Cathy came jogging up the trail, looking a bit panicked and red-faced. She explained that she had run into an injured (sprained knee/ankle) hiker that was alone on the Tonto West trail and she was running back to our camp site to try to get a ranger to help her. Gail, who’s a nurse, had to tend to Cathy’s feet after her jog back to get help. I think we later learned that the hiker needed to be helivac-ed out.

I had a big dinner, then I went again back out to Plateau Point alone to take more pictures near sunset (I have one picture from that evening framed in my cube today). As it turns out, I somehow double-exposed a roll of film (72 shots onto one 36-exp roll) during this time, but I got a bit bailed out because I also shot 1 roll of print film that was fine.

There were a few folks at the point when I first got there (probably around 530 or 6pm), but after a while everyone left, and I got to enjoy Plateau Point by myself for probably 45 minutes to an hour. That was probably the highlight of the entire trip, relaxing in solitude, taking in all of the awesome views, and hearing the roar of the Colorado River below. All was right with the world.

I stayed at the Point until after the sun set, and I needed the flashlight to get back into camp. In fact, some folks in our group had already gone to bed when I got back. I again slept on the picnic table, and heard the roar of the winds and saw the brilliance of the stars. What an awesome day.