This amazing summer (Part 1)
My exhilarating, sabbatical-lengthened summer starts off with a bang!
I find it one of the most amazing things when someone reaches out to me and says “I just found your blog! It’s so rewarding and fun and informative and [insert X, Y, and Z] and then I realize that I have not posted anything to it in OVER A YEAR! Especially in this past year where we have all been locked to our chairs, that’s flat embarrassing.
What is equally lame is bloggers who start posts with “ugh, I haven’t written in so long, I’ll do better…” Yeah, right.
(concluding guilt intro here…)
In the past few months I have had the wonderful honor and opportunity to enjoy a 12-week sabbatical from work. This is literally one of the best and most unique benefits of American Rivers — that currently we enjoy a sabbatical after every seven years of service, from a minimum of one month up to a full six months, which is extremely generous and mostly unheard of in the conservation world, let alone American business culture overall. I am grateful.
Even coming out of Covid this spring, any overseas travel was a non-starter for me. While I was fortunate to be fully vaccinated in March, anywhere I would want to go for an extended time was not happening. Colombia? Nope. Panama? No thanks. Back to Oaxaca? Not likely. So after some fretting and a little luck, I was able to reframe what would be an amazing time off.
My leave officially began on April 16, so naturally I was in the truck on the morning of April 17th, heading west towards Flagstaff. The morning of the 18th my buddy Chris and I headed across the southern Kaibab Plateau, on our way to the South Bass Trailhead to attempt the Royal Arch Route — one of the most difficult marked routes on the South Rim (according to the National Park) and honestly a route I had never even heard of before Chris suggested it.
One of the many bummers about Covid is just how hard it hit many of the Indigenous communities of the Southwest, and the tribes of Arizona even more seriously. Those impacts still reveal themselves in interesting ways, like not being able to drive across Havasupai land to access the South Bass trailhead — the normal beginning and ending point of this particular hike. Now, I fully understand and respect why, so no need to go there, but it added about 8 miles on each end of what is normally just a 35-mile backcountry loop hike. On the surface that would normally not be a huge problem, but in this case with there being so little precipitation in Northern Arizona over the past 2 years, we assumed that we must haul all the water we needed to get all the way to the Colorado River (23 dry, rugged miles) with no refill — and that meant very heavy packs (I started at 62lbs) and wise decision making to not run out.
Long story short, we did it, but just barely. There was NO water from the truck, across the plateau, down South Kaibab, across the Esplanade (AMAZING few miles!) and down the rough Royal Arch Canyon to within about 200 yards of the actual arch before stumbling upon the intimate springs that create the lush, bullfrog-resonant pools near the arch itself and on down to create the iconic Elves Chasm waterfall that so many river runners crave to play in. We were able to filter enough water to get to the river the next day, but it was close.
After a mildly spicy rappel, we launched out, down, and off the Tonto layer to finally meet the river at Toltec Beach (a cute beach for two, but not much more than that.) But the night by the river was grand, even though I think Chris and I were both totally out of commission (after me trying to repair my hammered feet) before the sun fully set. But knowing the abuse of all that downhill, mostly off-trail hiking behind us, we were ready to rally to head back up.
Sunrise, packing up — the goal for the day was to get back up to the Tonto layer, traverse that hot, dry, exposed layer and get into South Bass Canyon in one push. So, not a ton of climbing, but lots of in and out of side canyons, so much sun exposure, and zero water. So we left the river fully loaded again (I had 11 liters of filtered water) and began the huck upwards. From now on, always uphill!
It mostly went fine. The trail on the Tonto is not the freeway I anticipated it to be, but as long as you pay attention and are logical about things, it’s pretty straightforward. We hustled up Garnet Canyon, out onto the Tonto, through Copper Canyon (big!) and dozens of other side canyon circumnavigations. In the heat of the day we hunkered under the one obvious boulder for a few hours, catching the only shade in miles to recover and eat and give my feet a break. By late afternoon we turned up into South Bass Canyon and boogied up a few miles before finding a tiny pullout to set up our tents for the night.
Climbing out of South Bass then back up to the rim in the morning was actually reasonable. Chris and I are strong, so the uphill was actually fairly pleasant and the cool air gave us the motivation to get after it. Back at the South Bass trailhead, with 8 miles to go, my feet were literally screaming at me with every step, and Chris was starting to feel his feet in a big way as well. The miles to the truck were a struggle for both of us, but slog we did, and just when I felt like my body couldn’t push any farther, the truck appeared under the big tree where we left it.
Opening the tailgate of the truck revealed what pulled me across the finish line — a quick hit of Advil and a couple shots of Panamanian rum I had stashed in the back. Chris still giggles about my combination, but hey — the rewards.
Lessons learned — be ready to carry lots of water, and protect your feet! That much downhill with seriously heavy packs is way more than I expected, and even with great shoes and socks, the demands were just a lot. And, have a great partner — Chris and I worked extremely well together — we paced each other well, made smart choices together, and didn’t take chances we didn’t need to. We both overpacked on food by a good amount, but we listened to our mentors and carried the right amount of water capacity for what we would experience. It was pretty perfect.
Stay tuned for Part 2 about the next phase of my sabbatical soon! (I promise…seriously.)
