Havasu Falls Backpacking Trip Part 3 of 3

We wanted to be on the trail by 0615. Since the cafe doesn't open until 7am, that meant we needed to have breakfast in our rooms. I had brought my backpacking cereal and it was nothing to boil up water and add nuts and dried fruit for a hearty breakfast. Others made do with food bars of some sort. TK and Yvette, since they had missed supper, decided to go to the cafe for a big breakfast. I told them they'd probably catch up to me, I go so slow up hill. We all met in the courtyard (minus TK and Yvette) and I think all of us left packs for the mule train to take to the top for us. Randy, John, Jerry and I had decided the previous day to take advantage of that offer. Randy and I had to figure out how to put our spare gear somewhere other than our packs.

We only brought the full packs, no day packs. Eventually we decided to use a trash bag. I took the bag I was using as a bag liner out of my pack and we began stuffing it with my extra food, our spare gear and dirty clothes, as well as Randy's tripod. John and Jerry had a spare trash bag so we could double bag it then wrap it in duct tape. Hooray, I wasn't going to have to carry the extra 15 pounds out of the canyon. Our packs at the Lodge gate where they would strap them onto the horses and mules, we trudged off out of Supai. It was just dawn, the coolest part of the day. It was lovely to hike along the Havasu Creek on the mile out of town. So many birds were singing! At the mile point, the trail moves away from the creek and back into the Hualapai

Canyon. This part of the trail is mostly level but it was cool to see the sun changing the light in the canyon as it rose higher in the sky. I was moving along but not racing, probably 1.5 to 2 miles an hour. I wanted to save my strength for the 1.5 miles up the switchbacks. Subsequently, I fell farther and farther behind the rest of the group. Randy stayed with me. Jerry was moving at about the same speed I was so the three of us moved at our own speed, enjoying the morning cool. About 9am I decided to take a break. The sun was fully up but at this juncture there wasn't much shade. We were about 4 miles into the canyon. Here we ran into a small herd, about 5, of horses, freely meandering along the canyon floor, munching on whatever they felt like munching. It was at this point we caught up with Lisa, finishing up her break. I had a snack and a good drink of water and watched while

Jerry took off his shoes. He thought there was a rock in his shoe. Nope, a nice blister. So I dug out my moleskin, sports tape and pocket knife and we got his blister taken care of.

I also felt something wrong in my left boot so my snack done, I took off my boot. Sure enough. My left baby toe had a blister on the end and just at the bottom of the toe nail. This is even though I had taped all of my toes up before we left the Lodge. I took off the old tape and re-taped that toe. It felt much better when I got it back in the boot. In the meantime, the baggage trains were passing us by, headed to Hilltop. Break

over, we moved on. Both Jerry and I felt much better for getting those blisters taken care of. The last level mile went by very quickly. Almost before we knew it we were at the base. We took another quick break and let a couple of baggage trains go by, then started up.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I hate going uphill. Not only do I get out of breath and overheated, my hips and knees start to hurt. It doesn't matter. If I was going home, I had to hike up that cliff. The first part isn't too steep, I only had to stop to rest a couple of times. About the halfway point, there's a walled space with stone benches. We rested there a good 10 or 15 minutes. Had water and a snack. Randy lay down on the bench, pretending to take a nap. We watched another couple of baggage trains go by and spotted our packs on one of the horses. That was actually pretty cool! Of course we'd been passing hikers since about 8am, going into the canyon. Now there were more. Not a lot, but a steady trickle of them coming down hill. We got back going up the now steeper trail. This was the worse part for me. Trudge, trudge, trudge in what I call granny gear. Put one foot in front of the other, set distance goals, that bush, that turn. There were lots of stops for resting. We had to get

off the trail a few times to let the baggage trains by. Eventually, I could see the top and our friends up there, waving. The last two switchbacks were the worse, but I grit my teeth and pushed though, gasping for breath and red faced while our friends cheered us for making it to the top. We weren't there 10 minutes when TK and Yvette caught up to us in the parking lot. They are hiking fools! Good for them. So the baggage trains had brought all of our stuff up and we picked it up and headed home. It was a wonderful trip, one I had been wanting to do for several years. Despite the climb up the canyon walls, it's one I'd recommend for the simple reason that it's a unique environment, and beautiful. I hope you can make it there someday.