Day 298

Day 298 (AZT 3): 28 miles

The morning consisted of switching back and forth from walking on snow/ice and a sloppy mud pit. I would imagine this area, other than maybe the snow bowl near flagstaff, will be the most snow for the trail which kinda makes me wish I didn’t bring my spikes now cause they weren’t necessary at all today.

Early in the day I got to a very anticlimactic welcome to Grand Canyon national park. There was just that little sign in front of a gate that was surrounded by fence that was all fallen over. Shortly after I got a view of the east rim which was kinda scenic but I couldn’t see too much cause the sun was blinding. After that I took a short detour and climbed the north rim lookout tower which was eh. The top floor was locked and while it was high up, I felt like I was just looking over the top of a bunch of pine trees.

Then when I got to the park entrance for cars there was a portajohn there that was locked, and I couldn’t believe it. Arizona is so lock happy. But then I walked on the road side of the trees and there was an unlocked one there thankfully. Also big thanks to the workers that leave out a big blue jug of water at that spot, definitely helped me out today.

The next 10 miles we’re pretty boring hiking, basically parallel to the road without any views except the surrounding pine trees. There were also a ton of high voltage electrical boxes so not sure what the deal was with those. Finally got to the North Kaibab trailhead and got my permit for camping in the Grand Canyon. I really wanna enjoy my time in the canyon, which entails not hiking in the dark, so I chose the closer campsite and made it a shorter day.

Once I left there and began the decent into the canyon is honestly the first real beauty I’ve seen since the first couple miles on trail. In addition to the beauty, it was also enjoyable hearing the misery of all the hikers going the opposite direction-uphill out of the canyon. It’s a 5,000+ foot climb from the bottom so I understand their pain, but it was still entertaining. I’m sure it won’t be as fun tomorrow when I’m climbing out the other side.

This campsite is crawling with mice. They’re pretty aggressive but still not at the savage level of the AT winter mice. I’ve got all my food in a bear box here but if they infiltrate that (I’ve seen them do it before) imma be pissed. I tried killing a few by throwing big rocks at them but they’re quick little buggers.

The backcountry office today had the first functional pack scale I’ve seen all year. Mine came in at 31 pounds and that was without any water. Yikes. So much food. Need to eat

Song of the day: smack a bitch-Rico nasty and dr fresch
So aggressive