Phantom Ranch to Ribbon Falls

When got up Friday morning, I realized that one of my dorm mates had gone to sleep at 4pm the day before and slept through until 5am. She then left to hike out. My other thee dorm mates got up to hike out soon afterward. They were trying to off load clothing and food to lighten their packs. In the end they took the clothes but left some snacks which I helped finish off - pretzels and oreos.

I felt pretty sore and stiff. It's true what they say about the hike down being harder on you than the hike up. The good news is that the soreness was in my quads, hams and calves - not my feet - the acupuncture must be working. I only had minor twinges in my feet over the last two days. I took it easy and bought a post card for my nephews. I wrote it and posted it to be carried out by mule. I bet they will think that is pretty funny. I also got myself a Phantom Ranch tshirt.

Soon afterwards I headed out to hike to Ribbon Falls. You can see the photos here or at the end of this post (unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be working at the moment). It was a pretty hike through steep canyons along Bright Angel Creek on the North Kaibab trail. The falls were about 6 miles up on the North Kaibab trail. The falls were really amazing. You could even walk behind them.

When I returned, I had several new room mates in my dorm. Two of them had these cool head lamps that clip on a baseball cap. I really want to get one of those. They appeared to be in better shape after the hike down than the previous days room mates and were planning on hiking to Ribbon Falls the next day so I told them how nice it was.

We got a couple of other room mates later. One asked me to give up my lower bunk because she has epilepsy and was worried about falling off the top bunk. I politely refused but wondered why she didn't worry about falling off one of the cliff face on the way down the South Kaibab trail. The other new room mate discovered a baby scorpion in the shower.

Dinner was much the same with some nice conversation with a couple from Chicago that had hiked into the Canyon annually for the last three years. They had never done any hiking or camping but read up on it and went for it. They were a hoot. They were stopping at Indian Gardens to overnight on their way out and were a bit skeptical of my plan to hike all the way out and drive back to Mesa all in one day. Between this input and my soreness I have to say that I was a tad bit nervous about my plan.

It was another early night in the dorm room. I planned to be up early and leave by 6 am.