The Joy of Mountain Biking

Carson

Sport Bacon
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@MissJR

I just caught up with your story.

MCPP are affectionately called Squirrel Police by the rest of us. When I used to work in Mountain Lakes, they were actually still running Morris County Freeholders to EWR as needed for flights.

I agree it sounds like they were totally unprepared for the situation. Obviously, it's a boss's call what the uniform is, but I'm happy to send him a pair of trooper boots with lug soles and some other equipment in 70 calendars days....

Is it wrong that I'm jealous that his camera setup in the car looks better than mine? And I actually do traffic enforcement.

And you probably don't want to know who and what have been in that back seat. Clean those clothes in HOT water!
 

MissJR

not in the mood for your shenanigans
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Figured I should update this thing once in a while... so here it goes:

work: bleh

bike: *crickets*

vacation: ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'M SO EXCITED!!! :)

WE'RE GOING BACK TO THE GRAND CANYON!!!!

End of March, we're heading to Phoenix, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon... where we are planning to a hike down to the bottom!!! Hopefully, the weather holds out. Cold and a little snow will be ok. We're going to bring crampons for the top portion of the hike as we do expect some poorer conditions there based on recent trail reviews. And we're doing some longer hikes now to test out gear and clothing combinations and figure out food and water for the hike. I'm also planning on doing a comprehensive blog post on the hike when we get back (or at least to location with internet).

So, guys, keep your fingers crossed that weather is good for the trip!
 

johnbryanpeters

Well-Known Member
Figured I should update this thing once in a while... so here it goes:

work: bleh

bike: *crickets*

vacation: ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'M SO EXCITED!!! :)

WE'RE GOING BACK TO THE GRAND CANYON!!!!

End of March, we're heading to Phoenix, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon... where we are planning to a hike down to the bottom!!! Hopefully, the weather holds out. Cold and a little snow will be ok. We're going to bring crampons for the top portion of the hike as we do expect some poorer conditions there based on recent trail reviews. And we're doing some longer hikes now to test out gear and clothing combinations and figure out food and water for the hike. I'm also planning on doing a comprehensive blog post on the hike when we get back (or at least to location with internet).

So, guys, keep your fingers crossed that weather is good for the trip!
Been down there before at night on glare ice, no crampons, focus was required...
 

MissJR

not in the mood for your shenanigans
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Been down there before at night on glare ice, no crampons, focus was required...
😬

what time of year did you go?

we're planning on leaving before sunrise so we'll have headlamps and stuff, but hoping to be back before sunset
 

johnbryanpeters

Well-Known Member
😬

what time of year did you go?

we're planning on leaving before sunrise so we'll have headlamps and stuff, but hoping to be back before sunset
Too many years back to remember. Used to walk in starting about ten pm Fridays and walk back out before dawn Sunday.
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
On the way out you could navigate in the dark based on heat from the canyon walls.
Wait, do you look like this by any chance?
vin-diesel-riddick-universal.jpg
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
😬

what time of year did you go?

we're planning on leaving before sunrise so we'll have headlamps and stuff, but hoping to be back before sunset

the hike from the north rim discourages single day attempts.
What are you seeing from the guide info?
this looks awesome.
 

MissJR

not in the mood for your shenanigans
Team MTBNJ Halter's
the hike from the north rim discourages single day attempts.
What are you seeing from the guide info?
this looks awesome.
north rim is currently closed... we're doing south rim to bottom back up to south rim. based on reviews, i think it'll be something like 4 hours down, 6 back up. my biggest concern are the water facilities... right now, no water going down and phantom ranch looks closed to water access so we have to estimate no water until we start to head back up. luckily bathrooms are open. (whew)

there is a 25 degree-ish difference from top to bottom, so the snow and ice worries are basically just for the top mile or so. then i'll be sweating my ass off and stripping.

there's also a few options we can do with this hike. we can skip phantom ranch altogether and spend that time instead doing some of the other look out points. if things are looking bad, we also can cut across before we even reach the bottom.

this hike is rated difficult and not encouraged for one day... BUT i think some of that is to greatly discourage the non-athletic folks from attempting something stupid. so just the stupid athletic people will try this.

i wish we could spend the night at the phantom ranch... we've tried a number of times to get a night with their lottery but no luck so far. so, if we do manage to survive this and somehow get a bunk at the bottom, i would like to come back and do north rim down, spend the night, then up to south rim with maybe some small hike along the water at the bottom. but we'll see what happens. first thing's first is this march hike.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Basic plan:
5:30am bus to trailhead, or walk.
Skip sunrise at Ooh Aah point so we can be a bit further down and escape crowds. Sunrise at 6:30 a bit futher down the trail. By the time we hit the start of 12 hours of daylight we'll already be down into the Canyon by a decent amount.
Cross the black bridge over the river if it's open. Phantom Ranch for lemonade and eat our lunch.
Silver bridge back to the south side, start the hike up to the top.
Detour to Plateau Point if we're feeling good.
Finish going up.
Ice Cream
Dinner
Crawl to hotel room as the shuttles in the park are closed starting March 1st.

If there's disaster we can take Tonto Trail to cut off mileage but still have most of the ascent.

They're very clear about making it a two-day minimum hike, but there's a huge difference between Summer and the Spring.

There's no water for the first 1/2 or possibly 3/4 of the hike, but between colder temperatures at the start and bringing bladders and an extra water bottle, I think we'll be OK on that end. Right now it looks like roughly 30 degrees at the top, 70 degrees at the bottom. I doubt staying warm on the way up will be an issue...
 

johnbryanpeters

Well-Known Member
Basic plan:
5:30am bus to trailhead, or walk.
Skip sunrise at Ooh Aah point so we can be a bit further down and escape crowds. Sunrise at 6:30 a bit futher down the trail. By the time we hit the start of 12 hours of daylight we'll already be down into the Canyon by a decent amount.
Cross the black bridge over the river if it's open. Phantom Ranch for lemonade and eat our lunch.
Silver bridge back to the south side, start the hike up to the top.
Detour to Plateau Point if we're feeling good.
Finish going up.
Ice Cream
Dinner
Crawl to hotel room as the shuttles in the park are closed starting March 1st.

If there's disaster we can take Tonto Trail to cut off mileage but still have most of the ascent.

They're very clear about making it a two-day minimum hike, but there's a huge difference between Summer and the Spring.

There's no water for the first 1/2 or possibly 3/4 of the hike, but between colder temperatures at the start and bringing bladders and an extra water bottle, I think we'll be OK on that end. Right now it looks like roughly 30 degrees at the top, 70 degrees at the bottom. I doubt staying warm on the way up will be an issue...
It's a wonderful hike, I think you'll both enjoy it.
 
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