Bear & Sundance Canyoneering

A very fun day! With an early start, time to canyoneer two classics in the West Clear Creek area of the Mogollon Rim.

Here's a video of Todd Martin rappelling in Sundance Canyon.

Grandview to Kaibab Loop

I'd been eager to do some backpacking after a six week layoff, and the recent snowstorms guaranteed flowing water below the South Rim, so I knew this was the time to hike the Tonto Trail between Horseshoe Mesa and the South Kaibab. This was mostly new territory for me; I'd been down to Horseshoe Mesa several times but had hiked off the north or east sides and never down the west side into Cottonwood Creek. Beyond Cottonwood to the west lay Grapevine, Boulder, Lonetree and Cremation creeks. I'd been in from the west side only as far as Lonetree, which meant ten miles of new trail and three new canyons. So off I went at 8:00 Sunday morning, ensuring I would reach the Backcountry Office to pull a permit before their noon lunch closure.

Arriving at 11:30 I'd seen snow on the ground since Flagstaff and knew this was going to be a good day for hiking. Grapevine use area was full that night, so I pulled a two-night permit in Cottonwood Creek, then Cremation, which use area includes Lonetree Canyon. The Cottonwood to Lonetree leg on Monday would be 14 miles, so ranger Patrick, in a somewhat apologetic tone, required that I complete a "hiker information sheet". This is the sheet that usually accompanies the joked-about "you're gonna die" letter that one sometimes receives in response to a particularly ambitious permit request. Its purpose is to gather information about your previous hiking experience together with identifying information like tent and sleeping bag color that could be used to identify you; I suspect that it's also intended to scare off true tenderfeet since some of the information would only be useful to track you (boot type) or to identify your body (height, weight, eye and hair color). Patrick then helpfully called a Xanterra taxi to deliver me to the Grandview trailhead; I could take the shuttle bus back from South Kaibab on the return.

After a short wait, and time to weigh my pack (showing 44 lbs on the questionable scale in the Backcountry Office) I was on my way. At 1pm, right on schedule, I was strapping on the crampons at the trailhead, and watching tourists in sneakers test the trail. Most didn't venture very far. A friendly visitor snapped my picture, above, I snapped the view into the canyon, below, and then I was off.