It’s a Small World

Trouble at Phantom Ranch

Written by Heath

It’s evening and we are sitting at Phantom Ranch. A group of four people, two couples – 50ish maybe – are fighting beside us. We are at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It’s a long, grueling climb out. Hours and miles of climbing steep rocky steps. The trail is rough and uneven. Enjoyable for some, but for others it can turn into a nightmare. And for these four folks, that is what had happened. One of the lady’s knees had given out by the time they got down. Now they were scared and worried and had no idea what to do. They had just gotten some knee wraps from someone and wrapped her knees, hoping it would help. She stood and tried to walk, but she didn’t think it was enough. “I can’t make it up,” she said. Tempers exploded and the other lady gave her a good yelling out. A couple of minutes later she was apologizing profusely.

But what are they going to do? They didn’t have reservations to stay at Phantom Ranch, and those are booked out months in advance. They didn’t carry any sleeping gear or food to stay for the night. Their great idea was to start from the top early in the morning, come down, rest a bit, and then hike back out. Rim to river to rim is the bragging description.

Everybody does it – right?

Hundreds of people do it every day – it can’t be that bad..

Oh sure, some people get into trouble – they should have never been out there in the first place..

We’re a pretty fit group (compared to what?) – I think we can do it..

You bet, It will be great..

Yes, they had a problem on their hands and I have no idea how they fixed it. But very likely, she had to find the strength and courage somewhere to bear the pain and slowly grind her way out. There really is no other option unless it is a case of life and death. The NPS really isn’t into providing free helicopter rides out.

And that’s one of the things that really shocked me as we walked the 46 miles through the canyon and back – The sheer amount of people that had underestimated the hike and were in varying degrees of trouble trying to complete it.

We probably should have expected it after (the evening before) a group of 60 year old men came out of the canyon and burst into tears of relief when they reached the top. The canyon had taken everything they had.

Our plan, too, was to start early in the morning, cross the canyon, and then turn around and come back, finishing after dark sometime. As the day got later, we ran into more and more people who were straggling and for whom things were not working out how they had planned. Some were couples. Some were alone. Some were families. A surprising number of people were abandoned by their groups when they fell behind and they were left to fend for themselves.

There were plenty of others too who had big plans, but aborted before it was too late to turn around. Those were the wise ones.

We met another couple spatting on the trail and the discussion we heard predominantly involved the word “helicopter”. Later we heard that they also were planning to double cross the canyon that day. They crossed once and her knee was bothering her when they got to the top. They decided to stick to their plan and try to get back. We met them a few miles later and she was apparently not doing good. They were in a real predicament. Again, same as with they many others we saw struggling, we moved on. There was really nothing we could do for them. What did they do? Did she make it? Or did they turn around and go back? Maybe he kept going and she turned around and limped back to the top. Whatever the case, it’s many miles back around the canyon by car also and the options still are not good.

A few hours later, us three guys found ourselves staring dutifully at the shorts of every lady we met. We wondered if ladies got creeped out as we stared at their waists as they came and then we paused and turned to look at their behinds after they passed. We had been instructed to look for two ladies, Julie and Kelly, and deliver a message when we found them. (There is, by the way, no cell phone service in the canyon.) They had not shown up at the rendezvous and their friends had been waiting for nearly two hours. They had to move on or they were going to get into trouble themselves. We were supposed to tell Julie and Kelly they couldn’t wait and had gone on. They couldn’t really describe Julie and Kelly for us though other than that Kelly was tall and was wearing blue shorts. We did eventually find them and they were in trouble. They were not going to make it out. They were going to stop and spend the night at the next water station. They also found a healthy looking messenger that would hopefully catch up with their friends and let them know. So I suppose somewhere going in the other direction there was another hiker dutifully staring at the behind of every woman he caught up with.

Two runners passed us. Immediately after they passed us, the one told the other he could no longer run. They shook hands and the one ran on and the other slowed to a walk. He kept a steady walk in front of us for a few hours, but we eventually caught up with him at Indian Gardens, halfway up the climb out. He was done in and couldn’t go any further. He said he had not brought the right foods and had ran out of energy. All I saw in his food pack was Skittles and I kind of agreed. Oh well, he was young and healthy enough. He would spend the night on the bench and try to get out tomorrow. I did not envy him.

The girls cricket team (20ish years old maybe) was doing a rim to rim. They were also waiting and not knowing what to do at Phantom Ranch. It was evening and they had not even started the climb out. All they had with them was water bottles and snacks. One of the girls was in the bathroom being violently sick. Last I saw them, they were discussing their dilemma with a park ranger.

Back up to Indian Garden and long after dark, a young guy and a girl sat on another bench and they were mad as hops. They had not been able to hold the pace of the rest of the group and the group had abandoned them at the river. They were still determined to get out but they were moving slow. They were a couple of hours behind schedule and already knew they were missing the shuttle at the top that was picking up the rest of the group. They left muttering and I left a minute or two after them, figuring I would pass them shortly. I never saw them again.

What I did see a bit later though was a set of clean white sheets spread under a tree along the trail with a beautiful full size satin pillow reflecting the light from my headlamp. It struck me as odd and after a few feet I stopped and went back to investigate. No one was around. Just clean sheets on the dirt and that amazing satin pillow.

From Indian Garden up, the determined were slowly struggling. There were occasional puddles of vomit on the trail. You would pass people leaning against the cliffside, eyes closed and miserable. A family of five, Dad, mom, and their three grown teenagers were having a special family trip and hiking the canyon, in one day, from north to south. Looking at them, it was fairly obvious that hiking was not their normal go to activity. They were sitting beside the trail, the kids were done in and they were still several miles from the top. Mom wasn’t doing well either and dad just shrugged. Never again, said mother. Never, ever again would she attempt such a thing. This was 9 or 10 at night already. Someone prodded the group into motion, but they just went a couple of hundred feet and sat down again. That did not look promising.

A bit later we passed an older man alone in the same situation. Moving a few feet and stopping, moving a few feet and stopping, not doing well at all.. When we got to the top we found the rest of his group waiting. They wondered if we had seen him. He had gotten slow and they had left him behind hours ago. We wondered what kind of group they were to have left him behind like that. Whatever the case, they would still be waiting awhile because, at the rate he was moving, he would not be up anytime soon.

A messenger came down from the top looking for two girls that had not shown up. Benches were occupied by sleeping people who had thrown in the towel. 

And for us? All the way through and back in a day? 46 miles? 11,000+ ft of elevation gain? Over 100,000 steps? It’s an extreme hike by most standards. Some people prepare and train for years just to do half of it, the rim to rim, which is already considered extreme. But extreme is relative. There were little girls there doing it faster than I was:)

I’m not going to lie, it was a real challenge for me and there were a couple of times I wondered if I would make it. My feet got really bruised and blistered. When I tended and wrapped them for the last time at the river before we started up, I knew I was out of options. There was nothing more I could do but hope what I just did worked. There was a serious prayer made I got up and limped on and the Lord was good enough to answer that prayer. It really was not an issue after that.

One of the most impressive sights of the “day” came soon after dark. And it was dark. No moon at all and deep in the canyon, it was dark. As I looked ahead, I could see hundreds of headlamps on the trail stretching up, up, up into the blackness. Distance perception was not really there, it just looked like they were on a wall that went up impossibly high in front of us. At first glance, you really couldn’t see where the headlamps stopped and the stars started. It was an amazing sight, but also extremely daunting to think we needed to get up, up, up there to the top of that wall.

As far as that goes, I was in Trouble At Phantom Ranch too. We got there in the late afternoon. It was a hot day, well over 100, and I did not eat enough solid food hiking through the heat of the day. The last mile in was miserable and I nearly passed out when I got there and stopped at the toilet. The room shrank and swam around me as I stood there doing my business. The fog cleared after a bit, and after a lemonade on ice from the canteen, a fifteen minute break, and a good dose of solid food, I was good to go again.

Andrew got sleepy for the last few miles. Really sleepy. Never seen anything like it sleepy. We had a little trouble getting him to go because he just wanted to sleep. Fit as a fiddle, he claimed, as he slurred and swayed drunkenly up the hill. Just sleepy. I wonder how much of that he remembers..? Darwin plugged right through and I think we probably slowed him down by an hour or two. I don’t think he minded. 

By all means, if you feel to test your mettle, get out there and do it. In the end, very few people die doing it. And by all appearances, plenty of people have to dig a little deeper for strength they didn’t know they had to finish it. No one is going to carry you out. Most will feel a sense of accomplishment. But for some, it won’t be a good memory. The pain, misery, and fear were too great for that.