TR: Grand Canyon -- Escalante-Tonto (Cut Short by a Fall)
Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:25 pm
Given the wet spring in the area, my intention was to hike the Escalante-Tonto route from Tanner Rapids to Bass Canyon — about 110 miles all up. Turns out this trip was snakebit from the start, but I just didn’t recognize the symptoms.
Symptom 1: I showed up at the Spirit Airlines counter at O’Hare for my flight to Phoenix only to be told I had actually booked a flight on Frontier Airlines. In my defense, how easy is it to distinguish one crappy discount airline from another? I’ll give you a “basic economy fare” right away…
Symptom 2: I had to drive through a nighttime snowstorm from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village and ended up sleeping in the rental car at Mather Campground rather than pitching my tent in a couple inches of snow.
Symptom 3: On the taxi ride out to Lipan Point the next morning, half my water for the descent to the Colorado River spilled out in the trunk. (Anti-Symptom A: When I did reach the Colorado River, which had a chocolate milk color and consistency, the alum-as-a-flocculent trick worked like a dream.)
Symptom 4: Part way down the Tanner Trail I met a couple gentlemen resting in the trail, so I stepped onto a large boulder to make my way around them. It rolled, I fell, and one of my poles got trapped underneath and broke.
Symptom 5: On day two, while descending a rock face between 75 Mile Creek and Papago Creek, I suffered a trip-ending injury though it took a couple days for that fact to penetrate my thick skull. I was on a wide ledge with a narrower ledge about two-and-a-half feet below, a small landing another two-and-a-half feet below the narrow ledge, and then a forty foot precipitous slope to the rocky shoreline of the Colorado River. I lost my balance standing on the upper ledge and started to fall *away* from the rock face, so I used my last bit of friction to purposefully jump down to the lower ledge. I "stuck my landing" on both feet — personally, I’d have scored it a 9 in a gymnastics competition. Unfortunately, with all the weight on my back and flesh around my middle, I landed in a deep crouch at which point there was a pop!-pop! at my left ankle followed approximately 47 milliseconds later by a pop! just below my left knee. Then I fell sideways onto the landing below. (Anti-Symptom B: I didn’t bounce. Just sayin’…)
Eventually hobbled down to the beach at Papago Creek and made camp while laying on my back with my foot elevated and still installed in its boot, all the while thinking it was just a bad sprain. Next morning it took me three hours to climb the Papago Wall and make my way down river about a mile-and-a-quarter to Hance Rapids. My leg and ankle took a beating on the way, so I called it a day and camped in the shade of a huge boulder. Next day I made my way 7 miles and 1200 feet up to Hance Creek and called it quits after lunch, still believing I could salvage part of the trip with more rest. Ahem. Morning of day five dawned with no real relief in my symptoms and interesting colors appearing on the skin around my ankle, so I made the obvious decision to exit via Grandview Trail, another 5 miles and 3800 feet up to the South Rim. Taxi ride to the Backcountry Information Center to release the remaining days on my permit ($16 hiker credit — woo-hoo!). Learned that the x-ray technician was not present at the local health clinic, so I drove to the hospital in Flagstaff where x-rays confirmed I had broken my ankle and my fibula (it’s a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maisonneuve_fracture).
Symptom 6: I had to buy a last-minute, red-eye flight home on Spirit Airlines. Oh, the irony…
Your Correspondent (Trying to Keep Calm & Heal Before His Planned Big Summer O’ Hiking),
Dennis
Symptom 1: I showed up at the Spirit Airlines counter at O’Hare for my flight to Phoenix only to be told I had actually booked a flight on Frontier Airlines. In my defense, how easy is it to distinguish one crappy discount airline from another? I’ll give you a “basic economy fare” right away…
Symptom 2: I had to drive through a nighttime snowstorm from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village and ended up sleeping in the rental car at Mather Campground rather than pitching my tent in a couple inches of snow.
Symptom 3: On the taxi ride out to Lipan Point the next morning, half my water for the descent to the Colorado River spilled out in the trunk. (Anti-Symptom A: When I did reach the Colorado River, which had a chocolate milk color and consistency, the alum-as-a-flocculent trick worked like a dream.)
Symptom 4: Part way down the Tanner Trail I met a couple gentlemen resting in the trail, so I stepped onto a large boulder to make my way around them. It rolled, I fell, and one of my poles got trapped underneath and broke.
Symptom 5: On day two, while descending a rock face between 75 Mile Creek and Papago Creek, I suffered a trip-ending injury though it took a couple days for that fact to penetrate my thick skull. I was on a wide ledge with a narrower ledge about two-and-a-half feet below, a small landing another two-and-a-half feet below the narrow ledge, and then a forty foot precipitous slope to the rocky shoreline of the Colorado River. I lost my balance standing on the upper ledge and started to fall *away* from the rock face, so I used my last bit of friction to purposefully jump down to the lower ledge. I "stuck my landing" on both feet — personally, I’d have scored it a 9 in a gymnastics competition. Unfortunately, with all the weight on my back and flesh around my middle, I landed in a deep crouch at which point there was a pop!-pop! at my left ankle followed approximately 47 milliseconds later by a pop! just below my left knee. Then I fell sideways onto the landing below. (Anti-Symptom B: I didn’t bounce. Just sayin’…)
Eventually hobbled down to the beach at Papago Creek and made camp while laying on my back with my foot elevated and still installed in its boot, all the while thinking it was just a bad sprain. Next morning it took me three hours to climb the Papago Wall and make my way down river about a mile-and-a-quarter to Hance Rapids. My leg and ankle took a beating on the way, so I called it a day and camped in the shade of a huge boulder. Next day I made my way 7 miles and 1200 feet up to Hance Creek and called it quits after lunch, still believing I could salvage part of the trip with more rest. Ahem. Morning of day five dawned with no real relief in my symptoms and interesting colors appearing on the skin around my ankle, so I made the obvious decision to exit via Grandview Trail, another 5 miles and 3800 feet up to the South Rim. Taxi ride to the Backcountry Information Center to release the remaining days on my permit ($16 hiker credit — woo-hoo!). Learned that the x-ray technician was not present at the local health clinic, so I drove to the hospital in Flagstaff where x-rays confirmed I had broken my ankle and my fibula (it’s a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maisonneuve_fracture).
Symptom 6: I had to buy a last-minute, red-eye flight home on Spirit Airlines. Oh, the irony…
Your Correspondent (Trying to Keep Calm & Heal Before His Planned Big Summer O’ Hiking),
Dennis