I would say that I woke up at sunrise, but I'm not sure that I ever really went to sleep. What a miserably cold night! I rolled out of the tent in my biker leathers and caught a look of concern from the parents of the family that was having breakfast at the campsite next to me. All I could do was smile and laugh, but they showed no sense of humor.
After shaking off the cold with a cup of coffee and a can of chili for breakfast, I headed over to the rim and the trail-head of the Bright Angel trail. If you click on the picture below to enlarge it, you can see the trail as it extends out through the what appears to be the valley floor.
It's about 8 miles out to the point where it looks like the trail stops. But actually, it's another 1.3 miles from there down to the river. There are rest-houses along the trail at 1.5 miles and 3 miles. Both have water, but you're on you own outside of that. After a 10-hour motorcycle ride and a cold, wet night with little sleep, I figure I'd be doing good to get to the 3-mile point and back.
The picture above is from the 1.5-mile stop. The 3-mile stop is that little point sticking out near the middle of the shot. It's a 2,000 ft elevation drop from the rim to the 3-mile stop, so the trail is pretty steep. On top of that, it was 96 degrees when I got there. So much for being cold and wet.
They advise that it can take twice as long to hike up from the trail as it takes to hike down, and that a reasonable fit person can make it down to the 3-mile house and back in 4 to 6 hours. I did it in 3:15, so I'm going to claim to be in pretty good shape for an old guy, and ready to play in the rugby game next weekend.
After the hike, I found the park's general store, where I was able to buy a new sleeping bag for $130. Not nearly as nice as the one I lost, but I'd have paid twice the price to not have to repeat last night.
