Grand Canyon Expedition

We all need to have a bucket list for our life .

So as a family we pledged each other not to visit Grand Canyon until we get to hike it till bottom and hence a bucket list got added .

Since it is difficult to find a spot to stay @ Phantom Ranch we were trying to prebook the slots in lotteries but never had any luck . It was first week of Aug when while randomly opening the sites we could see one open slot and we just booked it and then arranged our travel accordingly . 

So there are multiple trails from rims which lead to Canyon bottom . The most famous of all is Rim 2 Rim trail where you descend from North Rim while ascend from South Rim . We had limitations with attempting this route so we decided to do Rim 2 Rim at the South Rim itself .

We started from LA on day 1 little early to get adjusted with the climate and surroundings of Grand Canyon . We reached South Rim by 3:00 PM and hence had sufficient time to get accustomed with the surroundings  and plan ahead about the trail .

Change of Plan 

While planning this hike we planned to stick to Bright Angel Trail on both sides which has sufficient shade, water , rest houses and call stations for evacuations but after discussing with rangers we decided  to use  South Kaibab Trail  to go down which has NO WATER , 1 Rest House , NO SHADE and NO RESCUE phone booths and believe me it was a terrible but rewarding decision.

Packing the sacks

We had to be extra careful while packing our sacks as even 500 gm of extra weight irritates in long run . We carried protein rich energy bars , nuts and electrolytes and some fruits . For any medical emergency we carried lots of essential meds which we thought would be essential  . Mid August being one of the hottest canyon month we carried UV protected Hats, clothes, sunscreens  and 4-5 Lt of water per person .

South Kaibab Trail  

We started early at 5:30 AM and the sun was already on the horizon .We were enjoying our trail till 10:00 AM and but then the canyon was harshly hot .  Till 11:00 AM the canyon was unbearable and we had no other option to just keep continuing even though the ranch was half a mile away but we could see that we were already in a confused and lost state of mind due to heat stroke .
Somehow we could barely reach the dormitory beds and then crashed  for next few hours with hydration pipes in our mouth gulping water .

Graffiti beneath one of the bunk bed :-)

Phantom Ranch 

The super glorified Phantom Ranch relived to its utmost expectation. So as a matter of fact only 1 % of people who visit Grand Canyon get chance to visit this place which is at the bottom of the canyon approximately 7000-8000 feet below the rim . This is one of the very few places till date which gave us an absolute thrill of isolation and least chances of being rescued and help hours away in case of any emergency .

It was pleasure to meet people (with their grand children) who had this ranch in their bucket list from past 30 years and were trying to get that one spot from past many  months/years .

Bright Angel Trail

We opted safest of all trails "Bright Angel Trail" to get out of the Canyon bottom but it was a race against sun and its heat to get out of canyon . We skipped the pre booked breakfast at the ranch and fled out in the dark with headlamps @ 4:00 AM .  This being a totally new route to us we were dependent upon offline maps in the dark .

4:00 AM @ Phantom Ranch

Early morning view from the Indian Gardens

Sticking with the earlier hiking experience (travel fast , least breaks , sticking together and be little noisy to avoid unexpected encounters with animals because even a wild horny buck can be dangerous ) we covered 5 miles till Indian Gardens in just 2-3 hours and now we had a precise plan to just ascend  1/2 mile in 1 hour with a normal pace as from now it was steep canyon walls. The best part of this trail is it has break points with basic amenities every few miles .
We somehow finished this part of trail  in total 8-9 hours , loosing around 20-25 lbs of combined body weight (2 people)  within  27 hours spent in Canyon and immediately drove back to LA :-)

Damanganga River Valley Expedition (A cross country Trek)

Damanganga river valley , most of us might not had heard about it .Same was the case with me when I came to know about this cross country expedition through TCS Matiree mails. I was unable to find any information as there are hardly any posts or wiki pages about this location.

The journey started on Friday night (21 Dec) with many of us waiting for the bus on our  stops.With around 5 to 6 hours of traveling we reached the base village Ruipada, where we were divided in teams and then had an awesome breakfast of kanda poha and chai. As we were already 1 hour late from our schedule so we all packed our bags and started our trek with the first milestone of crossing the Val river .

 Thereafter was one of the toughest back to back climb of steep mountains which which made us gasp for our breaths.After continous non stops ascends  and descends we reached in a valley where we were give just 15 mins to have our lunch and refill our bottles.

The moment I was thinking about the expected next way of our trek I was shocked to hear that we have to again climb a mountain. It was impossible for any of us to climb it in one go so we took multiple breaks and once we reached the top no one of us even bothered about the dirt or any thing else we slept at the place on top of ........ (need not explicitly mention) where the villagers had earlier tied there goats . Then came our whole trek group and we had a very informative session from Deepa mam  and our other trek leads telling us about Daman ganga river valley.

Continuing our trek thereafter we came across many dead and alive snakes and then came the 90 deg steep mountain slope which was sufficient enough to give me goosebumps. Taking help from one of my trek mate I finally made it to bottom after slipping 5 to 6 time from the slopes and landing into bushes with bruises on my hands.

Above picture was clicked when we were wondering how to go down ...........

With yet another 2 to 3 hours of continous trekking we reached our base village Dadri for night halt. It was yet another amazing experience to learn setting up camps and then working in teams to win the BIG GAME  in night  followed by Adivasi Tibal Dance Tarpa  !!!

Early morning next day::::::::::::::::::

Unable to sleep due to extreme cold Pooja and I got up very early at around 5:30 and since everybody else was sleeping we got up to take a round near our camping site with torches in our hands. Unable to get the directions in the night we walked in the directions were Tribal were doing some kind of rituals around fire . Cold feeted we walked a little bit ahead but while flashing our torches on to the forests we found a big white figure (might be a big tree) but in the cold dark night it was sufficient enough to give us the top most speed to run back to our tents. Finally we sat back near our tents with yet another amazing experience of star gazing .The day  started with pack ups and getting ready for the another day.

Second day was full of mountain climbing ,crossing water falls and traveling in a valley with full of big boulders. It was a day full of risks and dangers as even a slip or a mistake would have landed a person into deep trenches .

And finally we all 40 trekers completed the cross country trek starting from Thane District (Jawahar) crossing Daman and then finally arriving Dadra Nagar Haveli. It was historical moment for all of us as TCS Matiree is the first ever group to explore the most magnificent forests of Daman and Dadar Nagar Haveli which would be sub merged under water till 2025 due to an upcoming Damanganga Dam to fulfill water needs of Mumbai city.

This was an appreciable initiative by TCS Matiree team who themselves did multiple pilots in the area before bringing us here just to make us aware and spread the words to save our Sahyadri Mountain ranges and these tribal villagers who are still unaware of there rights.