Our Grand Canyon is coming up in just over two weeks. We’ve finished most of our hill training and long distance hikes and now we are packing for the trail.
We have reservations to stay in the dorms at Phantom Ranch on the canyon bottom. That means we don’t need to worry about hauling tents or sleeping bags. We also don’t need to pack food or supplies for meals. We opted instead to pay the high prices for prepared supper and breakfast in the canyon plus a sack lunch to eat on our hike back up out of the canyon. The ease of having someone else haul and prepare our food for us seems more than worth the cost.
We’ll be back country hiking for several hours each day, so we’ve researched cold weather and long distance hiking quite a bit. Since it will be winter at the top of the canyon and warmer on the canyon floor, we’ve paid extra attention to layering so we can adapt quickly and easily to changing weather. We decided on a base layer (polyester tops and bottoms to wick away moisture and add a little warmth), a mid layer (fleece on top and hiking/wind pants on bottom) and outer layer (good cold weather jackets) for each of us. Plus we’ll each carry a rain poncho and pants in case of inclement weather.
So really we only need to pack basic supplies like extra base layer clothes, toiletries, camera, snack foods, first aid kits, sunscreen, trekking poles and emergency Mylar thermal blankets.
Plus water. We definitely do not want to run out of water so we might end up carrying more than we’ll need. At this point we think we’ll each be carrying the equivalent of three or possibly four 32 oz bottles. Water adds quite a bit of weight to our packs with each filled 32 oz bottle weighing just under 3 pounds. That means we are trying to balance between the extra weight of the water and the fear of running out.
Because the older boy takes being prepared seriously he is also bringing all of this too…..unless one of us can talk him out of it. The pile adds about 2 pounds to his pack and includes two first aid kits, extra aspirin, pocket knife, compass, mesh bag, flashlight, poncho, extra poncho, survival bracelet, coins, some rocks and other random bits.
