Type of trip: Backpacking
Date: Dec. 9-14, 2017
People: Max Chacon, Doug Ward, David Krawitz
This 5 night trip was hacked together at the end of fall quarter of junior year in college. Man, do I miss the days when all my friends had the same time off and urge to go on adventures. We split the 10 hour drive from SLO in half, making our first camp out in the Mojave Desert. Dave bought a BB gun rifle along the way. It was quite fitting for the John Wayne hideout we were camped in. Here we declared ourselves the Fire Bomb Squad in honor of the Wailing Souls’ Firehouse Rock album.
The drive continued to the Grand Canyon permit station, which was quite deserted that winter afternoon. The only other person in the station was fully fitted in a formal black suit. However, the suit was dusty and we overheard his plans to re up his backcountry permit for another two weeks. The man was the modern day Jack Kerocac. He left us in awe.
So then we embarked on the hike out of Grandview trailhead and down to Horseshoe Mesa. It was the steepest trail we had ever seen and took some time to get used to. The short winter day had us rolling into Horseshoe Mesa at sunset. In the morning, we relieved ourselves in America’s best outhouse, overlooking the whole southern canyon.
We then trekked 8 beautiful miles down to Hance Rapids. The sun had just set as we arrived at camp. Temps were quite cold and mice scurried below our feet. Dave insisted he would call a helicopter in the morning.
Hance Creek was the next day’s camp, back up the way we came. The silty water gave our filter lots of trouble. A ranger checked our permits and boasted about the winters in the Grand Canyon. He made sure to mention that he preferred to sleep without a tent. Our teeth chattered and eyes rolled.
The final day was a 4500 ft climb back to Grandview trailhead. On the way, we attempted to find the Cave of Domes, an alluring landmark on our map. It turned out that caves are incredibly hard to find with no prior research. So on we went, straight up the canyon rim. Dave, who was caboose for most of the hike down, was now out front and inquiring if we were okay. As he crested into the Grandview trailhead, he belted a roar of excitement. The pampered tourist gazed in horror.
That evening we enjoyed a huge meal at the Grand Canyon Mcdonalds, then drove to the same Mojave camping area that we had stayed at on the first night. It was dark when we arrived, so we elected to sleep on a tarp under the stars. We laid there reminiscing, but our conversation was interjected every minute or so by shooting stars. The moment became quite absurd and we all realized we were all experiencing the most amazing stars and meteors of our lives. We probably fell asleep too early that night. The windchill forced Max and Doug to sleep in the front seats of the car.
Many years later, I began researching the best days of the year to go stargazing, hoping to recreate that night in the Mojave. I discovered that that night, December 13th, was the peak of the year's strongest meteor shower, Geminids, and the moon was only 20% full. It was a once in a decade shower that we had not planned to see and just happened to camp under the stars in one of the darkest places in the US.
(Date posted: 2024-09-22)