Day 6 – Supai, AZ

Miles driven today: 0 Cumulative miles: 1616 Got up at 7:30am (I realize that means we got nearly 12 hours of sleep, but we needed it!). We actually both woke up a little earlier to the sound of the creek and the chatter of squirrels. When we got out of the tent, we found that those chattering squirrels must have been talking about how they were ambushing our packs. They had apparently been rummaging through my bag for quite some time. Despite closing up our bags, the little bastards still got in mine. They actually un-zipped (yes, I’m sure I zipped it) the top compartment of my pack. They pulled out anything that was in their way that wasn’t too heavy and was of no interest to them (i.e. moleskin, a bottle of Tylenol, a camera battery, a memory card, etc.) and chewed on the rest. Our Ziploc with toilet paper now has a giant hole and is filled with slightly shredded toilet paper. Our brand new first aid kit is full of holes and bit marks that go through sterile pads, band aids, and the like. The fruit leather that I had put in top (in sealed packages) for the hike down all had holes and bite marks (but they didn’t eat them of course and we sure as heck weren’t going to eat them after wild animals bit into them). As if that wasn’t enough, the squirrels bit several small holes in the main compartment of my pack before deciding to crawl into the drawstring closure (which was covered by a flap) and into the compartment with my clothes and the rest of our food (sealed, freeze-dried food packets). They chewed through the plastic bag holding our food and the Ziploc that our stove fuel canister was in. Daniel’s pack (our new Mountain Hardwear one) was virtually unscathed. It was tilted over like they had been trying to get into it, but they either lost interest, ran out of time, or the bag is more squirrel proof than the 25+ year-old Lowe Alpine pack (though very nice and state of the art for its time) that I was carrying. We sorted through the mess and made a quick breakfast. A local came by to check the tags on our packs and also chatted for a few minutes. By 8:30am, we decided we were still tired and in pain, so we went back to sleep a while longer (hey, it is our vacation after all!). When we got up again, we examined our injuries from the previous day’s hike: Daniel has blisters on the backs of each foot, one about the size of a quarter and one about the size of a dime; I have big bruises on both my ankles. Our boots really do feel good otherwise, but maybe needed a bit more breaking in before hiking 10 miles down a canyon. We decided our test to see if we could stand to hike out would be to hike the 2 1/4 miles from our campsite to the village to stock up on Gatorade and possibly make arrangements for our ascent. We strapped on our boots and immediately decided that neither of us would be able to hike out with 40-pound packs. At the least, we would pay for our packs to be carried out by a pack animal. We walked for an hour before reaching Supai village and the grocery store there. We paid about $18 for 6 Gatorades and some Crystal-Lite packets to add to our water. Incredibly expensive, but when you consider the fact that (1) all supplies have to be flown in by helicopter or packed in by horses and mules, and (2) we are white tourists, it seemed about on par price-wise (okay, I’m only speculating about number 2). We walked to the Tourist Office next to inquire about our options for getting out of the canyon. We could hike out (with or without our packs): probably would take us a good 6+ hours; cost: free to $75 (if we used a pack animal for our bags). We could take a helicopter ride out: less than 5 minutes; $85 times 2 people equals $170. Or we could ride out: 3 hours; $75 times 3 animals (us and 1 for our bags) equals $225. As much as we want to ride in a helicopter (the fastest and cheaper option0, we decided that riding out would be a neat experience and would still allow us to see the canyon. This is also one of the primary (if not THE primary) source of income for the Havasupai people, so benefits all around. We made the arrangements for our 7:00am departure from the campground entrance for the next morning and began the 2 1/4 mile trek back to our campsite. The heat was pretty intense and we each managed to down 2 of our 3 Gatorades before we reached the campground. We also walked with one of the locals (that we had met the previous day) for a while. He was on his way to a sweat. He told us a few things about the town and also told Daniel that he had a funny accent (I think the Pacific Northwest is probably the closest to a non-accent that you get here in the states). About 1:30pm, we reached our campsite and traded our boots and hiking clothes for flip-flops and bathing suits. Went back towards town, but just less than a half-mile to Havasu Falls. The water of the falls has a beautiful blue-green hue due to the lime content of the water. The lime also builds up travertine pools (lime and sediment combine to form a solid semi-circular wall in the shallow waters and make pools with the water flowing over the walls, down to the next level of pools – these are found all throughout Havasu Creek). As hot as it was, the water was still quite cool and it took some convincing for me to fully submerge (the final push being that there are no showers and this was the best way to get clean). After our quick dip, we returned to our campsite for some dry clothes before walking 3/4 of a mile down to Mooney falls. Mooney Falls is several times taller than Havasu Falls, but the bottom is much tougher to reach as the trail is steep, rough, and narrow. Daniel and I, still in our flip-flops, walked about a third of the way down to take some photos before heading back for dinner. We were low on water, so, back up the trail about an eighth mile to Fern Spring, a spring that they literally piped out of the canyon wall for drinking water. Even though we saw others drinking directly from the spring, we opted to treat ours as a stomach bug while riding out of the canyon just didn’t sound too pleasant. Went back for dinner and watched an evil squirrel as it peeled strips of wood off a log with his teeth (I see now how it got into my bag), balled it up, and took it back to its nest, I’m assuming for nesting materials. We also watched him go up the canyon wall and get pieces of a plastic bag from his stash of stolen goodies and take it back to its nest. From what we were told by the local checking our tags this morning, the squirrels aren’t the only culprits who steal from campers. Apparently the dogs that roam the villages sometimes come and drag away entire backpacks to rummage through. Some people have lost their wallets and keys this way. About 9:30pm, when it was ‘dark’ but the canyon was still brightly lit by the moon, we headed to bed. Tomorrow morning will begin at 5:30am so we can pack up camp and meet our guide with the horses. Wildlife seen: lizards, evil squirrels, hawk Miles hiked: ~7.25