Troop 285's 50 Miler expedition for 2000 took place in the Grand Canyon. This page covers the fifth day of the hike (June 2nd, 2000, for Crew 2), from Hance Beach up the Tonto and Page Spring Trail to Horseshoe Mesa.
So, we decide we can still make things work by loading up the fifth day with some extra miles (and elevation change). Instead of stopping at Hance Creek tomorrow (about 4 1/2 miles from Hance Rapids), we'll press on all the way to Horseshoe Mesa (for a total of about 6 1/2 miles). We're not really sure there will be water in Hance Creek anyway, so as a backup we had already kept in mind we might need to proceed on to Page Spring (a mile past Hance Creek). As we settle into anticipating the new plan, we realize that we can chill out all day by beautiful Hance Rapids. Maybe more fish for lunch, too?
Since there's no pressure to hike, we let the Scouts sleep in - they don't awake until 7:30 AM. Wow, the luxury of sleeping in - shortened only by the heat of the morning sun bearing down on them stretched out on their trail tarp.
As the sun comes up, it really highlights the cliffs to the north of the river.
By about 9AM, we start seeing some rafters coming down river. The first group stops
for a lengthy break right at our campsite. Seems the pilots are checking out the water
flow through Hance Rapids - the water flow has been cut to about 6000 cubic feet per
second, and the pilots expect the lines through the rapids to change considerably as
the flow drops. Here's one of the Oars six-person rafts which tied up later in the morning. Contrary to reports we had heard of rafters being generous with sodas, we hardly even got the time of day from the crews. So, we went back to fishing, swimming (if you can call jumping into the shallows, then immediately jumping back out again "swimming"), and lounging under the few willows along the river bank that
were large enough to provide some shade. It turns out our fishing here would be almost worthless, since the first crew caught several trout at the same spot, the day before!
Rafters continued by through out the day, with a lot of them stopping to look over the
rapids before crusing on through. Then, about 4 PM, a Park Service employee bops into camp, looking positively fresh. He's just come down the New Hance in about five hours, so we're impressed. He's here solely to watch the river traffic negotiate
the rapids in the lower water conditions. We've not yet seen any appreciable drop in the river level, but we'll keep an eye on things now that is seems to be coming. He reports tomorrow's weather as being cooler by about 8 degrees, but agrees that today is probably up over 115 degrees. We offer him some of the absolutely-delicious minestrone soup (Knorr) that we've made, but he declines - says if he doesn't eat what he packed in, he'll just have to haul it back up to the rim. Later, we savor the instant pudding that we've made and cooled by setting the pan directly into river water. Wow, who would have thought we'd be able to make pudding down here?
Just before we leave, we check the river level - sure enough, its down at least two feet below where it was when we went to bed!
Looking back across the river, we get great views of Wotan's Throne and Angel's Gate, which we imagine looks a little like a launch platform for laser defenses.
By this time, we're starting to feel Horseshoe Mesa towering over our right shoulders. We're going up there, the guys seem to be asking silently. Soon,
they're asking it out loud. Out here at the north tip of the mesa, it really
looks daunting.
At places, the trail leads right to the edge of Hance Canyon, and we get great views down into the creek bed. There must be some water here, as we're seeing some cottonwoods and smaller bushes in the creek bed.
Looking up farther into Hance Canyon, we can see the wall under Horseshoe Mesa
curling back around to the east, and it still looks like it's straight up! Wonder how the trail makes it up that?
This is almost too nice to be true. As we break out our lunches, we all agree that we're really glad to be cooling off here, rather than sitting down in Hance Creek, sharing one large cottonwood. After lunch, we pump water like crazy out of the spring (really more of a seep), enjoy a couple of stories that we've brought along, and nap. We're going to time the hike onto Horseshoe Mesa to hit the cooler part of the evening, but still arrive on the mesa well before sunset, so we can find our camp site.
About 4:30, we make dinner - we decide "Why carry that stuff up to the mesa if we can just eat it here?" Then at 5:45 PM, we set out for the mesa. Soon, we pass one copper mine entrance, right on the trail. There's an old air compressor and some other mining relics which we check out. But, on we press - we still want to see how we'll get up the wall.
Soon we find out - the trail raises steeply heading to the east when we get to the head of the draw, then it switches back a few times and eventually heads west closer to the mesa. Then, we find a spot where the trail seems to disappear....oh, it doesn't disappear, it just goes vertical for about seven feet, that's all. A solo hiker might find this a little challenging, but with our size group, we just boost everyone up and pull up the last guy. From there, it's only a little more hiking and we're on the mesa by 6:45 PM. Views are great from here, and we find Berry's old rock cabin, and settle into the campsite just east of the cabin. A few dried fruit snacks for dessert, and we sack out just as the sun is setting out over the canyon. Gets a little cool during the night - we actually get to sleep inside the fleece bags we brought. Pretty delightful, after the previous four nights we've spent at about 80 degrees all night.
Last Updated: 2001-01-21