Near Death on The North Rim !!!

haulindave

Observer
Maybe I should start at the beginning ? My wife Karen and friends Dewitt and Dawn wanted to go to Las Vegas , because Karen had never been there ? She just wanted to see it and stay a couple days then wife and I would go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon . We are driving our Toyota T100 with Flippac .
So we left for Vegas on the Oct.29th going around Lake Tahoe .We would be in Vegas for Halloween then head to the Grand Canyon .

Then down HWY 395 to Hwy 120 over to Benton Hot Springs next to the White Mountains for the first night . Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip044.jpg


Stopped at Rhyolite just outside Death Valley for a quick look ? Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip100.jpg


View attachment 78210entering the N. Rim of the Grand Canyon .View attachment 78211We decided to take 4x4 roads in to Point Sublime and see if we could stay on the point ? We picked a road that was before the gate where you pay to get in . We had stopped at Fredonia to get a back country permit but they where closed ? So were going in there and no one knows were there ? At the time I was not that worried about it ? I have been going out to the middle of nowhere for a long time and normally pretty prepared to do so ? I thought I had bought my tow rope with me , but when we came upon a downed tree I couldn't find it ? I left it home ?Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip180.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip181.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip182.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip187.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip189.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip191.jpgWith some work and a dead tree I was able to pry the tree out of the way . It had already taken us about 2 hours to go 10 miles and we still had 10 more miles to get to Point Sublime and it was already 2pm and it was getting dark at 5pm so we didn't have much time to relax if we wanted to get there before dark ?
(more to come) ?
 

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haulindave

Observer
It's was Nov 2nd and we are heading to Point Sublime and a few days of relaxation ? I had to move one tree already and the wind is blowing but it's sunny out and are hoping to find a nice spot ? After about 20 miles and 4 hours of driving we get to the rim and drive out on to the point ! Now were here ! It's beautiful and there isn't anyone here ? Not just that but we haven't seen anybody since we got on to the dirt ! Man I was happy , to be sticking out a half mile into the Grand Canyon and to have it all to ourselves ? There were 2 picnic tables there and it's only about 100 or so foot wide at the end and we were sitting there right on the point ! During the day it was nice maybe 50 or so but at night it got cold and the wind really picked up ! Maybe 50 miles a hour and in the flippac it really flapped and shook a lot and the wife thought it would blow us right off the canyon ?


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We would take walks during the day , couldn't go very far because I had hurt my foot , before I left for our trip . The Doc. had me on some meds but all my climbing on the hill and moving the tree didn't help it much ? So we mostly just enjoyed being out there just soaking it all in ? There no camp fires aloud but we had our propane camp fire and had all the great food and drink you could want !
 

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BurbanAZ

Explorer
looks like a fun trip, i need to make a trip out to the grand canyon ive lived in az most of my life and only been once when i was really young so i dont remember it . Awesome that you guys had it all to yourselves
 

haulindave

Observer
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip311.jpgWe could see the riverVegas-GrandCanyonTrip313.jpg

Lots of great views Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip335.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip338.jpg
Looking back Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip359.jpgat the point were on
Sitting on the edge , clouds ? Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip376.jpgradio says a storm is coming
For now we camp on the edge and enjoyVegas-GrandCanyonTrip379.jpg
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip385.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip386.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip389.jpg
 

spressomon

Expedition Leader
What is this a Stephen King novel? :D Seriously: Nice report...but the suspense has released my impatience :coffeedrink:
 

haulindave

Observer
What is this a Stephen King novel? :D Seriously: Nice report...but the suspense has released my impatience :coffeedrink:

Wow , the Indians are getting impatient !

Sorry folks my first trip report and it harder than I thought ? Getting photos one at a time from photo-bucket getting the words to match the photo ? Mine only lets me do 9 or 10 pics at a time , when I see others put in a lot more pics and there's are bigger and nicer ? Just tryin to show some good pics and make the story interesting ? But the real adventure is coming ? I like pics :sombrero: in everything I read :coffee:
Don't kill me yet ? I'm not a pro at this .
 

haulindave

Observer
Are we on the lonely side
Say oh now the past long away
Are we're so lost in the dark of our hearts
That there's no light of day

Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip397.jpg

Somebody left the gate open
You know we got lost on the way
Come save us a runaway train
Goin insaane(?)

Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip404.jpg

This will be our last night here . They are saying there's a storm coming in tomorrow night and are supposed to get a couple feet of snow ?
Let me also say this is my first time I've been here on the North Rim . I have been on the South Rim and have hiked down to the bottom . I have to say I was a little surprised at how much of a forest there is here ? Lots of big trees , much like the Sierra's around where I live ? So when I left I was think more high dessert than forest ? But the forest went right to the edge of the rim . The roads were quite rough and at times steep .

So that night the wind blows all night long and sometimes you could here it howling though the rest of the canyon and then it would just come around and hit us like 70 mph and the hole truck and flippac would just shake and I had even moved it trying to get just the front facing the wind but it would hit every side .We didn't get much sleep with the wind blowing and my wife was really scared ? We got up and it was cold and still windy . It didn't clam down like it did the other days . So we packup and didn't make a good breakfast like we had been ? No bacon and eggs and fresh hot biscuits like the other days .
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip412.jpgthe road leading off the point


Here you can see how close the forest is to the rimVegas-GrandCanyonTrip420.jpg

We didn't go very far before we started running into trees down Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip422.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip427.jpg most were small and easy to move , but I was getting a bad feeling that there were going to be more ? Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip430.jpgbut still nice place to stop , but the wind here was very strong , at lest 50mph maybe more Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip432.jpg
 

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haulindave

Observer
From here we came to a tree down across the road that didn't look that big , but it was stuck in the trees on the side of the road and could not be moved easily . Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip439.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip438.jpg


Not really much bigger than the tree I had moved coming in , but it was much harder to move because to was wedged in between three trees up on the hill and they were taller than I could reach and my foot was really hurting so climbing around wasn't easy ? The bottom stump part was down the hill from the road laying across a bunch of other down trees ? I'd say it was maybe 50ft long and about the same amount sticking over either side of road ? There are two roads in , the one we came in on ,(longer and father from Main Road ) and Point Sublime Rd thats 17 miles long .

So we turned around and thought we would go the way we came in ? Well about a mile on the other road we came to a tree that was even bigger and no way we could move it . Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip440.jpg :Wow1:

We did think that maybe we could drive around it but that would mean driving though the woods over some smaller trees that could damage the truck and then we were starting to realize that the tree down thing might get worse ?
We turned around thinking the other tree would be easier to move ? With in a couple hundred yards there was another tree already down from were we just came and we weren't there more then 5 min.
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip441.jpg

It was a small tree but we knew with the wind and the storm coming in we needed to get out of there .

We got to the other tree and tried to pull it with some MC tie downs I had ? (I forgot my tow rope) ? The tie downs just broke even doubling them up ?
Now we aren't taking to many pics because we have to work hard and the wind is blowing so hard and there's widow makers all around us and my wife is kind of scared and she is working as hard as me and I'm afraid she will hurt herself climbing all over the tree up on the hill and it is so thick with trees on the hill she was trying to move the wrong tree ? I had to calm her down and tell her we had to work smart and not hurt ourselves doing this or we would really be in trouble ? Remember we haven't seen anybody since we go here , it's up to us ?


So we had to jack it up the log with other logs and put tree rounds under it that were there lying around . then get up on the hill and push it down the hill ? The tree was really stuck in the trees up the hill , but we had to push it down the hill so we would pry it down the hill on rounds and had to keep move the dead trees in the way down the hill just to keep it moving ? It took about 3 hours to get it off the road , but we had no choice if we wanted to get out of there ?
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip442.jpg This is after about three hours of work . Look close you can see one of the rounds we used to move it ?


Now I was feeling like I wasn't prepared as I should of been and was thinking that the only thing that would be worse than getting stuck here in a snow storm and knowing no one new we were out here , was having to be rescued ? But when we were on the rim we had cell phone service and I knew the road went away from the canyon and so I placed a call to home and told a friend that if we didn't call him back before dark to call the forest service and tell them where we were ? If I would have been with a guy or alone I wouldn't have worried so much , but Karen gets cold and I didn't want to take anymore chance's ?

A couple feet of snow and with a bad foot I could not walk out and with no one knowing we were there we could die if we didn't get out ? There were storms coming in for the next few days and with all the trees that would fall down during the storm there might not be anyone coming in here for a long time ? Thus the title ( Death on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon ?) Of course I told the wife not to worry we would make it ?

We still had 9 miles to go to get to the paved road and it was getting late !


Some nice pics of the road out Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip443.jpg Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip450.jpg Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip451.jpg

Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip456.jpg Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip457.jpg



But we made it out with out anymore problems just some tough roads that took us about 2 more hours to get to the main road ? We Thought the adventure was over and all we had to do was make it to the N. Rim main lodge where we would have cell phone service to call our friend and then we could relax ? Which we did just before dark ? Took some pics and get out of there ? :wings:

But it's not over yet ! There was still more excitement to come ?
 

haulindave

Observer
The place was closed down for the season .
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip482.jpg

Really cold and windy Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip476.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip477.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip479.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip481.jpg
Storm coming in ?

Deserted
Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip483.jpg

We thought the storm was still south of us ?
On the way out it turn into a white out Vegas-GrandCanyonTrip487.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip488.jpgVegas-GrandCanyonTrip489.jpg

and had to drive in 4 wheel drive and could only go about 20 ,25 mph ? Then it was dark .


Then a buffalo (beefalo) was standing in the middle of the road and was the biggest one I ever saw and just had time to swerve off the road to miss him and back on again ? Man what a day ! Its was a great adventure and exciting but it was a adventure that could of went another way if I didn't know how to do some common since stuff that we take for granted but others might not know and could die out there ? Happens every year out west people getting stuck and not found till there died ? You never can be too prepared and I wasn't ? But knew just enough and lucky to figure out how to move the trees . I had on my list to bring my tow rope and forgot , should of brought a bow saw also , chain saw would be great but I didn't want the smell in the camper and didn't bring the hitch box .
 

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cnynrat

Expedition Leader
We've been to the south rim many times, never to the north rim. Definitely need to get out that way sometime.

Thanks for the report!
 

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