In Preparation to the Grand Canyon

It just occured to me that I have been writing never-ending essays in the blog posts on my experiences. While it was just a good practice at writing, I would from now try to be very concise.

Granite Mountain, The Alpine Lakes Region, 8 r/t, 3800 ft (gain), Most Difficult

In preparation to the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike in August, we decided to do the hike to top of the Granite Mountain. We (Amol, Tarun and me) started in the heat and sun of midday equipped with food, Gatorade and Propel. There were quite a few other people who were there. The hike was really very hard as we can determine from the elevation gain of 3800 ft in about 4 miles.

This hike is rated as the most difficult and along with that it dodges you at certain places where the trail forks out and you have to figure out which one of the two to take. I was much slower than Amol and Tarun and probably they both were also at different paces. So we ended up losing each other. For quite a distance closer to the summit we all walked alone. I was worried and so was Tarun and for the first time I realized the use of the walky talky Tarun was so ardent on buying (we did not have it that day). Nevertheless, we all met at the summit, the Granite Mountain Lookout, which offered an spectacular view of Mount Rainier.

By the time we returned we were all sweaty, muddy and salty but it was a good preparation for our Rim to Rim hike next month.