Walking along the canyon floor with a twisted ankle was a real pain. I felt really sorry for anyone who had this happen to them, especially if they were all alone and in a remote part of the canyon. There was a book called "Death in the Grand Canyon" that I saw in Phantom Ranch - and it wasn't exactly a small one. It documented how people die in the canyon on a regular basis from anything from dehydration, to falling, to snake bites, and rafting mishaps.
That said, we were able to make it into camp at a reasonable time and even had time to down a few beers at the ranch. From my memories of Death Valley - where a beer was $10, I was surprised to see that this place was reasonably priced. Phantom ranch is also the destination of hikers who come down from the south ridge and stay for a night and then go back to the south rim then next day.
We crossed the Colorado River the next morning. However before we left, we managed to see a med-evac helicopter come down to take out a hiker that had destroyed her knee the night before. Poor thing.
The path brought us to a small clearing where one could go and sit by the river. This was the lowest point in the canyon. The water was relatively calm here. Of course, after this the up hill began.
From the river, we started heading up through a portion of the canyon known as the devil's corkscrew. A bunch of switchbacks in a narrower portion of the climb where it seemed as if the canyon was closing in on you.
Overall, the climb got easier after that. We managed to get into Indian Garden campsite relatively early and managed to set up camp and just relax for a while. I think if we were not carrying so much equipment, we could have made an attempt to get to the south rim. However we would have missed plateau point - which I'll add an entry for next time.
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