Almost three decades ago, in late October of 1980 to be exact, Bob Cree and I completed a 55 day trek through the Grand Canyon from Diamond Creek to Lee's Ferry. This adventure had its roots in many previous years of canyoneering during which I hiked all the Grand Canyon's recognized trails and many of the rim to river routes, eventually connecting a continuous route between the towering canyon walls from Lee's Ferry to Lava Falls. Most of the hiking was done on 3-4 day trips with occasional extended hikes of a week or more. My oldest son, Robert, was my constant companion and during this time we grew from tenderfoot novice hikers to experienced bushwhackers who hiked off-trail most of the time.

As we gathered experience, I grew intrigued with the possibility of backpacking the length of the Canyon in one trip. I talked with Harvey Butchart, who is universally recognized as Grand Canyon's most experienced backpacker, and determined that one person had already walked from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead in a single trip. However, a nagging doubt remained as to whether the extended physical and mental challenges of such a trip might make its completion impossible for me to accomplish. Off-trail Grand Canyon hikers encounter many risks and in the eight years that I'd been exploring its more remote areas I'd observed numerous rattlesnakes (no bites), three broken bones (one mine), numerous blood-letting tumbles, and a time when 25 of us went without water for twelve hours.

Colin Fletcher had walked approximately 100 river miles within the Grand Canyon corridor but I was contemplating a trip of two and a half times that distance. For companionship and safety, I felt that it might be best if at least two people made the journey. Robert, then 18, was committed to college and could not join me. A couple of years prior to the trip, through a bulletin board advertisement at a local sporting equipment shop, I was fortunate enough to meet and begin hiking with a fellow adventurer, Bob Cree. Bob was a photographer-adventurer who had just returned from extensive traveling in Central America. Previous to these travels, he'd graduated from college with an MFA in photography and writing. A backpacking novice when we met, he would eventually exceed the bushwhacking experience of 99% of Grand Canyon's most daring explorers. With flexible commitments, he was excited about the possibility of totally losing himself for two months in a Grand Canyon experience.

On September 6, 1980 we arrived at Diamond Creek with Bob's sister and brother-in-law. The weather had been adverse and dark clouds boiled over the canyon rims. Although unspoken, I'm certain we both had second thoughts about the advisability of our plan. On the way down the tortuous 20 mile Peach Springs Wash road I had casually mentioned that I wasn't even sure whether I would want to walk the northern Arizona highways from Peach Springs to Lee's Ferry, as the distance involved was mind boggling. Within the Canyon, it would be considerably more difficult, as the river bottom is an entrenched meander which usually doesn't take the most direct route. Heroic climbs with packs and almost continuous bouldering would frequently limit upstream progress to less than a mile per hour. The possibility of suffering a serious injury was high enough to be expected.

Updated on Thursday, November 3, 2011 @ 4:30 MST © 1995-2011 by Robert R. Marley