North Bass (Oct 2006)

The North Bass trail is located west of the North Rim Lodge about 15 or 20 miles along some rough dirt roads. This trail is one of the longest and most difficult trails in the park. It starts at 7200' and drops a vertical mile to the river at 2000' in the course of 14 miles. I got a permit for 2 nights and 3 days, to hike solo. I have always been interested in doing this hike after I traveled out the rough, bumpy road to Swamp Point 5 years ago with Mike Burkley when we backpacked down the 3/4 mile trail to Muav Saddle and then up the other side to Powell Plateau. The North Bass trail turns south at the bottom of the Muav Saddle, and continues another 12 miles down 5000' to the Colorado River.

The trail drops down about 600' to Muav Saddle where Teddie's cabin is still intact. If you keep heading west on the trail, you can climb up to the Powell Plateau, which is a hike I did many years ago with Mike Burkley. The North Bass trail turns left here at the saddle and heads pretty much due south all the way to the Colorado River. In the last two years, the park's trail crews improved the section through the Coconino and Hermit layers. Now the trail switches back nicely all the way to the Supai layer. In the Coconino there is a small seep which I used on the climb out.

The trail through the upper layers has been rebuilt, and is not too bad, other than being steep. Once you hike into the Supai layer the trail does a little bushwhacking and a tiny stream appears. This continues until you arrive at the top of the Redwall, where a big pouroff blocks further passage. A rebuilt trail continues on the right side back up along the Supai layer for about 1 mile until you get ready to literally plunge down through the Redwall. This is the steepest and loosest section of the whole trail, and could be dangerous if you are not careful. Once at the bottom of the deep Redwall, water starts to flow again and the rock hopping begins for the next several miles all the way down through the Muav and Bright Angel layers. There are several bypasses that help you avoid pouroffs. There is a large pouroff at the top of the Tapeats which requires you to choose to go downstream, or stream right across the Tonto layer for a couple of miles on a restored trail. I chose the bypass route.

After 2 miles you come into view of Shinumo Creek from way up high and are required to switchback down about 500' to the floor of the canyon. This trail section is not bad either, and the views are spectacular. Once on the floor, the creek provides coolness and trees provide shade. I continued another mile downstream to the lower Shinumo camp site. This required crossing Shinumo Creek several times, but I never had to get my shoes wet. The lower camp is near Bass's old camp site, and many relics are left from a century ago. I slept well after eating some chicken and half a sandwich. I was in a very deep, remote section of the canyon. I was quite exhausted from hiking nearly seven hours, so sleep came easily. I awoke early and ate oatmeal, then hiked 1.5 miles up and over a 600' hill and back down to the Colorado River. I ran into a river party there. They were camped at the Bass beach and were just getting ready to eat breakfast. They invited me to eat and drink with them, and I would have, had I not already eaten a pretty large breakfast.

I was hoping to get down to lower Shinumo Creek waterfall, but there is no way to continue along the Colorado River without swimming. So I hiked back to my camp site, picked up my pack and hiked upstream a mile. I dropped off my pack at the campsite at the bottom of the Tapeats part of the trail, then continued dayhiking up Shinumo Creek to the confluence of White Creek. I turned north and went up White Creek a mile or so. The water flow here was fairly small, but there were many pools and small climbs which needed to be negotiated. This was a beautiful, narrow gorge that consisted of mostly Vishnu Schist. A couple of waterfalls were present too. I went back down to Shinumo and tried going up that, but was stopped after a few minutes by narrow walls. I could have continued only if I wanted to get my feet wet. Back by the confluence I took a dip in a pool to cool off. That was only about the fifth time I had swam during the 95 degree heat the last two days. I noticed a faint trail going up to the South. I thought maybe there was a camp site up there. Instead, I found an Anasazi village area. There were four or five ruins that had only the base of their walls standing. Several granaries existed up in the cliffs too. I saw old pine nuts and small corn cobs.

That night I slept under the stars and was awakened around midnight by a lizard or mouse running across my neck. The next morning I got up around 6AM and started hiking up the Tapeats in the dark. I wanted to beat the sun as much as possible. I hiked quickly uphill until I arrived at the top of the Supai. Then I ran out of fuel and water, and the sun was beating down on me. I slowly got myself out of the canyon in about 5.5 hours, which is not too bad, considering this is definitely one of the most difficult trails in the canyon. The fall colors were very brilliant on the way home in the Kaibab forest. I was relieved to arrive home. I had seen nobody while down in the depths of the canyon for those three days. It was a very spectacular area and had a great feeling to it.