Havasupai

I get woken up at 3:45AM by Seven shaking my hand as it over hangs my bed. “Hey Mouse, what time are we leaving?”

“What time is it now?” Me

“3:45AM.” Seven says

“Okay, we’ll leave after I shower and stuff at 4. It’s an hour drive to trailhead and sunrises is at 5:18AM today.”

Seven goes into the bathroom to get ready and I fumble for my phone. I wake up nervous today. Why? I don’t know I’m hiking again after a few days off probably. First day of school jitters.

We leave the Hualapai Lodge and start the hour drive to the trail head. It’s pitch black out. The drive is easy, drive like 10 miles and take a left into IR18. Follow that road until you can’t go anymore. 60 ish miles and find a parking spot. I tell Seven last time I was here we saw someone hit a cow. Keep your eyes open.

A half hour goes by and nothing, easy drive at 65 MPH. Another 15 minutes go by and we start seeing everything, Wild hogs, coyotes, huge deer and cows. A ton of baby cows with their parents. As we turn a corner we see 4 of them in the street. Slow down, I beep and they move.

We arrive at the trailhead and take zero time to get ready. We get walking after the obligatory photo from the top. Seven asks if I want a photo of me, “nah dude I haven’t even posted last year’s photos yet haha true story.”

The trails easy after what we’ve done in SoCal. If I remember correctly, it’s 10 miles of downhill leisure walk to the Supai village and another 2.5 into camp from there. I brought 1 liter of water and probably won’t drink it. It’s currently 5:45AM and we see our first hikers leaving for the day hitting the parking lot.

What time did you start I ask the guy.

“Midnight” he says. Sheeeesh, that’s rough bud, took ya 5 hours to hike out?

After a half mile we see a horse in the middle of the switchbacks. What’s the move here? Walk by the front and get bit or the back and get kicked? We scurried around him and then kept moving.

The rest of the walk down to the village was easy. We chat and I ask Seven his plans for when he goes home. I’m kindve jealous of the people going home to burn time, but I can’t justify flying back to Boston for a week. Any suggestions for time wasters I’ll take them.

We see the Supai village sign and I tell him he’s almost there. Congrats buddy you’ve almost hiked into one of the last most remote villages in the continental United States.

From here we start seeing villagers walking out as well. We great them and say hello and they tell us we’re almost there. The mules start to pass us bringing people’s bags to the trailhead. I tell Seven how that process works. People drop off their bags by 10Am and the mules will pick them up and drop them off at the campground around 2PM. They get picked up 7AM and get to the trailhead at 11 when they leave. We laugh that we ourselves are our pack mules. This trip is the lightest my bags been in a while, I brought absolutely nothing. Not even pants.

As I walk in, I notice how much different everything is from last year. The flash flood really did a number on the terrain. We get to the bridge to the village and read the sign that says “No photos of the village.” Roger that.

Some of the houses look decent and some look run down. Most of them have satellite dishes on top, one has Starlink. Pretty cool we saw it fly over head again on the drive in. Most of the houses have air conditioners in the windows. Some dogs follow us and we have a new hiking partner.

We get through the village and to the first few waterfalls. Underwhelming for us coming from the wilderness, we turn the corner to Havasu falls and Seven smiles. I film his reaction and then take my own look. The 4th time I’ve seen this view after the hike. Still amazing to me.

We snag some photos and head down to find a camp site to start exploring more. I tell Seven we’re not camping early, too much foot traffic and people with white lamps on all night will bother us. Need something secluded.

We cross 2 bridges and pick a spot. The trees I used last year to cross were completely gone. I’m guessing washed away. Seven points and says “Mouse we’re getting water front tonight!” Roger that bud.

After setting up we head down to Mooney Falls, and then all the way Beaver Falls. Our trail legs are fierce, to go to Beaver Falls before noon on day one? It’s 15 miles from the trail head. Easy peasy. Am I finally in shape?

On the way back from beaver falls we soaked it in, climbed Mooney with absolutely no one on it. Then walked back to the top of Havasu Falls again and grabbed some fry bread and a nice cold Sprite for 3$. Perfect first day in Havasupai.

Days 2 and 3 we went and saw the confluence and hung around the first three falls just relaxing. Working on our tans. Swimming and enjoying the warm sun.

These days were perfect, even though the confluence is 20 miles round trip that’s actually a short day for us at this point in our year. Heck my last day on actual PCT trail was a 31 mile day. It was nice to soak our feet and just chill with no agenda. No rush and no plans on what to do.

Mooney falls is an absolute trip, how older people or kids gets down it baffle me. It’s a shear 150’ drop with rock holes and chains. People call it a ladder, I arguably wouldn’t even call it a ladder. Yes the last 20 feet is a ligit ladder but nothing else. You get rained on by the mist as you climb down and there usually a line of people shaking the chains as you climb.

It’s a moment of fear and three points of contact but man it will let you know you’re alive. Each time I do it I say how do I get my self into these situations. And then I love every minute of it.

For our last day we leave early. Awake at 4AM camp packed up by 4:30 and we’re on trail by 5AM. Seven has a plane to catch from Vegas tomorrow and we’re shooting for a nice lunch somewhere in Vegas. Maybe in N Out on the way there.

It’s sad to say goodbye to my buddy for real this time but I know I’ll see him again further up the trail. I plan on taking a week off in Lake Stevens WA when I get there.

But with me going into the Sierras next week worst case I get snowed in and take some more time off and wait for him somewhere a few stops in. Best case I’m 2 weeks ahead of him and I get to give him the insider info for his entry into the mountains. Either way it’s a win all around. I’m glad I could show my buddy a good time in the Grand Canyon. He almost didn’t even come with me, what a stiff.