LogFAQs > #942579972

-There were thankfully employees here, but this was NOT a tourist helipad. The small building attached to the helipad was a Pump Station, where they were treating and pumping the spring water to be used as a fresh water source for the canyon. There were 4 of them I believe and they were busy doing whatever it was their job was at the pump station, but they were very gracious and provided us with food and water and a spot to sit out of the way. The helicopter that we had seen coming and going was just to take employees from one spot to another it seemed, and did not have any room or time to spare to take us to the rim.

-They also contacted search and rescue to see if there was a medical helicopter available, but despite it being only about 8:30 AM, apparently there were too many medical emergencies at the south rim that the medical helicopter was completely "booked" for the day. I really didn't understand this, but I felt like I in medical need, and didn't understand how they would know they wouldn't have time for me the entire day, but it wasn't really my call to make I guess.

-A ranger had been assigned to hike out to us and examine us because the pump station employees aren't medically trained, he reached us around 10:30 AM. I explained that I was dehydrated, fatigued, my arm felt like it was on fire (probably a scorpion he said), and I was having trouble keeping food and water down despite knowing I needed to force myself to eat both. He spoke with his bosses and they confirmed that there would be no helicopter available, I would have to walk out. He also said they could try and order a mule, but they would have to bring someone in on their day off and it would cost probably $1000 to get a mule ride back to the top. I think he was expecting me to say no based upon the price, but I agreed and asked him if they could set it up. Come to find out that despite having lost 80 pounds since this time last year I'm still over 200 and thus ineligible for a mule ride. They asked me my age and weight when I first arrived so I was pretty annoyed that they even offered the mule service if they were going to turn me down after 30 minutes of playing phone tag with the mule handlers.

-I spent the next 3~ hours sleeping and being nursed back to health. The ranger gave me some ramen broth that he had handy that was actually wonderful and one of the few things that my stomach was easily accepting of and at around 1:30 with no other options available we started to walk back from the helipad to the trail to get back out. Now bear in mind that there is still NO real path from the trail to the helipad, but the ranger was assigned to stay with us until we made it to safety so we were able to follow his route. This still wasn't easy because there was a bit that was something like a 45 degree angle for around 75 feet where we basically had to walk straight up through very lose rocks and sand without falling backwards and off a cliff, but we eventually made it to the trail properly. And with some actual sleep under my belt and some nourishment I was still far from feeling good, but I'd say I was maybe at least 40 or 50% strength and so we started up. Now granted this trail is supposed to only take about 6 hours. That's both ways. 3 hours down to the bottom. 3 Hours back up to the top. In my state it still took us 7 hours to get from the bottom to the top. I had to stop frequently, I threw up a couple more times, but shortly after 8 PM we made it back to the top of the trail and to our car.

After reviewing the types of scorpions in the grand canyon it appears likely that it was an Arizona Bark Scorpion that stung me which is one of the nastier options i guess. But they are very small and pale so that also explains why I might have simply not seen it when I shined a light in the area after it happened. But the paint did not begin to diminish until Thursday morning a bit after 48 hours after it worked it's way up to my shoulder. And even now that the pain has subsided I still feel a tingly numbness in the tip of my finger where it happened that might not fade for awhile yet. Bark Scorpions are not often fatal, but it does seem like my reaction was somewhat worse than average as well.

In conclusion, we left before 8 AM on Monday and got out after 8 PM on Tuesday. 36+ hours of what should have been a 6-8 hour hike. It was an altogether harrowing ordeal and I found myself on many a dangerous precipice throughout. I also wholly accept that this would have been prevented if I had simply known my limits and not tackled as difficult a trail. I feel incredibly guilty about the whole thing and it's not an experience I will ever want to repeat. It is also not an experience I think I will ever forget.

Here's a picture of the trail that I added a yellow marker for the spot where the trail ends and a blue marker for approximatey where the helipad is so you can kind of see where we had to work our way towards it.



Questions?

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~C~ FD
https://imgur.com/dGDfxaw