Mileage

			River Mile		Hike
	Traverse Segment Endpoints		Up	Down	Hike	Day	Up/Down	Time	Dist*
	Upriver	Downriver	(mi)	(mi)			River	(hrs)	(mi)
1	Lees Ferry	Sevenmile Draw	0	6	2	1	Down	7.0	6.6
2	Sevenmile Draw	Soap Creek	6	11	2	2	Down	8.0	8.4
3	Soap Creek	Rider	11	17	2	3	Down	10.0	10.1
4	Rider	22 Mile Camp	17	22.1	2	4	Down	7.0	7.7
5	22 Mile Camp	27 Mile Camp	22.1	26.9	2	5	Down	7.0	7.6
6	27 Mile Camp	South Canyon	26.9	31.9	2	6	Down	8.0	7.7
7	South Canyon	36.7 Mile Canyon	31.9	37	2	7	Down	8.0	9.6
8	36.7 Mile Canyon	Buck Farm Canyon	37	41.2	2	8	Down	6.3	7.0
9	Buck Farm Canyon	Saddle Canyon	41.2	47.6	2	9	Down	8.5	8.6
10	Saddle Canyon	Nankoweap Beach	47.6	53	2	10	Down	8.5	10.9
11	Nankoweap Beach	Malgosa Canyon	53	58	2	11	Down	8.8	13.3
12	Malgosa Canyon	Lava Canyon	58	66	2	12	Down	7.8	9.7
13	Lava Canyon	Unkar Canyon	66	73	2	13	Down	12.0	12.3
14	Unkar Canyon	Below Hawkins Butte	73	83	2	14	Down	12.0	13.9
15	Below Hawkins Butte	Clear Creek	83	84.5	2	15	Down	4.5	6.9
16	Clear Creek	Phantom Ranch	84.5	88.4	2	16	Down	4.1	8.7
17	Phantom Ranch	Below Tower of Set	88.4	93.4	3	2	Down	10.0	10.5
18	Below Tower of Set	Crystal Beach	93.4	99	3	3	Down	11.3	9.1
19	Crystal Beach	Flint-Tuna Saddle	99	105	3	4	Down	6.8	13.2
20	Flint-Tuna Saddle	Shinumo Creek	105	109.5	3	5	Down	8.3	11.6
21	Shinumo Creek	Swamp Point	109.5	122	3	6	Down	7.0	10.0
22	Swamp Point	Crazy Jug Canyon	122	133	3	7	Down	8.8	10.9
23	Crazy Jug Canyon	Below Bridgers Knoll	133	134	3	8	Down	5.8	5.3
24	Below Bridgers Knoll	E Arm Fishtail Cyn	134	138.5	3	9	Down	5.3	8.5
25	E Arm Fishtail Cyn	Esplanade at Flipoff	138.5	144	3	10	Down	11.3	21.7
26	Esplanade at Flipoff	Below Kanab Point	144	144	3	11	Down	8.3	12.0
27	Below Kanab Point	Espl at 150 Mile Cyn	144	150	1	22	Up	7.0	9.6
28	Espl at 150 Mile Cyn	Dead Horse Mesa	150	154	1	21	Up	10.0	14.9
29	Dead Horse Mesa	Espl at SB Point	154	163	1	20	Up	10.3	13.7
30	Espl at SB Point	Espl at Schumtz	163	164	1	19	Up	9.0	15.3
31	Espl at Schumtz	Espl at Stairway	164	170	1	18	Up	10.5	16.3
32	Espl at Stairway	Espl at Burro Cyn	170	176	1	17	Up	11.0	13.6
33	Espl at Burro Cyn	Above Lava Falls Rte	176	180	1	16	Up	6.3	8.7
34	Above Lava Falls Rte	Below Whitmore Pt	180	197	1	15	Up	9.0	16.0
35	Below Whitmore Pt	Parashant Beach	197	199	1	14	Up	10.0	14.4
36	Parashant Beach	Indian Canyon	199	207	1	13	Up	10.0	12.9
37	Indian Canyon	Opposite 3 Springs	207	216	1	12	Up	10.3	11.6
38	Opposite 3 Springs	224 Mile Ravine	216	224	1	11	Up	10.5	12.7
39	224 Mile Ravine	229.7 Mile Canyon	224	230	1	10	Up	10.0	12.2
40	229.7 Mile Canyon	Gneiss Canyon	230	236	1	9	Up	10.5	14.0
41	Gneiss Canyon	Separation Canyon	236	240	1	8	Up	6.6	10.6
42	Separation Canyon	242 Mile Canyon	240	242	1	7	Up	6.0	7.1
43	242 Mile Canyon	Surprise Canyon	242	249	1	6	Up	9.0	12.9
44	Surprise Canyon	255 Mile Ravine	249	255	1	5	Up	10.0	11.6
45	255 Mile Ravine	Burnt Canyon	255	260	1	4	Up	6.3	8.3
46	Burnt Canyon	266.3 Mile Beach	260	266.3	1	3	Up	9.3	11.0
47	266.3 Mile Beach	277.5 Mile Beach	266.3	277.5	1	2	Up	11.7	16.6

*Mileage Estimate Caveats

I need to make some comments on the mileages reported for each day. They are my best estimates of the distances traveled. Unfortunately, there are several error sources that can impact the mileage estimates. I thought now, in the 21^st Century, I could report accurate miles traveled each day. Alas, it is probably still better to go on how many hours it took to hike from point to point than a mileage value.

GPS Errors: Hiking in the Grand Canyon with cliff faces around you can create some large position errors. When the geometry is right the line-of-sight to a GPS satellite can be blocked by the canyon walls and a signal can be received from a reflected path. These errors can lead up to miles of distance errors in a day. The big errors were easy to see on the track. Many times the errors showed me to be far from where I actually was, like on the other side of the River.

Google Earth Errors: Google Earth uses Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data. I don't know much about the data. It is processed to give data points in a 30 meter grid pattern in Latitude and Longitude. The elevation error is likely larger. One problem with this type of data is that the errors are larger in higher relief terrain (canyons and mountains). Then there is how Google Earth reports distance in the application. There is a distance reported in the elevation profile pane and then a path length measurement given in a measurements tab in the properties window for the track. They are miles different from each other over the course of a day, have been known to have problems, and no documentation is available on how they are computed.

Missing Track Data: On the third section hike I had trouble charging my gear due to bad weather. On days 7, 8, and 11 most of the route data was constructed in Google Earth from a few waypoints and my knowledge/memory of where I traveled. For each of those days' mileage may actually be longer by a mile or two than is shown in the table.

I smoothed the track data by hand before reporting the mileage. I did that by loading the track data into Google Earth and looked at each track and removed the obvious and large GPS errors data points from it. I then reported the track “length” value given by Google Earth under the Properties>Measurements pane for each track.