I remember the ranger talk at the Phantom Ranch about this.. As you know (and can be seen in the photographs), the South Kaibab trail is very steep (climbing 1 mile up in a 4 mile distance up the south canyon wall) and in the sun all the way up, and no water on the trail.... You'll see references to it being 7.5 miles, but that includes the trail up the north side canyon wall..
Their recommendation was 2 gallons of water per person. That's a lot of weight to carry.. They are pretty blunt about this and don't mind at all asking what seems to be a personal question since it involves safety on the trail of a person getting into serious dehydration.. They simply ask, how long has it been since you last pee'd.... If you are not peeing on a regular basis, you are getting into dehydration.. and of course the color is an indicator of just how bad...
In my first post, I did not mention an incident that happened on the way out. If you look at the picture below, you see the rope (from the mule pretty much out of the picture) tied to the wrangler's saddle. You can't see much of the mule's stance, but enough to see it was not at all happy about the situation.
http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/gcmuletrip/thisway.jpgThere was a fairly young teenaged girl on this mule and in a very narrow section of the trail, the mule turned around backyards on that section of the trail, and was refusing to go any further.. It was so tight there the wrangler could not get down to her and had to instruct the young girl how to get the mule turned back around and out of the narrow section.. Turned out the mule was getting sick and sweating profusely... The picture was taken on a level wider area where he was able to rope the mule to his saddle and literally pull it back to the top, which the mule did not want to do.. And the young girl had to stay on the mule during this...
One thing they emphasize.. if you go down in there you are going to come back out the same way.. e.g. your own two feet, or in this case on the sick mule.. There will be no easy (for you) rescues. There IS a helo pad down at the phantom ranch, but with the wind currents and vertical walls, it is very dangerous (not to mention expensive) to attempt a helo rescue of someone out of the canyon..
I suspect the rangers get O.D.'d from so many people going down in there with insufficient water, clothing and shoes.. They definitely discourage going down and back up in the same day... You were certainly wise to start the trip in the night, hope there was a bright moon for you to see..
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/SouthKaibabTrail.pdfAnother incident that happened here...
http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/gcmuletrip/reststop.jpgTwo of the mules got into an ass kicking contest, that was really violent and would have been deadly if anyone was near them.. The wrangler warned and would not let us get anywhere near the mules while they are tied up..
He would bring them out one by one and hold the reins at the mule's mouth, while the rider got up on the saddle.. Also no heavy, hard objects such as metal canteens, video cameras, etc (that can strike the mule in the sides and spook them) are allowed to be carried on the trip.
