I've been fascinated with the Esplanade since my first Grand Canyon backpacking trip in 1987.  More recently I have also become fascinated with rock art in Grand Canyon, and many of the great rock art sites are on the Esplanade (or canyons cutting thru the Supai formation).  I have hiked nearly all of the north side Esplanade between Chamberlain and Stairway.  One major section remained:  From Toroweap to Stairway.  This trip covered that section, plus the section between Stairway and Tuckup Canyon that I had previously done twice on Steck's Tuckup/Stairway loop. 

The major challenge with this route is the scarcity of water.  To be safe, one should not attempt long Esplanade hikes unless there have been recent rains.  Ideally, one would have enough flexibility to wait for significant rain.  But getting a last-minute NPS permit is problematic.  This time I scheduled a trip and got the permit months in advance, then watched the weather reports for weeks prior to our start, keeping fingers crossed.  This section of the Esplanade got some rain about two weeks before our start, but not much.  But we decided to give it a go.  Our strategy was to hike the first day with enough water to return if no water was found.  Then continue with this strategy for most of the rest of the trip. 

Rich Magill and Ben Mahlab joined me.  Rich flew in from California, and Ben flew in from New Hampshire.  I have hiked with both of them many times.  Rich's flight from Phoenix to Page got cancelled, but the airline booked him to Flagstaff.  So instead of driving to Page, I drove to Flagstaff.  Not too long after I got there, Rich's flight to Flagstaff was also cancelled.  So I ended up driving to Phoenix to pick him up.  We then drove to Page, where we would meet Ben and spend the night in a motel.  It was a very long day for me:  About 16 hours of driving.  

This trip requires a rather long shuttle, and because we only had my car, I brought my motorcycle (Honda CRF250) to use for the shuttle.  We left Page after breakfast, picked up a few last minute items in Kanab, then drove to the Schmutz (Tuckup Canyon) Trailhead.  We dropped off my motorcycle and drove to Toroweap to camp for the night.  This took most of the day.  When driving past the Toroweap ranger station, the ranger told us of another group doing our hike, but in the opposite direction.  He said they started a couple of days ago.  We hoped we would see them to get a water report.

Rich and I are both 72 years old, and cannot cover anywhere near the miles we once could.  So we planned a trip that would be as easy as possible, with eight short days, and hopefully stopping at potholes, thus not having to carry much water.  For the most part it worked out well.