
We started our hike on the rough unmaintained Hermit trail on a Friday morning. It was a three-day, two–night hike with 6 family members - myself, my husband, two of our children and their mates. We knew that a major rain storm was predicted, with possible flooding, starting sometime Friday night and possibly lasting through Saturday night – but we had a permit for this weekend, obtaining it 5 months before, through a lottery system. Time had been taken off of work, a lot of preparation had gone into the trip, so we didn't want to cancel because of the storm. And, maybe it wouldn't be as bad as predicted, or maybe not rain in the canyon at all.
We made it down to the campsite after a hard down-hill hike. There was a lot of lightning in the distance but only a little rain that first night. The temperature was even too hot to sleep well. The plan for Saturday was to hike the mile and a half down to the CO River at Hermit rapid, following the Hermit creek bed, a beautiful gorge, with a gentle perennial creek. Three of us had done this before, the other three had never hiked this trail, so again, we didn't want to change this plan even though the clouds up on both rims looked threatening.