Grand Canyon Rim-To-Rim-To-Rim

Made it!

A great two-day adventure in the Grand Canyon. 46 miles (23 each way). Lots and lots of climbing and good scenery. Sure, there was one super-fit couple that were running the whole thing in one day, but I wasn't jealous. Not sure I'll be jealous of anybody attempting this in general...

Synopsis: A grand accomplishment, very satisfying. South Rim is a total circus (like Whitney Portal), not sure I'll ever need to go back there. And frankly underwhelmed me visually, as well. I'm plenty used to seeing desert canyons. However, the North Rim, and really the entire North Kaibab Trail, were gorgeous. If there wasn't the lure of the Rim-To-Rim claim, I think a great trip would be to just do the North Kaibab. Even in two days if you can stay at the bottom.

Route: South Kaibab and North Kaibab, both ways. Started on the South for the shorter drive, slept on the North, and then turned around. Stayed at the Kaibab Lodge, which is about a half-hour from the North Rim but they have a shuttle and are friendly, and it's located in a beautiful alpine meadow.

How it unfolded: This was my normal hiking buddy Helgi's genuis idea. Okay, maybe I put the idea in his head when he once mentioned something that sounded like "Grand Canyon". I just casually mentioned I've heard of this whole "rim-to-rim" thing. Perhaps we were still delirious after Whitney last summer. Helgi took it from there, made all sorts of reservations, and then all that was left was to con in a few more suckers: Helgi's daughter Sesselja with her fiancee (and still fiancee) Greg, and my buddy Mike. Oh, and that whole training thing. Not enough of that happened, of course.

Set out friday morning driving the 8ish hours from San Diego, and slept in a Days Inn motel in Williams, AZ after dinner in beautiful downtown Williams (not so much). Breakfast saturday morning in the car with a 5am departure from the motel for the hour drive to the rim. Some people were worried that we wouldn't make our 4pm shuttle reservation, though I would have voted for a little more sleep. Course I think I was up about 3:30am anyway ready to go. As it turned out, good thing we got started early.

Set out from the rim right about 6:30am after a photo at the top, walking down the South Kaibab. Along with plenty of other people. Reading all the signs about how people die all the time, and how you should never try to get into and out of the canyon on the same day. Quite motivating.

Very steep, lots of wooden log stair things placed just far enough apart that they were totally non-useful. Lots of dust and well-used trail. Maybe they're just right for the mules, which we watched carrying the lazy people that couldn't be bothered to walk. Looks like a miserable trip on a mule (for both people and mules), these mules don't move fast and you'd be out there a long long time.

Walked down down down (6,800 ft to about 2,000 ft) for about 6 miles, multiple official bathroom spots and views of the canyon, but no drinking water. We were led to believe the bottom was 6 miles in, but not so. Crossed the river closer to 7 miles, then still another half-mile-plus to Phantom Ranch, the popular spot at the bottom that apparently books up over a year in advance. With a nice Park Ranger asking questions like "How many in your party?" "Where are you going?" "Are you idiots?" "Do you really think you'll make it? It's gonna be 100 degrees on the trail." "We really don't want to have to life-flight your sorry ass out today, please don't go." After a rest at Phantom Ranch (9am lunch), we went anyway, against everybody's better judgement.

Next 7 miles or so were a very slight incline, great for some real fast hiking - even passed a few runners, which was odd and motivating. Winding right along the big creek (Bright Angel Creek, I think) with tall canyon walls on both sides. Beautiful. Plenty of shade this early in the morning. We split up a bit, but not too far. Mike caught me at a rest spot about 5 miles up, and then we set off again together. Another good long rest break at Cottonwood, a camping area about halfway up the North Kaibab. Very pleasant so far. Feet were a bit tired at this point being 15 miles in, but not so bad.

Somehow we had it in our mind that the North Kaibab was 14 miles total, and a gentle incline the whole way. At this point we noticed on the GPS that we hadn't gone up very far. North Rim is up at 8,000 ft, so there was a good incline still ahead of us. And boy did it go up. And up and up and up. Beautiful, but at this point everything was red. At one point I swore we were on the Hillary Step. I kept moving on, and would wait for Mike every so often, and then we'd rest together a little and keep moving. Consider Mike hadn't really moved for a few months as he was finishing his PhD, and thus carrying an extra 20 lbs or so, he was really impressive.

We did get lucky with the weather, as the clouds rolled in and it actually stayed fairly cool - almost cold at the top.

As it turned out, the trailed climbed to almost 8,200 feet, and put our total for the day at over 22 miles. Definitely more than we had planned on! Felt great at the top, though. I got there at about 3pm - 8.5 hours travel time. Mike followed about a half-hour later. Shuttle showed up an we begged her to stay and then listened to a variety of Kaibab stories. Greg finally showed up somewhere around 5pm as we were freezing and cramping (we should have gone to get some food and come back, but we weren't that bright), and said Helgi was having trouble. Then we worried a bit. About 6ish they made it, thankfully, though near collapsing at the top. Apparently there was a bit of a bonk. But everybody made it, and we cruised to the lodge and cleaned up. After dinner everybody felt better.

Unfortunately, not better enough. Mike in the middle of the trail had already decided he was probably bailing on the return trip, and catching the 5 hour ride back around the canyon, even if it cost $200 (turned out it was only $80). That sounded good to everybody else, too, so sunday I was on my own for the return trip. One advantage was that I could steal all their good food they didn't need any more (goo!), and give them things I didn't need to carry, like my dirty clothes. No complaints there.

Sunday morning I ate two orders of oatmeal and some fries, and set out from the North Rim at 8am. Waited for a few mule trains, which gave me time to put on sunscreen and those sorts of things while waiting for spots to pass. Down down down. I quickly figured out that my feet hurt a lot less if I sort of jog-walked and let gravity take over, dropping that 4,000+ feet in 5 miles or so. Kept the weight off my heels, although I knew I was greatly sacrificing my quads and such, since I'm normally not a runner. Anyway, it was still fun and I cruised a good pace. At 1.5 hours in I was already at Cottonwood, about 7.5 miles or so. Feeling good.

Then realized that if I hurried, the next part of the canyon would still be in the shade (no clouds today), a great benefit. And knowing that all I had to do was make it to the bottom of the South Kaibab and then I could suffer as long as I wanted. So I ran some more, jogging the downhills and just fast walking the uphills.

Got to Phantom Ranch, feeling a bit tired and sore on the feet, and rested for a while. Talked to some of the same people doing the same trip that I saw the day before (mostly some 26ers, an LA running club), that informed me the majority of their group had bailed as well. Ate a bit, and satisfied with the knowledge that there was less than 8 miles to go, all uphill but just required some effort and I'd make it. Loaded up with 7 liters of water and set out.

Took a couple rests, but overall kept moving nicely. Basically like going up stairs for 5+ miles. Didn't even get too hot, didn't even finish all the water and donated some to a woman at one of the restroom areas. Made it to the top in under 3 hours, for a 6:20 total transit, broke 5 hours of moving time. Thumped my chest a few times at the top, and headed out to find the rest of the group.

Uploading pictures (mine and the rest of the group's) over time here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/davidalynn/GrandCanyon#

And if you really need it, here's the motionbased GPS data for both trips. GPS signal quality is crap, so don't rely on this for more than a general guide:

South to North: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6827272
North to South: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6826852