As many of you know I have been training hard for the last 5 months by hiking long distances on Saturdays, and spending numerous hours a week on the Stair Climber machines in preparation for a rim to rim to rim Grand Canyon hike. This past Wednesday and Thursday were the days of that hike. We drove up to the North rim of the Grand Canyon on late Tuesday morning. Our band included my friend and reliable hiking partner Scott Crabtree and two of his friends, the two Guys. I knew British Guy who lives in New York from our Havasupai falls trip last year. I had met Guy from Washington State in one of my Yoga classes that Scott had brought him to and over juice that we had afterwards. We were 2 Scotts and 2 Guys . It was a 6 hour drive to the Grand Canyons north rim. We made a few stops including one in Flagstaff and one at Navaho Bridge. Our trip up to the North Rim was uneventful until we approached the park. There we saw many herds of deer and a herd of bison. We arrived before sunset and in plenty of time for our dinner reservation at the North Rim Lodge. Wednesday we arose to a cloudy cool day with a chance of rain. After a leisurely breakfast, we packed our gear in preparation for our hike. It took much consideration to decide what to take and what to leave. On a long hike every ounce seems like a lot to carry. I scaled my gear down to the very basics. British Guy came along on the trip to have his own set of hikes including one to come down and meet us on our way up the North Rim wall on Thursday morning. Washington Guy was in for the whole hike. We arrived at the North Kaibab trail head at 11:20am and began our journey. We were down to Phantom Ranch at a relaxed pace by 4:30pm, and after some foot maintenance, sock changes, and a water refill, we were on our way up the South Kaibab by 5pm. On the way we had a brief encounter with a big horn sheep when it crossed the trail behind us. There was a slight drizzle of rain on and off during the hike. About 8 hours and 21 miles into the hike, on the way up the long switchbacks on the South Kaibab trail, Guy began to experience leg cramping. The sun was setting as we reached Skeleton Point. We dropped some of our gear at the bathrooms just past Skeleton Point with the intention of reaquiring it on the way down. We donned headlamps as the light faded. As we hiked up the South rim wall Guy’s cramping became more severe and he made the decision to rest a mile below the rim until sunrise and then to end his hike on the South Rim and catch a shuttle around to the North Rim the next day. After cooking a meal and ensuring that Guy was ok, Scott and I continued up, arriving at the South Rim around 9:45pm. We changed socks, refilled water, and were on our way back down by 10:15pm. We arrived back down at Phantom Ranch at 1:45am. It was quiet. We cooked a meal, refilled water and changed socks and were on our way towards the Cottonwood campground by 2:30am. A brisk pace brought us the 8 miles to Cottonwood by 5:30am. We changed socks and were on the trail again. The sun rose at a little after 6am. We arrived at the Pump House an hour or so after sunrise. We met British Guy along the trail and he hiked out with us. We arrived at the last bridge before the North Rim wall around 9am and had a last sock change. We were off the steep switchbacks on the wall and at Supai, the last water and toilet before the top, by 10am. Having not slept for over 23 hours at this point, we were both physically and mentally fatigued. We were going on GU packs. I had a left heel blister, but no other problems physically. Scott had some hip tightness, but was in good shape. We finished the last few miles strong and emerged back at the North Rim trail head at 11:13am. Scott and I completed the hike in just less than 24 hours. After a shower and a few hours sleep we had dinner at the lodge and waited for Washington Guy to join us from the other side of the canyon. We got a good night’s sleep Thursday night and arose early on Friday to head out. Scott and his family and British Guy were off to Park City for the weekend, and I was on my way home after dropping Washington Guy off to the Phoenix airport to catch his flight home. Next Grand Canyon hike will be our regularly scheduled rim to rim in May. We will start training for that in January…..
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 23:01:59 +0000
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