The Grand Canyon Hike!

Well, as most of you know...last weekend Dad and I headed out to the Grand Canyon to do a rim to rim hike in one day! As evidenced by my typing...we survived!

I will attempt to give an abbreviated version of our trip...

On Thursday night at about 6:00 p.m. we headed down the road to St. Louis. We stayed at a Super 8 that had paper thin walls, next to some guests that thought it would be fun to watch TV until midnight at about 200 decibels. Between that and Dad's snoring I got about 4 hours of sleep!

Early Friday morning we rose and headed to the St. Louis airport for our flight to Phoenix. We had a great flight and were picked up by Keith (dad's first cousin) shortly after our arrival. We went back to his jewelry shop and browsed around while he finished working for about an hour. We grabbed lunch and then headed to Keith and Tammy's house to eat and make final preparations. A little after 2:00, Sam (Keith's friend) and his son-in-law picked us up and we headed for the North Rim.

As we got close we stopped for supper. At this point I was feeling pretty good about the hike...previously I had been a bit nervous.

I ordered a nice tame grilled pork chop and rice. Everybody else ordered a burger or fried fish. After supper we continued on to the lodge we were staying at on Friday night. We arrived around 8 or 9 p.m. and continued to organize and get ready for the hike ahead.

Once again I had a difficult time getting to sleep. At about 2 a.m. I awoke...not feeling in my prime. I went to the bathroom and sat...feeling that nausea rising in my esophagus...a few minutes later my "tame" pork chop and rice was in the garbage! I went back to bed and got a few hours of sleep.

At 4:30 a.m Dad started to rouse the troops for the challenge ahead. We all started getting ready and making final preparations. I was still feeling quite sick and couldn't even look at the granola bar I opened. We hopped in the van and then realized that Keith's cell phone was an hour ahead for some reason...it was now 4:12 as we took off from the lodge...we had been awoken at 3:30! Yippee! It ended up being very nice that we started early. The drive up to the rim took about an hour. I began eating some graham crackers and drinking Gatorade so that I wouldn't be starting the hike on empty. On the drive up we saw about 20 mule deer along the road. At about 5:00 a.m we arrived at the trail head...the North Kaibob trail.

At 5:15 we huddled around in the 19 degree weather and said a short prayer asking for safety (for us) and calmness (for our families). The stars above us were unbelievably bright...stunning! We started down at a brisk pace to help keep ourselves warm. Soon we had descended enough that we were comfortable due to our body heat and the temperature rising a bit. After about an hour of hiking the sun began brightening the horizon in front of us.

As the skies began to turn blue we could see the cliffs above that we had already descended. The sun was illuminating the white rock that capped the top of the traditional red rocks you envision in the Grand Canyon.

The first milestone we reached was the Supai tunnel. This was about 2 miles and 1400 ft elevation drop into our hike. We were still feeling great and it was still dark. Here's a picture of Dad...still feeling great!

We continued on and soon we had turned out the light and started really enjoying taking in our surroundings. The hike was beautiful and the temperature was great! At one point Keith broke his promise to his wife to be careful. In the following picture you will see Keith sitting on the lower ledge of a rock with Dad and I. You will notice that the top of the rock is sitting at quite an angle. Let's just say he was on top and the rock was angling towards a several thousand foot drop...

We continued down until we reached Roaring Springs. Keith and Sam hiked down to the bathrooms while Dad and I waited. I happened to turn on my cell phone and realized that I had service. I sent Mary a quick text message much to her relief since I had not been able to get service Friday night or Saturday morning. At this point we were 4.7 miles and 3141 elevation change into the hike. We started back down the trail a few minutes later and continued on to the Cottonwood Campground. This was 6.9 miles into the trip and 4241 ft of elevation change into the hike. We stopped here and Sam made Beef Stroganoff and coffee. This was our longest break at about half an hour. The meal was invogorating and a necessary infusion of calories. The following picture is the view from our "breakfast place".

The next milestone we reached was Ribbon Falls. This was 8.4 miles and 4521 feet of elevation drop. This was a slight detour (1/2 mile total) off the main trail. It was worth the hike!

Back on the trail quickly, we continued on to Phantom Ranch. The ranch is basically located at the bottom. Coming from the North Rim, it lies about 1/4 miles before you reach the Colorado River. We stopped here for the famous lemonade and to eat some food. At this point we had traveled around 14 miles and dropped 5,681 ft of elevation. We were starting to feel it just a bit!

As mentioned, we were very soon at the feet of the river...beautiful!

At the river the elevation was 2,440 feet, we had finished our descent and had dropped 5,801 feet (over a mile!). Now came the fun part!

After crossing the river we hopped on to Bright Angel Trail which was 9 miles long and 4,420 ft of ascent! Needless to say...we had a ways to go! As I crossed the river on the suspension bridge I looked down at the fast moving river and got a bit disoriented! The Colorado River moves quite fast! The next 2 miles were along the beautiful green river that even had a few sand bars in it.

The next couple of miles were spent climbing 400 -500 feet and then dropping back to the river level. Finally after about 2 mile we started heading up the canyon. Soon we arrived at the Devil's Corkscrew...its a set of switchbacks that are quite challenging...in addition to the switchbacks...we also had our only run-in with a rattlesnake. Thankfully it attacked Keith's trekking poles and not his leg! He caught it with his poles and let us all pass along with a few others that were right behind us. He was quite the hero!

We continued up the trail until we reached Indian Gardens. At this point we had hiked about 20 miles and had ascended 1360 feet from the river. We now had 4.5 miles of the toughest hiking of our lives ahead of us! At this point everybody was still doing pretty well...tight legs but enough energy to keep going! We continued slowly up the trail to the 3 mile resthouse...and then even slower to the 1.5 miles resthouse (i.e 1.5 miles from the top). One and a half miles never felt so long. A bit after we passed the 1.5 miles resthouse darkness set in. We switched our headlamps back on and kept trudging. At this point Dad was nearing exhaustion. I tried my best to keep him eating a little bit so that he didn't run out of calories. At about the 1 mile mark his right hip really started giving him trouble and he couldn't walk a straight line real well. Not exactly a good combination with 2000 ft. dropoffs a foot away! Sam started walking between Dad and the drop off to make sure that we would all finish safely. At 7:30 p.m we walked off the Bright Angel Trail, 24.5 miles, 5,801 feet of descent, 4,420 feet of ascent, and 14 hours and 15 minutes later. We all made it! Hooray! The next post will have pictures and videos of some of the panoramic views we had as we walked up the South Rim (before we reached the top). Once again...finishing in the dark we were able to see the stars and were simply amazed at the number of them that we could see.



If I am asked if I would do it again knowing what was ahead my answer would be: Yes!



If I am asked when I would plan my next trip to do a rim to rim the answer would be: 16 years (about when Max would be ready!)



If I am asked if I would recommend the rim to rim in a day my answer would be: No! (I wouldn't want the liability!)



The beauty was great, the company was great, the pain was great!



The conclusion of the matter: God is an amazing Creator!