Easter weekend - Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim / 50K

My first ever trip to Grand Canyon was in 2007. Spent about an hour wandering around the South Rim looking at jaw dropping views before driving off to Vegas. Second trip in 2012 and this time it was a backpacking trip from North rim to south rim spread over 4 days. During that trip I saw a bunch of runners running Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim and I convinced myself these are super human nut cases and vowed I'll never attempt running on a brutal terrain like Bright Angel / Kaibab trails. Fast-forward 4 years I've actually made a ton of ultra running friends and a few of them inspire me to go beyond my self imposed barriers. Heard from my ultra machine friend Elaine (Ninja) that she and Tom (Dragon) were planning to run Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (double crossing the river) on Saturday before Easter. This was their crazy way of celebrating Tom's 47th birthday with 47 running miles. Two more friends Sally and Paul were considering Rim-to-Rim (start from South and ending up on North Rim). I reluctantly signed up to join for Rim-to-Rim single crossing with Sally and Paul. As we started to figure out logistics we found out that North rim is closed for winter till May 15th and there really is no way to get back to South Rim upon finishing Rim-to-Rim. So Paul, Sally and I kept an open mind to do Rim-to-River or Rim-to-Box canyon out and back run. Being the most inexperienced and amateur runner in the group, it was very overwhelming to sign up for this "we are gonna have fun" adventure. To add to the confusion I had done no long runs since November and I crammed up few 10-12 trail running miles at Sour land and Tammany and ran Naked Bavarian 20 miler 3 weeks before the trip.

After weeks of planning and exchanging a million Facebook messages we were ready to roll. Sally, Paul and I flew to Phoenix on Thursday Mar 24th evening and stayed overnight near the airport. Tom and Elaine joined us Friday Mar 25th morning and picked us up from our hotel.

Ready to roll

We had made grand plans of reaching Grand Canyon by 4 pm and sleeping early. But a lousy car rental service at Phoenix followed by a flat tire within few miles into the journey threw our plans out the window.

Tom and Paul did all heavy lifting. I'm just pretending to help :P

We reached Grand Canyon just before Sunset. Took a quick few obligatory photos at the south rim and checked into Yavapai Lodge.

Tom & Elaine crashed early as they had to start their R2R2R run next morning at 3 a.m. We made a bold plan that we'll meet Tom & Elaine on their way back from North rim at Ribbon falls so we all could run back together to the south rim. We were super confident that we'll make it back to the lodge by 7 pm and go for the celebratory dinner. Paul volunteered to drive them at ungodly hour to trail-head. As expected Ninja got to post flat runner posts before crashing for the night. Next morning she & Tom were dressed for cold weather and started their adventure run around 3 am.

3 am start for Dragon & Ninja.

The three of us got ready and ate a solid breakfast at Bright Angel Lodge restaurant and began our run around 8 am. Sally did manage to slide & fall over covered ice near BA trail-head and shrugged it off next instant. Trail was super crowded with lots of hikers and backpackers. Weather was bit chilly at the start but we got really warm barely a mile into the run. We were in ridiculously high spirits and stopped at will to take action photos. It truly was a great morning for taking pictures and brought me back all the memories from the backpacking trip.

We made it to the river in about 3.5 hours and it was surreal running on the Silver bridge crossing Colorado river towards Phantom ranch.

Ate a packed lunch at Phantom ranch and relaxed a bit and then started running towards Box canyon on North Kaibab trail. It was very toasty and temperature was probably hitting 80s as we navigated through the narrow trail.

We crossed a series of bridges and then Sally turned around to get a head-start for the return ascent.

Paul and I ran further to Ribbon falls hoping to meet Tom and Elaine on their descent. We were positive that we'll be able to catch up to Sally at Phantom ranch so we could all run back together to South Rim. Upon reaching Ribbon falls we waited for about 45 minutes and there was no sign of Tom & Elaine. Instead we saw a helicopter flying towards north rim and we dreaded hoping that's not a rescue helicopter trying to get Tom and Elaine.

That better not be for Dragon & Ninja

On a positive note we met a runner coming down North Kaibab who had met Tom/Elaine and told us they were in high spirits.

We were worried.. but they were having fun..

We felt relieved but didn't want to wait forever so started running quickly towards Phantom ranch to catch up to Sally. On the way I saw couple of backpackers heading to Cottonwood camp-ground on north rim and gave them a message for Tom/Elaine. We got to the ranch in under an hour only to see the ranch was closed and Sally had already left towards South rim. Disappointed at missing Sally we crossed the river and continued our ascent towards South rim on Bright Angel trail. By then fatigue was catching up slowly and power hiking made more sense than running the steep climbs. Sun was also going down and a hiker coming in opposite direction told us we were 15 minutes away from Indian garden camp-ground and also confirmed he saw Sally leave Indian Garden towards South rim about 45 minutes ago. We were relieved at the news but at the same time worried that Sally would be climbing alone in the dark. We got to Indian garden camp-ground at 7 pm and it was completely dark by then. We put on extra layers and turned on headlamp and continued our climb towards South rim.

Thats not the lodge.. Its Sally's headlamp !!

We did see couple of moving headlamps higher up on the mountain and wondered if one of that is Sally. We kept looking behind hoping to see headlamps of Tom/Elaine but saw nothing but darkness. We turned off headlamp few times just to catch glimpse of stars on the sky . It was truly mind-blowing. It took us close to an hour to climb 1.5 miles to 3 mile rest-house and another hour to get to 1.5 mile rest-house. I was beyond exhausted and developed a bad cough trying hard to breathe with my heart-rate going to ridiculous levels. My hips were ready to give up and I was wobbling like a drunkard. Awesome Paul was right behind me the whole time. He gave me one of his hiking poles to ensure I don't loose balance & fall of cliff. We were getting closer and closer to the headlamp that was ahead of us and we finally caught up to the headlamp about a mile to go. It was indeed Sally and I was beyond thrilled at finding her in darkness. She was exhausted and had trouble breathing but kept moving on. I developed an immense amount of respect for the toughness and bad-assery she showed by climbing alone like that on a dark remote trail.

Super proud of my friends.

I knew we were less than a mile to the finish and goal was to cross the two arches we had passed earlier in the morning. We were hitting our lows but had no choice but to move along. Paul was fantastic help and he stuck with Sally the whole time. Took a long brutal hike to get to the finish around 10:45 pm. We were physically and mentally beaten up to have any sense of accomplishment. Paul showed his wicked sense of humor suggesting we should do this again next day.
Paul said he might have seen some headlamps down in the trail and dropped the two of us at the lodge and headed back to trail-head to wait for Tom/Elaine. By the time we cleaned up and searching for food in our room, Paul had miraculously received a text message saying Tom/Elaine were about 4 miles away. I woke up to some noise in our room at around 3:30 am and saw Elaine sitting and chatting with Sally. I immediately jumped up with joy and was thrilled to hear Tom/Elaine finished around 3:15 am. Holy smokes !!. Thats close to 24 hours to do this 47 miles of Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim adventure.

Finished at 3:15 am !! and still smiling.

It was hilarious to watch this outside our room.

No explanation needed.

Apparently keys to Tom/Elaine's room wasn't working and Tom was too exhausted to care about that.. We quickly fixed the issue and got Tom and Elaine back to their room before crashing for the night.

We celebrated the following Easter Sunday morning with giant breakfast at Bright Angel lodge, took few more photos at the rim and headed towards Flagstaff.

Picked up another car rental drove to beautiful Sedona. Ate pizza for lunch and waved goodbye to Tom/Elaine who were flying back home that night. Sally, Paul & I spent another day exploring Sedona before heading home.

Parking lot pic @ Sedona

It still amuses me that our estimates were off by many many hours. Kind of funny we thought it would be piece of cake to get back to lodge to eat dinner by 7 pm. I'm still awestruck at witnessing so much bad-assery from these friends during the trip. It was an epic adventure for Tom and Elaine running 47 miles on a merciless trail close to 24 hours. Sally was ridiculously tough in climbing Bright Angel trail in pitch darkness. Paul gets all round gratitude for his selfless help to everyone throughout the trip. I'm truly lucky to have these seasoned ultra runners as my friends who would go above and beyond to help. I can only hope to be in their sweaty shoes some day. Remarkable weekend journey filled with epic highs and lows came to an end. I can't wait to enjoy a similar journey with these friends at another place & time..

Here is a link to pictures that were taken during the trip.

Photo Album

Just Roughin - Backpacking Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

Relax folks. This is not another running event and I presently am in no shape to run the Grand Canyon. This is about a backpacking trip I took last spring with an awesome company called Just Roughin'It " . I wrote bits and pieces of this write up last year but totally forgot about sharing it. Thought it might be worth putting it together while they are still lingering in my memory. Taking into consideration my zero experience in backpacking I was looking for a guided tour and this company fit my needs perfectly.  They provided all the backpacking equipment, which I figured was a plus as carrying them from NJ appeard too impractical for me. This company also took care of all the permits & campsite reservations which I had heard was difficult to get during Spring time.The group had myself from NJ, A couple from Florida(Mark & Cheri) and two incredibly fit and athletic Canadian ladies(Paulette & Meg) in their late 60s. Our super guide Jayci led us through this four-day Rim-to-Rim adventure.



Map of the hike we were about to embark !!

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/hiking-the-grand-canyon-rim-to-rim/map

I flew to Phoenix the night before the trip began and I was picked at my hotel next morning around 4 am. I met the wonderful Cheri & Mark from Florida and we began our 4-hour drive to Grand Canyon. On the way we stopped at Flagstaff to pick our Guide Jayci & the two Canadian ladies and were off to the north rim. Upon reaching the Bright Angel Trail head at the north rim, we grabbed the backpacks and  packed all the essentials.  Camera hanging round our necks, Camel bak filled with 2-litres of water along with couple of Gatorades and we were ready to go. 

All Set to go.

Pack weighed about 40 lbs. and  initial miles were not fun at all.  My extremely weak upper body and ankles started complaining after about ½ a mile or so.

Geared up. That pack is heavy.

Day 1: We started our descent along the north rim at about 11 am just when the temperature had hit the lower 90s.  Our job was to go down the north rim for about 5-6 miles with a elevation drop of 4000 ft. Destination for the first night was the Cottonwood campground. The journey that begins from Roaring Springs Canyon was a visual treat. It begins with a evergreen forest reminding of some of eastern national parks but within few miles you get to see the spectacle of the Red Canyon. Being inexperienced hikers we demanded many lunch, snack and pee breaks throughout. Our guide was patient and knew how to push the pace. He does this trip every other week with amateurs like me. After lot of huffing and puffing we made it to the Cottonwood campground. Here are some pictures I took along the way. Im no photographer by any standards, but it was not easy to focus on taking a picture with a 40 lbs pack pounding your upper back.

 Upon reaching the campground we setup our tents and feasted ourselves to very nice pasta dinner cooked on the spot by our guide. Campground had a compost toilet and a creek nearby for us to fill water. I was very nervous with all those crawling lizards and chamelons around our tents. Jayci told that they were food to the rattle snakes and it certainly didn't ease the tenison. But I was exhausted by the day's adventure and dozed off pretty quickly.

Day 2: Woke up nice and early to the coffee smell that Jayci was preparing along with Couscous breakfast packed with nuts and cranberrys.I fed myself several servings of it to prepare myself for the second day's hike. It was quite a task packing the tent and sleeping bag back into the backpack. Everyone were very sore from previous day's hike and forced ourselves to wear the backpacks again as we headed towards the Bright Angel Campground. 4000 ft of desent continued on day 2 for another 5-6 miles.  Within a mile away from Cottonwood campground was a very steep side hike to Ribbon falls. It was a perfect spot to get wet as the day was only going to get hotter.



Ribbon falls - a side hike on Day 2

Journey to Bright Angel campground was the hottest 5 hours I have experiened in my life. Drinking Gatorade and water every 20 mins or so was not enough. We were forcing ourselves to salty snacks every 15-20 minutes just to ensure we don't get dehydrated or develop any kind of heat stress. Despite all our efforts, the oldest member of our group Meg(aged 70) succumbed to severe heat stress and dehydration. Jayci's superb experience in handling the situation came to rescue. We all shared carrying the contents of Meg's backpack. Jayci signalled myself, Cheri and Mark to move ahead sensing the two Canadian ladies would need lot of walking breaks to get to the campground. We were dumbstuck by the heat and the scorching sun. Bottom of the Canyon felt like an oven toasting us to depletion.

Dumbstuck bearing that heat !!

We finally made it to the Phantom Ranch at around 3 pm, threw our backpacks away and drank several glasses of lemonade.

Cold Lemonade welcomes us.

Ensuring we were peeing every hour or so was necessary to avoid dehydration. After couple of hours Jayci, Meg & Paulette made it to the ranch. We looked at a nearby Thermal-gauge that explained why we were so drained out.

We reached the campground, setup the tents and went for a short hike to Colarado river. Despite the brutal heat the water was freezing and swimming felt like heaven. Meg came out of water feeling much better.

Black bridge. Another option to cross the colorado river

It was time to eat dinner and crash. Don't remember what I ate but it was a heavy carb dinner for sure. I was so damn tired and I didn't think of lizards or possible rattle snakes that night at all.

Yikes !. I saw those little reptiles on my tent at some point.

Day 3: We knew from the beginning Day 3 and 4 would require us start climbing up the south rim.  It was an added stress to already depleted and weary bodies. We fueled ourselves with coffee and breakfast and reluctantly began our journey towards the Indian Garden Campground. Crossed the colorado river walking on the majestic silver bridge to get to the bottom of south rim and the ascent began.

Silver Bridge to cross Colorado river

Temple of rocks

Meg was still feeling effects from previous day's brutal hike. We carried most of her contents in our backpack to ensure she could walk comfortably. We stopped and took breaks as the group needed and slowly started climbing up those steep steps along the trail. Surprisingly it was not as hot as the previous day and we had become pros carrying the backpack as well. So the hike felt lot more easier than first two days. There were several creeks along the way for us to dip, wade and wet ourselves.

There's  lunch..

We made it to the Indian Garden campground as early as 1:30 pm. Set up our tents and took a nice nap. Woke up couple of hours later. Chatted about variety of things that mattered to each of us ranging from Running, Football, Hunting,  Grizzles , Mountain Lions, Yoga to Bhagavad Gita & Vivekananda. We unofficially hired Jayci to guide us on a hike to Yellowstone.

Later that evening headed for another 2-3 mile side hike to Plateu point. That hike felt very easy as we had left the backpacks at the campground. Plateu point is certainly the highest vista on the canyon and the views around are absolutely stunning. This is a photographer's paradise and I really pity my useless skills in that department.

Day 4: Final day's ascent began very early around 4:30 am after Coffee & Granola/Milk breakfast. Meg looked like she had new springs on her feet. She felt great and was raring to wrap up the final day's hike. It was worth waking up that early and starting the hike while it was still dark. We got the opportunity to watch the sun rise and hum "Here comes the sun".

Here Comes the Sun

Canyon we are leaving behind

Few hours into the hike, we stopped for a snack and this visitor peeked at us out of nowhere.  Jayci told he was very popular at this spot and at times does not hesitate to scare the people around. It was a delight to watch him climb down the steep rocks and then run wildly disappearing into the canyon.

He was not shy at all.

Last leg of the ascent was not at all strenuous  Everyone felt a sense of fulfillment as we climbed the last few steps of the Bright angel trail on the south rim.

Finishing up. No worries

Well earned prize

Highly recommend them.

Finally had the luxury of restaurant food and modern rest rooms after four days. Needless to mention a shower was in order. During the hike I saw several runners attempting to run Rim-to-Rim in a single day and make a return run back to starting point the next day. Watching them run with such insane level of endurance & conditioning in brutal conditions was mind blowing.

After the trip, I was dropped off at Flagstaff airport. Waved good byes to the terrific group. I picked up my rental car and drove to Sedona for a relaxing 2-3 day trip. 40 mile drive to Sedona from Flagstaff was spectacular. That is listed as one of the top 10 scenic drives in the country. Sedona itself is a great vacation spot. I would highly recommend Sedona to folks with families and kids. Within few miles outside of Sedona you get to see the wilderness that is very different to Grand Canyon. There are several fun trips you can take like the Pink Jeep and Helicopter tours. I also managed to do 5 hour kayaking at Verde River before flying back to NJ.

On the way to Sedona

Chapel of Holy Cross

Cool jeep ride

It was a trip of a lifetime for sure. This was the trip that made me fall in love with National parks of Western United States. I took a road trip to Yellowstone National park in 2006 with a group of friends. I'm sure it will be lot of fun backpacking there as well. Of course there are mighty Colorado,  Glacier, Badlands, Yosemite & Zion national parks. Hoping to experience some of these parks as time & resources permit.