rim to rim 50th birthday type 2 fun

Okay, so it was supposed to be a rim to rim to rim (Bright Angel to North Kaibab and back), but I made the decision to forgo the journey back to the South Rim based on a few things. Most importantly, given all of the work travel I've been doing, I wasn't going to be able to get the appropriate training in. I probably could have finished the thing, but it would have been ugly. Secondly, I wanted Chris to join me on this adventure and he has been struggling with a partially torn meniscus, so there was no way we were going to run the downs and flats. The thought of being in the Canyon for more than 20 hours was telling me it was going to be a no-go. Finally, with the resource cuts to the National Park Service, I was worried that if we did have any issues, a rescue would not be guaranteed. Turns out, it was an excellent decision to go R2 instead of R3 because a few weeks before our trip, it was announced that there would be no way to access the North Kaibab trail from the Bright Angel trail because of a huge waterline project. This is a big deal, because it would have forced an ascent on South Kaibab, which has no shade and no water. Bright Angel is always the preferred route out of the Canyon going north to south even though the mileage is longer, because it has shaded areas, rest areas with water and less elevation gain as compared to South Kaibab.

Last fall, I made us a reservation at the Thunderbird Lodge. Nothing fancy, but awesome because you literally walk out the door and the Bright Angel trailhead is a few steps from the hotel. Unfortunately, with the Silver Bridge being closed, we were going to have to get to the South Kaibab trailhead to start and use the Black Bridge to access North Kaibab instead. South Kaibab trailhead is located about 4 miles from where we were staying. I initially thought we'd have to do some bonus miles in the morning. Thankfully, I asked the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Facebook group about our issue and learned that you can get a taxi any time of day from the Bright Angel Lodge. For $19, they showed up at 1:30AM and brought us to the SK trailhead. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll back up and start from the beginning of our journey.

Another wrench was thrown into our travel plans with all of the chaos at Newark International Airport with air traffic control issues and a closed runway . Luckily, I was able to change our flights last minute to depart from Philadelphia instead for about $40 per ticket. We were up by 4:30AM on May 18th and by 5:20AM, we were on our way to the airport via Lyft. I had heard that trying to find parking at Philly would be challenging, given the number of other nervous travelers switching flights from Newark. Somehow, miraculously, our flight left on time and we arrived in Phoenix at about noon. We rented from Hertz and were able to skip the counter and go right to the car. I've always wanted to see what Flagstaff looks like- it's the home to many elite ultrarunners, being a mountain town at altitude, so we mapped ourselves there to a Chipotle. Not the most exciting dinner, but I knew it was going to be a safe option. We then did a quick trip to Safeway to pick up some breakfast items, where it was exciting to find some happy ready to drink coffees on shelf, selling through well for some of the flavors. I was psyched that there was one can of cold brew left, which I purchased for my caffeine needs post-adventure. With the slight detour to Flag, we still made great time and we were at our hotel, checked in by 5ish. One thing to note- parking can be a challenge. We literally found the last spot near our hotel along the road. The hotel lot was tiny. Check in for Thunderbird was at Bright Angel Lodge.

As soon as we got to the room, it was all business. We started laying out all of our gear and packed it all up, laid out our clothes for the next day and figured out what breakfast was going to be, if we were even hungry at 1AM. With this self-curated adventure, I did a lot of research. Basically, I knew that we couldn't just carry what we were planning on eating. We also had to be prepared and carry enough food for another day, just in case something happened and we were stuck in the Canyon. With this in mind, we also each carried an emergency bivy, warm clothing, a Garmin inReach, extra bottles for water and extra batteries for headlamps and phones. This all amounted to a very heavy pack, but I wanted to be safe. I ended up using the Black Diamond 15L Distance pack. The first time I saw this pack was in Billy Yang's Grand Canyon R3 video. I had thought about just using my Salomon 12L pack, but one of my cats had chewed through the elastic in the front and I had been trying to find a quiver for my poles, but it was always sold out. Also, 12L is a little tight for what I was going to need. The BD Distance pack is a sweet pack. I have the BD Distance Carbon Z fold up running poles and the pack has slots on each side to house these poles. It made for a very tidy pack, even though it was heavy at about 7-8 lbs.

All of my gear

What I wore:

• Rabbit yellow UPF Deflector 2.0 shirt

• Janji 7" Pace short (Ridgeline color)

• Injinji toe socks

• Altra Experience Wild

• Light pair of gloves

• a cheap packable puffy coat that I found on Amazon

• Territory Running Company 5 panel hat

• Petzl Actik Core headlamp

• Coros Apex watch

• Coros arm band heart rate monitor

• Goodr sunglasses

• Squirrel's Nut Butter

• Neutrogena Ultra Dry Touch SPF 30 sunscreen

What I carried:

• Dry bag with dry clothes, extra socks

• Bandana

• Buff

• Emergency bivy

• Toilet paper in a dry bag

• 6 Science in Sport beta fuel gels

• Quinn peanut butter pretzels

• snack pack of Fritos

• 3 Bobo PB&J bars

• 2 Clif Z bars

• 1 Maurten bar

• Trader Joe's single serving of olives

• Bag with 3 servings of Skratch

• Honey Stinger chews

• A few mango Kasugai gummies

• 2 full sized jerkies and 1 mini

• First two bottles with GU Rocktane Summit Tea (with caffeine)

• 1 sachet of GU Rocktane Summit Tea

• 2 extra soft flasks

• Filter top for soft flask

• Sandwich bag for garbage

• Sandwich bag filled with Tums, IBP and SaltStick chewables

• Garmin inReach

• Patagonia Houdini jacket

• Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z poles

• My glasses

• Card I had made with stops, distances and elevation changes

What I ate:

• 3 full flasks of GU Roctane (Summit Tea)

• 2 flasks just water

• 2 flasks of Skratch

• 1 strawberry Bobo PB&J bar

• half of a Clif Z bar

• 1 packet of Trader Joe's olives

• 1 packet of Fritos

• 1 Chomps jerky stick

So, this wasn't a race, but, it was a race. I had booked us spots on the 2PM TransCanyon Shuttle, so we had to be there, or we might be sleeping at the North Kaibab trailhead. The shuttle takes about 4.5 hours to get from the North Rim to the South Rim. More on that later. After we packed up, we had to get out and get our first looks at the Grand Canyon. The views did not disappoint.

I wanted us to have plenty of time to get across the Canyon, so we planned on a 2AM start. This meant getting up by 1AM, trying to eat something and getting to the Bright Angel Lodge by 1:30AM to call a taxi. I basically tossed and turned from 9PM until the alarm went off at 1AM. Maybe got 20-30 mins of sleep? Made a travel pour over coffee, which was undrinkable, so I decided to rely on the caffeine that would be in my soft flasks in the form of GU Summit Tea. Ate a banana, got dressed, put on anti-chafe and sunscreen and headed out. It was pretty chilly that morning, so I had my puffy coat and light gloves on. Windy at the start. The taxi service was super efficient. The Bright Angel staff called them for us and it was $19 cash to ride over to the South Kaibab trailhead.

Officially started our journey at 1:57AM. I had estimated that it would take us about 3 hours to get down to the river. As expected, the trail was uneven and pretty rutted out from the mules. I did not enjoy hiking down, especially in the dark. We passed a few folks on our way down. One guy was finishing up an R3 and did not look good. He would be okay, but it was a good thing he was close to the top and it wasn't hot out. A little past Ooh Aah Point, we were moving fast enough that I was able to take my puffy coat off, but I kept my gloves on. I had noticed during my 20 mile training run a few weeks back, that the poles irritated the palm of my left hand. Having the gloves on felt good and protected the skin a bit. By the time we got the bottom, Chris already had a blister on one of his hands from the poles. We arrived at the black bridge almost exactly 3 hours from the top and the sky was just starting to get light. We could see the Colorado River, but couldn't tell if it was green or black. The moon was a waning gibbous- looked really pretty. The entire way down to the river, we kept seeing headlamps down below and when we got to the bottom, we also saw headlamps from up above. I think that most folks start their journey, either from Phantom Ranch or the Bright Angel Campground at 4-5AM to avoid the heat of the day when ascending to the South Rim. Those who are attempting R3 tend to start around the same time. Crossing the Black Bridge was so cool. Prior to the bridge, there's a long tunnel. It just felt so good to be finished with the steep downhill where we experienced about 4,800 ft of elevation loss.

Black Bridge

Both of us needed a pit stop at the bottom and luckily, there's an actual plumbed bathroom just past the black bridge. By the time I got to the bottom, I had drained both 500 ml flasks of GU Rocktane. This amounted to 500 calories, 70 mgs of caffeine and 640 mgs of sodium. I love that I didn't need to take a break to eat anything during the descent. I did notice a dull headache and I attributed that to not getting enough caffeine. If I had to do it again, I would've just brought an instant sachet of happy coffee with me instead of trying the silly (terrible) travel pour over coffee of an unknown brand. I was hopeful that there would be coffee out at Phantom Ranch as I had read in the Facebook group that it would be out by 4:30AM. Unfortunately, there was no coffee to be found at a little after 5AM, so we just refilled our water and kept going. I ended up making up another flask of Summit Tea and kept the other as just plain water.

As we left Phantom, I ate a Bobo PB&J, so I got in another 230 calories. We were both feeling really good. We had managed to get to the Box in the shade and it was still cool out- probably about low 60sF by now. We managed to run for a little bit, but then the views were so spectacular, that given the number of times we stopped to take a photo, it just made more sense to hike.

Enjoying the views in the Box

First light hitting the Canyon walls in the distance

Enormous agave

The journey through the Box and the Frying Pan was so pleasant. We were being rewarded for our extremely early start. We were also just super lucky. I don't think we could've hoped for a better weather day. When we arrived on the North Rim, we heard that it had sleeted and rained the day before, with hail in a nearby town. The forecast for the day after would have the Box heating up to the 90sF. The sun didn't even hit the trail until we exited the Frying Pan and started up towards Cottonwood. At this point, I had finished my Summit Tea and a pack of olives- just felt like I needed something salty. I had planned on taking some Science in Sport gels, but never felt like having one. It makes sense- since I wasn't running, my heart rate stayed purely in Z1 and Z2 so I didn't really need to quickly replenish carbs. Over the entire journey, my average HR was 116 bpm. On the climb out, it was in the 130s.

Initially, I had planned on a side trip to Ribbon Falls, but we could see it in the distance and it was just a trickle, so we opted to keep moving forward. This meant that we got to experience what is referred to as "Asinine Hill", a little section of downhill, which feels weird and annoying after making some uphill progress. We hiked through Cottonwood Campground, but didn't stop, planning on a longer stop at Manzanita. Cottonwood smelled pretty bad due to the pit toilets so I'm happy we could continue on. With the sun now fully out, we started seeing lizards scurry across the trail, which was fun. I couldn't believe how many people were at Manzanita. Most were coming from the North Rim and were hanging out to eat, refill water and rest. We knew this would be our last chance for water, so I filled my two front flasks and added Skratch in both bottles. I also filled two flasks in my pack so that I would have an extra flask for the journey up and another for the shuttle ride back. At this stop I had a Chomps jerky stick and also the rest of my water prior to refiling. Also had a quick bathroom break. I knew that shit was going to start getting real after Manzanita- it was when the relentless climb up switchbacks started and it wasn't going to let up until we got to the top. By now, the sun was blazing and even though it was only in the 70sF, it felt hot. I had to start playing games in my head. I put my sunglasses on because that made it feel less sunny and also started trying to convince myself that I was solar-powered.

The 2.5 miles to Redwall Bridge felt like an eternity. At some points, I was moving so slowly that my watch stopped registering pace. After we crossed Redwall Bridge, there was another couple stopped there resting. When we finally got to the Supai Tunnel stop, the same couple was there. We took a short break to eat something (I could only manage to get down half of a Z Bar) and continued on. When they started up, they seemed to be quickly gaining on us. The clicking of their hiking poles started to annoy me, so at some point I stepped aside and let them pass. I was surprised to see them sitting and resting at Coconino Overlook. It was at that moment, that race mentality entered my brain and I was determined to beat them to the top. I think Chris wished we could've stopped at rested, but I insisted that we move on. My mental games continued. I knew that mileage could be off, but my watch seemed to be accurately measuring elevation gain, so I just started counting to 100 over and over again, watching the elevation change. I knew that we would be at about 6,000 ft of gain by the time we got to the top, so I just kept tracking this. It was just a left foot, right foot slow slog up out of the Canyon by then. I also knew that I needed to keep my effort controlled, given the higher altitude or my stomach might turn. As we got to around 6,000 ft, breathing became more difficult. By the top, we would hit about 8,000 ft. Chris started to fall behind and mentioned that his heart rate was in the 160s, but I knew he would be fine, so I just went at my own pace to the top. I finally made it up to the North Kaibab trailhead at exactly 11:45AM, about an hour and a half before I had expected to make it there. Our total elapsed time was about 9 hours and 45 minutes. Our total stoppage time was only 16 minutes. I think that pre-planning out the stops really helped and of course, we were lucky that neither of us fell or had any other reason we needed to stop for longer. Chris later told me that he rolled his ankle, but it wasn't bad enough to stop us. What matters most is that we beat that couple to the top. Kidding, of course, but it did motivate me to keep moving.

Can't do justice to views on the North Kaibab trail

One of our many lizard friends on the trail

Chris crossing Redwall Bridge

Supai Tunnel

Coconino Overlook

Finally at the top!

Steps looking down the North Kaibab Trail

When Chris arrived at the top, he was completely drained. I asked if he wanted to change, but he couldn't muster the energy. He basically just went and laid down in the grass and was asleep immediately. It was impressive- just completely out. It was pretty cold at the top, so I changed into my dry clothing. I was super happy to have both my Houdini jacket and puffy with me. Long tights were definitely the right call. We had a couple of hours to wait for the shuttle, so I enjoyed finishing up my water and having another jerky stick and some Fritos. It was so amusing to see a group of about 8 runners who had created their own event. Some were doing the R2 and some, the R3. As runners would come up, they had set up their own aid station, fully equipped with a Coleman stove to make cheese quesadillas, a cooler full of drinks and fruit, chips and plenty of hydration fuel to keep them going. The cutest part was that they were awarding each other medals for finishing the challenge. At that moment, as I sat watching some of them turn around and head back for the South Rim, I could not imagine having to cover the same distance I had just covered. However, a few days removed from the journey, my body feels good. I never had any quad pain or soreness. My glutes and hamstrings were a little tight, but I think that the training really paid off, because I feel like I can still move well and even run some. Tomorrow, five days removed from completing the rim to rim, I am going to attempt to run 20 miles. With all of the mileage from the R2 and also some hiking in Sedona the day after, I want to make it a 50 mile week to celebrate my 50th birthday. I'm not sure how it'll go, but I've invited friends and family to come run/hike loops around a local lake with me. If anything, it'll be a nice excuse to spend time with folks I haven't seen in awhile.

The TransCanyon Shuttle did the job, but honestly, I'm happy I was too exhausted to notice how scary the driving was. Even before the drive started, I knew it might be dicey. There were two shuttles and it was like a Laurel and Hardy bit, watching the two drivers figure out how many seats were filled and how many were left. We sat at the trailhead for about 20 minutes while they figured this out. Probably one of the funniest moments was as we were pulling into the parking lot of the Bright Angel Lodge at the end of our trip, the driver, who was quite the old timer said, "Well, we've cheated death once again!" I laughed out loud, but nobody else did. I guess that told me how scary the journey had been. Luckily, I was in and out of sleep during most of the ride.

Who knows what the future will bring. Maybe someday I'll be back to the Grand Canyon for an R3 attempt. Being in the Canyon was truly an unforgettable experience. I felt so humbled down in the Canyon surrounded by its walls and climbing my way back out. The beauty of the Grand Canyon is something that everyone should experience. The morning after, I was blessed to have fully functional legs. I didn't set my alarm, but woke up just before sunrise. I was able to get down Bright Angel trail in time to experience one of the most magnificent sunrises I've ever seen.

As I continued to walk back up Bright Angel and along the rim, it was fun being a photographer for one couple that was hiking down into the Canyon and another group of very enthusiastic ladies walking along the rim. Sunshine, nature, views for miles- I just felt so lucky to be there at that moment.

Our journey across the Grand Canyon summed up