Grand Canyon – in and out in a day

I probably shouldn’t have followed through on this adventure.  I didn’t have time in my life to do it and the universe conspired to keep me from doing it.  But, when I saw this conference on the calendar earlier in the year I knew I had an opportunity to do it and set my planning wheels in motion.

Maybe the universe was daring me; trying to catch me with my own ego.

I had toured the area earlier in the year in January when I ran the Phoenix Rock and Roll marathon.  We visited the canyon and I was overwhelmed with the awesome grandeur of that big, colorful, hole in the earth.  I wasn’t equipped to hike it at the time but I knew it was something I wanted to do.

…

I flew out from Boston on Monday.  Still on antibiotics from a bout of pneumonia the week before.  It was a May full of travel and weirdness.  We had just driven the 6 hours back from Teresa’s graduation in Rochester Sunday night and unloaded her stuff.  We re-packed and headed for the airport.

I worked the conference in Phoenix all day Tuesday and Wednesday.  When I say ‘all day’ I mean all day.  Phoenix is 3 hours behind Boston so those 7AM east coast conference calls started a 4:00 AM Phoenix time.  My schedule was up at quarter ‘til 4:00, talk on the phone for an hour, workout, shower, throw on my suit and be at Breakfast for 7:30 local time.  Conference all day, dinner and back to the room to try to catch enough sleep to be vertical the next morning.

I need my sleep.  And I was going on a couple weeks of deficit.

I dragged my 21 year-old daughter along with me.  She hung out at the resort pool all day for a little R&R.  I figured we were a good match for the canyon.  I was fairly fit and she was young.  You can do anything when you’re young.

We snuck out of the conference Wednesday night and grabbed a hotel room in Flagstaff, about an hour and a half away from the trail head.  We rolled out early and managed to get into the park before the crowds showed up.

I bought a National parks pass last month and I recommend it to anyone who plans to explore the country.  It’s a great deal and makes everything easier.

We found a parking spot about 100 feet away from the Bright Angel trail head on the south rim of the canyon.  We got there just after 7:00AM.  You have to get there early if you want to park close to the trail head.  Otherwise you’ll be stuck in remote parking waiting for the shuttle bus.

Everyone had warned us that it would be cold at the trail head when we started in the morning.  It really wasn’t.  It was mid-40s, a crisp, clear morning – very comfortable. We stuffed our jackets into our packs just to be safe if we might need them.

The other thing we had been warned about was to bring enough water.  We each had a full water pack and two extra 24oz bottles.  I can see how people might get in trouble on the trail, especially in the heat, but we had way more water than we needed.   There are fill stations every couple miles along the whole route.

We had some bananas, some apples and a couple Cliff bars for fuel.  We wore shorts and running shoes.  I had my Hoka trail shoes. I also had may Garmin with the heart strap.  I also wore my Fitbit, just for fun.

Our plan was to run/jog down to the river, then over to Phantom Ranch and then make the return trip back out.  We had no time goals and would just be in the moment and have fun with it.

We took a couple minutes to use the facilities and clown around with the mules at the trail head.  The mule train was getting ready to depart with a load of tourists.  We beat them into the canyon and didn’t see any mules until our trip back out.

We strapped on our water packs and headed in.  We were in high spirits!

The trail is very well maintained.  It’s 4-6 feet wide, very well build and clearly delineated.  The surface is loose dirt and gravel.  There are many log steps or stone steps built into the decline.  These aren’t stairs per se, more like water breaks to keep the dirt in the trail.  It’s high desert so there isn’t much vegetation except the desert plants except in the Indian Gardens section.

There is occasional mule poop, but other than that the trails are very nice.  The only surprise to us was that the desert dirt was quite dusty.  After a few miles you were covered with dust like a sugar donut.  This was made worse by the sunscreen and sweat.  This fine dust and sand gets into your shoes and socks.  We had to stop and dump out our shoes every so often.  Some of the rangers we saw wore face coverings to keep the dust out of their lungs.  We felt it for a couple days – like smoking a pack of cigarettes.

There is scrub brush and prickly pear.  This time of year all the plants are flowering and the prickly pear were sporting jaunty pink and yellow flowers.  Very pretty.  The scenery is stunning.  As you drop down the walls of the canyon you progress through millions of years of rock formations.  There are layers of different color and textures of rock.  It’s red and purple and green and white.  Stunning visuals.

There are critters in the and along the trail.  Lots of little lizards that come in different colors.  They skitter across the trail in front or stop on a rock or branch to challenge you, puffing up their red chins and doing aggressive lizard pushups.

There are also fat and aggressive squirrels.  There are lots of signs telling you not to engage with the squirrels.  Apparently they have a bad attitude.  We also saw some mule deer near the Indian Gardens point where there are more trees and the climate is a bit more forgiving.

The environment changes several times as you descend.  The top few miles are high desert.  About 3-4 miles in you enter a sheltered area where a creek starts.  Here there is lots of vegetation and big trees.  There were even muddy spots in the trail here! As you get down close to the river it goes to stark ‘surface of Mars’ desert conditions.

The trail drops down from the rim in a series of steep switchbacks then levels out a bit in the Indian Gardens areas.  The last bit down to the river is a series of steep switchbacks.  To get over to Phantom Ranch you have to continue on another mile and change along the river and across one of the pedestrian bridges to the north side of the river.

It was quite comfortable on the descent.  We were walk-jogging and making great time.  The first couple miles have petroglyphs and tunnels, more like rock arches, that the trail goes through.  I took off my shirt at Indian Gardens and went shirtless from that point on in.  It wasn’t too hot and I really wasn’t sweating much at all.

We had on plenty of sunscreen and I brought a tube of lube with me in case something started to chaff or blister.  It was a glorious day.  Mid 70’s with a bright blue sky with puffy Toy Story clouds wandering across it.

I set the pace and Teresa followed behind as we skipped down the trail.  People would see me coming and get out of my way. They didn’t have to.  The people coming up have the right of way but I must have been scary looking – half-naked old guy with the chest strap on bouncing down the trail.  I kept an eye on my heart rate, but it was staying well with zone 1 or below.  Teresa was working a bit harder but we were doing ok.

We stopped and used the restrooms and took breaks to snack.  Yes there are restrooms every couple miles as well as water and emergency phones.  It’s a well –traveled trail.  We passed people coming up who were doing it the recommended way – which is to hike down, stay at the camp ground and hike back up in the morning.

There is actually a sign at the 3 mile rest station that warns you not to attempt to go down and back in one day.  Many of them had big overnight packs and hiking poles.  The predominant theory seemed to be to cover up as much as possible.  Most of the hikers had long pants, big hats and puffy, long sleeved shirts.

We had our cell phones with us but there’s very limited reception once you get into the canyon so we switched to airplane mode and used them as cameras.  We even passed what seemed to be a school field trip going down.

Teresa came up with a new app idea that she called “Muleber” – where you could request on-demand mule service in the canyon.

Indian Gardens is where a lot of people turn around.  It’s about 4 miles down and you’ve lost about a ½ mile of elevation.  The rim is about 6,000 feet. Which is about the same elevation as Denver.  When you get down to Indian Gardens you lost almost half of that in about 4.5 miles.  It catches people by surprise.

We made it to the Colorado River in 2 ½ hours at a leisurely walk-jog with lots of breaks.  The maps I’ve seen have different numbers, but it’s somewhere in the vicinity of 8 miles.  It was about 10:00 AM.  There is a little beach there with another rest house and a couple river rafts tied up but no one was around.

We took a 30 minute break to wash our feet in the river, have snack and do a little foot care with the lube.  I also made sure we took a couple Endurolytes to keep our salt up.  There’s no vegetation down by the river.  It flows big, cold and green in May.  It sure is something to be down there in the canyon soaking your feet in the Colorado.

It was getting hot now but not as hot as everyone warned us.  It was sunny and creeping up into the 80’s but nothing awful.  We packed up and headed over the extra mile and a half to the Bright Angel Camp ground.  This section along the river was fairly stark with lots of fine sand in the trail that made it slow going.

You cross the suspension bridge into the Bright Angel campground.  It’s like walking out of the forest into someone’s Memorial Day cookout.  All of a sudden there are people everywhere, cabins and campsites.  I’m not sure all those people hiked in.  I think they may have come in by raft.

We got to the canteen in the Phantom Ranch in about 3:30.

We went to the canteen and got the best iced coffee I had EVER tasted.  (Because I had to run down into the Grand Canyon to get it!)  We took a long break in the air-conditioned canteen and sent some post cards.  Eventually we had to get going, so we filled our water packs and headed back.

It was hot now.  This was probably a tactical mistake on our part.  If we left a couple hours earlier we could have been through this exposed part down by the river before the heat of the day.  It wasn’t horrible, but it is full-sun with no cover and maybe 90 degrees at most.  The rocks heat up and radiate the heat all around you like you’re a pizza in a brick oven.

I started to power hike up the switch backs, but when I looked back Teresa was gone.  The heat made her dizzy and a bit nauseous.  So we geared down the effort and intensity and started hiking as best we could.  Once we got past the river rest station again she recovered.

The bit between the river rest station and the suspension bridges rises a couple hundred feet and has some great views over the river.  We were able to watch the rafting tours come by and twirl in the rapids.  The helicopter tours would buzz by dragging cameras behind them on long cables.

At the river rest station on the return trip we talked to a lady who was on a 14-day trip by raft down the Colorado.  She must have been 70 years old.  She said they just tied her in through the rapids and she took the beating.  That’s something.

We were moving slower now and it was the hottest part of the day.  We hiked and rested when we needed to.  There weren’t many hikers down by the river.  We did pass the mule train coming down.

The Endurolytes were a life saver in this hot section to keep our heads clear and salt up.  We both had swelling in our fingers on the way out.  Not sure if that was due to the heat or the altitude or some sideways bio-chemistry byproduct of hiking hard for hours on end.

It was a long, slow, hard hike back up from the river.  Those first switchbacks up from the river in the full sun beat us up.  We got a bit of a respite into Indian Gardens.  This is where the crowds started to pick up.  The trail was busy with day hikers and over-nighters climbing out.  The closer we got to the trail head the busier it got.

The last 4+ plus miles up from Indian Gardens was a struggle, especially for Teresa.  I was tired, but she was bonked.  We’d hike a few hundred feet then rest and repeat.  But, she wasn’t complaining.  She’s tough.  When she decides to do something she gets it done.  And like the sing says; “Going down is optional, coming back up is mandatory.”

I was doing all the annoying things that I do when I’m trying to take people’s minds off of the task at hand.  I was singing, whistling and making up stories and monologues.  “We were 30 day’s in the desert when the last of the Sherpas died and we had to eat the mules…”  And, towards the end I’d just say; “Only way to get to the trail head is to keep moving.”

In the last couple miles the switchbacks get really steep and you’re back up at altitude.  You’ve been on the trail all day and the oxygen is starting to get thin.  It’s not like the end of a marathon.  It’s more like a mountain race ultra.

Your legs take a beating.  It’s like doing 1,000 lunges in a row.  You have to consciously use both legs.  By default we all tend to favor our dominant leg when we are on the trails. We always step up onto an obstacle with one leg.  If you don’t consciously switch legs you get this weird, unbalanced muscle exhaustion.

On our way out we got passed twice by the same runner.  He went flying by us as we were starting up from the river then passed us again, running hard still, up past Indian Gardens.  I guess he made the round trip in 4-5 hours. That’s a good work out.  Many of the day hikers on the trail looked like runners.  They had tech race shirts on and wore shoes I recognized.

We kept on moving a little bit at a time up those steep switchbacks.  Here we were all tired and covered with dirt having to push our way through throngs of foreign tourists taking selfies on the trail.  Teresa was in no mood for it and wanted to push them off the edge.

We were passing people and being passed.  The nearer we got to the top the more people I saw who didn’t look like they should be in the Canyon.  Heavier tourists.  People with comically inappropriate footwear.  It doesn’t’ surprise me that so many people have to be rescued out of the Canyon each year – or get themselves dead.

Once we could see the trail head it got psychologically easier and we pushed through the crowd.  I threw in a little running at the end out of pride and spite.  We got some kind tourist to take our picture and made our way through the afternoon crowds to the car.

In the end it took us around 9 hours round trip.  It was hard. I’d say it was about as hard as running a marathon (not racing a marathon, running a marathon for fun).  I think anyone in good ½ marathon racing shape could do the in and out in a day if they went conservatively and were careful.  Especially if you just went to the River and back.  Mountain running and trail running experience would be a big plus.

When we got to the car there was a line of about 100 tourists waiting for the shuttle buses.  That made us feel pretty smart and self-important.  I drove us over to Sedona for the evening and Teresa immediately fell asleep in the car.

My legs were tired.  My feet were sore and hot.  Not specifically tired like from a marathon but over-all tired.  For the next 3-4 days my quads, hips, glutes, calves and every other major and minor muscle in my legs were all-over sore.  My eyelids were pretty heavy too as we drove to Sedona.

We got to our rental house and got cleaned up.  I took one of the top-10 best hot showers ever.  We met my sister-in-law Jill for a nice Italian dinner, went back to our bungalow down by Oak Creek and slept like the dead.

Of course I had calls starting at 7:00 AM East coast time, so I was up and at ‘em early.

Later that morning Teresa and I went for a walk down by the creek and did some quick yoga when we got back.  We felt pretty good.  We were happy.  We made our way back to Phoenix, found a really good BBQ restaurant for dinner and hopped on the redeye to get home for Saturday morning.

I’m so happy to have been able to snatch this time with my daughter.  We built some memories.  We had some fun.  I think she might be telling her grandchildren someday about that time we ran down into the Grand Canyon and back.

I got to check something off my bucket list.  I get to die with one more memory and one less regret.  We did that thing that the universe didn’t want me to do and we did it well.  It was beautiful and hard but not hard enough to break us.