I hope this can be an interesting read for friends and family and possibly also a resource for those considering this challenge.

It all seems different in retrospect: “Of course you can do it.  How satisfying to knock off such an epic trip.  What a great way to learn and grow in what has been such a challenging time”

In reality, I had just vowed to start exploring more trails to take up my mileage, when after a run up Mt Sanitas, I got a text from Johnny:  “Meet at south rim of grand canyon Monday night around 9pm.  Let’s aim for 12 hrs.  S Kaibab to N kaibab.  43 mi RT.  Need to maintain average 16 mile pace.” 

Over the next 2 days, I called friends, assessed my fitness, bought flights, and put together the plan. 

Monday:  Arrived in phx at 4pm to beat john, arriving at 5. 

Changed in bathroom in airport

Filled water bottles in airport

Got car, Arby’s, picked up water and choc milk

Drove 3.5 hrs to trail – delays in city and some kind of truck crash w extreme oil smell.  Concerned about energy and repeated yawns??

Debated parking illegally vs .7 miles away

Parked .7 miles away at 9:40pm – only car there

Got stuff together, bathroom, headlamps, and started

Got halfway and realized I didn’t have sandwiches

Back to cars and started again 

(10:10pm) 

Got to trail for quick pics and started down

Switchbacks in the dark – lights worked well

Lots of wood slab steps and rock drainage hurdles and darkness/unknown drops to sides

Once tried to run around rock hurdles and found darkness to right of trail

Ditched gloves and rolled up sleeves fairly quickly despite 40s temps

Descended for ~2 hrs with incredible nighttime stars

Started hearing water around some bends and they through a cave and crossed bridge with wind whipping through canyon –  

(12am -2 hrs) 

Through phantom ranch in silence and grabbed water – sign said 13 miles to north rim

Then flatter running for 3-4 miles crossing 2-3 other bridged (30-45 min), running through other prime camp sites.  Lots of greenery, sometimes reaching across both sides of trail

Took two dives and lost John’s light ahead.

While reasonably flat, felt like climbing

Caught him just prior to climb (he waited) and thought I was low on water (had 1 liter)

Got water when we passed a stream thinking we would likely have more chances (incorrect).  Slammed sandwich and waffle

(2am-ish – 4hrs)  

Added layers and started climbing – very different scene, with more dirt vs rock

Cooler air

John said 3+ hrs to top (ugh)

Not as cold as anticipated, so ditched jacket

Climb climb climb

Very cool scenery with almost volcanic feeling rock forms and VERY still air.

Water situation created problems with difficulty getting bottle in and out

Tried to eat roughly every hour, but didn’t plan accessibility terribly well – not a huge deal as had sufficient stores in pockets

Foliage and trees increased as we climbed and temps started back to drop.

Added gloves and hip started giving me real trouble as each step up hurt

Lost pole basket as pole collapsed on a switchback

Started really relying on poles to climb as doubt grew, wondering if I could make it to top let alone double this distance

John started tunes and I put headphones in for distraction – started TAL episode of ‘changing minds’ regarding both election news (UGH) and also an Argentinian daytime show that I didn’t love but at least distracted myself enough to remember two days later.

Smelled smoke, which became stronger and visible as we climbed.   Some strange alternating warm gusts and cold air

Despair grew as we climbed – we got in the habit of just moving forward up the switchbacks…  then  we made a turn and looked ahead to see …what looked like a map and stop sign

(4:20 – 6:10hrs) AT THE TOP!!!

Quickly walked into parking lot and flipped around

New life as we started to descend both because going was easier and with the knowledge that w head turned the corner

Relatively quickly shuffled down with more speed and renewed optimism. 

John took a couple breaks and led for the first time, although he quickly caught back up

Hip not hurting but left pinky toe starting protesting

With morale up, we made fairly good time, now definitely thinking in terms of hours not miles or any other scale

Tried to take in sights but mostly huge rock forms and just contrast between darkness and star-marked sky

Stopped tracking John’s light as it got further ahead and just settled in to shuffle mode, listening to strange latin 90s rock combined w country and Nick drake (strange playlist)

(6:20am – 8hrs)

Started flatter section waiting for sunrise, which lazily stayed below the ridges.   Failed to appreciate our depth and how high the sun would need to rise to brighten the deeper parts of the canyon

Met john at same stream and refilled water again w iodine.  Stuffed face and slight worried about food supply

John’s light lost me well into the distance

Back through campgrounds and saw a couple groggy beings lumbering around in the early day

Then met up with JM and commented on lack of light from either humans or the ball of sun

Felt like we were making decent time but this section dragged a bit with the fatigue and aches reminding me of the forgotten training plan

Kept moving forward … trying to power hike uphills and then either start shuffle-running or walking.  The goal was then to use the poles to slowly accelerate enough to get up to a slow jog. 

Meanwhile, I kept seeing Johnny’s red shirt and white hat getting further and further ahead, often looking to the furthest visible part of the path and working back to see if at least my eyes could catch him

Eventually had a reunion and realized that we no longer needed the head huggers (lamps)

Continued plodding through rolling trails hugging river – looked and partly found some serenity in running waters

Saw first people – couple with big packs in early morning

Then a guy with one arm and light pack who we guess was also R2R2R-ing, then another 100yds away another guy passed us.  Funnily enough JM thought they were together and I did not, reflecting our various definitions of ‘together’😉

Then three young track athletes ran by smiling, which somehow made me feel like we were near start

3-4 more people passed us with various levels of engagement  (WAS THIS LATER?)

Kept running with vacillating optimism and deflation

This is where I started feeling the ‘isn’t this it’ feeling as every turn held the promise of a great river and the eventual climb…but alas

8:30am – 10.5 hrs

Back through Phantom ranch with who was likely the park ranger greeting us with a hearty “Good morning – welcome to Phantom ranch!”

I comically thought “Where were you last night” only to realize that we passed at midnight and once I could have vocalized wouldn’t have been heard by the ranger

We kept going and passed the ranch: the amphitheater, horses/mules, tents, and other pleasantries for those with heavy packs or less masochism

Eventually we got to the big river and the bridge, and I saw a guy running across the bridge towards us

9:00 – 11 hrs

This is where the ‘hard’ really started

First climb started with an optimism and strong drink of electrolyte water

Looked up and saw lots of challenge, but a definite path

Started the ascent with fairly regular interaction others either day hiking or starting their journeys (hard to tell)

Then we saw a couple ‘skipping’ down who took our pictures, and we took theirs.  It felt close to the top.

Roughly 20 minutes into the climb the caffeine beans, music, or maybe just learned discipline, I started a 1-2-3-4 count that had me marching up the hill.  Feeling unstoppable and surprised, I kept going for what felt like an hour, eventually coming to a ledge that I recognized as the wide open dark space that JM and I had wandered around aimlessly looking for the continuation of the trail

JM was struggling, so I looked back and checked on him occasionally to make sure he wasn’t struggling too much.  Thus we continued the first ‘term’ as I know not the time that passed

After a while, with a continued but more labored count, I came across another ledge, with tourists and some park workers.  I thought ‘could this be IT?’ somewhat skeptically, and then realized that it was just another flat spot.  What to me was an uneventful hard surface that disconnected the trends of differing densities of rocks impact on the terrain

Needless to say, we weren’t QUITE there…then I looked to the left to see a sign that said “Phantom Ranch – 3.8 LEFT, SOUTH RIDE – 3.5 RIGHT). 

With confusion and amazement, I realized that we had hardy barely gotten over halfway to the top, and the sun had spotted us unexposed on the rocks. 

As the temps rose, we started slowing, as the stairs alternated between sand, dirt, wood steps, and 3 foot length whose composition didn’t matter as it took exactly 1.3 steps to get up. 

Rail marker

Overlookers

Mules and workers

Picknickers

Group who said ‘not far’

Expecation of 6k feet

Looking at far reaches and thinking that the heights had to be mountains, not the earth level

John ‘sprinting ahead’

Alternating between employing tricks of not thinking and thinking deeply (about anything else) I caught up eventually caught him to realize he had been trying to make 12 hours

From that point, every added foot felt like a foot we’d been cheated, with several stops on the trail taking more to eat and drink and wonder how far we had to go, looking for ants on the rocks above.

Finally seeing the series of 8+ switchbacks which basically reached the heights of any ridges above. 

11:30am – 13.5 hr

To the top!

7 – 1.5   jerky / bar 

7 – 1.5    sammy

7 – 2.5    waffle / tailwind

7 – 1.5 – blocks / jerky

7 – 2 – sammy / chips / beans

7 – 3 – beans /  waffle /