3 minute video summary of the trip (quality sucks on blogger so I had to post it on Vimeo):
Grand Canyon Rim to Rim 2014 from Michael Cox on Vimeo.
The night before our Grand Canyon Run, while at dinner:
Restaurant owner/manager: “So are you guys doing the rim-to-rim-to-rim run? “
Us: “No, we are just doing rim-to-rim”
Restaurant owner/manager: “Oh then you are only partially deranged”
That seemed like a good description of our group so we kind of stuck with the name as our unofficial group name throughout the weekend.
For me everything is always a little surreal when I leave
for a big day while it’s still dark, close to 5am in this case, to start my
day. Nothing quite seems to have clicked
yet. I go into checklist mode with
packing, eating food, drinking coffee, bathroom issues, etc. but I’m not really
fully present mentally. But then there’s
always a time where it becomes real. For
a race it’s usually when you first get to the starting area and see all the
pre-race buzz at the start line. The
seven of us were riding in our rental van early in the morning on our way from
Kanab, Utah to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and still nothing was real yet. We were driving in the dark with an
appropriately laid back playlist on the stereo.
The sun started to rise over the pine trees and the morning mist started
to lift from the open spaces between the trees.
We were close; but the North Rim doesn’t look like the Grand Canyon, or
at least the postcard version of it.
It’s not red, it’s not dusty, it doesn’t look like a canyon at all. It was hard to think about a rim-to-rim Grand
Canyon run from this angle. But there
was a moment, probably a half mile into the run where the view opens up a bit
and you can see across to the other side; that’s when it became real (and
exciting). “Wow, that’s where we are
headed”.
In addition to not
looking like the postcard Grand Canyon, the North Rim is also at a higher
elevation. It’s at 8200 feet so most of
the year it’s cold there. This morning
in October was right where it was supposed to be temperature-wise; mid
30s. Cold. I had read a lot of people’s blogs about
doing this run and one of the constant themes was to wear as little as you
could at the top/start because whatever you wear/bring, you will be carrying
for 80% of the day. The advice was spot
on. The very chilly 35 degrees (with
some wind) at the rim was a very comfortable 50 degrees probably no more than
30 minutes into the run and by the time we reached the bottom it topped out at
around 85 hot, dry degrees. The 20% of
the time you need more clothing is probably 10% at the start and if you start
to get into the late afternoon as we did, it’s kind of nice for the last few
miles to the top as the sun dips below the horizon.
There are a lot of differences between doing a run like this
and a typical race, even a trail race.
One of the most striking is the lack of bail out options. In just about any race or most trail runs
there are a number of options for turning back if things aren’t going
well. In this case we were being dropped
off at the north rim and picked up at the south rim. We knew after we left the trailhead our ride
would only be there for about 30 minutes so essentially that means that if you
wanted to turn back you would have to decide that in about the first 10 minutes
(20 minutes to get back up). After that,
it’s 8 or so hours to the other side with no other way to get out but to keep
moving forward. It is just kind of
strange and disturbing if you think too much about it. Like the signs in the canyon say: “going down is optional, coming up is
required”.
From the North Rim to the Colorado River is about 14 miles
and most of the time you are in small side canyons following the path of a
creek that will eventually merge into the river. The scale and scope are occasionally apparent
but most of the time you can only see the walls of your little “section” of the
canyon as you wind your way down. Still,
it’s amazing. The terrain is a bit
technical and usually steep so for long stretches our “running” was limited to
something more like an aggressive walk, but you can only take what the terrain
gives you especially for a bunch of flatlanders like us.
It’s a long way to the top if you want
to climb out of the world’s biggest hole in the ground. Such were my thoughts as we finished “lunch” (testing
the theory of how many power bars and beef jerky one person can consume in a
day) at the Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and started our way
up to the south rim about 10 miles horizontally and half a mile vertically
away.
Normally when you do a run with significant elevation you
spend the first part of the run going up the hill or the mountain or
whatever. Then in the second half of the
run, when you’re tired, you can relax a little for the easier part downhill to
the finish. In this case the first part
is all downhill and I found myself constantly thinking “this isn’t too bad, but
what’s it going to be like to have to go up the other side”. For some people it’s not much of a mental
hurdle. But for people who; when they
were a kid would always eat their green beans first, it’s a bit of a struggle. You’re tired AND the hard part hasn’t started
yet.
The way up to the South Rim is significantly steeper than
the trail to the bottom from the north.
For us it was pretty slow going.
After you cross the river it’s about 9 miles. I found it helped to just think about finishing
three 3-mile stretches knowing that the last 3 miles is the steepest part of
the day.
Probably my favorite moment of the day was about a mile and
a half from the top. I looked around at
all of us during a water break (looking pretty grim actually) but with the
knowledge that we were safe, and we were going to finish without the assistance
of the National Park Service helicopters.
It’s hard to describe but I think it was a combination of relief and
joy…but mainly relief. J
Eventually, we emerged from the hole. It’s funny how after all that time in the
dust the trail just ends. You spend
hours and hours climbing with just a few people around and you emerge to scenic
outlooks, shuttle buses, and tour bus pickups.
All in all, it was a great experience, I’m not big on bucket
lists but I guess if I was that would be a cool thing to check off. Thanks for the adventure gents, what’s next?
