Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim
The adventure began with me doing some sales job on best bud and Business Partner Clay. Something about “this will be a weekend you can tell your Grandkids about, and one you will remember for life, and how many weekends can you say you will remember forever….” or some such. It progressed with me getting lucky enough to get a backcountry permit, and next think you knew Clay and I were headed off to the Grand Canyon to attempt and experience something few on this planet will ever get to do – A Rim to Rim to Rim Hike. Basically a trek that takes you from the trailhead at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado, then up to the North Rim and then all the way back to the South Rim from whence you started.
Ever since March when Kimberly and I got to experience the Canyon up close for our Anniversary and spend some time at Bright Angel Campground and Phantom Ranch I had been thinking about this trip. I knew it would be an amazing challenge and an amazing experience. Man it did not disappoint!
I wrote a real long trip report for a website called Grand Canyon Hikers, so I will not repeat the whole saga. If you want to read that just click on the line at the end that says “READ THE REST OF THIS STORY” following this post. It’s a little more formal as it was not written for friends and family and more for information for the other nut cases who want to make the trek – but it does give very detailed info on our trip.
We took a decent amount of pictures (whenever we had time) that can be seen HERE. We also took a lot of video and put it HERE.
The Stats from the Trip:
1. 50 Miles
2. 50 Hours
3. 20,000 feet or so net elevation gains (and drops of course)
4. Animals seen – A pink Rattler I about stepped on (you will see in the video), a huge scorpion that joined me in the Portapot, a zillion lizards, mosquitoes at the top of the North Rim, a ‘mutant squirrel (as Clay called it) with a white tail, a ton of birds, and just about every other insect you can think of
5. 2 Blisters (Clay’s was getting ugly toward the end)
6. Very Little Sleep
7. 5 Bags of Dehydrated Food and a lot of Protein Bars
8. Trails completed – The S Kaibab, the Bright Angel, the North Kaibab, and a Ribbon Falls side trip
For the whole story click the Link following
Trip Report – this last weekend in the Canyon
Thought I would share a couple of thoughts and learning’s from my trip into the Canyon this last weekend in case anyone else is planning a similar venture. Might be some redundancy on learning’s (so many posts here) but figured I would share in case.
My business partner and I headed into the Canyon via the SK on Friday morning about 7:40 am and came up the BA Monday morning about 10:00. In our 50 hours below the Rim we hit the three corridor trails and had a great side trip to Ribbon Falls.
First the summary in a few words for those not interested in a long post:
Spectacular, amazing, challenging, cold, hot, cold, hot, hotter, pretty much hot, hard to sleep, rattler, scorpion, lots o’ lizards. And one question – do mosquitoes like oatmeal and banana protein bars or what?!
The trip evolution:
Ever since the wife and I had done the trip down to the River and back this early March I have been talking to my buddy (from Texas) about hitting the Canyon for a nice R2R2R trip. Next thing you know, I get lucky with permits and it all fell together within a week. He got on a flight to here in Phoenix, we drove up with a stop in Flag for a Sizzler ‘big’ lunch and headed to the Park. We arrived Friday mid afternoon and setup camp at Mather Campground. Not one of the lodges, but we figured it would nice and close so we could be sure to hit the Hiker Express shuttle early without having to drive and sweat it if we stayed outside the Park. This time of year Mather seemed pretty easy to get a spot online the week before for Friday, though I think I saw that Saturday was full when we were leaving the next morning.
Friday night at Mather learnings:
1. We brought our own food for the campsite, I wanted my homemade French Bread Pizza’s – tons of Whole Grains, lots of Protein with the beef, and low fat the way I do it. Having said this, you really don’t need to bring anything food wise (and relevant if you forgot anything for your hike) as the General store right there has everything – and I mean everything you could need. It’s like a grocery store with camping/hiking supplies and of course the obligatory GC logo items. This may be obvious to most, but I have visited the Canyon several times, hike it and never knew this. I had never went over to this area before so it was really nice to know. In particular because they had firewood which was not available here in Phoenix.
2. Mather allows fires. I am sure this can change but being an AZ man, it’s rare in other locations that you can build one, and though it was not real cold, it was nice to have one.
3. Mather says they have ‘coin showers’. I figured this would be nice to have one last one before we headed in for a couple of nights, but be aware seems to be just one location and it will likely not be close to your campsite. Seeing you tend to be in a hurry to get out of camp if you are heading down that morning, probably won’t happen – keep the shampoo at home.
4. Nice thing about staying here is you can take extra ‘luxury’ items for the night as you can just pop them in the car and leave them at the Rim when you head down. We enjoyed the folding chairs, cooler, pillow (yeah), Bose for the iPod (turn off or low early), etc.
Saturday Morning heading out and pack:
We set the alarm for 4:45, we wanted to be able to head over to the Rim by about 5:30 (logic explained below). This time was good if not pushing it. Even though we would not have to cook, you need time to pack up camp and when it’s still a little dark and for me at least, stuffing the dang sleeping bag and Thermarest back in with cold hands is not as quick as you think. While you will forgive the next comment, I think it is relevant from a time perspective, the shower was out, but I did want to at least have some time to get the teeth brushed and err…ah take care of business as that would be less err…viable the next couple of days. Net here, give yourself some time so you don’t have to rush to breakfast and the shuttle.
As seems is tradition now for corridor trails, we headed over to the BA Lodge for one last ‘real meal’. They open up at 6:00 and it’s always good to be about first in line. This time of year at least the last Hiker Express shuttle (which is basically outside the lodge door) leaves at 7:00 and you don’t want to miss it or you are stuck with a much longer ride over to the SK. We got there a little early having left Mather about 5:30 (we got about 4 hours combined sleep btw – pretty good for a tent and what was planned for next days). This was because we got a parking spot on the main road just below the Shuttle stop which was very lucky, but we had to plan for not getting one and having to take the packs with us because it would be too long to head back to the truck to get them. Anyway, first in line, ate some pancakes, lots of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, and a decent amount of water. Made sure we asked the server to bring the bill early so we were not sweating the time (good idea had an issue once). We finished up around 6:40 and headed back to the truck (right there) to grab the packs.
The Packs:
For those curious we are not ultra light guys but have learned only essentials and things you will use. We were each at about 30lbs plus water (another 4.4lbs with the 2-1 liter bottles full). For food we planned six eating sessions per day. Most food was all the same based on the ‘eating session’. Breakfast’s were Oatmeal (double servings each), and a breakfast bar. Mid morning snacks were ½ cup or so trail mix (heavy on the nuts) and a protein bar or jerky. [Quick aside, the Protein bars I make myself, pretty proud of if anyone wants the recipe – 170 cal, 18g protein, 20 carbs (mostly from whole grains – oatmeal, and less than 2 grams of fat – way better than anything from the store]. Lunches were foil tuna (share an 8 oz pack), some sun chip things, and a kasha bar. Mid afternoon line mid morning- protein bars and trail mix or jerky. Dinners were dehydrated meals (hey you need the salt and calories in the Canyon). And night snacks were basically the same as the other snack times with a candy bar thrown in for pleasure one night.
Main other pack items were the sleeping bag, Thermarest, stove (jetboil group), 2 shirts (live in the same pants of course- 1 extra under), 1 change of socks, a small towel, obvious emergency pack, tent, tool, one hiking pole (need to move to 2 someday soon), video camera, camera, and my blackberry which has GPS (otherwise no good of course).
The South Kaibab
Likely not much value I can add to all the other posts I am sure have been written on the trail. We got to the trailhead from the shuttle about 7:25 or so and were on the trail by 7:45 after the trailhead pictures. I would say everyone likes to hit the porta pots there it seems, so if you cannot hang out until Cedar Ridge (it’s quick down), then be fast off the bus or you will be adding another 10-15 minutes waiting in line before you get to hit the trail.
Of course the SK has no water. Very relevant in Summer months. We each carried 2 liters to get us to Phantom. Truth is, being so hydrated from breakfast, and it was not blistering hot, and we can get there in 2:40 or so – 1 liter always seems to be enough. But always better safe than sorry and in the dead of Summer even that may not be enough.
I love the SK. I know it’s a pounder on the knees (think step up to step down many times) due to the mules, but I just love the vast views you get with a true ridgeline trail. It goes by much too quick (going down at least J). In particular I have always really enjoyed the portion below Tipoff as it seems from there you really feel ‘in the Canyon’.
After a quick restroom break at Cedar Ridge, we hit my favorite brief rest spot just down below (where the sign is for) Skeleton Point. An obvious sitting rock where you can see the mighty river and those ‘fun’ looking switchbacks. A 10 minute or so break and off again. We paused a few times to take pictures and video and just take in the view, but for the most part moved along quite well. We hit Phantom Canteen a little before 11:00 and ordered up the lemonade. For those that may not know, the Canteen seems to have no issue with sitting down and eating you own food – we had out morning snack relaxed and enjoyed the vibe before heading off again.
N Kaibab to Cottonwood (with a Ribbon Falls side trip):
We left Phantom and headed up the N Kaibab with a plan to do Ribbon Falls for lunch. Heading through ‘The Box’ at this time of day is a hot one. While only mid day it was a hot one Saturday. Again for those unaware, this area of the hike start out basically soon after leaving the Ranch. I guess formally right after you pass the Clear Creek Trail?? It follows the BA Creek (as does a good portion of the N Kaibab) through an area that twists in and out with pretty much just the trail and the creek next to the shear walls of the Canyon. It’s a really great area, and you get the great Creek sounds as you hike along. The name may tend to leave you thinking a very tough stretch of the N Kaibab, but really it’s a very, very gradual elevation gain and (as we found out the next day coming back) could be shaded providing some very much appreciated cover during later afternoons. In fact, the rest of the stretch after the Box (not sure where it ends but I assume when you come out into a more open area) is much more exposed sun wise with no shade the rest of the way to the Ribbon Falls trail cut – and Cottonwood for that matter.
Along the way to Ribbon Falls we saw maybe 3 groups of hikers. All seemed to be coming back from a day trip there from Phantom and no one was coming from the N Rim or Cottonwood. Along the way we also came across a rattlesnake about 6 inches from the trail (Pink I believe) in the kind of marshy area about a mile from Ribbon. He let me know about 2 feet before I got to him with that ‘hello’ sound at which I did take a quick jump back. I tried to see if he would share the trail, but I think he said it was his home or some such so we had to do a quick little side step through. Anyway… you hit the Ribbon Falls trail (if it is called that) about 6 miles from Phantom. Seems you have 2 options, 1 where you can port the creek (from afar did not look like a real option this time of year with packs) and another where you head up a nice little rise continuing on the N Kaibab then down to a bridge (you have now headed North past the Falls). You cross over BA, and after some minor little negotiation in about ¼ mi you are at the Falls.
Ribbon Falls:
A very cool place on this planet for sure. You can hang out below where the Falls hit the bottom, or better yet, and likely most everyone’s choice you can go up and get behind them (about half way up the full falls). There is a nice trail, some good rocks to plop down on, and a perfect lunch spot. Amazingly when we got there (maybe 2:30 ish) there was no one! We had the place all to ourselves for lunch on a Saturday in May. I was quite surprised and very pleased?! For those who are doing any N Kaibab trail hike this is a very worthy side trip. Our lunch was excellent, though I will pass some advice. Right or wrong, I had hopped up on ‘the spot’ for a nice little shower after getting into just the hike shorts. Can I say COLD! I was hot as heck but when that water hits…wowzer, cold. From the back facing the Falls I went to the right side as most of the water was coming down toward the middle. I was getting a little spray, nothing drastic and enjoying, when next thing you know a little wind and the waterfall shifted to the right and I was under s pretty strong fall. Being cold, with a decent pressure, this was now probably not a good idea. Maybe it wasn’t from the get-go being ‘off trail’ but it’s hard to resist. [another quick aside I am a very responsible hiker, and treat all places and people with respect]. Anyway, probably shouldn’t do it or at least be very careful.
Cottonwood
After hanging out for an hour or so we packed up and headed out toward Cottonwood and the end of our first day hike in the Canyon. After you come back on the little trail, Cottonwood is maybe another mile or so up trail – again easy elevation though exposed. Seeing a had never been up the NK, Cottonwood surprised me a little. It was warmer than I had expected being that it’s half way (mileage wise) up the trail – guess I should have looked at the elevation (not a whole lot of the NK gain is made to this point and in fact, as I would later learn until the bridge about 4 miles from the Rim).
Cottonwood I believe has only about 11 sites (1 which is group). The sites have much more space between them than at Phantom which is nice. The knowledge gain here is there seems to be only two spots with some kind of shade – number 1 and number 6 (aside from the group site). Luckily and surprisingly for us, only number 1 was taken so we were able to grab number 6. I am really surprised there was only one other site taken? We setup camp and decided to look around. We really wanted to see if there was a good spot to jump into the creek for a cool off – there isn’t (at least easy one anyway). The creek is a little further from the sites than at Phantom and the area has lots of mid-sized vegetation by the creek, and most spots it is running pretty fast so it’s really not conducive, though it is possible I suppose. The toilets are pit style and unlike Phantom there is no running water in them. For that matter, there is only 1 water source to use. Can someone tell my why they would make that water spout only 2 feet high?? I know it’s an amazing place that I am blessed to be, but after long hikes bending to fill cooking or drinking water with packs just seems unnecessary. Overall Cottonwood is a great place a near perfect stop spot location for a R2R2R trip with our timing. BTW: had a nice friendly 6 inch or so scorpion in the rest room with me.
NK trip to the Rim and back to BA Campground:
With the next day plan to hit the North Rim and make it back to BA Camp/Phantom by later afternoon we knew we needed an early start. Wisely we decided to leave most our gear at Cottonwood planning to scoop it up and take down camp on the return trip toward Phantom. I looked everywhere for a ‘checkout time’ but saw nothing written in any material – and no one to ask as there was also no Ranger there that day. Seeing we planned on an early start we figured we could be back by 2:00 or so at the latest, and there was only one other spot taken we figured it was okay. This allowed us to slip a one pack duty for the trip (yes), so we could take just the food, water, cameras, and first aid type pack gear. We set the alarm for 4:00 (another 4 hours sleep night of course with all the wake ups) and we were on the trail by 5:15 or so.
A big consideration was water. We had each only brought two 1 liter bottles. When we left before the trip we were hopeful that Supai Tunnel or the Rim would have water seeing it was to open a few days after. Well, we had heard (and it worked out) that neither did. This left the only water options after leaving Cottonwood to be the Aiken house and Roaring Springs. Seeing the Aiken house is just up the path, and Roaring Springs is not much further and requires a side trip (not conducive to our time nor logical really considering its proximity) we were left with the prospect of having to live with 2 liters each. We decide this would be fine, worst case we had treatment tablets. We just made sure to really hydrate good as soon as we woke up (avid the stomach slosh) and try to do a liter each way. This worked fine, but I will say, I think another couple of weeks, or had we left an hour later and we may have needed double this.
The trip from Cottonwood up to the Rim is in my opinion the best part of the corridor trails. It is about 7 miles the Rim I believe. I had expected a little more vegetation and the tree lines a sooner, but non-the-less everything is really enjoyable. Heading out at 5:15 allowed us to stay in shade for most of the trip – though looking back we were maybe 15-20 minutes in front of it in a lot of the spots we passed. After leaving Cottonwood you continue up the trail following the BA Creek. There are some really neat spots to the creek with mini falls and nice sounds and views. About ¾ or so on the trip you cross the BA and just up from there is the Aiken house. What a cool place that must have been to grow up in! Shortly after that you begin to finally do some elevation gains (you know they must be coming because you have only 5 or so miles and you can see how high you are headed). After a quick 15 minutes or so you can hear and then soon see Roaring Springs. Pretty cool stuff that early in the morning out there all by yourself (which we were and I will talk about more). As much as I would have loved to get closer, our time just did not allow. After RS you have some more easier trail on a path that seems cut into the ledge all the way to the bridge (not sure of the name sorry) that is about half way from Cottonwood to the NR. You follow the trail into this box type canyon and then descend down to the bridge. We stopped here for our first snack it was so gorgeous watching the sunrise on the Canyon in this spot.
After the bridge ‘let the climb begin’ as they may say. I am not sure the elevation at that location, but my guess is you have close to half your NK elevation gains that last 4.5 miles or so? Shortly after the bridge you come to the spot where the rock fall has done its recent damage. It has near taken out a 3-4 ft stretch of the trail on about 4 switchbacks (in the same place just below each one). There is equipment there so I assume they are working on this as we speak. It’s not real, real bad, but enough where I am thankful the trail was not closed because of this. Some desk guy could easily justify shutting the trail down. Soon after we hit Supai Tunnel and sure enough no water. After Supai you start to hit the Aspens and next thing you know we were at the North Kaibab Trailhead. With our schedule we really just hung out there enjoying the pause, reading the boards and had our next snack before heading back. We took some pictures, saw a white tail (as my Texas buddy said “mutant”) squirrel and about a bazillion mosquitoes. The mosquitoes must be just hatching or something because those things were everywhere and they loved us. We had to stay moving the whole time and that didn’t matter much. You could see a spot without them, move over and within 2 seconds have 200 of them all around you again. Someone later said they like oatmeal and bananas (we ate oatmeal and the Protein bars have banana in them) – not sure if this is the case?
Heading back toward Cottonwood we just humped along and enjoyed the views from the new direction. We only saw two groups and they were just day hikers heading from the N Rim to the bridge or the other to Roaring Springs. We got back into Cottonwood about 1:00 or so and enjoyed a nice lunch and a brief rest before packing up the full packs. The whole time we were at Cottonwood we were the only people. The other group must have headed downward that morning. It was kind of odd to me, a beautiful day and no one else. No complaints for sure, as it felt like we had the whole of the NK to ourselves that day – just seemed sad in a way that there was this amazing place better than any 5 star hotel, cost next to nothing and had total vacancy!
By 2:30 we were packed up, watered up, and once again headed down the NK to Phantom. We were pretty excited from an accomplishment standpoint. Feeling pretty good about our day so far with a N Rim visit on a sunny morning, and now the easiest part of the 21 miles left. We decided to forgo the talking and pop on the Nano’s and enjoy some tunes while we took in the hike down to Phantom. I was feeling really good, got some good old CCR tune I was diggin’, then a favorite REO ‘Keep Pushin’ On’ that seemed appropriate, a couple of my favorite Blues tracks, some Bruce (Springsteen of course), and a couple of newer Hip Hop tracks that I love to work out to. That first mile or two was sweet. Then… a little bit of a wall started to hit. And while it was a downward hike, that mornings hike and the previous days miles started to show themselves. By the time we got to The Box I was dragging. It was warm and I was not looking forward to it thinking it would be another scorcher. Luckily, seems later in the afternoon (least this time of year) you get some nice shade. I swore that the Clear Creek trail crossing (means almost there) was around about every bend – those last few sure do look alike.
Bright Angel Campground:
We finally hit Phantom at 4:30 and sadly looking forward to some lemonade again we were too late as it was closed for meal planning already. So we scooted over and setup camp in one of the 3 or so spots left it seemed (all of which had a few friendly ant hills.
Bright Angel of course is bigger than Cottonwood, 40 spots or so I think. They are much closer to your neighbor with half on the BA Creek side of the path and the other against the BA Canyon wall more or less. The spots are nice for the most part and by late afternoon almost all are already in the shade thankfully as it of course gets pretty toasty. There is running faucets and flush toilets in the heads and outside bigger faucet. The closest camp to the River is still a few hundred yards from the Colorado (the BA seems to about split the Silver and Black bridges. It is about ¼ mile or so from the Camp over to the Phantom Canteen.
We chilled for a bit, cooked some dinner then headed over to the Canteen when they reopened at 8:00. My buddy wanted a Phantom shirt for this year (he earned it and I already have mine), and I wanted to call the wife (okay she wanted me to call her, but I wanted to say hello also). Pretty much repeated our previous two nights of trying to lay down by 9:30 or so in hopes of getting more sleep than 4 hours before we had to be up for sure at 4:00. It was much harder to sleep that night of course. Even though you can ‘hospital shower’ in the sinks, we were still many hours into no shower and it was hot – makes for a tough night. As sore as we were I was a little concerned that it would be a long day on the BA heading out tomorrow. The Anejo Tequila we had hiked up and down help some with the sleep, but at Phantom it is always a little harder to sleep. While most are respectful you will get a few later night louder folks, who do not have to hike out the next day, or Mule riders taking a late walk to the River who don’t seem to care that also do not know what ‘quiet time’ means. [another quick aside: shouldn’t there be two Phantom shirts, one for Hikers and one for Mule Riders? I know the Mule path is not easy, but just seems like they should have one that says HIKED].
Another night of similar (if not less) sleep and we were up at 4:00, started the coffee and oatmeal. Note to self, bring a couple of those bags that can go in pots so you don’t have to scrape the oatmeal out of your jetboil every time you use it at 4:45 in the morning. Did some stretching and by 5:15 we were packed up and headed across the Silver bridge and up the BA.
The Bright Angel Trail
Not much to add about the BA hike that hasn’t been written. We made it to IG in less than a couple of hours, took a nice ½ hour snack break and headed out again. We of course made sure to take time out to smile widely (having wiped the sweat before they approached – and thankful that the Mule err…ah.. returns masked our aroma) and say hello to every downward hiker. Still amazed at many of the people who you can just tell will be in a way different mood when it comes time to head back up. Pausing only every 20 minutes to take in some water, or when the Mules came by (is it just us that always seem to hit them in the sandy/dusty parts of the trail) and we were at the trailhead by 10:00. Which by the way is too early to get a beer at the BA lodge for some dang’ reason?
It was an amazing weekend. About 50 hours and 50 miles in the Canyon. Of course way to short of time, but you take what you can get. It was not too quick where we couldn’t enjoy the Hikes, and it was short enough to really be a good challenge for us. An experience I will remember forever. Now that the corridor trails are done….just have to figure out what’s next J