Rim-to-rim-to-rim Grand Canyon Hike

Having visited the Grand Canyon several times (believe it or not twice already this year, about 13 times in my 10 years of stay in Arizona, mostly taking visiting guests to do sight-seeing) I always used to wistfully look at the mighty river below and the North Rim on the other side and think about hiking the whole way. Coupled with that we had an aborted GC hike (we didn't go because it was right after the 9/11 incident) my cousin was always bugging me about doing the GC hike. Sometime in the middle of August this year I started running and much to my surprise I was doing 30 miles a week ! All these led to the idea of doing a rim-to-rim-to-rim hike . The basic idea was to go down South Kaibab and come up on North Kaibab on Day 1 and then resting for the night the North Rim lodge go down North Kaibab and come up on Bright Angel on Day 2.

After a long series of additions and dropouts (and added to that logistical details like reservations on N Rim Lodge and finding a person to drive the car from S to N rim and back) this hike was touch-and-go till the last two weeks before the hike. Miraculously all the details fell into place with a week to spare ! (Thanks to Ishu Verma for shouldering responsibility for some of the logistical work).

While toiling thru the Canyon uphill on Day 2, I asked the question to myself, Why ?! As you might all know there is no single to answer to this. One of the reason could be as Mahesh succinctly put it, to get the monkey off my back ! Well for one thing the Grand Canyon is a natural formation of unsurpassed beauty and grandeur, having an opportunity to look at it from the bowels of the canyon and to look at the cool riparian habitats at the bottom of the Canyon is something really worthwhile. The biggest fringe benefit is of course the much improved physical condition one gets into to do this and the lightness in your feet at the end of day two ! (most weekend warriors like me lose a few pounds during the training and a few during the hike itself).

Finally we (four of us: Myself, Ishu Verma, Mahesh TL and Sandeep Patil and Sandhya, Ishu's wife) piled on a car on Friday (8th of Oct '04) afternoon around 3p and started driving towards the Grand Canyon. We tried catching the second presidential debate on the car radio, that is kind of hard going up on I-17 towards Flagstaff. We did perceive that Dubya was doing much better than in the first one (BTW I am no fan of Dubya !). We got a good night's rest in Tusayan (some might exception to this as there some serious snoring in the room ! I will not comment publicly about the culprits). The next day early morning (9th of Oct '04) Sandhya dropped us at the SK trail head near the Yaki point on the East rim. We were off at 5.20a ! It was dark and the temperature was a shade above freezing.

Probably this is a good place to say this. Doing a rim-to-rim or a rim-to-rim-to-rim should not be attempted by 98 percent of the population. The Forest Service goes to great lengths to warn people against this as you can see from the picture here. Having said that with proper training it's definitely doable. BTW we saw a 78 year old guy going up the NK trail. The info we obtained was that he was doing it for the 32nd time this year !

The first one hour was in total darkness. Believe it or not there were plenty of people ahead and behind us even in that unearthly hour. After stopping for a minute or so to catch our breath at Cedar Ridge we were treated for a great sunrise.

After that we again paused at the Skeleton point (I didn't like the taxonomy here !) and then rested for a few minutes at the Tonto Trail Junction. Pretty soon after that we were able to see the inner gorge and then the mighty Colorado.

Finally we catch a glimpse of the river which was mostly responsible for carving the canyon.

The SK trail is very steep and is generally recommended only for coming down. There is no water on the trail. The views are magnificent as this follows the ridge line. It is about 6 miles to the river and another mile to the Phantom Ranch. The SK is mostly a horrendous series of switch backs, it is almost like scaling down a steep wall.

Finally we hit the bottom and here is a picture of the suspension bridge that is used for crossing the Colorado.

We rested at the famed Phantom Ranch, had our share of Caffeine (yes, hot coffee is available at the Ranch. Can you believe how spoiled we are ?) and then we were off on the NK trail around 9a. OK, I was the only serious coffee addict in the group. The trail is meandering with little elevation gain till we hit the Cotton Wood campgrounds. The bright angel creek is with us most of the time making the hike very pleasant. The initial few miles is thru the inner gorge and it appears as though we are in a slot canyon. Sandeep and Ishu were blazing the trail here, they were about 1/4 to 1/2 mile ahead of the remaining folks.

Just before we hit the Cottonwood campground there is the detour to Ribbon falls and the HeartBreak hill which as the name suggest breaks your heart due to its sudden steepness. After Cottonwood ground we stopped at the Rangers house for a water stop and then all the trouble started. The remaining 6 miles is affectionately called the "wall". The hike from here on to the top is hard, it is a relentless series of switch backs. We have to climb about 4000 feet from here to the top in 6 miles. The "wall" kind of equalized everybody's pace. We were mostly together here. On the way we can see the roaring springs very clearly.

One has to do the North Kaibab trail to see the real beauty of the Canyon, riparian habitats, unknown/unnamed coves and fall colors !

The view from the Coconino overlook. We are almost there, I think there are only 3 or 4 remaining switch-backs before we hit the top.

Finally we reach the top !

We were at the top at 4.20p. The difference in training showed up here. The last one was at the top a little after 5.30p. Folks who had trained for a longer time made it quicker than the others (the last one who made it to the top had done just two practice hikes, but was a regular runner of about 10 miles a week). We took a ride to the lodge which is about 2 miles away then showered and rested (again according to some the snoring phenomena was back with vengeance that night because of all the exertion !).

The next day morning (10th of Oct '04) it was just me who woke up at 4a checked myself to make sure that nothing was out of place. Ishu gave me a ride to the trail head and then I was off all alone on trail at 5.30 a. The solitude and quiet of hiking and being alone was inspiring. Just once when I was in the middle of nowhere deep in the slot canyon (with no one in sight in front of or behind me) the sound of thunder and the sight of lightning terrified me for a few minutes. For a few brief moments there was nothing between me and the canyon ...

A family in the Cottonwood campground gave me some black coffee. I will not forget the taste of that coffee for a long time ! My boss's boss was supposed to be on the same trail that day with another group. When I met that group and found that he could not make it, I got this sickening feeling something was wrong at work ! Oh well, that is another story which I cannot go into more details as that means divulging company confidential info. Let's just say that I have been re-assigned to another job and the transition gave me some time to put this story together. Without too much incident I made it to the top to the Bright Angel lodge at 4p exceeding my expectations !

Here are the Hikers with their better-halves. From left to right, Prabha & Bhaktha, Sandhya & Ishu, Anjali & Sandeep and Divya & Mahesh. This picture was taken when we had the post-hike party.

Sandeep and Anjali went on to do another hike of the canyon the very next weekend. They did the two-day hike with overnight camping in the BA campground. Lucky for them, they had more time to enjoy the canyon.

Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim Hike: Quick stats:

Ascent:

Total: 10300 feet

Day 1 - 5840

Day 2 - 4460

Descent:

Total: 10700

Day 1 - 4860

Day 2 - 5840

Distance:

Total: 45 miles

Day 1 - 21 miles

Day 2 - 24 miles

Time:

Total: 21.5 hours

Day 1 - 11 hours

Day 2- 10.5 hours

Post-mortem:

There were several things that I learnt during this hike (previously about 4 years ago I did the South Kaibab - Bright Angel). Keep your stuff that you take along for the hike to a minimum. There is plenty of water on the trails (except the SK, which we did in the early morning and we came down on that), most of the time 1/2 liter of water is sufficient. Some portions of NK might need a liter of water, but that is the maximum. No need to carry more than a liter. It is a good idea to check at the Phantom Ranch to see if all the watering stations are open. As cold as it is in the morning, shorts and a t-shirt (OK maybe another full sleeved shirt on top of that) is sufficient. One can have light break-fast at Phantom ranch cantina (without pre-ordering), so carry just what is required for lunch. My favorite is fruits, granola bars and protein bars. Do carry Gatorade/Powerade/Gookinaid to replenish the salts that are lost due to perspiration. A good hat with a cape in the back is essential, you can buy this at REI (for long distances you are the mercy of the desert sun ...). This time I did carry a back-pack if you are brave enough one can do the whole hike in a waist-bag (which typically have two water bottles and some storage for food and other essentials). Do carry pain-killers, I saw many of them using them (Luckily I didn't have to take any pain-killers). Do carry a camera, some of the sights are truly breath-taking. Always start early (both the days we started at 5.30a, that would mean an hour or so hiking with the help of flashlight) that will give you enough margins in the evening if something goes wrong. Hiking the canyon with Sneakers is perfectly OK. There was a raging debate about the pros and cons of doing the hike with hiking boots vs sneakers. Personally I prefer the sneakers since they are lighter and more comfortable (the trail is well paved, obviating the need for the thick soled hiking boots). The toes tend to hurt a lot more in the hiking boots than in Sneakers. Hiking socks (which are thicker and have some padding in the front and in the ankle area) also help a lot.

A brief about the weather. The temperatures at the bottom of the canyon reach 120+ during summer ! It gets pretty cold and snowy in the winter at the rims, N Rim is closed after the middle of October. The best time to do a rim-to-rim hike is either in Fall or Spring when the temperatures are kind of bearable both at the rim and in the Canyon. For us on Oct 9th temperatures were predicted to be around freezing on S rim and high 70's in the Canyon. That is what it mostly turned out to be. Coming back up on BA or on NK one is exposed to 80 degreee temps with no shade whatsoever. That really sapped our energy. Overall the weather was as expected on Oct 9th. But on Day 2 rain and thunderstorms were predicted. The Forest service people were not so sure about that though. Day 2 turned out to be perfect weather for hiking ! I never saw the sun, there was rain like spitting thrice (didn't even make me pause). Towards the last half mile just before 4p in the evening there was significant rain, I had to remove my jacket and wear it. Overall we were blessed with good weather (unlike two weekends before this, when the hikers had to return back very disappointed because of a freak thunderstorm).

Now the real important part, training. For folks in the phoenix area, the best way is to do the Camelback on both sides. This is a total 6 miles with an ascent of 2600 feet. If one can do this stopping only at the extremities within 3 hours or so, consider yourself fit for the day hike. The other option is to do the South Mountain National trail upto Buena Vista and back. Doing these  every weekend for about 2 months is recommended. Running helps a lot, mileage of 30 miles a week is a definite plus.

During our 2-day hike we did not have time to "stop and smell the flowers". Either we were tired or were in a hurry to reach the other side in decent time. A 2-day hike with a over-night stop in the Phantom Ranch would be nice ...

Future:

Initially when I was contemplating doing the rim-to-rim-to-rim I was thinking of this being a once in a lifetime opportunity. Now having done it without any mishaps, I am tempted to consider more crazy stuff. Two of them stand out, crossing the canyon from N to S in less than 6 hours (that would be a stretch, 8 looks doable) or doing the rim-to-rim-to-rim in less than 24 hours. Or maybe doing the SK uphill and BA downhill. Let's see if I can keep up with my running, then  maybe I will give it a shot next spring or fall.

Famous sayings during the hike:

Whatever goes down has to come up ! (Mahesh TL)

Rim-rim is Rim² and rim-to-rim-to-rim is rim³ (Melinda Brown)

Rim-rim is rtr and rim-to-rim is rtrtr (Mahesh TL)

Feedback ? bhaktha@gmail.com

Acknowledgements:

First and foremost to my wife and kids for bearing my absence during the practice hikes and finally for the whole weekend during the hike. Thanks for the final hiking group (Ishu Verma, Sandeep Patil and Mahesh TL). It was a great group in a great physical condition. Also thanks for all the other friends who gave us good company during the practice hikes and who did consider joining the hike. Many many thanks to Sandhya Verma for driving the car from South to North Rim. Also thanks to the whole group for driving back to S rim to pick me up on Day 2. Here I should mention special thanks to Sridharan who volunteered to do the driving and opted out as soon as Sandhya decided to drive.

Thanks to the Intel India Employee group, Arizona Chapter for advertising the Hike on their news-letter.

Thanks for all the advice from the experts (Tom Adelmeyer, Rami Sinno and Dave Baker). Disclosure: Tom is my manager and Rami is Tom's manager. Because of this special situation, I didn't have to ask for permission for taking time-off ! Their tips and BKM's were very valuable. The 2-way radios from Srinath turned out to be very useful, thanks Srinath for lending them to us. Thanks to  Mark Schmissuer (from the Intel Adventure Club) for giving us the detailed but compact trail-maps. Here they are.