Here's the list of who went on the hike:
Submission from Kathy Sharp:
Jef Sloat had a friend who had an extra cabin up for grabs at the North Rim on September 30th and October 1st, so Jef, Bruce, Deb and I took the opportunity to do a trip that I had wanted to do for a long time. We would hike from the South Rim to the North Rim one day, stay in a North Rim Lodge cabin two nights, and then hike from the North Rim to the South Rim. A friend of Jef's took our stuff for the cabins to and from the North Rim so we wouldn't have to carry all that extra weight for the hikes.
We left Phoenix on a Friday night, had dinner at Fazoli's in Flagstaff, and then spent the night in the Yavapai Lodge at the South Rim. We shared a room that had two double beds and a roll-away bed.
You can't drive to the South Kaibab trailhead anymore, but the free shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. The shuttle stops at Bright Angel Lodge, the West Rim Interchange, the Backcountry Information Center (Maswik Transportation Center), and Yavapai Lodge.
We started hiking down the South Kaibab Trail with our very full bus-load of fellow hikers at about 5:30 a.m. It was still dark, so many hikers put on their headlamps, but twilight was about to begin. The weather was perfect. I had brought a lot of warm fleece in my backpack because fall weather at the Grand Canyon is so unpredictable and I have so much trouble staying warm, but I carried the extra fleece for nought on this trip. The bulk made my pack look big and heavy, though, and so some people looked very pitifully at the slow poke with the huge pack (me).
Knee braces on both knees and two trekking poles made me look even more pitiful to some hikers, but the braces and poles were just preventative measures. For such a long, steep hike, I wanted to make sure I didn't have knee problems. I really used the poles, too! I found out just how much I'd used them after the hikes when my triceps were sorer than they've ever been. But my knees were fine. My feet were very achy.
We hiked down quite fast. If I remember correctly, it only took us three hours to get to the Colorado River. We stopped at Phantom Ranch for some icy-cold lemonade and ate our packed lunches, and then we replenished our water supply and headed up the North Kaibab Trail. I wish I'd written this report sooner. For awhile I had times we reached places and the amounts of water I drank stored in my head, but I've lost that data now. I need to get a mini-recorder for that stuff. I do remember that I wanted more Gatorade powder than I brought, though.
Hey! I found some notes I wrote on the bookmark for the book I brought on the trip:
The South Kaibab Trail to Phantom Ranch is about 7 miles and 4860 feet down, and the North Kaibab Trail is about 14 miles and 5840 feet up, so a one-way hike is about 21 miles with 10,700 feet of elevation change. Going north was definitely harder than going south because of the elevation of the North Rim (8241 feet at the trailhead). Due to the elevation, I just kept getting slower and slower, and it seemed like the trail was growing longer and longer. Near the top, the leaves were changing and, with all the big-tooth maples, it began to remind me of Oak Creek Canyon in the fall. As usual, I was the pokey last arrival, but we had stayed pretty much together for most of the hike. It took 11.5 hours of hiking each day. That was the absolute fastest I could go. (A friend of ours, Bill Fallon, did the trip the next weekend in half our time!) Fortunately, someone Jef knew was at the trailhead and gave us a ride to the lodge.
Jef's friend's hiking group had early reservations for dinner at the lodge and we had late reservations. However, his friends hadn't shown up yet. We decided that if we changed our clothes like super models (fast), we could make it for the early reservations and the others could use our reservations when they finished the hike. But we certainly wouldn't look like super models. At dinner, Jef asked who wanted to do the trip again next year. No one spoke up. We were glad we'd done the hike, but I think once is probably enough for me.
The next day, Sunday, we took it easy, sitting in the chairs at the lodge, reading, and enjoying the views. Bruce and Deb had brought binoculars, and we spotted a piece of the trail down in the canyon by Cottonwood Camp. While hiking the next day, we tried to keep an eye out for a view of the lodge from the trail near Cottonwood Camp. However, to spot the lodge we had to get out the tiny pair of binoculars I had in my pack.
On Sunday Jef had been talking with someone else enjoying the views at the lodge for awhile when he discovered that he was talking to the owner of Arizona Outdoor Journal. (I hope I remembered the name correctly!) He took our picture for a possible rim-to-rim-to-rim story, and he employs as a part-time worker one of our canyoneering friends, Kevin Ryan.
We took a little hike to the camper's store to get some supplies for the return hike, goofed off, took naps, and then we had another delicious dinner at the lodge.
Before sunrise Monday morning, we waited for a shuttle from the lodge to the North Kaibab Trailhead. This shuttle wasn't free, but it wasn't expensive ($6?). The driver said we could have arranged for him to be there earlier since he's with Security and was working all night anyway. We got started hiking at 5:36 a.m. -- almost the exact same time as we started the hike Saturday morning.
We decided on our return trip to visit Ribbon Falls, and we spent quite a bit of time there. To avoid any backtracking, we had to take our shoes off and cross Bright Angel Creek to get back to the trail. The ice-cold water felt wonderful on our feet!
We had lunch and lemonade at Phantom Ranch again. I later regretted deciding to have two lemonades that day. My stomach didn't like all the acid and I had to stop hiking to dig Rolaids out of my pack.
We were expecting a very long, hot, shadeless, dry hike up the South Kaibab, so we made a stop at the river before crossing the suspension bridge. Deb and I laid our backs in the icy, icy water and tried to splash water on ourselves. It was too cold to get in all the way. Bruce dunked his shirt in the water and said that it hurt to put it back on.
And then we started up the South Kaibab and it went on forever and ever. At one point I was coming around a corner and Bruce was cruelly waiting to take a photo of me struggling up the switchbacks. The sun was behind him, he has a black beard, and he was wearing black sunglasses and a hat so his face was totally in shadow. I commented on his evilness and I saw some white teeth appear from the darkness.
Shortly after we started up, Jef mentioned hiking ahead and picking us up at the top. We agreed to that and he was gone like a flash. (Unfortunately, you can't drive to the trailhead anymore.) Many hours later, Bruce, Deb, and I were resting at a great viewpoint along the trail and Bruce mentioned that right about then, he'd rather be at work. Twenty-one miles with over 10,000 feet of elevation change is a long day hike.
Fortunately, the trail up the South Rim doesn't go on forever like the trail up the North Rim does. Deb thanked me for "waiting for her" whenever I caught up with her while she was resting and I decided to rest myself, too. After the hike, we all went for Italian food in Tusayan and took turns driving home that night.
On my bookmark, Jef wrote, "Two miles and 2000 feet too long." Deb wrote, "North to South is a more enjoyable hike." It was a great trip, and I think the satisfaction from having done it will last a good, long while.
Email from Debby Brown 10/3/2000:
The hikes went well. We were very tired at the end of each of the hikes and struggled to get up the last 1,000' or so. It was nice and cool on the North Rim and we enjoyed our dinners and scenery. It was really fun to ride in Kathy's new vehicle.
Jef was the awesome man! I didn't realize he was such a strong hiker. He was always the first one done. He beat us out of the Canyon yesterday by one hour. We were at Cedar Ridge one mile down at 4:00 and he was just finishing up. He went and took the shuttle and retrieved Kathy's car from over by Babbitts.
We went down and up the South Kaibab. It was a little toasty on the South Kaibab yesterday at noon when we started up but we had shade in several areas along the way. We had laid in the Colorado River prior to starting up and that helped a lot. Wow was that freezing! Actually, Kathy and I laid in the river -- the guys didn't. There were some people who had run the North Kaibab side and started up the South Kaibab at the same time as us. However, one of their hikers bonked about 20 minutes into the hike. He was in trouble and they took him some power goo but you know that takes about 15 minutes or so to work. We never saw him again. Their other five hikers passed us at Cedar Ridge and topped out just before us. They were still waiting around for this last hiker who had bonked but we couldn't even see him on the trail and switchbacks.
We had a surprise at the trailhead when we were done. It was really quiet there and the mules had just been fed. There were six young fawns and about six or so adults. The youngsters were so little and very cute. They were drinking the water by the mules.
The trip was a success. However, we have now done the rim to rim to rim hike and don't plan on doing that many miles in that short of time any time soon. The rim to rim is pretty fun but this was too many miles.