The Grand Canyon

We made it! A great day with everything working together for good: all the planning fell perfectly into place! Karen snapped our picture, Gray and I had a prayer, and then we were off!

Let’s start with the weather: it was 65 degrees when we jumped off at just after 6:00am, but cloud cover throughout the day really helped keep things much cooler than they would have been otherwise--we even got a short sprinkle just as we got to lunch. It was supposed to be 102 at the bottom but I don’t think we had to deal with that for more than a couple of hours. Even had a pretty steady breeze most of the way.

The north side of the Grand Canyon down to Roaring Springs is really pretty. It is a bit more wooded and the rock has some pretty blue streaking along with the red and white (very patriotic).

This first six miles wasn’t really as steep or difficult as I was prepared for and I enjoyed this stretch the most (being fresh didn’t hurt either). Passed about 15 other hikers who were headed down as well, plus another 15 or so who were headed out from the Cottonwood campground.

The stretch from Roaring Springs to Phantom Ranch follows Bright Angel Creek, who is a nice companion. Ribbon Falls pours in about half way and Bright Angel Canyon has plenty of its own beauty to enjoy. We saw a few more people headed north out of Cottonwood but below that camp and Phantom Ranch encountered only a dozen or more hikers (altogether we saw about 80 people on the trail, not counting those lounging about at Phantom Ranch, nor those drifting down in the last mile from the top). It seems that many people who do the Canyon rim-to-rim have the sense to make it a two or three night trip. Interesting idea…

A word about distances: according the National Park Service website for the Grand Canyon it is 13.7 miles from the North Rim to Phantom Ranch. I respectfully disagree: based on the Garmin GPS unit we carried it was 16.5 miles. At least a mile of this is down, so if someone just spread out a map and measured the distance they would be at least that much short. That still leaves almost two miles, however, and I frankly have no explanation for the discrepancy. Coming up on the south the distances measure out: NPS says it is 9.6 miles from Phantom Ranch to the South Rim; we got 10.3 on the Garmin, but again, there is about 4000 feet of elevation change to explain the difference. All in all our expected total distance was 23.8 miles, but our equipment told us we went 26.8 miles! And yes, we would have still done it in one day even if we had known. Other Garmin tidbits: our moving average was 2.7 miles an hour but our effective pace was 2.2 miles per hour; almost ten hours of actual hiking time, and just over two hours of stopped time, which was exactly what we expected.

All that being said, the stretch from Cottonwood to Phantom Ranch was about an hour longer than we were expecting and that was a bit tough psychologically. We were pretty beat when we got to Phantom even though we were still in time for a 12:30 lunch (the picture of Gray says it all). We ate, refreshed our water, mixed up a fresh batch of Gatorade, changed into some dry socks and hit the trail 45 minutes after we got there.

The next hour was pretty challenging, partly because we had just eaten, partly because it was the hottest it would be for us (with no breeze), partly because the trail for most of the way was soft sand. But mostly because we had to cross the bloody suspension bridge. I am mildly acrophobic so the idea of walking 300 feet over a narrow bridge suspended 75 feet about the Colorado River is enough to send me into a minor meltdown. This was the one thing I wasn’t prepared for at all, and my son telling me to look down through the metal grate didn’t help (told that boy to shut up so I could focus on walking and breathing!).

About two miles after the bridge the trail turns away from the river and there is only one way to go—up. Not too long after starting in that direction the hiker encounters what is referred to as the Devil’s Corkscrew. This is a series of switchbacks, fairly steep, that penetrate up through the red rock, all of which lends to its colorful name.

The reward, however, is just ahead as the trail enters the lower end of what becomes Indian Garden Campground. As the name suggests there is lots of vegetation along a creek which provides some nice shade and a hint of cool. We got there about 3:00 and were feeling pretty good until we saw the mileage sign—another four plus miles, and oh! what miles they are!!

From Indian Garden to the top is over 3000 feet of up, up, up. I’m sure that our overall average speed had been much higher until we hit this stretch, which is further punishing because the higher you go the thinner the atmosphere. Now I know why so many people need to be rescued out of the Canyon…they go down a few miles with one water bottle in their hand and it seems so easy, then they have to turn around and climb back up! We did see several people about whom we had grave concerns—we didn’t hear about any rescues so we presume they made it!

About 6:30 we finally made it up the last bit. It’s kinda funny because the last half mile or so is crammed full of people strolling down for a little closer look—they aren’t trying to do anything except get a better picture. But I could tell from their faces how startled many of them were to see two sweaty and dust-crusted hikers come upon them! We were sure glad to see Karen and Kellen waiting for us at the top, and a group of four teenagers who had heard from them what we were up to even cheered for us as we came by.

I can honestly say that I have never been so physically tired as I was that night. I had to lay on the hotel floor for about an hour before I could even think about a shower. Movement was painful, and going up or down stairs for the first day or so was pretty much impossible. But we did it.

The folks I really salute, however, are the people who originally created the trail. A lot of people spent a lot of time to carve trails out of solid rock, to build buttresses against rushing streams, to dig and reinforce hundreds of stairs…all so people like us could get down into the Canyon and wonder at the handiwork of an even more amazing Creator.

And what a job He did!

The Last Training Hike

The last training hike before the Canyon. Was supposed to be fifteen miles but we decided to take it a little bit easy (party due to the extreme heat—107 degrees at the finish) and went only ten. Still, we have hiked a total 180 plus miles in the past four months, 70 of those miles in just the past month!

We’re ready…at least we think we’re ready…

Today’s hike was over part of the beautiful South Mountain Municipal Park, the largest municipal park in the United States at over 16,000 acres. Plenty of room to ramble, and some new terrain to us, which was most welcome. Some great vistas of pretty much the entire Phoenix valley, plus a cute little snake and a guy paragliding…who knew there was so much to see!

The discussion topic today was the five best and five worst memories from our weeks of training. I was extremely pleased when Gray said that his number one best memory was just hanging out with Dad…wow, that’s huge! Also on his top five was how good he felt after he threw up on the terrible hike through the Superstitions. Oh well, I guess that works.

For me, the number one worst memory is definitely the scary feelings I was having just before Gray threw up, at the point we were lost, cold, and tired. The rest of the bad memories mostly have to do with muscle soreness (especially after Siphon Draw/Flatiron and our first ten mile hike when I could hardly walk the last two miles) and of course, last week’s boredom.

My best memories? 1) Being with my son, 2) being with my son, 3) being with my son… 4) finally making it to the top of Flatiron (after wondering about the Superstitions all these years), and 5) knowing that I’m ready to hike the Grand Canyon…at least I think I’m ready…!

Pemberton Trail - AGAIN!

Set upon by zombie javelina and vampire coyotes…

Not really, but this hike was so boring we got to doing some creative story telling toward the end just to pass the time.

This was our THIRD trip to Pemberton Trail. The first time was because we needed a 15 mile loop, which it provides quite nicely. It was a boring hike that was made tolerable by the beautiful desert flowers that were in bloom back then.

The second time we hike Pemberton we needed a 15 mile loop and a 10 mile loop to emulate the distances of the Canyon. This was the hike we couldn’t complete because of Gray’s stomach issues, and this time the look was past boring.

So, the thought of going back there a third time wasn’t too thrilling, but we still needed the 25 mile hike under our belt. Thankfully Gray had the good idea to do the 15 mile loop in the opposite direction from what we had done the first two times, so that helped a bit. It was also a Saturday, which meant there were more people on the trail (at least in the morning) so that provided something to break up the monotony (countless mountain bikers, three runners, two equestrians, and one snake crossed our path).

The good news is that we made it. The middle six or so miles were very rough going (the last three miles before lunch and the first three after lunch). Not sure why but neither of us felt as spunky as we had figured…possibly the heat, possibly the after-effects of wandering around the University of Arizona on Thursday and Friday, possibly just a glitch in our giddy-up. In any case we powered through and got the hike done, which is a huge confidence builder for us both! Took about nine hours (including our lunch break) so that’s a good pace as well.

In the morning there had been 15-20 cars in the parking lot when we arrived. When we got back at 4:00pm (102 degrees) here’s what we found:

Where did everybody go???

Four Peaks

Best part of this hike: the backdrop, up against the base of Four Peaks (only one of which, curiously, is named). Some fantastic vistas over the first six or seven miles of both the mountains above us and the valley below. Nice cooling breeze, and wow, look at this, we're going down hill.

But as we all know, what goes down must come up. So, next best thing about this hike was that it mirrored the Grand Canyon in this small way...down first, then up. This hike was about 15 miles (compared to the Canyon's 25), so a pretty good training run.

Worst part of this hike: the uphill started at the bottom of a sandy wash. A really sandy wash. Imagine walking in the soft sand at the beach. But with no cooling waves. Up hill. For two miles. With no wind either.

After we topped out on the ridge things got better (trail firmed up, breeze returned). Glad that was behind us. But wait! There was another mile of the stuff right at the end, only this time the sand was softer and deeper. A cruel way to finish, but I'm glad we didn't start with it or we may have abandoned the trail (thinking it might be like that the whole way) and missed out on some great training.

But boy were my calves sore on Monday! Two more training hikes and then it's GC-Day!

An Unexpected Development

Well, we train to be prepared and to learn what could go wrong.


Today’s intended 25 mile hike got cut short as Gray developed stomach trouble right before lunch. Things were probably going too well anyway—we had done the 15 mile plus Pemberton Loop in just over five hours, remembering how challenging it had been for us less than two months ago (hey, our training program really is paying off!). The last few miles, however, Gray complained of feeling light headed and having a tummy ache. We charged it off to being hot and hungry, and to our robust pace so far (faster, really, than we intended, knowing we still had almost 10 miles to go in the afternoon).


But lunch brought no relief and as we headed out he was moaning a bit. We got maybe two miles up the trail before he reluctantly realized he just wasn’t going to make it. This was most alarming because there really isn’t another good day to try this again, and because we really couldn’t figure out the problem (which occurred on a previous hike, just not as pronounced).

On the very slow return hike we did decide, however, that it might be the red Gatorade that Gray favors. I know I had to switch off of it because it seems to do funny things to my digestion as well. Next time he’ll try half the concentration (we’re mixing our own from Gatorade powder—much more economical). We also figured out a few dates that may work for us to try again for the brass ring of 25 miles.

There is, of course, the approach of my friend Chris, who went on her second rim-to-rim hike a few weeks ago. “So,” I asked her, “what was the longest training hike you did to get ready?”

“Seven miles.”

“What?! You’re kidding me!”

“Nope,” she replied. “But I used to run cross country in high school and my coach always told us that if we could run five miles we could run twenty five miles. I just applied that same idea to the Canyon.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but that’s a lie that cross country coaches tell their teams to make them believe they are prepared even if they’re not…!”

Still, Chris got it done in just over twelve hours…atta girl!

But for those of us who don’t know we can do something until we do it we’ll beef up our miles next week, cut down on the Gatorade mix, and try another long hike in about two weeks…hope we can get it done!

Siphon Draw

Ever since moving to this part of Arizona over ten years ago I have had a certain fascination with the Superstitions. No, not because of the legend of the Lost Duchman, but just because it is such an imposing piece of granite rising quite dramatically off the desert floor.

Our target for this hike was the Flatiron, the prominence just right of center in the picture above. Named, no doubt, for its similarity to the old time iron, the cut of its jut also makes it seem like the bow of a proud and mighty warship.

The hike, somewhat unbelievably, is only three miles from the trailhead to the peak. But along with those miles is 2780 vertical feet (roughly another half mile of up). Compressing that vertical rise into the short trail (the first half mile of which is fairly flat) means that the climb is well over 1000 feet per mile. In other words, there are several sections where the climb is just that, a climb—all fours, pulling up on trees and rocks.

The trail takes its name from a particular piece of smooth granite that must be a terrifying place to be in a summer thunderstorm. This chute (shown in the photo to the right), a little better than half way up, is worn smooth from the water that courses over it. A similar (and perhaps even more imposing) chute feeds in from the left, and one can only imagine that during a good rain the combined force of all that water shoots out from its bottom (seen below) with pretty impressive results.

After two hours of vertical challenge we reached the summit, which is truly vertigo inducing, but the views can’t be matched. We were in no rush to leave, spending time enjoying the view and munching on our snacks. But finally it was time to go down, and here’s the thing—going down is really a lot harder than going up. Going up is hard on your lungs and heart, going down is hard on your legs, and in particular the top of your thighs. Our legs soon felt like they were made of rubber and I was actually getting a bit worried, knowing that we still had to get down Siphon Draw. We rested a bit at the top to let our legs recover, and then found that cutting back and forth across it (mini-switchbacks) took out most of the bite. Surprisingly it took almost as long to get down, again a testimony to how steep it is (and the fact that above the draw there is really not much in the way of a trail). All in all a good recommendation from Michael G. (thanks, Mike!) for a Grand Canyon training hike!

Usery Pass Mountain

We had planned to do at least 15 miles (twice around Usery on the Pass Mountain Trail) but a minor physical irritation limited us to only 10 miles (once around the mountain that then a quick trip up to Wind Cave). The hike around the mountain is pretty good—about three quarters of the trail is in decent condition (the remainder reminded us of the dreaded Lost Dutchman Trail). There are some great scenic views of the Valley off the northern end of the west side, and even better views back into the Goldfields from the east side. And of course the view from Wind Cave is always great!