I had great fun guiding three others on a Grand Canyon double crossing (R2R2R). I’ve completed the full GC double-cross 11 times previously using various trailheads. (Another time I stopped short of the other rim during a 78-mile adventure run). For this adventure, we would start at the North Rim and cross over to the South Rim using Bright Angel Trail and then turn around and come back, about 48 miles.
Coming along with me was my brother Bob, (who did a 19-hour double-cross with me 2005), brother-in-law Ed, and running buddy Jon. Ed and Jon were both Grand Canyon rookies.
Ed is in great shape and has gone to triathlon nationals several times, almost qualifying for world this year. Jon is a local-elite marathon runner, finishing 6th this year at Top of Utah. He is now turning his attention to ultras, winning the Ogden Valley 50 a couple of weeks ago. Bob has finished about seven ultras including some 50-milers.
We spent the night at Jacobs Lake and headed down the North Kaibab trailhead at about 4:40 a.m. in the dark. Immediately, I was in my element. I just love pounding down steep trails in the dark. I took the lead and quickly put some big distance on the others. I let out some whoops that echoed off the canyon walls. My legs were feeling stronger than they ever have coming down this trail. At times I really pushed the speed.
I reached Supai Tunnel (mile 2) in about 16 minutes, which is the fastest I had ever run that section. The others arrived within about five minutes and we stashed some warm clothes to be used in the evening on the return chilly final climb. We had descended about 2,000 feet already and the temperature was now comfortable, around 40 degrees.
I continued to blast down the trail with Bob following closely behind. The next section is a bunch of switch-backs carved into the steep slope of Roaring Spring Canyon. With the moonless light, we couldn’t even see the canyon wall on the other side.
We stopped at the bridge over Roaring Canyon to take some pictures. On our way again, I pointed out the steep drop-offs on the side to watch out for. At one point when I was about a quarter-mile ahead, I looked back up and was amazed at the sight. I could see the three others with their lights illuminating the steep trail carved into the side of a cliff. Wow, it was incredible to see. I waited for the others at our first major stop, at the Roaring Springs ranger cabin. If I cut out my stops to wait, I reached there in only 55 minutes, by far the fastest that I had ever reached this point.
The water was on in the front yard of the cabin, so we filled up. There would be no more water until Phantom Ranch. I stashed the water filter we brought to use if the water was off here. We were now finished with steep downhills and I knew Jon would kick his fast legs into gear on the more gentle downhill over the next 7.1 miles. Sure enough, he started to cruise. I worked hard to keep up with him and we left Bob and Ed behind. Everyone was having a blast as we ran very hard along Bright Angel Creek. We could see the lights of the South Rim high up in the sky far away. “That is where we are headed,” I announced. I was pleased to see that they had put in a new bridge through the beaver pond area so there would be no need to get our feet wet.
Before entering “The Box” (a slot canyon that leads 4 miles to Phantom Ranch), we waited for the others to catch up. Ed was complaining about cramps in his legs and talking about turning back soon. We had him take more electrolytes and within 15 minutes he was running fast again. The light of dawn arrived with just a mile to go before the Ranch. At a moment when I was doing too much sight-seeing, I tripped and down I went. I had a nice bloody elbow, but was able to pick myself up and get going again before Bob caught up. Soon we came into Phantom Ranch. My run time (not counting stops) to Phantom Ranch was 2:15. We filled up our bottles in front of the Canteen and could see the tourists eating a wonderful breakfast inside.
After a long break we were on our way again. The guys wanted to stash more of their stuff so I encouraged them to do it further away from Phantom Ranch. I wish I would have paid more attention to what they were leaving behind (more on that later.)
We crossed over the Colorado River on the Silver Bridge. The guys got a great kick out of running over that powerful river. We ran about a mile on the River Trail and then turned the corner into Pipe Canyon to start the huge climb up to the South Rim. Once we arrived at the base of Devil’s Corkscrew, a series of steep switch-backs, Ed and Jon teamed up and took the lead, chatting away. We were now passing many backpackers moving slowly up the trail and a few day hikers coming down. We would crank up the pace when we came near others.
We reached Indian Garden, a beautiful green camping area at about 9:30 a.m. Jon wasn’t shy about telling others about what we were doing. It was fun to see their reactions and tell them about our adventure. We again took a pretty long stop and unfortunately a mule train took off ahead of us. Once on our way again, within a mile we caught up with the mules and were allowed to pass. Then we had the task of keeping ahead of them. Jon and Ed pushed on strongly ahead. I fell behind taking pictures and audio (all my audio was lost because of a busted recorder). Bob fell far behind but when I stopped for several minutes to fix a foot problem, I could see him below making good progress. We kept a steady pace going up the very steep switch-backs and ran into more and more people coming down. I watched a family climbing off the trail to play with some icicles hanging off a cliff.
Jon and Ed arrived at the top of the South Rim at about 11:00 a.m. I arrived about 10 minutes later followed by Bob in another five minutes. We all found our way to Bright Angel Lodge and a nice warm fire in the lobby. We chowed down on hot dogs, candy and soft-drinks. Bob was feeling pretty thrashed, with a nauseous stomach. We had a very long rest and talked to some French Canadians around the fire.
Finally, after a 50-minute stop, feeling much better we started our return trip back to the North Rim. I fell behind taking pictures but soon kicked it into gear, catching up and passing the guys. I was really flying down the trail. So fast, that a man sitting, taking a rest, chewed me out for running, that I was endangering others. I assured him that I would be very careful around the hikers, but he was not happy at all seeing us run. I made it a special point the rest of the way to greet every hiker with smiles and encouragement. Almost everyone else was happy to see us and watch us go. Jon caught up and we enjoyed pushing the pace together. I started to have some bad blister problems so Jon pushed on ahead and arrived at Indian Garden a few minutes ahead of me. We made it there in under an hour. Ed arrived and wanted to get a head start on us. Jon decided to fix a foot and wait for Bob. I ran on, caught up with Ed, but once at Devil’s Corkscrew worried about Jon and Bob behind so decided to
wait for them to catch up. I ended up waiting for about twenty minutes before I could see them up on top of a ridge, making their way down. Looking at my watch, I knew we were seriously behind schedule and now had no hope to finish before sunset as we planned.
Jon caught up with me in Pipe Canyon while I was playing around, taking pictures. I told him to go on and I waited for Bob at the River Trail junction. Bob soon arrived and was doing fine, just slowing down. We made our way along the river, again ran over Silver Bridge and approached Phantom Ranch. Jon and Ed were at the ranger station. They announced that the stuff we stashed was gone. In the lost stuff was all their lights and they were very worried. But the ranger located a maintenance guy who radioed that he had the stuff and would get it for us. We were relieved but I lectured the guys that they should never stash all their lights or emergency gear on adventure runs. You never know what can happen. It was a great lesson learned.
Bob and I went to the Canteen while Jon and Ed went to get the stuff. It was a little after 2:30 p.m. I bought us some wonderful lemonade, the best I had ever tasted (or it seemed) and we waited and waited. I guessed right, that the maintenance guy was taking his time. I finally told Bob to go on ahead, that we would all catch up. The delay was very worrisome because I knew now we would finish several hours after sunset. With a cold front coming in, the cold temperatures were my biggest worry about getting these guys out of the canyon.
Finally Ed and Jon returned. The maintenance guy really chewed them out and even hesitated to give them back their stuff. I guess the rim-to-rim runners always leave stuff around Phantom Ranch causing him more work. They also leave trash in the restrooms. Not good. I can understand why he was cranky. Runners need to do much better to not disturb Phantom Ranch and not leave behind trash. If you want to leave stuff at the bottom for the return trip, don’t stash it at Phantom Ranch.
On our way again, we caught up with Bob in about a mile or so. He was moving at a good 4 mph pace. He no longer had a running gear but was power hiking at a good pace. We discussed what we should do to help him and decided that one of us should stick with him. Ed was also hurting so for the next six miles he stayed with Bob. I predicted that we probably wouldn’t finish until 9 p.m. If it would get very cold, I planned to run hard ahead and bring back down our warm clothes stashed at Supai Tunnel.
Jon and I fell behind just enjoying the late afternoon, taking pictures and looking at all the sights. As the sun set, the canyon glowed and was beautiful. The tops of the rims, still glowing in the sun threw down light on the canyon below. As we fell behind further, we would kick up the pace, run hard and catch up.
As we approached Ribbon Falls, Bob and Ed started the tough up and down at that point. I decided to instead stay at river level. This required me to wade Bright Angel Creek, and do some route finding until I found the main trail that goes to Ribbon Falls. I continued up stream and crossed back over on the Ribbon Falls bridge, joining back up with Bob and Ed. I avoided the big climb and descent. Bob and Ed had watched my progress high above me.
For long periods, I couldn’t see Jon behind and when he later caught up, I noticed blood on this chin. He told me he had rolled off the trail and fell down a four-foot drop. I was glad to hear he wasn’t seriously hurt.
It got dark right before Roaring Spring cabin, but I managed to make it there without getting out my light. This would be our last water stop. The water filter I stashed here was gone. I went to the cabin and found a large group of backpackers getting ready to stay the night. One of them remembered seeing my stuff hanging up from a tree and he pointed it out to me.
On our way again, we only had about 4,000 feet more feet to climb in about six miles. I told myself that this was just about like a Mount Timpanogos climb, no sweat. Ed and I started attacking the climb. I was thrilled to discover that I still had a very strong uphill gear and could even run pretty fast up the trail if I wanted. But once I reached the Roaring Spring trail junction, I felt guilty about being ahead of the others so stopped to wait. Ed caught up and I explained I would wait for Bob. When Bob arrived about five minutes later, he assured me he was doing great. Jon was with him so I decided to just press on hard and stay warm. I could see some other lights high up ahead and wondered if I could catch up with them. I soon caught up with Ed and he wished me well as I passed.
The rest of the run was a lots of fun. Usually it is a death march, but I was thrilled to find plenty of energy in the tank. I pushed higher and higher. I enjoyed flashing my light down below at the others making their way slower down in the darkness. It soon became very cold. I arrived at Supai Tunnel (two miles to go), and found our stuff undisturbed. I put on a warm coat and hat and was ready for the final 2,000 foot climb in two miles. It had only taken me 16 minutes to get down to this point in the morning but I knew it would take about 40 minutes to make it back up.
I soon caught up to the lights that were ahead. It was an older couple who had gone clear to the river and were returning. They were very tired but were still moving fine. I asked if they were warm and if they needed anything. They talked to each other and assured me that they would be fine. I pushed on. Since this was the 13th time I had made this climb, I knew every turn. But I was surprised when I quickly came to the last switchback. I was on the home stretch!!
I finished my 12th complete R2R2R at 8:42 p.m. I quickly turned on the car to make sure it was nice and warm when the others arrived. They reached the rim at 9:00 p.m., all cold, but doing well. We made it! Our adventure had taken about 16:20. My running time was probably close to 13 hours. We were all in great spirits, but pretty tired. I drove us to Kanab, where we grabbed a room, and got some good sleep before driving home the next morning.
Slide show will be uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday. | 