I could write pages and pages about this trip, however I will stick with the highlights and not get too into the details. This trip had been on my bucket list for several years, I wasn’t sure about doing it in one day, but two days seemed do-able. The plan was to fly into Vegas early Wednesday morning and drive the five hours to the North Rim. Thursday hike North to South and spend the night on the South Rim. Friday hike South to North, spend the night at the North Rim and then drive back to Vegas Saturday morning. So. many. logistics. I was able to book South Rim lodging and lodging 20 minutes away from the North Kaibab Trailhead on the North Rim, but was hoping to stay at the North Rim Lodge which is right next to the North Kaibab trailhead. After checking the North Rim Lodge reservations every single day this past December, I finally was able to book a room for both Wednesday and Friday nights, hooray! Next up was actually training for the hike as well as getting a few key gear items.

In February I met up with a friend for coffee, and while we were catching up I told her about my Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) adventure in May. A few weeks later she texted me that she had a friend that lives in STL and was doing the same thing, possibly on the same day, and did I want her info – heck yeah! I texted her friend and sure enough we were both starting our hikes on the North Rim on the same exact day. What are the odds? She was headed to see other sights after the hike, so the second part I would do solo as planned. As much as I was wanting to do a solo type of trip, I was actually pretty excited to have someone to hike the first half with.

I had signed up for a few running races in the spring, a 50 mile race at the end of March and a half-marathon at the end of April. I figured I would get in some hiking in April/May, however, I ended up running a half marathon with friends at the beginning of April and on a whim ran a marathon the week after the originally planned half marathon. I did run it by my coach presenting it as ‘good training for the Grand Canyon’, he agreed that time on feet, is time on feet. Note that was my first standalone marathon since 2015, it’s been a while! So in summary, I did zero hiking but did get in some weeks with big mileage.

I did meet up with my new friend a few times, she is a beast and had already been doing training sessions of hiking stairs for hours. I did 90 minutes with her on a Saturday morning and my calves hurt so badly until the following Thursday (I thought I had torn a muscle it was so bad). As a result, I only trained stairs twice, lol.

As we got closer to the date of our trip, it was posted that there were trail and bridge closures and our original route to go up the Bright Angel trail on the South Rim was derailed. In order to go up that trail, which has water every 1.5 miles, you had to hike an exposed trail for 4 miles to get there. So additional miles that were in the heat. OR we could change plans and hike up South Kaibab on the South Rim, but there wasn’t any water on the trail and it was 7 miles long (apprx 3 hours of hiking was our guess). Both were risky, and we read it was recommended to start as early as possible to get past the hottest parts (bottom of canyon) before 10a. We decided we would go up South Kaibab.

After many logistics and gear discussion, the trip date had finally arrived. The flight and drive up to the North Rim went smoothly, I arrived about 2:30p and walked around, got my gear ready and wrote my postcards to mail at the bottom of the canyon at Phantom Ranch. My friend arrived around 7p, wiped out from her shuttle drive from the South Rim. After discussing a few more logistics, we headed to get some sleep and the plan was to meet in the lobby at 2:50a to hit the trail by 3a.

I didn’t sleep great, afraid I would oversleep, and was out of bed at 2:30a ready to go. We met up in the lobby as planned and hopped into the car to drive to the trailhead, as I was parking there so that I would have a way to get back to the Lodge when I returned. We lucked out and got a parking spot in the lot! I was prepared to park along the roadside as it was pretty packed the day before. Then we headed down to the trail with our headlamps, ready to take on the day.

I hated the first five miles, they were rocky and sandy and I kept almost tripping/twisting my ankle at least ten times. I thought, ‘if the rest of the trail is like this, I can’t do it’. After several frustrating hours in the dark, soon the sun began to rise and also the trail began to level out and become more solid ground. That combination changed my mood, and I started to feel great and optimistic about the rest of the hike. As we hiked, we took photos, talked about all kinds of random things and then stopped at Cottonwood Camp to take a breather and refill water. The trail after Cottonwood was fairly runnable, so we started slow jogging along the trail. Our goal was to be at Canyon Ranch by 8:30a to avoid being in the heat for too long while hiking up the South Kaibab trail.

We made our goal and arrived at Canyon Ranch at 7:45a, refilled water and waited until 8a for the shop to open up so we could stamp and mail our postcards (the stamp says ‘carried out by mule’). At the bottom we also had a beautiful views of the Colorado River from the Black Bridge. It was such a pretty green color.

Then we took a deep breath and headed to begin the hardest part of the hike. This for sure was harder than the sandy rocky part at the beginning. It was just climbing, climbing and more climbing- in the heat and direct exposure to the sun. We both had sunshirts on and I pulled the hood over my hat as an attempt to stay cooler. We took mini breaks to catch our breath, drink water and refuel, as well as take photos.

On we went, on and on and on. Soon we were coming across more people that were coming down, so we knew we were getting close. Ooh-ah point was the next landmark and I kept swearing it was around the next corner…10 corners later we arrived! We only had 1.5 miles to go, ‘we can do it!’, I thought.

After taking a few quick photos, we pushed on to finish it out. It was a little frustrating as the trail became much more crowded and we had to keep stepping aside to let others pass if they wouldn’t step aside, we just wanted to get up to the top. However soon we could see the trailhead, and I was so happy to see it! We made the final steps to get to the top, stopped our watches (ha, of course we were tracking our time and other metrics). And gave each other a high five since we were so proud of ourselves for doing it! It took us 8 hours and 40ish minutes, well beyond our guesstimate goal of 10 hours.

We took the shuttle back to the Bright Angel lodge where we picked up the bags we had shuttled from the North Rim. I had shuttled a bag so I had some overnight items and well as to restock my nutrition for the second day. We hugged and she headed back to Phoenix and I headed to the Maswick Lodge to take a much needed shower and change. After the shower I went to get two giant pieces of pizza which in real life probably were not good at all, but at the time, they were delicious.

I went back to the room and washed my hiking clothes in the sink to wear the next day. The plan the next morning was to take the shuttle to the trailhead at 3:50 am, so it was an early bedtime again. I was up at 3a ready to go, and quickly headed over to the shuttle pickup. It was a short 15 minute drive to the trailhead and chatted with the father and son who were also on the shuttle as they were going to do a rim to river that day.

When we arrived, the driver said, ‘oh there’s a bus load of people getting off right now too’. With those words, I thought ‘oh hell no’, assembled my poles, tuned on my headlamp and scurried to the trailhead stat. I really didn’t want to get stuck behind a ton of people as I had a long day ahead of me and had to be mindful of the heat. The trail was still pretty crowded and once again I was a little clumsy but also just slow. People kept passing me by, the young son and the father, other random people, what was I doing wrong? I was moving as fast as I could to be cautious and then a guy running passed me by and on he went. I thought, well, why not give it a try on this one part, it looks runnable’, and on I went. I just kept going, thinking ‘well this looks runnable too’ until it all was mostly runnable in my mind. It seemed that it was easier to just run down the trail than delicately navigate it with poles. Using my arms for balance, I was good to go. It also felt good to get running again. Soon I could see the river! I took a few photos and headed to finish the descent and cross the bridge.

This time I arrived at Phantom Ranch a little before 7a, way too early to wait around for the shop to open so I refilled my water and headed on. Surprisingly I felt stronger than I did on the first day, maybe it was because I was more familiar with the trail, maybe it was the mac and cheese for dinner the night before (yes, pizza for late lunch, mac and cheese for dinner, carbs galore!), regardless I was in a happy groove while running and taking in the beautiful views. I stopped at Cottonwood Canyon to refill my water again and chatted with two guys that were going in the opposite direction. We talked about how our hikes were going and where we were from, after hours of mostly just the sounds of the canyon, it was nice to have someone to talk to. Soon we parted ways and I mentally prepared for the big climb that started in a few miles, right after Manzita springs. Manzita springs was the last water stop before the top, so once I arrived, I chugged one of my soft flasks to rehydrate and refilled everything so I had the full 3.5 liters for the final stretch. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous about the heat and if I would run out of water as it was getting pretty hot out.

I began the final stretch and was actually able to run a few parts and then it got steep and hard. The trail turned back into the sand with rocks which made it so hard to get good footing and felt like I was sliding around with each step. Bless my Black Canyon hiking poles, they saved the day both days, up South Kaibab and now up North Kaibab. I really don’t think I could have completed the hike without them. I passed a few people who were taking a rest in shady spots and thought it would be nice to do the same, but the longer I was out here, the hotter it would get. Plus I didn’t feel like I was overheating, if I was then the rest in the shade would have been the way to go. So I carried on, having some random songs going on over and over in my head to the rhythm of each time I stabbed the sand with my poles to push up or steady my footing. It got to the point that I was huffing and puffing, sweating like crazy and I was ready to be done. I checked my watch and it was most likely 3 more miles, which would really mean at least 1.5 hours with how challenging the trail was. Sigh. One foot in front of the other.

More stabbing my poles (probably not the right way but I was so tired, stab, stab, seemed like the way to go), taking deep breaths to not cry as I was feeling more than a little frustrated. Then I saw some people sitting on a rock on the trail. They said they were waiting for their friends, and the trailhead was very close. Hooray! I was almost there! That added a little pep to my step and I picked up the pace. Yet the trail kept going…and going. What exactly was ‘very close?’. To me, very close is like… 200 yards. This was like… forever. However soon I could see the clearing of the trail and practically had tears of joy. I did it! I made the final steps to the trailhead and stopped my watch, 7 hours and 30 minutes, I was really moving on the way back! I took a photo next to the sign and headed to the car to get back to the hotel to take a much needed shower.

I was so ridiculously sore several hours after the hike that I could hardly roll off the bed from the nap I took. Maybe the nap was a bad idea, but I was more worried how I was going to drive back to Vegas the next morning. However, I was in better shape (still super sore) the next morning, and the drive back to Vegas was uneventful. During the drive I was thinking that this was hands down one of my top three favorite trips, between making the new friendship, the challenge and the amazing views. I would go back next week but there are new places to explore first!

Nutrition on the Hike

South to North – apprx 2,020 calories

• 7 Skratch Labs Hydration mix packets
• 7 Untapped Gels
• 2 Larabars
• 1 Bobo’s Oat bar

North to South – apprx 2,030 calories

• 8 Skratch Labs Hydration mix packets
• 12 Untapped Gels
• 1 Larabar

Update: I am so sad to see the sad news that the North Rim Lodge has burned down due to a fire started by lighting. That just makes this trip that much more special to realize how lucky I was to get to experience it.