North to south .... to north
A sign on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon warns that trying to hike to the river and back in a day is hazardous and should not be attempted ... good thing we didn't do that.
Instead Karen Williams and I ran from the north rim to the south rim and back to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in a spectacular - and sometimes grueling - 17 hours. The round-trip distance closed in on 50 miles and the elevation gain and loss was too intimidating to even calculate.
On the north rim 16 of us Alaskans, former Alaskans and friends of Alaskans congregated for an epically fun couple of days. Everyone went their own speed: there were rim to rimmers, rimer to river to rimers, and the rim to rim to rimmmers.(Of note, my mom and Karen's husband Kent hiked nearly 30 miles, going from the north rim to the river and back!)
We ran/ hiked on Thursday (10/14) and then all hung out and celebrated together on Friday. I spent the better part of Friday sitting on a veranda perched on the north rim, drinking coffee, reading and generally refusing to move. (I let out more than a few grumbles about the idea of walking 0.6 miles to a lookout for sunset, but in the end was lulled into the idea ... and it turned out to be worth the effort).
The highlights were many: reconnecting with friends and meeting new ones; descending in the dark with headlamps; listening to all the off-the-wall comments people made about our endeavor, especially when going back down the south rim and passing the same people we passed on the way up; gorging on a milkshake, hamburger, fries and coffee on the south rim; jumping into the water with all of our clothes on to cool down; crossing the bridge over the river in the bottom of the canyon; sitting with our backs against a sheer cliff admiring the stars overhead and the moonlit canyon below us; and mildly hallucinating, with the sound of water washing over me, reverberating off the canyon walls and then engulfing in me in a peaceful calm.
Our mantra for the day, and for ultrarunning in general, was in the forefront of our thoughts: there's no place I'd rather be than right here, right now, right at this point on the trail.
Instead Karen Williams and I ran from the north rim to the south rim and back to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in a spectacular - and sometimes grueling - 17 hours. The round-trip distance closed in on 50 miles and the elevation gain and loss was too intimidating to even calculate.
On the north rim 16 of us Alaskans, former Alaskans and friends of Alaskans congregated for an epically fun couple of days. Everyone went their own speed: there were rim to rimmers, rimer to river to rimers, and the rim to rim to rimmmers.(Of note, my mom and Karen's husband Kent hiked nearly 30 miles, going from the north rim to the river and back!)
We ran/ hiked on Thursday (10/14) and then all hung out and celebrated together on Friday. I spent the better part of Friday sitting on a veranda perched on the north rim, drinking coffee, reading and generally refusing to move. (I let out more than a few grumbles about the idea of walking 0.6 miles to a lookout for sunset, but in the end was lulled into the idea ... and it turned out to be worth the effort).
The highlights were many: reconnecting with friends and meeting new ones; descending in the dark with headlamps; listening to all the off-the-wall comments people made about our endeavor, especially when going back down the south rim and passing the same people we passed on the way up; gorging on a milkshake, hamburger, fries and coffee on the south rim; jumping into the water with all of our clothes on to cool down; crossing the bridge over the river in the bottom of the canyon; sitting with our backs against a sheer cliff admiring the stars overhead and the moonlit canyon below us; and mildly hallucinating, with the sound of water washing over me, reverberating off the canyon walls and then engulfing in me in a peaceful calm.
Our mantra for the day, and for ultrarunning in general, was in the forefront of our thoughts: there's no place I'd rather be than right here, right now, right at this point on the trail.
Labels: Grand Canyon, Karen, Mom, photos, Rim to rim to rim, running, Trail running, Travel, ultrarunning
posted by Amy | 11:59 AM
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