I’ve had this adventure on my bucket list ever since I backpacked with my friends several years ago in the Grand Canyon. I’ve quietly mentioned to people my interest in doing rim to rim to rim, but with no forceful commitment until this year. What made me do it? I’m not sure but Beth held me to it.
We started our morning in the dark around 5:45am on Saturday September 23, 2023. We weren’t the only ones starting at South Kaibab that morning. It was lightly raining off and on for the first decent, but we were making decent time.
South Kaibab has decent size steps down and multiple times I thought to myself, “I can’t wait till we hit a flat or start going up.” That wouldn’t happen for quite some time. Everyone we came across was so pleasant. We were all thankful for the cooler temperatures but also unsure how we felt about the rain. The forecast showed for morning rain and cloud cover the rest of the day, so I was sure we’d have a decent day.
We hit some milestones on the way down and only stopped for a moment. We missed a beautiful sunrise at Ooh Aah point because of the rain, but the Grand Canyon still looked grand!
Beth and I worked our way down the canyon, running when we could. I didn’t trust my body to run fast on the down hill with big steps because of poor ankle stability. The Grand Canyon is all big steps. My biggest worry was another sprained ankle. So I told myself if I came out of the canyon without a sprained ankle I’d consider it a success! We saw several people run past us and later found out some where doing rim to rim and others were running rim to rim to rim.
We were chipping away at the miles and made it down to the Colorado River. It was here where I had the full realization that I was really doing this. I was also looking forward to our rest, water and food refuel at Phantom Ranch.
At Phantom Ranch a lady who looked like she was solo and thru hiking offered us ice that she received from another generous hiker. We didn’t end up taking any because the temps were still decent. We filled up our bladders and an extra bottle at Phantom Ranch. The water at Cottonwood and Manzanita was out due to a pipe burst. We did have a filtration system as backup. We finished our refuel and started heading up the North Rim.
The Box
We left Phantom Ranch and started making our way through the Box. This area is a narrower section of the canyon with towering walls. It seems to emulate a box. We heard a couple airplanes overhead which startled a giant owl to fly across the distant canyon. This was one of the coolest things of the day and one of the very few wildlife we saw due to the rain.
The box seemed to go on forever. Beth and I tried to run this area, but after our stop at phantom ranch our legs struggled to turn over. This was unfortunate because it was the flatter portion of the Grand Canyon and a good time to get some speed in. We both think it was a nutrition bonk. I was looking for the sign to Ribbon falls because I knew once we saw that we’d hit Cottonwood and Manzanita. We kept moving past Cottonwood and planned to make a longer stop at Manzanita. We were fueling while moving, but when we stopped we made sure to get more fuel in us.
At Manzanita, I used my new filter for some water. We’d both been drinking tailwind and I was ready for some fresh water. Even though I only needed to use the filter once. I’m so thankful for having it. Had the day been hotter I would have needed to use it more often throughout the day. We re-applied anti-chafing creams before heading up the North Rim.
North Kaibab
This was the portion I was told would be tough with a lot of it being vertical. At this point I was exhausted and I knew there was an out if I needed one at the north rim, but that’s not where my head was. It was putting one foot in front of the other. We had some good cloud cover so I worked on enjoying this part. As you climb towards the north rim, the terrain and vegetation change dramatically compared to the south rim. The trees pop against the red rock and the canyon towers on either side of you.
As we made our way up, we started to get some light rain. It’s nothing that was disturbing our hike up. We could see some areas of water trickling over cliffs and rock faces as we headed up. The last two miles were slightly dreading because it felt like it was taking forever. We would see other hikers coming down the north rim for a day hike and they would keep saying, “Only a little further.” Which didn’t help, knowing we still had to turn around to get back to the south side. At this point I had started saying in my head, “My body has 10% more than my mind thinks.”
We finally made it to the other side and there were people ringing cow bells and cheering. A group fundraising for Alzheimer’s and ALS were running Rim to Rim and they were there at the top for all of their participants. We throughly appreciated the extra boost of support once at the top.
It was raining without a sight of stopping so we made our stop at the north rim quick. We filled our packs with water and started moving before we started shivering. We didn’t realize how much it was actually raining until we saw the giant puddles at the bottom of every large step. We know this slowed us down to make sure we kept good footing. Rolling an ankle with half of our trip still to go would not be a good thing.
The rain kept pouring down, in some way it filled me with life. It was the time I was most happy and smiling throughout today’s adventure and I still don’t know why. Maybe it was because it brought back memories of my 70.3 PR at Bayshore 70.3, or other fun races or training days I’ve done in the rain. At one point Beth noted with this rain that our type 2 fun might be more of a type 2.5, close to being unsafe. We could occasionally hear thunder in the distance, but we never saw lightening. That was a good sign. Our biggest worry was if there would be rain after dark… We both had emergency blankets if at any point we had trouble warming ourselves up, but we just kept moving forward. Eventually the rain cleared around Roaring Springs and we hoped that it would stay clear.
We took another small break at Manzanita, making sure we didn’t get cold and then started out to try to make as much ground with the daylight we had left. The sun finally set while we were back in the box. Between Manzanita and Phantom Ranch we ran walk as much as we could. With this being a flatter section we both trusted our feet and our legs to keep us moving.
Before we got to Phantom Ranch and I’d been contemplating if we should try to hike out South Kaibab since it was cool and we didn’t require as much water. South Kaibab was a shorter trail than Bright Angel but it was steeper without water. When we sat down at Phantom Ranch, Beth had said out loud what I was thinking. We went over the plan and make the decision to come up South Kaibab. We updated Matt via Beth’s InReach and we both hoped he got our message.
We made our way out of the campground in the darkness towards the South Kaibab trail and I was happy about this decision. The familiarity of the trail from earlier that morning made the final hike out more palatable. However it was all uphill from here. This is where Beth and I were hiking out our own demons. The temperature was good, but we were both in our own heads for this. Somewhere along this portion of the trail I started having some left medial knee pain every time I picked up my left leg to go up a big step and every time I pushed off. I kept telling myself, “I have 10% more,” over and over and over again. I was tired and ready to be done with this adventure. This knee pain slowed me down quite a bit, and Beth would get ahead of me and then stop to let me catch up. She only had encouraging words and never made me feel guilty for slowing her down, even though I repeatedly said sorry.
Somewhere which felt close to the top I saw a bighorn sheep foot print. I had been hoping to see one in person but alas I did not. This was a happy second place to seeing one. We made our way up and at some point during the final switch backs I didn’t quite turn when I was supposed to and realized I was heading towards an edge. This woke me up and I made sure to eat a little extra after that incident. We did not need to have any accidents that night.
We continued and as we got closer to the top I was able to stay a little closer to Beth. She started getting service on her phone and she got a message from Matt. “I can hear you, you’re so close.” This time I did believe the message and I could feel relief starting to settle in. I was so happy to receive that message from Matt because it meant that this endeavor was almost over and I could finally say I did it.
We got to the final switch back and my heart was so ecstatic. Beth and I took our picture on the final rim and as we got closer to the care, the tears started flowing like the rain earlier that day. It was the hardest thing I’d ever put my body through. There were so many emotions that I went through that day. I hadn’t been preparing for this day very long and I truly thought my current endurance, for Ironman would set me up for success. I was wrong in some ways because the elevation change is no joke.
One of the reasons I was inspired to do this adventure is my late Uncle Gene. He liked type two fun. I’ve been told stories that when hiking the Grand Canyon with his friend Wes, he struggled significantly when doing rim to rim. This, however, changed his lifestyle to one that was more active. He started cycling more, hiking more and being more outdoorsy. This took him on adventures across the world. I’ve always looked up to him and his passion for an active lifestyle. I know he was there with me that day. I thought of him when I was struggling, when I felt joy and when I felt peace. He pushed me up that hill when all I wanted to do was quit. There was no easy way out. No turning in my chip to say I was done. The only way to finish was to get to the top.
The recovery was rough and took me a few weeks to really get my legs back for Ironman training. But I’ll never forget or regret the adventure.
For about a week I didn’t feel accomplished. I felt torn down. I told myself, Beth and several others that I did not want to do that ever again. Then clarified, if I did I would spend more time training for it. I would however go do rim to rim! About a week after finishing rim to rim to rim I finally felt accomplished. I had completed something I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time and now I’m super proud of the amazing feat.
Till the next great adventure!
Cheers, Maria
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