RIM2RIM GRAND CANYON HIKE #3...

 We recently completed another Rim2Rim hike at the Grand Canyon - this time with another couple we've been friends with for almost 40 years!  Let me clarify, any hike where you go from the rim of the canyon down to the bottom and cross the Colorado River and back up to the rim qualifies as a Rim2Rim hike IN MY BOOK.  But, according to purists (which I have recently learned) a Rim2Rim hike across the Grand Canyon is strictly a north rim to south rim hike.  According to them, we technically did a Rim2River hike. Who really cares?  It's one challenging all-day hike!

I didn't sleep well the night before the hike, and at 2 a.m. while praying and thinking, it occurred to me that this hike was like Christmas morning to me!   The anticipation of things I knew and also a little bit of the unknown had me giddy.  All the preparations, the planning, the training we had done to be ready was about to be tested.

We hiked down from the south rim, starting at 5:20 a.m., taking South Kaibab trail down to the river, took a little side trip to Phantom Ranch, then back across the river and up the Bright Angel trail (also south side).  It was a total of 20.2 miles, and it took us about 13 hours.  We went down in the dark and came back up shortly after sunset, about 6:45 p.m. 

We enjoyed all the gifts of the canyon - the sunrise, the layers upon layers of colored rock, the textures, the varying desert plants.  Wildlife included deer, bighorn sheep, lizards, and even a condor!  The lushness of Indian Gardens is always a favorite area to hike through.  We did a little side trip to Phantom Ranch - the historic campground for over 100 years!  We ate our lunches there with other enthusiastic hikers, and bought the lemonade to drink.  Such an energetic atmosphere.  The way up Bright Angel trail proved long and arduous for me, and as the last 2 times, the last hour was especially hard.  I actually vomited on the trail.  Not sure if it was the electrolyte gummies I had been eating or just pure exhaustion at that point.  But after that I felt better, and we made it to the rim within 30 minutes!  Pure joy in that moment!  And sharing it with our friends was really a pleasure.  

One thing I have to say is all the training paid off (twice we climbed Mt. Scott and twice around Lake Hefner at home) even if I did have a moment of sickness.  I was not very sore at all the next day!  

Once again, the Grand Canyon lived up to its name.