Rim 2 Rim

Thursday morning was the day we had been planning for!  It truly had been almost 2 years of planning and today at 4:36 we started down the South Kaibab (SK) trail!

We were all awake for almost an hour before we had to wake up and when we did wake up, we had to finish packing our backpacks and getting all of our hydration packed.  And take a few pics!

It was a full moon when we started our day!

We decided to park our car in a lot .6 miles away from the trailhead.  That would be our warmup!  We arrived at 4:36 and started our 6.5 mile descent!

It was very windy at the beginning of the hike as we made our way to Ooh Ah Point.  We weren't going very fast.  Everything I had read said to not go too fast down SK or it would ruin your legs for the climb out of the canyon, so we took our time.  Looking back, we may have gone too slow...there were a lot of people who passed us!  Our first stop was 1 mile down at Ooh Ah Point.  It was starting to get light there, but not the sunrise yet.  

It was definitely an ooh ah view!

We then made it to Cedar Ridge in time for sunrise!  This was 1.5 miles down the trail.  

Our next stop was Skeleton Point where we had descended 3 miles.

Our last stop before the river was Tip Off about 4.5 miles down.  This stop had a toilet and a shelter where we could sit and rest for a minute.  My legs were a little shaky at this point, so I was happy to sit  down.  

They may have been pit toilets, but we were thankful for them!

We took a lot of pictures on the way down SK!  More than we took when we were climbing out of the canyon.  Here are a few...

We were very glad to see Colorado River!!  Then we went through the tunnel before the black bridge that crossed the mighty Colorado!  

We ran into the mules making their way from Phantom Ranch...they probably had people's mail in their bags!!

One more water stop and a Coke break for Jenn before we reached Phantom Ranch!  There we had lemonade to drink and topped of our hydration.  I had heard how good the lemonade was, but I found that the apple was the best!  We also mailed postcards from Phantom Ranch that would be mailed by the mules!

We found more info about John Wesley Powell!

Have a coke and a smile!

Cheers!

We made it out of Phantom Ranch and into the box by around 10:00.  This part of the trail was flatter, and we were able to make better time.  The Box is about 4 miles of what can be very hot temps because the walls of the canyon are close and there isn't much shade if you don't time it right.  We had decent shade, and the temps weren't too bad until we got out of the box and into very exposed trail!  The box itself was very pretty!

Ashton was our leader from the box to the top!

Our legs were getting tired and we were not even halfway finished!

We tried to make it to Ribbon Falls.  Everyone says it is worth the detour.  But we couldn't find the trail and we were getting frustrated.  The one good thing of the slight detour was getting ourselves wet in the creek.  All of us had rough moments.  Ashton was frustrated about the Ribbon Falls trail and Jenn had been over heated not too long before the detour.  The water was what really helped her.  By the end, with all of our moments, one thing that we found to be true was that we were prepared.  We had all the supplies we needed to turn our bad moments around.

The first stop for water after Phantom Ranch was Cottonwood campground.  We never ran out of water, but we also filled up at any opportunity.  At this point, we were heading uphill and had about 7 more miles to go!  We weren't moving super fast, but we were doing ok.  

  

Manzanita was the stop before what was the hardest part of the hike.  The last 5.5 miles was the steepest.  We were still plodding along and meeting people who were heading down North Kaibab and spending the night at Cottonwood. One group told us that when we got through Supai Tunnel, the rest would be gravy.  I'm not sure what her definition of gravy is, but by that time we, not Ashton, but we were barely moving.  And I was the slowest!  

Still smiling on the NK trail!

Ashton showing how we really felt!

Roaring Springs

From Supai Tunnel to the North Rim it is about 1.7 miles.  We ran into some guys after that who had just left the North Rim and had tracked their mileage.  One of them told us it was 1.6 miles to go.  He said we wouldn't enjoy it, but we were almost to the end!  This was the best help as I could track exactly how much we had left.  This was also the time that I had my worst moment.  I was super tired.  We had a plan of walking to the end of each switchback and then stopping for a moment.  We didn't always make it that far!  And then I was getting nauseous.  I had been good about drinking electrolytes, but by then I just needed plain water.  I tried to eat some, but my mouth was too dry, and it wasn't happening.  I did get over the feeling of nausea, but the tired legs and altitude were a different story!  We had ascended over 5000 feet at this point and the North Rim is over 8000 ft of elevation.  (Total we would ascend 5845 ft).  It was a very humbling experience as I am in good shape.  But that hill did me in!  And as it was getting dark, we were getting discouraged.  Lots of prayer, and I am serious, we prayed, and the Powell/Shirley/Storey determination got us to the top of the canyon!  The guy was spot on and at 20.2 miles, we finished were at the trailhead on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!!  At 8:18!  It has taken us 18 hours!  I estimated 12 hours when we were planning this.  Boy was I wrong!     

We did have to hike another 1.8 miles to the lodge.  People say that there are nice people who will pick you up and give you a ride, but we didn't find any!  And the only thing we could find to eat was not good pizza!  And no one gave us a medal when we finished!  And the receptionist at the lodge didn't even say good job!  But the worst was getting to the room and finding two pillows for three people!  We were very tired as you can tell!  

At least we had 4 towels so Ashton could use one as a pillow.  Some people said that they didn't get soap. Glad we had soap!

It was a day we will never forget!  So many things you learn about yourself when you do things like this.  For any endurance activity, I find out that I am a finisher, but not always a fast finisher!  I also know that hiking in elevation is much different than running in Charleston below sea level!  That is something I could not have trained for.  It was truly the hardest physical thing I have ever done.  Life itself is hard and I know I will have to face harder times than I have yet in my life, but I can always know that with God's help, I can do hard things.  And that is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to and did finish this awesome hike.  And of course, to be able to buy the sticker and t-shirt!