Grand Canyon hike Rim to Rim

in this video I'll share my whole experience crossing the Grand Canyon in one day from beginning to end I recorded a lot of updates as I was making my way across about 25 mies across with a lot of elevation loss and a lot of elevation gain like a reverse Mountain climb I knew I could make it across the Grand Canyon but the question was how much would I suffer I trained but it's hard to know how much is enough I thought a lot about water about my feet about the Sun nutrition fuel we got up a little before 2: a.m. and we tried to figure out the coffee machine there's a light one more this was the first day the trail from the north rim would be open for the season and we wanted to get an early start so we had plenty of time to make it across before dark things started off a little weird with Google sending us down a narrow dirt road that ended in a closed gate that was the first but not the last closed gate we came to they said it was going to be open at 12:01 so we've been waiting here a while morning morning finally just before 6:00 a.m. we were in welcome on opening day thank you you're welcome um so do you guys have it is it's about 6:45 a.m. we are on the north rim trail uh North Kebab Trail that's where we are it's been a hell of a morning we have been through so many roadblocks before we even started as we were heading up to the entry point on the north rim one of the members of our group started to feel altitude sickness it's something you might not realize but the north rim is at a fairly high elevation she and her husband were ready to go and they figured the faster they got moving the sooner they would get to a lower elevation so we finally got going and now this is freaking amazing I mean we haven't even gone a mile I've stopped a lot to take pictures but this is just like the whole thing is worth it right now oh my God look at that this really feels like a dream come true it is just so cool to be walking in the grand Cannon like this I'm just so excited about it and uh note to self need to put some luck not just in all the places that I usually forget you know like ears but side of neck and backs of hands this is for you Mom so you can see I'm working hard not to get sunburned and I do have sun block on too I think I'm about 3 miles in and my knees were hurting a little bit on the downhills I think we're about halfway through I think it's like 6 miles down hill but I found if I kind of Trot it's a little easier on my knees I had a map and a tracker on my phone but I started it late so I was never sure exactly how many miles I'd gone so I just checked and it looks like we've only gone like four or 5 miles in 2 hours so um think we have to go a little faster my biggest worries were the Heat and finishing before it got too dark after The Descent there was a section with no shade and the sun started to feel really hot just crossed that little stream and I wet that Blue Rag and then I dunked my hat it feels great uh so far so good I would say I'm about 9 miles in um this is the hot dry part I passed the stream maybe two miles ago and got my hat all wet and it felt great but now it's super dry and hot so try to get through the hot part quickly um but also like stopping if I need to when there's a tiny spot of shade it's kind of weird I've been on my own for a while for remember the last 3 or four miles um I have two more miles about 2 and 1 half miles to get to Phantom Ranch but I just want to keep going through this hot section get out of the Sun and there's two people way out ahead of me thought I might catch them but I haven't and then everybody else is way behind I means at some moments it's really peaceful and I just am grinning ear to ear cuz I can't believe I'm here then every now and then it's a little weird to be you know so far from the rest of my group and not having seen them in a while in the first real stretch of shade I caught up with Tracy and Bruce the couple that had sped ahead to get to lower altitudes she was happy to have a little distraction she still wasn't feeling well and I was really happy to have company the three of us walked together to Phantom Ranch we celebrated when we arrived she took a long nap I took my shoes off I had an ice cold iced tea we waited there for an hour hoping the rest of the group would show up but we finally decided we needed to head out and get going we just left Phantom Ranch and we made it to the Colorado which is pretty exciting woohoo woooo and uh we have about 9 miles left but here we go crossing the bridge and we all feel pretty refreshed right from yes a little stop some iced coffee and uh iced tea and lemonade and Ice nap a little nap a little time with shoes off back of my mind though I kept thinking about something Johnny had said the day before 99% is only halfway done and we were nowhere near 99% the terrain and the views were different on the other side as we started to climb then the wind suddenly kicked up a storm was rolling in that was super unexpected but my East Coast instincts kicked in I stopped to make sure my down puffy sweater and my headlamp were sealed in waterproof bags as it turned out it was just a drizzle but it was so welcome and it kept us cool so we have about four four or five miles left but I keep thinking we're near the top to but then you look at this we have to get up there that was you but we're almost out so too late if only we'd seen that beforehand yeah if we'd known before we would have been prepared looking back at where we'd come from was such an amazing feeling seeing the distance we'd covered and the spectacular views when we were way down there we were looking at that going that's our Finish Line and it was all of that back then and it seemed like a long ways off we have come a long freaking way yeah we have but we were a lot further from the top than we thought at the time the good news is it's not too hot and everybody's accounted for and Andrea is waiting at the top the bad news is we thought we were a mile from the top turns out we're three miles from the top Boo Boo Boo the other good news is that we just had a handful of Fritos and some of us had some Sour Patch Kids and I think that put a little spring in my step look at that now is that the trail we took that one wiggling through the valley by then our cell service had kicked kicked back in and we heard that the rest of the group was fine they were spending the night at Phantom Ranch through some miracle a room opened up in the cabins there and they would hike out the final 9 miles the next morning it's unbelievable the view just unbelievable at every single Switchback I was just stunned by the views 10 or 15 minutes from the top it got dark enough to knad our headlamps we did that final little bit in the dark just a few minutes from the top we were welcomed by Andrea what a joy oh it's so nice to see you you guys are amazing we did it you guys are I love it yes we did it and we are so freaking happy what are my final thoughts on the experience well of course it was amazing but in a lot of ways walking across the Grand Canyon in one day is easier than a lot of things we do in our lives just showing up for work all day every day sitting in front of a computer day after day commuting you know taking care of toddlers all those things that that many of us take for granted I think a lot of those are harder than walking across the Grand Canyon the Grand Canyon was spectacular it was beautiful it felt to me like it was really an honor to get to experience that and it really reminded me that this is something I need to do more of and so I'm saying it out loud it's my full intention to have more of these Great Outdoor experiences and make more of these videos

Channel: madmotion

Views: 1,043

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Id: -4NMnQe9OaE

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2024