The Big Ditch

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Denver waiting out the first big snowstorm of the year here and harkening back to my time in the Grand Canyon just a few short days ago. A group of us, Amber, Jim, Butch, Tab and I, drove from Sedona to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with a plan, or rather, two plans...

Amber and I planned to do a 22 mile or so loop, starting at the South Kaibab trailhead to Phantom Ranch and back up the Bright Angel trail, finishing at the El Tovar outside lounge for sunset and margaritas (and a very close view of an elk feeding).

For Tab's birthday, Jim, Butch and Tab planned to join Christie-from-Fairbanks to run from the South Rim to the North Rim and back to the South Rim, aka R2R2R. Now, mind you, R2R2R is approximately 47 miles of desert running with 12,000+ vertical elevation gain and 12,000+ vertical elevation loss (think screaming quads) in 30-40 degree and 85-90 degree temperatures. They were not planning on seeing sunset from the deck of the El Tovar, but somewhere on the switchbacks lower down in the canyon.

So...as we pulled up to the South Rim and took a look at its vastness, silence hit the group and we quickly made plans to eat a lot of calories and then go immediately to bed.

The R2R2R gang got up at 4am, checked their headlamp batteries, bean burrito and bacon supplies, sunscreen, water and anti-chaffing cream and were on the switchbacks of Bright Angel by 5am.

Amber and I slept in and started our run down the South Kaibab trail at 8:30am. We took pictures and stopped for mules and basked in the amazing beauty of the Grand Canyon. We stopped at Phantom Ranch and the Colorado River about two hours later, drank lemonade and marveled at the view from the bottom of the canyon (note the menu...$42.20 for a steak and $26.69 for stew).

In the heat of the day, we started the 6553 foot climb (per my GPS) back up to the top of the South Rim. It was a hot, slow climb but gorgeous. We took a few dips in the creek along the way and joked and laughed our way back to the top. We thought about the R2R2R crew and felt a little concerned. We guessed that at that point they were likely finishing the climb to the North Rim and still had more than 22 miles to go.

After we arrived back at the top of the South Rim, we found showers at the campground and then sipped prickly pear margaritas in the setting sun at El Tovar...all according to plan. Around 5pm we started wondering how many hours it would take the R2R2R crew to emerge from the Big Ditch. By that time, they had been traveling 12 hours.

Around 6pm the South Rim started cooling off and Amber and I put on warmer clothes and chatted with our new friends at the El Tovar. Around 7pm we started checking our phones every 3 minutes and started counting the minutes over 14 hours that the R2R2R crew had been running. Finally, at 14 hours 42 minutes from their start, Jim and Butch gave us a call and we were off to pick them up at the South Kaibab trailhead, 5 miles away. They were understandably tired and cold so we took them to the campground for showers and settled in to wait for Christie and Tab...but, just like that, we got a text from Tab that they needed a ride pronto. Amber and I tore off in the car back to South Kaibab to get them...A mere 40 minutes after Jim and Butch.

I'd love for one or more of the R2R2R runners to tell their stories so I can add them to my blog. What they accomplished was truely amazing and deserves serious, life-long bragging rights!

Cheers,

Kelly

**Photo credit to Jim and Amber. The pics are a combination of those from Jim's, Amber's and my cameras...