About 20 years ago, the idea of doing this on a daypack would have sounded tremendously adventurous, and indeed, when Vinod, Padma and Gaurav ran it about 15 years ago, I was in awe. It felt like an incredible feat … but all of them were 100-mile runners, so maybe not as much for them. I think this was before I had even run a marathon, so it didn’t really serve to inspire me to do the same.
Some 10 years later though, I had gotten into endurance
athletics, marathons, long bike rides, triathlons, challenging hikes etc.
Compared to most national parks I had hiked, I always noticed very stringent
warnings at “the canyon” …. “don’t even think of going from rim to the river
and back in a day” kind of signs, with images of people falling apart … which I
somehow read more as a challenge than a caution, because it seemed so very
doable.
For years, I had wanted to do the Rim-to-Rim hike on a
daypack and in 2017, Venkat, Raghu and I did it, and it really wasn’t bad at
all. And so, right after that, I suggested we should do a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim day
hike. Convincing Venkat didn’t seem like it was going to happen, and I kept
looking for other groups, but most of them wanted to run it. With my knees,
running was not going to happen, and I wanted a hiking group. Earlier this year
Suhas and a friend wanted to do this, and I eagerly jumped on board, but we had
to reluctantly abandon that attempt as Suhas felt he was not ready.
About 6 weeks ago, Raghu suddenly asked me out of the blue,
Raghu:
“Do you want to do R2R2R? I know you are itching to …”
Me:
“Oh, I would love to. But do we have enough time to train?”
Long story short, we worked out when we were both going to
be free this year, and it boiled down more or less to one weekend - Sep 10/11. Logistics
for R2R2R are actually simpler than R2R since you end up where you start. We
were to fly to Vegas on Friday, drive to the canyon on Saturday morning, start
the hike around 2pm, hopefully take about 24 hours and finish around 2pm on
Sunday, drive back to Vegas by night, and fly back on Monday. Apart from the
convenience of this working out with flight timings and work, I liked the idea of
starting in the afternoon – climbing up North Rim would be at night when it is
cool, and when you were most tired towards the end of the hike, you would be
around the Phantom Ranch to South Rim area which is the most heavily trafficked
part of the canyon, and thus probably the safest, should we need help.
I was constantly worried about my lack of training though. Raghu
was in India/Asia until 2 weeks before and had little to no training.
Me:
“What should I do?”
Raghu:
“Stop training. You don’t need training”
Me:
“Nonsense. I have done nothing since DR a month ago”
Raghu:
“If you keep training, who will give me company?”
I did put in 3 weeks of training but a tooth infection requiring antibiotics that ended just 2 days before the hike left me feeling a little tired on the training hikes and the digestive system not exactly in the pink. Since Raghu kept insisting I was ready, I got to Vegas feeling guardedly optimistic. That week had seen record temperatures in the bay area, and without an AC at home I had very poor sleep the entire week. I kept counting more and more on all the randonneuring this year (including a few 24-40 hour rides with little to no sleep) to see me through.
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| Griddle Cake brunch |
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| Birthplace of Route 66 |
We also accidentally stopped at the birthplace of route 66 - Seligman. Way too many trucks on this route, but traffic moved at 85-90 mph most of the time.
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| Beautiful rainy vistas |
A quick bathroom break, a short walk to the shuttle stop, a short wait for a shuttle and a short shuttle ride to the trailhead … and we were ready to start hiking by 4:15 pm. Still not too late. Hopefully enough time to get to Phantom Ranch without headlamps.
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| South Kaibab trailhead |
The first hurdle was the sign at the trailhead that talked of a water pipeline breakage and hence no water at Cottonwood or Supai tunnel and every point on Bright Angel apart from Indian Garden. Also Phantom Ranch was closed. A little geography detour might be called for at this point. The South Kaibab is about 7 miles to the Colorado, and another 0.5 miles to Phantom Ranch. No water till the ranch. About 7.5 miles more to Cottonwood campground along North Kaibab trail - the only trail going to North Rim. 5.5 more to Supai tunnel and about 1.8 from there to North Rim. It was unclear what “Phantom Ranch is closed” meant. Even if there was water there, we would need to cover close to 15 miles and 6500 ft on about 4.5 litres of water. There is an accessible creek and we did have some makeshift filtration system, so maybe that was okay, but it left me feeling uncomfortable. But more importantly, what if there was no water at Phantom Ranch? I did not think we should even venture down. Raghu shared none of my concerns, it appeared. He said calmly (not that I have ever heard him speak otherwise)
Raghu:
“Let’s go down to Phantom Ranch and see. We can ask the ranger there”.
Me:
“But what if there is no water – how do we come back”
Raghu:
“We can ask the ranger what to do”
Me:
“Umm, isn’t it too late at that point to figure out we have no options?”
Raghu:
“After we get down, we will know better based on how much water we have left”
A few weeks back I had twisted my knee playing badminton and it had been showing a tendency to hyperextend in the intervening weeks. I thought it was mostly normal now,
but unfortunately, it was still a bit
unstable so I had to be a bit more careful than usual. I was trying to conserve
water in case we got down and there was really no water as the sign promised and
we had to come back up, but Raghu insisted I drink normally else we wouldn’t
get a good estimate of what we would need the rest of the way <eyeroll>.
Anyway, we got down to the bridge without much exertion, though the last half
mile was mostly in the dark and I really should have pulled out the headlamp.
Bridge access is through a tunnel so there was no option there. It was
incidentally a full moon night (!) – purely coincidental and something we
discovered the week before – and I was relishing the thought that maybe we
could hike in the moonlight. But even a full moon was not quite enough light to
do away with headlamps unfortunately.
Raghu:
“What if there is no ranger here?”.
Me
(stopping dead in my tracks): “WTF! This is exactly what I was saying on top”
Raghu:
“No, you said what if there is no water”
Me:
“Hmmph”
Anyway, we finally came upon the information board at the
fork to Bright Angel trail, and got the best news of the day – Phantom Ranch
had water, even though it was closed. Still we wanted to confirm with the
ranger also about water the rest of the way etc. And believe it or not …. the
ranger was “out”. We did find her, however, at the Phantom Ranch amphitheater
delivering a talk on sustainable power and dams across the Colorado etc. We
used the break to eat our first hearty meal – lemon rice and curd rice,
courtesy mum. The ranger confirmed there was no water till North Rim except for
a couple of creek crossings, but that was good enough for us. It was now 8:15 –
we had taken 4 hours for 7.5 miles … less than 2 miles an hour, all downhill
(smh). We ventured out back to the trail, found a hose in a clearing, filled our
camelbaks and bottles and headed up further through the ranch, and right
outside the canteen we stumbled upon the “drinking water” tap. I looked at
Raghu …
Me: “What the heck did we use then? Was that even potable”.
Raghu: “We didn't notice any sign there saying non-potable. It will be fine”
Me: “Should we discard all that water and refill everything?”
Raghu: “No. I am not refilling anything”
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| Deer! |
The thought of discarding all the water (and I had even
mixed in skratch to the 2 bottles) and refilling all over again was too
tiresome. I gave in a bit reluctantly and tried to put faith on all the
immunity I might have developed in India drinking tap water. Nearby there was a
scale (no idea why), but we weighed our daypacks. 15 lbs for Raghu and 20 lbs
for me! Promptly asked him to carry one of my bottles J Around the Phantom Ranch
area, we say a few deer nibbling away. They didn’t even budge when our
headlights fell upon them – I wonder if they cannot sense light as weak as that
from a headlamp? Or are they so used to people they just don’t care at all?
Anyway, some of the very few critters we saw in the canyon.
The trail from Phantom Ranch to Cottonwood goes through the “box” and is mostly flat ascending ever so slowly. With nightfall, there wasn’t much to see, and we actually made really good time, reaching Cottonwood in 3 hours – 11:15 pm. Most of the way, it had still felt pretty warm – surprising considering the time of night, but it was hot enough to soak our heads at the creek crossing. The climb from Cottonwood to North Rim starts getting much steeper with most of the elevation in this section. We had covered only about 1500 ft so far. Still, we made surprisingly good time, doing mostly 30 minute-or-better miles and Raghu was predicting a 2:30-2:45 summitting – 3.5 hours from now. However, the last few miles did get to us, especially after the second bridge across the valley before climbing up to Supai tunnel. Along the way, we had hiked by a few people sleeping on the trail – workers fixing the water pipeline! And yes, we saw the broken pipes too. About a mile before Supai tunnel, we came across a ranger and a couple of sleeping hiker. The hikers were not doing well, and from Raghu’s conversation with the ranger, at least one seemed to be in quite serious condition. We saw a whole lot of spiders on the trail and a scorpion too. By the time we got to Supai tunnel, the wind had picked up and it was really rather cold but with all the hard work it didn’t feel too bad. The last two miles from Supai tunnel were super tiring on the quads. We finally reached the North rim at 3:45 am – 11.5 hours from when we started. At Phantom ranch, I had suggested finishing under 12 would be impossible, so we had actually done really well in the last 2 legs. Overall 4+3+4.5.
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| At the North Rim! |
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| Freezing my ass off |
By this time, I was getting a tiny headache and not feeling too great. Sleep deprivation was kicking in and I badly wanted a nap. It was freezing at North Rim with a light wind blowing as well. We quickly pulled out everything we had carried and wore it all – 2 layers, a windcheater, a headband and a buff. Then laid down one foil blanket on the ground and tried to cover myself with another – which was very challenging with the wind blowing. Raghu bundled up beside me but for some reason that escapes me now, abandoned it and let me have his foils too. In spite of all the foil blankets and layers, I was shivering underneath. I did sleep for about 20 mins, at which point I woke up to rather loud voices around me. People doing a day hike from North Rim to South Rim were beginning to arrive and start their hike.
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| Full moon night! |
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| Supai tunnel! |
My headache was a little worse now and I was feeling a bit uneasy in the tummy as well, but was unsure why. I took an advil to be safe. Going uphill had been easier on my unstable knee – but now it felt awkward again and the going was slow. It was still dark and we needed headlamps and mine was beginning to fade a bit as well. I had extra batteries but I really did not want to have to change those. The first 1.8 miles to Supai tunnel took us 1.5 hours, and was hurting our chance at a 24-hour finish. But once it became brighter we found our rhythm, and despite stopping for more pictures, we held a good pace till close to Cottonwood.
Just past Supai tunnel, we once again came upon the park ranger we had chatted with the previous night. The hikers were still sleeping. She confirmed that they would both be okay and was waiting for a chopper to airlift them out. She suggested they were very stretched and it might be evening by the time they got lifted out! Real tough life being a ranger, I thought. Meanwhile, my headache was not going away, and I felt nauseous and the stomach had starting churning a bit.
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| The monk .... |
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| ... on the bridge |
This part of the canyon is red brick and has some gorgeous views especially bathed in the morning sun. I had never been in this part of the canyon at sunrise and it was spectacular.
I started falling behind Raghu about 2 miles before Cottonwood and found I really could not push much anymore. I had been eating much more than I usually do on hikes, so I was fairly confident I wasn’t bonking, but by the time we got to Cottonwood, I was feeling exhausted and I had started taking breaks already. It was 8:50. The hike to Phantom Ranch from here was bound to be the easiest part with the gentle downward gradient, and we had been hoping to get to PR by 11:00, but I very badly wanted to take a nap. Raghu looked at me very disapprovingly – we also wanted to cross the box before the heat picked up – and it was predicted to be a 100 degree day. So after an unfruitful restroom visit, we started again.
Very soon, Raghu was out of sight, and I was really
struggling again, so much so that after a mile I found a big rock with a long shadow and lay down
in it’s shade. Raghu was just behind having stopped for a bio break. This part
of the trail is very open and I was starting to feel the heat already. I had
started feeling hunger pangs for the last couple of miles – puzzling given how
much I had been eating.
Raghu:
“I think you are eating too much and hence the nausea”
Me:
“But why am I feeling hunger pangs then – many times in
biking this happens when I'm about to bonk”
Raghu:
“You are eating even more than me. Maybe stop eating and just
rely on skratch for a while”
It was a puzzle we could not figure out. I had even started
feeling a little faint and begged a short break.
Raghu:
“We need to keep moving. Based on the last couple of miles we'll reach
Phantom Ranch at 1pm”
Me:
“I really need a short nap. My body is not working right now”
Raghu
(reluctantly but maybe resignedly): “Okay”
I must have napped for about 10 minutes before it started
all over again. People hiking by asking “Oh is he okay?”. Raghu patiently
answering “Yes, he is just taking a nap”. No, he is not okay given he is not
getting any sleep with all this unwarranted concern! Bah. After about 15 mins,
I gave up and said “let’s just keep moving”. We were already looking at an 8 pm
finish and now missing the shuttle to the visitor center was a real
probability. Oddly enough, even the short nap I got seemed to have done wonders
for the constitution, and I felt quite good. Most importantly, the headache had
really faded almost completely. Right out the gate we met another park ranger –
she looked a lot like the one we met the previous night at Phantom Ranch. She
gave us a strong warning against moving at all unless we were “thriving”.
Apparently, there was absolutely no one left to do any search/rescue, so we
were completely on our own, and she warned us of the heat today. Raghu and I
gave each other amused looks. How does anyone “thrive” in this heat anyway?
Nevertheless, her warning lodged in the back of my mind. We soon picked up
steam and started racing towards Phantom Ranch. We had about 6 miles to go and
we did 17-18 min miles all the way. Finally reached Phantom Ranch almost at 12
to the dot.
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| Two roads in a wood ... |
By this time I was tiring a little again with all the
racing. We refilled water at the right tap this time J and ventured to the other one
we used before. There was thankfully no sign suggesting it was not potable. We
drenched ourselves to cool down in the quickly growing heat. We took a short
break to eat and get the damn pebbles out of my shoes – they had been a real
pain in the sole the last many miles. Oh, did I mention, Raghu was doing this
whole hike in flip flops!! Also got a chance to examine the nice big blister on
my left big toe. It had already accumulated a lot of fluid – I usually burst
blisters and drain the fluid – no idea if this is a good idea, but feels like
the best approach. It burns for a bit after that but soon settles down. Also
had another big blister forming on the ball of my right foot, extending to between
the big and second toes. I had carried moleskin – is this when we need to use
that? Really should do some research on that.
Eventually sooner than later we started off again. It was probably about 12:20. The last time I went up Bright Angel was probably some 15 years ago. I did not remember much of it, except that the first couple of miles were somewhat flat, there was some shade along the way, especially as compared to South Kaibab, it was generally less steep than South Kaibab, and there were not really that many spectacular views of the canyon. Most of it was indeed true, except the views were much better than I remembered. Also the last 4 miles were fairly steep after all, as we would find out, much to our chagrin.
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| The mighty Colorado |
The crossing of the Colorado is a second bridge. We stopped at the middle of the bridge for some pictures, some food and just to take in the enormous strength and magnificence of the river. My nausea and stomach churning was back. It was really hot when the sun was out, but it was a partly cloudy day and to be honest we did get a decent amount of cover from the sun. There was also a light breeze every now and then, which felt like a godsend. Even in the open sun, it actually did not feel like a 100. In spite of it all, I just had to stop every mile or less. True to expectations, the grade was fairly gentle and the creek followed us faithfully. We were still managing about 30-40 min miles. Indian garden was about 5.5 miles from Phantom Ranch. Maybe 2 miles from Indian garden, Raghu’s ankle started hurting – pain on every step. And a short while later, my right shoe sole just peeled off from the front most of the way to the back and was hanging. Later in the hike, even the sole of Raghu's flip flop started to peel a bit. We were really starting to fall apart now! But thanks to a roll of duck tape – a total must carry on all big events – I taped it up my sole in a couple of places and it survived the rest of the way save having to remember to lift my foot a bit more than usual when taking a step.
Finally we stumbled into Indian garden. Raghu promptly went
looking for the creek – he had heard from someone (park ranger?) that you could
literally get in it to your neck. I filled both our camelbaks and bottles and
tried to find a shaded place to rest. There were a lot of people cooling off
here. I was feeling pretty miserable now with the stomach churning. While
waiting, I inquired from someone how the rest of the trail was. He said the last
3 miles are the steepest L
Eventually Raghu came back, having found the creek, though the water was only calf deep he said. I made
another unfruitful restroom visit before we continued on. The sign said we had
4.5 miles left to the top. The best part of our misadventures – going slow – was
that the sun was low enough in the west now that we had shade the rest of the
way to the top. Small mercies and silver linings ... such a huge relief! We were both definitely struggling now.
Within half a mile, I felt faint and had to sit down, and finally I threw up a couple of times …
but all that came out was a bit of water with skratch. Looks like I was on an
empty stomach and hence all the bonking. Felt an onset of syncope coming on and
had to lie down on the trail for a few, but after that my constitution improved
dramatically. I felt so much better. We decided I would just not eat anything
anymore, and forget the skratch too. Good plan to avoid the GI issues, but I
kept feeling pangs of hunger every so often. I subsisted on ginger chews most
of the way to the top.
Meanwhile, Raghu’s ankle was really troubling him now and he
had started falling behind and taking longish breaks. Even using my hiking
poles (yes, he has stopped carrying any!) didn’t help. The views, though, were
magnificent, especially with the sun setting on us. The vastness of the canyon
is hard to explain. It is unlike any other similar national park I have been
to. There were just a few people left in the canyon it appeared, and they all
blew past us on the way up. We saw a couple of deer just ahead of us on the
trail, giving us inquisitive, innocent looks as if to say “are you coming
here?”. As we climbed, they went further up too, still sticking to the trail!
And so it went, them moving up one switchback after another effortlessly and waiting for us
to plod up slowly. Finally, they got some sense and moved off the trail but it
was fun while it lasted. At dawn that morning, Raghu had exclaimed “We won’t
need these headlamps anymore”. Unfortunately it was becoming very likely at the
rate we were going that we would. The “3 mile house” and “1.5 mile house” took forever to
reach. BTW, these signs are rather misleading. From the 1.5 mile house, we had to
hike almost 2 miles to get to the top. It is rather disheartening when you are
exhausted, to finish 1.5 miles and notice that you are nowhere near the top
after all. We now met a lot of people inching along actually slower than us and
were assured that there was just one more final switchback and then we would be at the
top. Be not fooled – those last two legs are the longest by far, and I had to
drag Raghu along and not let him sit and rest much. It was now past 7 and I had
already discounted the shuttle option.
Me:
“The shuttle service is probably over. What do we do? Might need to ask someone
for a lift”
Raghu:
“Yeah, we can get a ride from someone”
Me:
”Worst case we might have to walk – it’s probably about 3 miles”
Raghu
(categorically): “I am not walking”
I was worried there might not even be anyone to give us a ride at that point. Plus it was completely dark towards the end. We had indeed pulled out his headlamp for the last 0.5 miles or so. We did finally reach the top and it was such a relief. Many times in the last 4 miles I had thought to myself – this is the hardest thing I have ever done.
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| ... back at the South Rim! |
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| Finally ... |
We took pictures with the trailhead board, and started hobbling out to the road …. And there was shuttle at the stop! We hobbled as fast we could to it, and confirmed he was going to the visitor center, and got in to much relief. Never felt so good to sit down.
Raghu
to bus driver: “When is the last shuttle?”
Driver:
“This is it. You just made it”
We could barely stay awake for the 10 minute ride to the visitor center. Kept nodding off in seconds. Suddenly Raghu prodded me and said "get down!" – the shuttle was stopped and the doors open already! Made the short trek to the car. Raghu refused to walk to it J Said I’ll wait here, you bring it. And then we drove the 6 miles to Tusayan somehow. It was around 8:30 pm. The original plan had been to finish around 4, sleep for a couple of hours, drive at 7, reach Vegas by midnight, sleep for 4 hours and then head to the airport. Raghu’s flight was at 6:50 and mine at 7:15. All that was out the window now. I was looking at maybe a couple of hours sleep at the most.
We found a pizza and pasta place, and got some food. Thankfully, my GI issues seemed behind me, I ate well and felt good. It was 9 by the time we were done. We decided to sleep 2 hours and leave at 11. The car was super uncomfortable for me and I got very little rest. We started around 11:15 anyway, taking turns, pulling over when we felt sleepy etc. In the end it took us 6 hours to get to Vegas, reaching at 5:15 am. Even before leaving Tusayan, we realized it was going to be super tough to make our flights and moved them out a few hours, both of us now leaving at 10:20.
The most
heart-stopping part of the trip was actually on the drive back. Somewhere along
the way, it started pouring rain, and then it happened. I was driving, and the
car hydroplaned … it started moving suddenly to the left and I instinctively yanked the
wheel all the way to the right. The car careened across 4 lanes rapidly and
came within inches of the wall on the right, and I yanked the wheel the the
left. It went back 4 lanes across till it almost hit the center divider. I
wasn’t really thinking what to do to stop this, but my next yank to the right
did it somehow and the car stopped. I had been so sure we would crash. Also,
super lucky there were no other cars near us at the time. Crashing in the middle of the night, with the pouring rain and spotty cell service in the middle on nowhere? God, that would have been horrible. We didn’t have to
worry about feeling sleepy anymore after that. I slowed down a lot –
was just too afraid to drive fast. We spent a lot of the drive talking about
family, about love, about relationships … and finally reached Vegas. Checking
in into one of these casino hotels is an elaborate process and they make you
walk so much. I had been chafing in places way too TMI to talk about and this was
all torture. We got to the room by 6:30, and almost immediately had to head to
the airport to return the car, which was due at 7:30. We did that, took an uber
back to hotel, freshened up, packed and that was about all the time we had.
Raghu stole a 30 min nap. I used the time to figure out how a hair dryer works.
Yes, it takes a bloody long time to dry your hair with one. But the other thing
I discovered was I had a ton of downloading to do. Apparently, I had been
eating a lot and everything had been moving directly to long term parking. I
could not figure out exactly why but maybe a combination of sleep debt,
altitude, and the fact that I got off antibiotics just 2 days prior (while on
antibiotics, the same thing had been happening)?
We made our flights easily, I slept right through it, and
the whole day I was nodding off. A 12 hour Monday night and an 8 hour Tuesday
night sleep finally caught me up. I said to Raghu on Tuesday
Me:
”We need to do this right next time”
Raghu:
“Next time?”
Me:
“Yeah, I know I thought this was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But without
the GI issues, I think it wasn’t that bad after all”
Raghu: J
To life!
