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| Hiking | 44.50 Miles |
10,280 AEG |
| | Hiking | 44.50 Miles | 22 Hrs 5 Mns | | 2.02 mph |
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| 10,280 ft AEG | | | |
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| no partners | | After we finished climbing Humphreys Peak in September 2001, DB and I decided to attempt a Rim to Rim to Rim (RTRTR) on April 26 - 27, 2002. We selected this date because there was to be a full moon on April 27. We started our preparation in January with weekly hikes of increasing difficulty and distance. Because of the proximity of the White Tank Mountains most of our hiking was done there. For variety, we also hiked the Quartz Peak Trail, Flat Iron, Reavis Ranch, Phoenix Mountain Preserve and Squaw Peak. (We climbed Squaw Peak 2 consecutive times.)
In March, DB asked John Mumma if he would like to join us. John was in process of moving from Puerto Rico to Grand Rapids, Michigan. His folks reside in Tucson so the timing worked well for him. John arrived on Wednesday afternoon.
I picked John and DB up at 7:30 on Friday morning. We stopped for breakfast at Denny's in Verde Valley en route and arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park a little after noon. The original plan was to have lunch, take a nap, and start hiking at approximately 5:00 PM. However, we were all full from our big breakfast and no one felt like eating. We also decided that we were too excited to take a nap. So, we caught the shuttle bus to Yaki Point. We arrived at the South Kaibab Trailhead at 1:25 PM and started our hike at 1:30 PM.
It was cloudy, windy and 52 degrees when we started our hike. The weather forecast was for a 60% change of showers/snow Friday night.
It is 7.2 miles from Yaki Point to Phantom Ranch and there is loss of 4840 feet in elevation between the trailhead and the Colorado River.
We arrived at Phantom Ranch at 3:45 PM. We took a short break to fill our water and started up the Bright Angel Trail to the North Rim. It is 14 miles from Phantom Ranch to the North Rim with a 5821 foot elevation gain.
We took another break at Cottonwood Campground to fill our water and stash some trail food for our return trip.
It got dark as we arrived at the caretakers house below Roaring Springs. A heavy cloud cover hid the full moon so we hiked by the light of our Petzl Tikka headlamps, rather than the hoped for moonlight. We passed Roaring Springs a little after 7:30 PM.
We had been told earlier by some hikers we met that they were unable to get through the Supai Tunnel because of blasting for trail maintenance. We saw signs of on-going work, but no work was being done at night and we were able to make it through without any problems.
We arrived at the North Kaibab Trailhead at 9:40 PM. It was cold and windy with light snow showers. It was too cold to take a break. So, after taking a quick picture, we immediately started down the North Kaibab Trail.
Going down the North Kaibab by flash light was extremely challenging. We arrived at Cottonwood Campground at 12:30 AM on Saturday. After another short break to fill our water, it was on to Phantom Ranch. We opted not to stop at Phantom Ranch and hiked on to the rest room just across the Bright Angel Creek foot bridge. We filled our water and changed socks. When we crossed the Silver Suspension Bridge at 6:10 AM, we only had 6.2 miles and an elevation gain of 4360 feet to go.
We took a 30 minute break at Indian Gardens. Our "gas tanks" were empty and the last 4.5 miles were a challenge. DB topped out at 11:20 AM (21:52), John make it at 11:30 AM (22:00) and I was at the top at 11:35 AM (22:05).
Our RTRTR was a total distance of 44.5 miles with 20,802 feet total elevation change (Or 3.95 miles). Excluded the numerous side hikes on our raft trip, that gives me 149.5 miles of hiking in the Grand Canyon. |
| _____________________
Mike
Every day is a good day!! Some are just better than others. |
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