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How I Survived the Grand Canyon Rim-to-River in July · Off You Pop!

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is Off You Pop, the podcast for hikers and adventurers who want to be epic in just one day.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to take a different approach.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is Story Pop, the part of Off You Pop, where we share our personal experiences and lived moments.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We step out of the guidebooks, where the route isn't a checklist, but it's a memory of our actual experiences, where the stats fade and the story takes over.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want you to take you back to the day that I hiked from the south rim down the South Kebab Trail, across the Colorado River, past through Thantom Ranch, and climbed all the way back up Bright Angel Trail.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is the rim to river to rim loop.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just a hike, it was a turning point, because this is the day I realized something important.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: The difference between a miserable adventure and a meaningful one is planning.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: This was the day that planted the seed for the guides I build now.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The day I understand that logistics aren't the boring part of the adventure, they're the backbone of it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't a root guide, this isn't a pop, this is a story.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: A story about preparation, perspective, and the moment the canyon taught me what it means to build a day that's epic but human scale.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to the canyon.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now off you pop.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you might be asking why I chose to do rim to river to rim.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't choose to do rim to river to rim.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually looking to do the epic extreme, rim to rim to rim.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So about six months before our journey, we decided that it would be a good idea uh to attempt this hike in July, because that was the most convenient time frame that fit the schedules for Jason, Leo, and I.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jason is a partner in Blister Pop and Leo is our other hiking companion.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And once a year we try and do a really epic hike.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We find time to spend together to do something really awesome.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this year we had decided that it was going to be the Grand Canyon and we were going to try and get from the South Rim to the North Rim and then back again.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now we'll say we were going to attempt to do this in two days, so travel from the South Rim to the North Rim, spend the night and come back again.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I began the planning really with the goal of getting this hike done in a safer way as possible.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I sort of had cognizance that it was July six months before, but it hadn't really sunk in quite how dangerous and treacherous it was going to be.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh certainly as the day closed in for the time when we were going to do the hike, the reality was starting to hit that this was July and we were going to attempt something that was already extremely difficult, and then tried to do it in a weather window that probably wasn't appropriate for the hike.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: However, just the thought of going to the Grand Canyon and getting into the canyon in a way that I'd never really dreamed of was really exciting.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I remember uh I'd been to the canyon a couple of times before this, once nearly 20 years ago when my kids were small.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: We'd been out on a road trip to Vegas and had gone out to the Grand Canyon to see it.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember just being amazed by how vast it was and standing there with all the other tourists and thinking, you know, if only my kids weren't you know five and six years old, it would be really great to at least uh go a little way into the canyon, just to say I'd been in there.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so this opportunity to really get in and across the canyon was very exciting for me and really probably a bucket list item, even though I hadn't really created a bucket list or called it a bucket list.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very excited to get into this and didn't really understand at the time just how epic it is to be down in the Grand Canyon and to really experience what it's like.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So my why for this was it was sort of a hidden bucket list and also part of an extreme series of hikes that me and a couple of my buddies do once a year, and and we decided to take this, take this route and take this option.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk a little bit about the planning for this because this is really what Blister Pop is about.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's trying to make sure that you can plan your adventures in such a way that it's not a miserable experience.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I will share with you that this was both a exciting hike for me and also one where I learned a little bit about appropriate planning because I did suffer a little bit, and we did have to make a number of pivots as we got closer and closer to the day, and even during the time that we were there.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So about six months out, I started planning the logistics.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's that tends to be my role in the group.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one that figures out how to get it done.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Currently living in in Reno, Nevada, and so had decided the best way to get to the Grand Canyon was to go by RV.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a travel trailer and had decided that we were going to drive from Reno and pick up Leo in Las Vegas and then drive out to the canyon.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Spend the night at the Grand Canyon, in the Grand Canyon, at the uh the RV park there, and then do our hike across the from the south rim to the north rim, spend the night in a hotel out there, and then the next day come back north to south.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh an essential part of the planning was figuring out flight connections for Leo and making sure that we were arriving in Las Vegas in order to pick him up in time, and then working out the best way to book our travel experience in the RV park.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Booked out a long time in advance, I would say probably two or three months in advance.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we had we got our reservations, and then we realized once we're in the park, we didn't really want to walk two or three miles to the trailhead from the RV park and realized there was a shuttle service that can take you to the trailhead.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so also booked that up in advance, and also booked a shuttle at the other end from the north rim to the to the location that we had booked on the north rim to spend the night.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Booked also the hotel on the north rim to make sure that that was available to us.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really the crux of the planning.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Our idea to go in July probably wasn't the smartest idea, but it was the first time any of us had really thought about crossing the Grand Canyon.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was really the the best time of year that we could all get together.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in hindsight, probably not the best idea, but we're all fairly experienced and been into into some extreme environments, so we thought we could probably handle it if we managed the timing of the hike correctly.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So as we got closer to the time that we were going to do the hike, I kept checking the weather and sort of kept my eye on what was going on in the Grand Canyon with the news and was reading a lot of hiking reports online of people who had done rim to rim to rim, looking for those that had done it in the summer, and it became obvious that that was sort of a rare thing to do.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Most people were doing it in the shoulder months of winter and the fall when the temperatures were coming down a bit.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the advice really was that this is extreme, it's very hot, you have to be very careful.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then probably about a month before, there was an item that hit the national news that really concerned me.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: A hiker about our age, mid-40s, mid to late 40s, had been down to Habasu Falls, which was certainly not as far as rim to rim to rim, and has unfortunately died about half a mile from from the rim coming back from Habasu Falls.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that really became an eye-opener for me about just how dangerous the trip was that we were uh about to attempt.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started to take seriously this idea that we were going to be doing this in July, and started to reconsider whether rim-to-rim to rim was really an option.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but hadn't taken it off the cards.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jason and Leo were really excited to try and attempt this feat, but very concerned, continue to be concerned, and sort of explored different options of alternatives that we might be able to do should we decide whether we were unable to do the rim-to-rim.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the options was rim to river to rim, which would mean that we would be only one day in the canyon, and we would hopefully be on the way out for the hottest part of the day and not having to climb up the steeper or more difficult terrain on the north trail, and most importantly, that we would not be going through a section I'd read about called the box, which is a section of canyon that really captures a lot of heat.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you hit it at the wrong part of the day in the you know, the afternoon or the late afternoon, we could be in real trouble.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it seemed to me that potentially if I could persuade the others a viable alternative would be let's cut this down, we'll do rim to river to rim.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're still doing it in July, it's still going to be tough.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was day two, and I know the guys would be disappointed if we only did a one-day hike.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized there was another opportunity for us on day two if we did decide not to do rim to rim to rim, and that was to drive a couple of hours out to a flagstaff and climb Mount Humphreys in Arizona, which would then mean we sort of did a challenge that was called the uh Holter Hump.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So going from the the bottom of the Grand Canyon up to the top of Mount Humphreys, which was the tallest mountain in Arizona, over 12,000 feet.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really in the back of my mind as we started to drive down there.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the day before Jason uh came over to Reno and we drove down to Las Vegas.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I met Leo sort of hanging around in the street in uh downtown Las Vegas.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: He'd gotten there a little bit early in the sightseeing.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: We picked him up and we uh drove off to the Grand Canyon and we got there mid-afternoon, mid to late afternoon, and set up the RV and had a bit of an opportunity to, you know, recce the the land.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: We went out to the canyon and had an opportunity to really see what we were taking on and looking across at what we were about to do.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then we took a little ride round to the start of the South Kabaibe Trail where we always intended to stage the start of our attempt and recogni that out a bit, made sure we knew where the trail started and where it was uh gonna go into the canyon, with the uh idea that that was gonna be where we would start.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we were planning to start at three in the morning to avoid the the heat the best we could.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so we thought in the dark it would be a little bit challenging to find the trail if we hadn't seen it before.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, when we when we were there at the trailhead, there were these beautiful large deer uh sort of feeding on uh the water at the top of the canyons.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was really a fun thing to see and sort of inspiring before the hike.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the problematic things that we came across once we had gotten to the Grand Canyon and that we hadn't realized and we hadn't properly planned out was the water status.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: There are options for water along the various trails in the Grand Canyon, and some of them are uh natural water from creeks and others are water spigots that have been plumbed into the trails.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And these are really critical points for you if you're gonna hike this trail is understanding where those spigots are because they become lifesavers.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what we had not realized was that all of these spigots on the north side of the trail had been turned off.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so once we got past Phantom Ranch, there was no water.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that really really put the ends to our plans to try to do rim to rim to rim.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Already paid for the hotel room and already paid for the show.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we just kind of ate the cost on that and really sat down and decided that it would be really difficult to go rim to rim without any water on the north side, let alone rim to rim and then an expate back rim to rim.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had realized on the way through Las Vegas and even spending the night the Grand Canyon that the heat was real.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think we had driven through the the desert out of Las Vegas, coming out to the Grand Canyon.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as we're driving on the freeway, the temperatures are hitting 113, 13, 115 as we're coming through the uh through the desert there, actually on the the west side of the Grand Canyon.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that had really also made us a little bit more apprehensive.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we made the tough decision and basically said, we can't, I mean it's too dangerous to do rim to rim to rim in July.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: We'd be extremely foolish to do it.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and the water was really the the nail in the coffin.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody agreed that we would do rim to river to rim and do Mount Humphreys the next day.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that was exciting.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'd already sort of planned Mount Humphreys, I'd recognize out the mountain, kind of knew how long it would take us to get there and you know what some of the dangers were.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it was particularly uh vulnerable and susceptible to late afternoon thunderstorms, so that was always on our mind as well.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we went to bed, we had a big meal, yeah, went to bed, and we got up uh around 2 a.m.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: and got packed and ready to go, and uh then we were off.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the trail itself and now the shuttle ride to the trail.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we had arranged a shuttle with I think it was Transhuttle, yeah, which is the you you look it up online, it's the common shuttle that will take you to the trailhead.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we arranged to be picked up around 2.30, 2.45.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um met they picked us up at the edge of the RV park, which was nice.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we got on the shuttle, and to our surprise, we were the only people on the shuttle.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we thought, oh, it's just because it's too early in the morning.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: People are starting a little bit later in the day.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we were probably the first group on the shuttle.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And in chatting with a shuttle driver, we said, hey, this is probably a really common shuttle, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wonder why there doesn't seem to be many people on here today, what's going on?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, most people will hike the the trail in in May or in October.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's really our busy season.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're really the only people we're taking today.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, that was also a little bit of a wake-up call that maybe we made a bit of an error of judgment in uh trying to do this in July.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we he took us to the shuttle.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he took the shuttle to the trailhead, he took us right up to the to the start of the trail and wished us the best of luck.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we uh got strapped in, you know, checked out gear, took a a little bit of a photo to celebrate the start of our epic journey right at the trailhead and uh dove straight into the canyon at 3 a.m.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: and and sort of straight into the darkness.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really uh sort of intimidating.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've seen the you've seen the view of the canyon, you know what you're getting into, you've taken that traditional tourist view, but then it's real, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're standing there at the canyon, you're about to go, and there's really no bailing out.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Once you're in it, you're in it.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really the unknown.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know how tough the train is, I don't know how difficult it is to get into the canyon.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first time I've ever done this.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's certainly a bit of apprehension to begin with.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we started out slow.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: When you start at South Kabib, that the trailhead is sort of a little bit back from the parking lot, and obviously we wrecked it out the day before, so we knew where it was.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And those first steps into the canyon was sort of taking a big a big breath, like, all right, we're we're doing this now and we're in it.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So off we went into the darkness with our headlamps and began the descent.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately it's quite steep.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple of steep switchbacks, so but then it sort of levels out.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you are traveling along sort of the spine of the Grand Canyon, the bit the tourists see, the bit where they accidentally dropped their money and their phones and stuff.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But uh we knew from the day before that was a fairly steep drop-off to the left-hand side and sort of had an idea of where we were heading.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were taking our time sort of getting you know into our stride and carrying along the the ridgeline.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And before we knew it, we were at ooar point, which was great because in the darkness of the headlands we could see the little sign that said ooh our point, but I don't we did not get to see the ooze.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was very dark.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we understood we all understood we needed to be up an hour early.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was actually pretty cool.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: The temperature was, you know, it's the middle of the night.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as we started dropping, the temperature was also dropping a little bit.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, once we passed to our point, we really did start to feel like we were dropping into the canyon.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then you realize, well, this is it, we're we're doing it now.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh the trail gets a little bit steeper.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know we came to a point where there was some structures.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: We got a little bit confused about where the trail went in the dark and sort of went into sort of an open area with with some buildings, and then we we realized where we needed to go and we got back on on trail.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: But as we we were traveling down, the sun started to rise through the east and we really started to get a glimpse of where we were.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And as the sun started to rise, I'd say it was around 5, 5, 15, we started to realize how quickly we had come down the canyon.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we were probably about an hour and a half into the hike at this point, and we could look back up at the towering cliffs of the Grand Canyon above us and just had that feeling like not many people get to see this.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is us looking up where all the tourists usually stand, you know, where I stood 20 years ago with my kids.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm in it looking up at it, and it's vast and expansive.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as you climb deeper into the canyon, you end up, I think it's skeleton point, you end up going down some switchbacks.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we started opening up a little gap between us.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jason was ploughing on ahead, he loves he loves a good downhill run.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd opened up a little gap to Leo, and so we we're getting a little bit of alone time, which was is always nice on a hike, is to have that uh spiritual feeling like you're uh um you're getting solitude and real exposure to to this world and you're getting time to emotionally absorb what you're doing.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so beautiful to see the sunset come up and start reflecting off the rocks.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps what you don't realize as much when you get down into the canyon is that the rocks are so dark red, they kind of look banded from the top, but when you're in it, there are so many different colors and so many different hues, from a very light red down to a very deep purple, and you're walking through it and it's really beautiful.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And before we knew it, we were the the sun was really coming up, and we were getting closer and closer to the bottom of the hike and came to an open plain, which really marks the halfway point down towards the Colorado River.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the outer canyon ends, and you descend into the inner canyon.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's certainly something you don't see as a tourist from the top of the rim that there's an inner canyon.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what you don't realize from the from the tourist perspective is that the inner canyon is almost as deep as the outer canyon, the piece you can really see, and uh it becomes much steeper.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the trail got a lot steeper and a little bit more slippery.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: The volcanic rock had become a little bit more desiccated, and so it'd be a little bit more careful.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But generally the trail is well maintained, fairly easy to follow.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And before we knew it, the Colorado River was in sight.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was still early morning, we saw a lot of energy, we're still moving at quite a pace, and came down a set of switchbacks, and Jason wasn't that far ahead of me at this point.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you come up to this tunnel in the rock, which is really the bottom, we go through the tunnel and straight on to a suspension bridge, and there you are, Colorado River.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: We made it to the bottom in I don't know, two hours, some 40 minutes or something.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we still knew we had to get over to Phantom Ranch.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to get to Phantom Ranch.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was really an iconic point for me.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was something I'd heard about and read about, and we sort of were still excited to get there.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so we didn't really hang around too much.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: We turned to traverse along the Colorado, it was a little bit up and down, but you know, it was fairly flat, fairly easy going.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we took the the spur off to Phantom Ranch.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was very easy to follow, easy directions to get there.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you sort of enter into a caller canyon with some trees and a creek coming down, so Bright Angel Creek you're following.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: In about a quarter of a mile, you end up in like in sort of campgrounds and at the Phantom Ranch.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now we had heard of this great thing that you can do on this hike, which gives you a sort of a thing to remember.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what you do is you buy a postcard at the top, which we had all done the night before, and address it to yourself, put a stamp on it, and then when you get to Phantom Ranch, you can mail it.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And part of the mythos of the Phantom Ranch is they will stamp your postcard with Phantom Ranch with a Phantom Ranch stamp, and they'll carry it back up to the top of the canyon and then mail it to you, which was fantastic.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember we all did it, and like maybe a week later, my postcard arrived.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've still got it, it's on my shelf.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great memory.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: That actually was one of the reasons I thought that having something like that um to memorialize a great adventure like this would be something that we would all love.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if if you've done enough of these types of adventures or events, you get these cheap, meaning.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: list medals that you stick in a box or a t-shirt.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really want, but you know, it came with the with a registration fee.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want blister pop to be about that.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want this to be about your memory.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that um the challenge cards will be be a part of that memory for you.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're coming on this hike, I highly recommend uh the postcard.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was pretty cool and it was a nice thing to do.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately we had gotten to Phantom Ranch so early.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think we were there around 6, 630 and it wasn't open and there was nobody around so we couldn't stop for a a meal but I hear it's great if you are there at the right time of day uh to stop and uh enjoy the cafe there.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: We just hadn't on we had just hadn't planned quite right to hit it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we stopped and we rested and we had had we made great time to the bottom of the canyon were really thrilled to be there.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we could start to see the sun starting to cast sunlight across the canyon in front of us and we took some time to you know rehydrate refuel you know catch our breath but the ever-present sun was creeping up the canyon and while we were still in shadow it was nice but we knew this was just the beginning and the heat was coming and so I think we had enough we took some photos and we're like well we've got to get going we've got to get out of the canyon now and get out of the canyon before the heat really hits and this was really the most nervous part of the of the trip for me was trying to beat the sun back out of the canyon.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so we went down the other side of the creek past a couple of people who were camping there and soon found ourselves crossing another bridge back across the Colorado to start the Bright Angel Trail part of the journey.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now I was trying to enjoy the moment at the bottom of the uh bottom of the river and um Jason and Leo decided they were really a lot of energy and sort of got a little bit ahead of me the trail kind of goes up and down a little bit so there's a little bit of elevation gain and drop as you're moving along the river but eventually you come to the turnoff where you move up into the valley and you really begin the climb.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: They've gotten a little bit ahead of me at this point.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't mind I was sort of enjoying the moment enjoying my time at the bottom of the canyon and a little way up into the initial climb there was a creek.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought I would just take a little bit of a rest and make sure that I was ensuring that I was properly hydrated and I took some time to soak my clothes which I think was actually a great idea.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I took off my shirt and I soaked my shirt in water and I had a a hat and a bandana and I soaked those in water and so and I put them back on my body to help me combat the heat.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually a little bit cold the water was quite cold at that point of the creek.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And by this time I no longer saw Jason and Leo they had abandoned me and had raced off ahead and so I started to climb up and you quickly get out of the canyon into a very exposed climb of very steep switchbacks and it is immediately very steep and fairly difficult to climb.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had the poles out was taking my time but the heat was building fortunately I you know I wet on my clothes and so it wasn't too bad but it was not an easy climb that very first ascent out of out from the river.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I sort of saw Leo ahead of me a little bit there started to be a couple of people coming down into the canyon and apparently they were asking after me and asked if I I was with those guys and so they they were staying connected which was good and making sure I was still okay so I appreciated that.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as you get out of this very exposed piece you get into this really interesting canyon and now there's a lot of a lot of trees a lot of bushes you're moving into Indian Gardens and I thought I would connect uh with the guys in Indian gardens i th we uh I thought we had discussed resting at Indian gardens and maybe having having a break when we got there and the the trail sort of follows up the creek and then suddenly you find yourself in a campground and there's some water spigots and stuff and so they weren't there when I got there but I felt like it was a good time for a break.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was quite a tough hike from the river to that point.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I sat I pulled off I got some water I sat on a on a bench there and had some snacks and some breakfast and I felt okay it was certainly hot and I was starting to heat up which was problematic since it was only I think it was only around 8.39 a m at the time and I looked up in front of me and you could see the canyon the upper canyon in front of you but it seemed endless and with some of these really tall spires of red rock and that were never ending and I felt impossibly small.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was sitting there something interesting happened a helicopter a helicopter came in and was flying in supplies I think they were doing some construction.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was sort of a surreal experience sitting inside the canyon eating some food while the helicopters come in to drop off supplies and there were some some construction workers down there I think maintaining part of the trail.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Probably because nobody goes down there in July or at least it's less less busy in July so it may be their off season.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I certainly admired that they were down there working in that heat while I was suffering and thinking about the daunting task of trying to get out of the canyon and this is really I think where the tough the toughness started with the hike really started to feel real where it was really oh my God how am I going to get out of the canyon I've come this far already but I still have to climb what I was estimating to be another four or five thousand feet.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't come that far up from the river at that point and I knew what the elevation game was to get out of the canyon.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided that I'd cool down I'd eaten it was time to to get going but immediately out of Indian gardens you are fully exposed and you are fully exposed for the entirety of the rest of the climb.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started to make make my way out and started to climb out of Indian gardens up into the you know the steeper part of the canyon I remember I didn't get too far out of Indian gardens and I passed a guy who was in a digger doing some construction work.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember the heat started to really come over me.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked a little bit further but my breath started to really shout become very shallow and quicker and I was not feeling good.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I thought maybe maybe I'd eaten too much too quickly or drank too much too quickly and my pace was slowing.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was feeling really bad.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I have got to stop so I found a rock I was still very exposed in the sun but I just needed to catch my breath and I really thought you know for the first time that I was in big trouble.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was a long way out of the canyon and I was really getting heat exhausted and really suffering from the heat.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I just needed to uh take a minute and slow it down and slow my pacing down and just take my time.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I wanted to do was become a victim of the Grand Canyon in July and be a news story and I realized I'd been pushing myself real hard and I needed to to really rein it in a little bit.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: So from that point on it became a real slow one foot in front of the other slog and you know every step, you know, every five ten minutes you know it's getting hotter and hotter.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even at 830 in the morning it was blisteringly hot.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have another opportunity to soak my clothes.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I did have enough water that was that was fine but really being able to cool your head down under running water was not an option at this point.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had really dragged myself along the trail.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: I remember a a a young couple coming past me and they seemed to have a lot of energy and vitality that I no longer had at that point and I just tried to keep up with them as best I could.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: But soon we were switchbacking up up the side of the canyon towards the three mile shelter and I remember making it to three mile shelter and just being exhausted and so grateful that I'd made it to somewhere where I could just sit in the shelter for a little bit.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a spigot there with running water and so I had an opportunity again to like douse myself call off and there were a couple of guys sitting in there so I just hang and hang there for a a bit and chatted with them for a little bit and then before I know it I hear Leo's voice calling out of the distance he had uh decided to come back and check on me bless him and I was both grateful and angry at the time I was grateful that he had decided to come back for me but so angry that he had left me and we had not stopped at Indian Gardens I was just really irritated and there was some expert tips and I think in hindsight I was glad that he did come back and check on me but but he also left and went back to join Jason.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently at that time Jason was also starting to suffer a little bit and so I wasn't as far behind them as I had initially thought.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to bite the bullet I knew we had to keep going and get out of this I did not want to be here at five in the afternoon.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew that it was the worst time of day uh to be here and I really wanted to be out of the canyon by noon definitely by one or two as it really really started to heat up but it was not easy going it was a slow slog.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we the trail keeps going I mean there's 5,000 feet of elevation gain to be done in an afternoon.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I eventually got to mile and a half and uh caught up with Jason and Jason was sitting by the trail also suffering I I think the early speed had really caught up with him and he was also worse for wear just you know he sort of had that thousand yard stare and was suffering from the heat as well.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: The only one who was really doing well was was Leo and Leo is from Florida which may explain why he was a uh better able to handle the heat than uh than either of us and so he sort of nursed us the rest of the way out of the canyon I recall I was moving slow and Jason was moving slow but at that point I had gotten into the the mindset that I am getting out of this canyon and I did not want to stop I just wanted to keep going.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew if I stopped I might not be able to get back up again.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a slow death march out of those great red spires.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: The c it seemed like the closer you get to the top the steeper it got and I remember some particularly challenging uh switchbacks.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you the most amazing thing along the trail that really saved me was once in a while you'd get to one of those water spigots and there'll be people there and you would come up to it and I just remember the first thing I did was just walk straight up to it throw the spigot on and just stick my head under it for 30 seconds a minute just trying to call off.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And really that was the lifesaver having those spigots there to call me off and call the back of my head and make sure I wasn't going to get heat shrugged.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Again you know sort of stop and hydrate and taking some electrolytes and then death march to the next spigot effectively there's a point on the trail on Bright Angel where you sort of go through a loop and there's a ranger standing there.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's standing in the shade and I recall climbing up and reaching the shade by the by the ranger and Jason actually got up there before me and was chatting to the ranger a little bit and the ranger is there to stop the tourists going down any further into the canyon because it's sort of the point where it gets super hot.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was so grateful for the shadow and so grateful for that ranger being there because it was sort of the first sign of a human being that might be able to help in case it got any worse.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: From that point I think we were probably about a mile and a half maybe two miles from the end of the trail and it was just nice to sit there in the in the shade for a moment but those last two miles my god they were horrifyingly difficult because at that point we had been going for so long I think we were now somewhere around two in the afternoon one two in the afternoon so we we had been going for probably I would say six or seven hours trying to get out from Phantom Ranch.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's how slowly we were moving past the point of the ranger tourists they'd just come down from the rim in their flip-flops and their sand oars and their sun hats all cheery and happy uh getting down into the canyon and enjoying it and chuffing along they were with their kids and their families and their cameras I felt awful these people just came a mile and they're going a mile back and this is one of the hardest things I think I've I've done and I'm suffering bad and it was just a death march.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: I recall sitting on a bench with some tourists just I just needed I just needed a moment you know and they're sitting there chit chatting and joking around and I'm like oh my god how much further is this how much further but eventually the red rock sort of fades away and you start to see the buildings at the top and eventually rounding the final corner to the final part of the trail and then you're there you're at the bright angel trailhead tourists are milling around you know taking photos kids are running around getting in the way and I just was just so glad I went to the trailhead and I still have the photo of my sort of the the selfie photo of me with like a bandana draped over my head bright red with the bright angel trail sign and the bright angel trail behind me.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just so grateful I made it and a couple of tourists asked what we'd been doing and we just explained that we had been to the you know we'd just done the rim to river to rim and the sort of shock and awe which was delightful.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: But perhaps the hardest part of all is we were all exhausted.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: We were all severely suffering from the heat.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: We had to stand in line for the shuttle bus to get back to the RV park and so I just remember there were tons of tourists and we were close to the end of the line just hoping we could make it on the next bus.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: But standing there was horrifying just so hot and exhausted and poor old Jason was probably suffering as badly as I was and he's like forget it I I can't I can't get on the shuttle bus right now I just want to stay here and so I volunteered to get on the bus and go get the car and pick them up I just made it onto the bus.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was so grateful I made it onto the bus but that thing was packed and I was so hot and exhausted I just needed to lay down basically there was a little bit of air conditioning which was great but there were also lots of people and I was so out of it I had been on the bus last there was nowhere to sit and so I just sort of hunched up and sat down in the doorway and was just defeated and I think some of the tourists could see it was how exhausted I was and I remember somebody offered me an apple or something which was great.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't take it I just didn't feel like anything I just so badly wanted to get back to the RV and call off and take a shower and just get out of this ridiculous heat.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Made it to uh the RV park sort of death march to the RV and got inside and turned the air conditioning on and just sort of collapsed in a heap on the floor sort of unable to move and recalling that I really needed to call off so I I turned on the shower and if you've been in an RV shower they're not that that big but I just got in the tub and just sat under a cold spigot and just just sat there trying to call off and was so so glad to be alive at that point.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I got changed and got dressed and then got in the car and drove over to pick up Leo and Jason who had spent their time in the local restaurant uh calling also calling off and getting some food but wow what a hike what a extraordinary experience the experience of being down in the canyon and looking back up was it's something I'll never forget.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was so amazing and definitely 100% worth it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I probably wouldn't recommending doing it in July.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was just so miserable coming out of there.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're all fairly trained and fit hikers who do lots of sort of long distance adventures but the heat of coming out of that canyon in July was ridiculous.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably 97 degrees as we were coming out when we when we reached the rim so I don't know how hot it was as we were traveling up but I imagine with the heat reflecting off of the walls it was much hotter.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you know we had we had a little chance to recover.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Next morning we were up at 4 a.m and we went out to Mount Humphreys and managed to do that one as well.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I highly recommend doing the Grand Canyon Pop but please plan appropriately figure out when the appropriate time is is to go that time is is not July and but such a life changing experience.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: 100% one of the best hikes I've ever done and I would probably do it again but definitely not in July.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for for listening to my story and now off your pop.