The Grand Canyon: The Itch You’ve Got To Scratch
By: Dave Smithey
As a kid that was prone to taking headers off my skateboard, my mom spent a lot of time telling me not to scratch my scabs because they would scar. That sense of discipline became a big part of my personality, and it has served me well. However, as I get older, I am learning that there is a time and place to scratch an itch and to try new things, and one of the most vivid examples for me is the compulsion that led me and a small cadre of friends to cross the Grand Canyon on foot. This crossing turned out to be one of the most challenging and rewarding days of my life and ultimately, it served as the inspiration for creating my own adventure travel business, to help others “scratch that itch”.
Commonly referred to as a Rim2Rim2Rim, crossing the canyon and back in one go is a roughly 42-mile venture, depending on the route, with 9,000 feet of steep climbing and descending. The route is known for hot temperatures in the “box” at the bottom of the canyon and climbs that are hands-on-knees steep. Most hikers will break the crossing up into 2 days, with a night of camping in between, but for a few hardy souls, including my friends Matt, Rob and myself, the R2R2R is an all day and part of the night event, lasting anywhere from 12-18 hours.
Perhaps no one knows the Grand Canyon in its entirety because it is huge and rich with history, but there are some key points that I would encourage all canyon visitors to learn and explore. Carved by the mighty Colorado River, the Grand Canyon is a geological history map that scientists have studied to tell the story of the Earth. Looking into the canyon from the rim, you can see the Earth’s history laid out in the layers of rock. Within these rocks, you can also see the history of humanity: the Grand Canyon has been inhabited by indigenous people for over 12,000 years!
The first known people to live in the Grand Canyon area were the Ancestral Puebloeans, who lived there around12,000 BCE. They are commonly thought to be the ancestors of the modern Pueblo people. The Cohonina lived west of the canyon from 500 - 12,000 CE and are the ancestors of the Yuman, Havasupai, and Hualapai peoples, who live in the areas around the canyon today. I personally cannot do justice to the depth and richness of the Native American culture of the Grand Canyon and want to learn more. (There’s that itch again.) For adventurers who would like to learn more about the histories of the canyon, I would recommend:
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
I Am The Grand Canyon by Stephen Hirst
Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness by David Gessner.
“Everyone needs a friend that will call and say, Get dressed, we are going on an adventure.” - Unknown
In this case, my triathlete buddy, Matt McInnis called and asked if I wanted to run across the Grand Canyon with him. Matt had been researching canyon trips and found a group called Run2Revive, who sponsor annual trips as a fundraiser for research to find a cure for the neurological diseases of ALS and Alzheimers. Matt contacted them, and the great team at Run2Revive were more than happy to support us. They agreed to meet us in Flagstaff the weekend before their annual event and support us logistically. Their crew included Rob Burns, who joined us for the run, Tom Daniel, and Connor Johnston.
We met in Flagstaff for the 90 minute drive to the canyon, and our first night’s lodging at Maswik on the South Rim. I found that starting on the South Rim is a good idea becauses there are several options for lodging and booking for the North Rim Lodge can be extremely difficult. A good night’s sleep before and a place to crash after traversing the canyon are worth the expense in my opinion.
On crossing day, you need to get an early start on the day of your run. And by early I mean really early; we decided to start running at 3:00 a.m. Our plan was that with a good pace, we could get back to the south rim before sunset. (We were young and stupid at that point in the day.) After a few hours of sleep and an alarm clock that wouldn’t shut up, we got dressed and grabbed our packs for the day.
A word on packing and gear: keep in mind that the temperature could change by as much as 30 degrees from the rim to the bottom of the canyon. We made the trek in September, when it can be relatively cool at 3:00am on the South Rim, but temps could easily exceed 90 degrees at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon. The North Rim is approximately 1k feet higher than the South, so having cool weather gear for when the sun sets is also essential. I recommend a good waterproof jacket, a space blanket, gloves, and a hat should be in your bag just in case. I am also a big fan of satellite GPS locators and carry a Spot tracker that has an SOS button on it. There are multiple options for these types of devices, but I do encourage you to consider them and as a guide, I am never without one.
While we are on the topic of packing, let’s talk about nutrition and hydration. If you are attempting to run a Rim2Rim2Rim, you should have enough experience in long endurance events to know what type and amount of foods work best for you. For me, I carry 400 calories per hour plus an extra 1,000 calories in reserve.
My calories are a mix of real food and high energy athletic foods. The real food is typically PB&J sandwiches, fig newtons, peanut butter crackers, and Clif bars. The rest is usually GU packets and Chomps. I keep the GU and Chomps handy so that I will continuously snack on them. About once per hour, I make myself eat something from the real food stash.
Hydration in the canyon is both non-negotiable and sometimes unreliable. It is hard to predict, because the water stations are not always turned on, or sometimes they are non-functional due to a burst water line, as was the case on the day of our crossing. The bottom line is that you need to be prepared to take care of yourself until at least Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. That means carrying 3 liters of water and a water purification method. The one thing you’ve got to do at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon is get a glass of lemonade as it will hit the spot like nothing else. You should also take a minute to sit inside or in the shade and eat as it is a great place to gather yourself and reboot. There are not any other spots with real seats and people to energize you. Whenever I go with friends, I try hard to make sure that we lay eyes on each other at Phantom Ranch. The signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion are sneaky, and it often takes someone else to tell you that you need to cool off.
In any case, Matt, Rob and I started our adventure promptly at 3:00am, and when we began, CJ was still sawing logs in the hotel room. Tom had already started the 4 hour drive to the north rim to meet us. With a quick picture and fist bumps all around, we started down Bright Angel in the dark. My memories of that first section seem like a dream. We were bombing down, oblivious to the precipitous drops all around us. My headlamp reflected back the dirt and rocks on one side until I moved it to the other side, where it just disappeared! The canyon is basically 7 milesdown, 7 miles across and 7 miles up. Unfortunately, the 7 miles down goes by like a flash.
We did have a quick stop at the 1.5 mile point down Bright Angel at the water station. We were very surprised to find 3 people sitting there. Even in the darkness, we could tell that these people had overexerted themselves and embodied the classic case: it’s easy to get down into the canyon, but hard to get out. That experience has influenced how I approach people in the wilderness, and while I am cautious not to be pushy, I don’t just accept an off handed “I’m fine” when all other signs say otherwise. Just about the time we got to the bottom, we met the first headlamps coming up. As we blew past, we heard the words “mountain lion.” Apparently there was a mountain lion somewhere ahead on the trail. After some brief strategizing, we spent the next 2 miles singing and whooping and hollering, and if there was a mountain lion out there, it had much quieter things to eat.
The sky began to lighten, and the sun started to creep down the canyon walls and it was awe-inspiring. By the time we reached the suspension bridge at the river, it was daylight, and the river was majestic and powerful. It flows dark, silty, and ominous, without any major eddies in that part of the river. It is just one massive moving force that I found truly humbling. We were all still moving well at the point and still together as a threesome. I was beginning to think, “We’re gonna make it!”
Then, we started the climb. I am typically a mountain guy and have a strong sense of what it feels like to climb up, but getting out of the canyon is more like climbing out of a hole with very steep walls. It is relentless until the top. Rob was out in front when we started the climb and just kept opening up the gap. Matt and I maintained a nice comfortable steady pace until about 2 miles before the top, when Matt started increasingly leaning on his poles. We kept him fueled and soon enough, we reached the top, roughly 9 hours after we started. Tom met us at the trailhead with Snickers bars, water and a foam roller to work out the kinks before we headed back down.
Spirits were high as we refueled and gathered ourselves to head back across the canyon. However, Matt hung back and with an air of reticence, let us know that he was going to call it quits for the day. Crossing the canyon is something that should not be attempted lightly, and as it turned out, Matt made the right choice that day. About 10 minutes into the drive back to the south rim, he had Tom pull over and had what he described as the most violent bout of vomiting of his life.
In retrospect, Matt was probably suffering from heat exhaustion and being a tough guy, like we are all prone to do. As a guide now, I worry about heat exhaustion as the most probable medical ailment a client might face in a hot environment. The human body is unique in the animal kingdom for its ability to regulate temperature, but when we go beyond its limits, we put ourselves in grave danger.
So, it was down to Rob and me heading down the North Kaibab trail back into the canyon at 11:30 in the morning. The sun shone bright and straight overhead, and by this time, we had plenty of company on the trail. We found ourselves giving the warning “Runner back” a lot. Having had about 7 hours for the quads and knees to recover from the early morning descent we were both enjoying the downhill. However, sometime after noon, Rob started feeling off and he slowed to a walk, complaining of nausea. I realized at that point, it was all about getting him to shade and cooling off. We sat him down in a stream, and I carried wet towels to wrap around his neck. Since he was clear headed the whole time, it became apparent that it was heat exhaustion and not heat stroke, and we could get him through this with a measured pace and lots of cooling. After about 2 hours, which must have felt like 20 hours to Rob, he started to come out of it. By the time we got across the canyon, he was in good form and ready to go.
Just before you begin to ascend the Bright Angel trail to the South Rim, there is a set of benches and I made the perennial mistake of laying down on them. It felt so good that if someone had asked me to sign away my life and just live there, I might have done it. Rob was patient, and I heard him talking to some other hikers as I got myself together. With all the reluctance of my teenage daughters getting out of bed on a school day, I finally roused myself for the climb up to the South Rim.
Just a few minutes up the trail, we got a terrific surprise when we spotted CJ standing on a high point up on the side of the canyon! His neon shorts glowed like the heavenly aura one finds in paintings of saints. He had treats for us and refilled our water bottles. It was at this point that I made my critical mistake in not stopping to rest. I just kept plodding forward while Rob and CJ sat and ate. Soon, I could hear the click of trekking poles behind me and turned to see Rob bounding up the trail like a puppy who just got out his crate. He politely checked on me as he passed, and when he surmised that I was hurting but not hurt, he continued on.
After Rob passed, the wheels came off for me. My head was willing to continue, but my gut decided to give me some serious trouble. I had to make multiple stops on the way up and my last few miles climbing out of the canyon were more like a death march than a triumphant return. After what seemed like years, I finally made it to the trailhead to meet CJ and Rob, humbled, proud and so glad to be done.With tears in my eyes, I called my wife to let her know we finished, and then fell asleep in the shuttle back to the lodge.
My experience crossing the canyon was transformative and has helped shape how I guide and travel now; and I hope this story helps you grapple with that itch you’ve had for the Grand Canyon and how you can scratch it. In parting, I want to leave you with a few practical pieces of information that will help you prepare for your own Grand Canyon adventure.
Start with a Canyon crossing over two days, with a stay at a campsite or one of the lodges in between. This is a special experience in its own right and it allows you to enjoy the beauty and wonder of the canyon.
Take care to plan and pack accordingly for the conditions, the weather and your fitness level. There are lots of signs posted along the trails that say “down is optional but up is mandatory” and that is no joke. Each year, close to 300 people are airlifted out of the canyon, so adequate preparation is key.
Know your body and your limits and respect them; Matt was honest in his assessment of how he was feeling and he made the right decision.
Finally, there is a wealth of information available that can help you prepare to scratch your Grand Canyon itch:
National Park Service: The info here is accurate and written by people who care about your experience in the canyon.
Facebook: Recognize that these are just opinions, but they are typically from people who love the canyon and genuinely want to help others. R2R2R Group & R2R Group.