5/1/11 After making the 8 hour drive from Southern CA, we arrive at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the early evening. The plan is to scout out the trailhead, parking situation, and food options in preparation for the next day's run.
1 Our first view of the canyon from Grand Canyon village near Bright Angel Lodge. My adrenaline immediately stars pumping for the next day's run! I hadn't been here since I was a kid and only had vague memories of that YMCA trip. I had been toying with the idea of doing a Grand Canyon run as a build-up to my first 50M ultra.
Originally I was considering only doing R2R but was afraid it might be somewhat anti-climatic after all the time and cost involved in making the trip. And the logistics of getting back from the North Rim are a nightmare (it's a 4 1/2 hour drive and the park shuttle and other North Rim services don't start running until May 15th). So I figured I'd go all in and shoot for R2R2R.
2 The El Tovar hotel on the South Rim. Most people probably have a few 50M runs under their belt before doing the 44-48 mile R2R2R, but this will actually be my first run ever past 31 miles (50K). Probably not the best idea, but I'm always up for a challenge. But I'm definitely nervous. The anticipation in the week leading up to the run has been tough.
I had originally hoped to do the run a couple week earlier but lost some training time after getting a bit sick. There's a pretty small time window in April-May for doing the run. Any earlier and you may have heavy snow on the North Rim. Any later and you will have extreme heat in the inner canyon. So here we are on May 1st, keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will be good. The forecast for tomorrow looks great so far (30s in the morning on the rim, upper 70s in the canyon).
3 Dad scouting out the Bright Angel trail for tomorrow. The plan is for my dad to hike down to the river and back while I run R2R2R solo. In my experience, doing any long run solo makes it mentally much harder, which only increases my anxiety.
Consensus online seems to be that the best route is to take the South Kaibab trail down and Bright Angel back up. The former is shorter and steeper with better views, while the latter is an easier climb. The problem though is that there's no parking at the South Kaibab trailhead and you can only get there via shuttle (unless you hike a couple extra miles). The shuttle doesn't start running until 6am, which is later than I wanted to start.
4 A look down at the Bright Angel trail through Indian Gardens and out to Plateau Point. Beyond Plateua Point you can see Bright Angel Canyon, where the North Kaibab trail will hopefully lead me to the North Rim tomorrow.
Because of the logistics issues, the original plan was to take Bright Angel both down and up. But then we found out the park shuttle adds 5am service starting May 1st (today). Perfect! That would allow us to park at the Bright Angel trailhead, take the shuttle to South Kaibab, and end-up back at Bright Angel at the end of the day. In theory at least.
5 The famous gift shop at Grand Canyon village practically built into the cliff wall. My nervousness about the run is starting to fade as I soak in the amazing views.
This was a fairly spontaneous trip, but everything has come together pretty well so far. The timing is tight though. I had a 50K trail race just over a week earlier and have my first 50M ultra in less than two weeks. R2R2R is probably not the best way to taper before an ultra.
6 There are A LOT of warning signs in the village, at the trailhead, and along the trails. And actually very little information about the trails themselves. The park service clearly wants to dissuade couch potato tourists from heading down the Bright Angel trail in the mid-summer heat and getting stuck.
This sign is particularly persuasive. A 24 year old female athlete who ran a near 3 hour Boston Marathon died of dehydration on the trail. Definitely does not instill confidence for tomorrow's run.
7 I know the purist way to do R2R2R is to camp, but we decided to elimate any extra variables for this trip, and stick to a hotel. So we stayed in Tusayan, less than 15 minutes from the trailhead.
On the way back to Tusayan, we came across a group of elk having dinner long the railroad tracks.
8 A good sized male elk crossed the road not far in front of the car. Now it's time to find some dinner, check into the hotel, and get to bed early and be ready for tomorrow.