Sea to Skyline

This was our second attempt at doing Sea to Skyline.  As a refresher, there is a really well known hike above Saratoga, CA called Skyline to the Sea that starts out at the intersection of Highway 9 and Skyline Blvd and ends at Waddell Beach.  This hike is done every year by boy scouts typically over three days.  They sometimes start in Saratoga at Sanborn County Park and go through Castle Rock State Park which adds another climb and another few miles.

We ran into a few problem the first time around and ended up a couple miles short.  You can't claim credit for a hike that ends short, so we decided to do it again.  This time Gary was available, so the three of us took off early to make one last attempt before the weather turns for the winter.

We got an early start, leaving from Waddell Beach at 6:45am.  Given the time of year, we needed headlights for the first 45 minutes of the hike.

Long day short (the hike took just over 10 hours), the weather was perfect, the hike is beautiful, and everyone's body held up.  The trail was a fairly quiet.  We didn't see anyone until we got close to Big Basin State Park where we briefly stopped for some water at about 10:30.  We saw a few people as we left the park and then had the trail almost completely to ourselves.  We worked our way through the warmest area and stopped for lunch.  Our stops were short and infrequent, with the only challenge being Gary needing to take care of his feed so as not to end up with blisters (just recovered from the Grand Canyon).

As we came close to the end of the hike we walked through an area where a wedding was about to take place.  They had lights up in the trees, lights along the trail and the groom getting ready for the big day.  They told us that the guests and wedding rest of the wedding party were going to be shuttled up to a close by parking lot and the wedding was going to take place on only a half hour!

From there it was only about an hour the top.  We got there less than5 minutes before our ride showed up.  We were so happy to have completed the hike that we all ran the last 50 yards up the trail!

BTW, the hike totaled roughly 29 miles and about 6500 feet of elevation gain!

Rim-to-Rim - Closing Thoughts

Here are closing thoughts on the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim (R2R) hike. I has now been a few weeks since we were there and the memories are still fresh.  But it is time to wrap up this set of posts.

One thing that really stick in my mind is that going down is easy, but going up is hard (and mandatory).  Here are some signs that really remind you of this fact.  They are awesome!

In addition to the hike being much more beautiful than I had expected, here are a few things that were also a bit of a surprise.

• You hike along creeks most of the way.  
• These creeks were in fairly small gorges.
• There are a lot of trees.
• You see a good number of people, and far more than expected were running...
• The space down by the Colorado River is not that wide.
• There are lots of places to refill water (note we went up Bright Angel Trail, the sane is NOT true if you take South Kaibab Trail).
• When hiking from North to South, you are mostly in the shade!

So there you have it.  All of the training made this a really fun experience.  Will I do it again?  Not sure.  If I had the opportunity, I would.  But I doubt that I will plan to do it again.  There are too many other places that I still want to go.  Too many other hikes that I am interested in.

That leads me to the evolution of this blog.  Soon I will be changing the name of the blog from "Rim-to-Rim In One Day" to something more generic about hiking or maybe even more broad about outdoor adventures. Getting ready for this hike has already motivated me to do Half Dome, Skyline to the Sea, Sea to Skyline, Mount Diablo and cool parts of the Pacific Crest Trail.  I have hiked with and met a lot of different people.  A special shout out to Gary and Greg who trained and completed the Rim-to-Rim with me.  This whole experience has been great!

There is just so much out there. So many great hikes that I have not taken.  So many cool places to visit along the way.  Stay tuned...

Rim-to-Rim - Before And After

This is the second to last note on the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim (R2R) hike.  It covers a few things from before and after the hike.

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon has roughly 500,000 visitors a year to the 5,000,000 that the South Rim receives. There is only one lodging choice - the Grand Canyon Lodge and Cabins.  The accommodations are fairly rustic but well kept. You have to book early, especially if you plan to do a do the R2R early or late in the season when it is cooler at the bottom. We booked 9 months in advance.

The lodge has a nice restaurant. You should make reservations ahead of time as well if you care when you eat. We booked reasonably early so that we could digest before going to bed fairly early. The food was good and the staff were friendly. Our waiter guessed that we were doing the R2R in a day and strongly recommended that we take the Rainbow Falls detour, which we (he was right!).

We decided not to stay on the South Rim - primarily because none of hotels had a hot tub. We instead decided to stay at the Railroad Inn in Williams, AZ. Based on the pictures, I had fairly low expectations. I was wrong. The hotel was nice, not fancy, but clean and with all of the amenities we needed. There was a restaurant, a pub,exercise room (didn't need this:)), pool and spa. We ate in the pub. The food was surprisingly good.  The menu had a decent variety, there were healthy choices and of course there was beer:)

We stayed on Las Vegas the night before and after.  This made the trip fairly easy to the North Rim and back from Williams.  You know what Vegas looks like, so no pictures. On the return, we fit in a show - Cirque du Soleil, The Beatles LOVE.  Great show and a great end to our Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim adventure!

Rim-to-Rim - Hikers Along The Trail

This post is the second of three from the Rim-to-Rim hike.  It is about the hikers we saw or interacted with.

We started the morning at 5:30, in the dark. The lot at the trail-head already Was more than half full.  As we tested out our headlights, we saw another group form at the trail-head. I think there were 3 guys and 1 girl. We said hi and passed them as we started down the trail. We had no idea how many people we would see that day, but early indications were that we were definitely not alone.

As it became light, we passed a few people and came up on a group of maybe 8 Indian men. They

had already spread out. We passed the first few who were snapping pictures at every turn, saying hi and commenting on how beautiful it was. We walked along with others in the group for a while. They were quite a mix, some hiking regularly with their scout troop, while others much less frequently. One commented that they had done Half Dome (which I had done this year) only to find that he had done it 6 years ago:). Based on their comments, they were planning a Rim-to-Rim (R2R) hike. Needless to say that after passing this group, and even with our detour to Rainbow Falls, we never saw them again. I really doubt that they made it. I hope they turned back early or had more in their backpacks than it appeared to camp for the night.

One of the next groups that we came upon were 6-8 teenage girls. They all looked fit with light backpacks and exercise cloths. They were stopped on the side of the trail taking a break. One of them had her shoe and sock off as if she were dealing with a problem. I think she had sketchers tennis shoes on. My first thought was that there is no way they are going to make it. We saw then a couple more times on the trail, passing them again after our detour and seeing them during our stop at Phantom Ranch. We never saw them again, but think they would have made it, although after us so in the dark.

During the first half of the hike we were passed by a number of runners. I would guess 15-20 in all. Early in the day they were going the same direction as we were. Most were running with very lightweight CamelBak packs, just for water and maybe a bit of food. Just before Phantom Ranch we saw runners going the other way. These were the R2R2R folks! We talked to a mom who had run from North Rim to Phantom Ranch with four kids (her two and a friend's two). She was exhausted. I asked her if she was running the rest and she said no, she only hoped she could make it walking. She told me her husband and friend were two of the people we saw running the other way. They left at 2:30am from the South Rim to do their R2R2R. Crazy!

Just after our detour to Rainbow Falls, we ran into another big group going in the opposite direction. I think there were 20 of them. They had to have been in their 70's, from the UK and all pretty fit. We didn't find out where they came from but given how energetic they seemed, our guess is that they could not have started on the South Rim. They likely stayed overnight at Phantom Ranch.

After leaving Phantom Ranch and crossing over the Colorado River, we met up with the only mule train group that we would see. There were 8 of them. I am really glad we met them where we did. The trail was wide enough for us to get out of the way. There are lots of places on the trail where passing would have been really difficult.

As we started the climb up to Indian Garden, we passed two girls while they rested. When we stopped, they passed us. This went on back and forth another toupee times - becoming funny. As we passed, we would say "see you in a bit." As we reached Indian Garden, we passed them for the last time.

Into the last legs of the hike, we saw and talked to quite a few people. Here are two quick highlights.

• We chatted with a ranger as we slowly passed her. She was making sure everyone was ok.
• We laughed with a couple girls about the sign at the 3 mile rest stop - "Down is optional. Up is required."
• As we neared the top we said hi to a couple who had walked down from the top and were sitting in a perfect spot leaning against the rocks and enjoying the spectacular view.

Not only was the hike great, the views amazing, but connecting with other hikers was pretty cool too!

Rim-to-Rim - We Did It - In One Day!

I am breaking this post into 3 or 4 parts - there is just too much for one. I will first cover the hike itself.  Then will talk about the people we ran into, what we did right and wrong and a bit about before and after.

Gary, Greg and I started the hike on the North Kaibab Trail at 5:30 in the morning. After my blog post How long will it take???,  we decided this was a good compromise between having enough time and not getting enough sleep. This turned out to be perfect. The temperature was in the high 50's. I decided against a jacket, wearing only my Nike compression shirt, my SmartWool long sleeve shirt and my running gloves.  We said goodbye to our wives, turned on our headlights and off we went.

The first leg of the hike is amazing. You start out on some switchbacks for a few miles as you work your way down. The first half hour was dark but our headlights were more than sufficient to light the way. Before we knew it, we were turning them off and enjoying the rising sun.

We passed a number of hikers who started before us. More on this later...  We soon came upon the Bright Angel Creek gorge, which we followed all the way to the Colorado River. But I am getting ahead of myself.  The hike along the creek was absolutely beautiful. I must have taken 50 pictures and easily could have taken more. I think I took 20 trying to catch the moon just over the rim. Every turn created another spectacular view.

We took one detour along the way. That was to Ribbon Falls. Our waiter the night before recommended it and he was right - well worth the extra mile. You cross a bridge and have to navigate a tricky trail, but the result is a waterfall that is unusual, hard to explain and beautiful. Water falls from on top of a dome that is covered in moss and from there creates another falls into a pool.

We only stayed long enough for some pictures and for Gary and me to dip our feet in the cool water. Then back the way we came (later to find that there was another way out that would not have required as much doubling back), onto the trail and on our way.

We continued down the trail, past Cottonwood to Phantom Ranch, about 16 miles into the trip.  It is so cool to see lots of people, picnic tables, cabins, bathrooms and a building where you can pre-order food, buy drinks and snacks, or just sit down and eat your lunch.  We had been planning to stop, have lunch and enjoy a cold beer.  And we did JUST THAT!  What a treat!  We kept the stop to  45 minutes - still a long ways to go.  Gary's feet were bothering him, so after eating he did some repairs (moleskin). We hit the bathroom, refilled our water and off we went.

It was not too long before we came to the Colorado River.  We crossed over Silver Bridge.  This was pretty cool.  From here you could see up and down the river.  We didn't see any rafters but did see the Black Bridge, used of you were going up the South Kaibab Trail (rather than the Bright Angel Trail we were taking).  We followed the river for a couple of miles before we headed into another gorge along Pipe Creek.  After another couple of miles we split from Pipe Creek and joined Garden Creek.

It was getting pretty hot.  We later found out that it was over 90 degrees (it had been over 100 degrees the day before). Thank goodness there was a nice breeze!  After a good long climb, we arrived at the next destination - Indian Garden.  This is almost an oasis in the desert.  It is pretty flat with a camp ground and lots of trees on both sides of the river.  We stopped here to rest and have some food before filling up with water and heading back on our way.  Less than 5 miles to go!

The leg up to the 3 mile stop was a bit of a challenge, with some steep areas and a lot of zig zags. Everyone was getting tired and trying to find their pace.  We were doing it, coming out of what just looked impossible!  We stopped to rest at the 3 mile.  As we started up, everyone had a pace that was working and before we knew it, we were arrived at the 1.5 mile stop. We didn't rest for too long before we were back on our way.  We were no longer worried about making it.  The excitement was building and the pace quickening.

They saw us before we saw them.  As we rounded the second to last turn, we spotted our wives waiving and taking pictures.  One more turn and we were there.  More pictures, high fives and lots of chatter about the hike.  Our energy was back.  We headed to the car for a beer and some snacks. I surprised Gary and Greg with shirts that I had made up just for this occasion.

My Strava says we hiked 28.4 miles with an elevation gain of 8,626 feet.  We left at 5:30 and arrived at 5:45,  That means we were on the trail for 12:15.  What a great accomplishment!

A big thanks to Greg and Gary for wanting to do something like this.  For training.  For putting up with me as I chatted most of the way (and most of the time on our practice hikes).  And for for putting the work in to complete this!

Rim-to-Rim - How long will it take???

I provided a lot of information in my post on Just the Facts.

But I missed one thing that is really important.  How long will it take?  This will dictate how early we leave and whether or not we need headlights.

This seems like a really simple question.  But of course it is not.  It depends on how in shape you are, how often you will stop, whether you will take some of the side trips, and how long you will spend at lunch (or drinking a beer as is our plan).

Here is what I have found on other sites.

4:55a North Kaibab Trail head

...

5:45p South Rim 

If you are in good shape and do not plan to stop too many times, you can do the rim-to-rim hike in 12-13 hours. This means that you do not need to start before sunrise unless you are hiking in october (when sunset is at 6pm). If you are not in good shape, you should not even think of trying this hike anyway. So leaving before sunrise may sound a bit unnecessary. 

One way trip time: 12 hours 7 minutes

The trip was successful (13 hours for the hike). But -- it was absolutely, positively, without question, by far . . . the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

Based on all of that, it will take beween 12-13 hours.  If the sun is going down at about 6pm on the South Rim, then we should be hiking by 5am.  That means headlights and enough warm cloths for at least an hour of dark.

I will be writing about headlights next.

Training #6 - Sea to Skyline

You read that title right. We decided to do the challenging Skyline to the Sea trail again, but this time
backwards - up hill to get more climbing in. This is our last big training hike in preparation for the Rim-to-Rim hike. We expected the hike to be ~27 miles and ~6k of elevation gain.

Greg and I (Gary is on vacation) were dropped off on the Waddell Beach Skyline to the Sea trail-head at 6:30, just as the sun was coming up. We started early because we knew the hike would take a long time, and because it was suppose to be in the 90's later in the day.

We set a blistering pace, getting to Big Basin (about 15 miles) not much after 10:00. This was too early for lunch to stayed maybe 15 minutes and continued. We continued our fast pace until ~12:00 when we decided to eat lunch.  Greg opened his pack and again pulled out beers having carried them ~20 miles this time. What a treat!

We didn't rest for very long and hit the trail again. As we climbed it started to get hot. And as we moved out of the trees, we could really feel the heat. This didn't seem like a problem. We were getting a bit tired, but still feeling good.

After another few miles, Greg's calves started to cramp. He stretched out and we continued. But the cramping was just the tip of the iceberg. He started feeling it in his stomach and them across his body. He hit the wall.  He rested up and pushed on for another mile or so. We happened to be in text / phone range so called our ride. After trying to go on, we decided to go back a bit to a place where we could be picked up.

We were ~2 miles from the end but did 26.5 miles and 5527 feet of elevation gain. A great training hike! And great learning in terms of eating enough, at the right frequency and making sure to get enough electrolytes.

I feel confident that we are fit enough for the Grand Canyon. I am really looking forward to it!!

Training #5 - Pacific Crest Trail from Sonora Pass North

We are down to three weeks left, and as a result three hikes before the big day.  Two long ones and one shorter.

1. Pacific Crest Trail, Sonora Pass North - 20+ miles, 4k+ elevation gain
2. Skin Cancer Take A Hike - A fundraiser for my step father, 7.5+ miles, 3k+ elevation gain
3. Sea to Skyline - ~27 miles, 6k+ elevation gain

Panorama

Yesterday was the first of these.  A really nice hike along the Pacific Crest Trail in the opposite direction from my other two Pacific Crest Trail hikes.  This post will just be some pictures to give you an idea of what the hike is like.

Elevation - Out and Back

 This hike really makes me want to take it all the way to Lake Tahoe!

Motivation and Exercise

I was taking a hike the other day with my wife Julie and we got to talking about motivation.  I am motivated, I like to workout and have for a long time.  My first thought was - "maybe I am not a good person to write about this."  But the more I thought about it, I do have to work at insuring that my workouts are productive.  I do have a fair number of tricks that help me.  So maybe many of us are actually the same, just to varying degrees.

I plan to exercise every day, seven days a week. My routine is not to think about if I will exercise, but rather what kind of exercise do I plan to do and when I will fit it in.  I put it in my calendar just like a meeting and move it if something comes up.  I know that I will miss one and once in a while two days and am ok with that.  There are just some days when it doesn't work.  But by planning to exercise 7 days, I always get in at least 5.  I think that if I were to plan for 5, I would end up with less.

Here are my thoughts on staying motivated.

1. Train for something.  This makes working out more focused, creates a bit of urgency and as a result reduces the likelihood that you will miss.
2. Keep it simple.  I know people who plan out their workouts in a fair amount of detail, but not very many of them.  When I see someone start off this way, I don't see them stick with it.  I don't plan every workout, but do plan some measurable steps along the way.  In this case, longer and longer hikes every other week.  That keeps me on track without making it another job.
3. Schedule your exercise!  I talked about this above.  Make it just like anything else that you do, put it into your schedule.  Treat it like it is important. If something comes up, move it to another time.
4. Find a way to make it fun.  Exercise with a friend.  Mix up the kind of exercise you do.  Play while you are exercising.  I like to skip down hills, sometimes go backwards or jump from rock to rock (yea, when no-one is looking...). Listen to a book, music or a podcast.  Whatever keeps it fun for you.
5. Take breaks.  Even world class athletes like Michael Phelps take some time off.  He needs a break after training for the Olympics. It keeps him fresh.  You can do the same. It is also a good way to keep your body healthy.

Hope there was something useful in all of this for you.

Training #4 - Skyline to the Sea -or- Pills and Poles

We are getting closer to the big hike.  We now have less than a month and a half to go.  Time to put in some serious miles.  The plan is to go long every other weekend leading up to the Grand Canyon.  Yesterday was one of these long hikes - Skyline to the Sea, with Gary and Greg.

The hike starts at Saratoga Gap, where Highway 9 and Skyline cross.  You can also start from Castle Rock Park or if you are really ambitious, you can leave from Sanborn Park (longer and more elevation gain).  The distance of this hike is approximately 27 miles.  When you first read about the hike, you assume it is all downhill.  It is not.  The altitude gain is nearly 3000 feet!

Pam dropped us off at the top at just before 7 am.  As we pull our day hydration packs out of the back of the car, it is all wet - someone is leaking.  I assume it is me because I had a problem filling up at home.  It turns out that it was Gary.  His hose had pulled away from the bladder and all the water leaked out.  He reattached, reassembled and filled it up again.  Water started leaking out again.  A bit of panic as we refilled his bottle from what was left in the bladder.  We cut the tube and reattached again, but decided not to refill the bladder until we reached Big Basin.  Luckily it was not very hot.

With that out of the way, we took off.  The pace was good.  The conversation was great.  The weather was perfect.  With a couple of short stops along the way, we reached Big Basin in the middle of the beautiful redwoods.  This was a good time to refill our bladders, empty our bladders:), and have lunch.  One of the things that we have all talked about a number of times was that the Rim-to-Rim hike is not the time to try something new.  Eat what you have eaten before, wear what you have worn before, drink what you have drank before.  So to my surprise, while we are sitting at the picnic table, Greg pulls out three cold beers.  We are planning to stop at Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon to have a beer before continuing.  Greg smiles and says "In the spirit of trying things out ahead of time...".  That beer tasted really good:)

The rest of the hike was really nice.  The terrain changes multiple times as you make your way through the remainder of the redwoods, along the creek and toward the ocean.  You can feel the onshore breeze well before you can see the ocean.  Gary and I thought that you could see the ocean well before you actually can.  Maybe it was different 13 years ago when I last did this hike.

I am sure you are asking - why does the title include "Pills and Poles"?  My two hiking buddies were both popping pills along the way in order to save their knees.  Gary the red pills, Greg the blue pills (Ibprofin and Aleve).  That together with all of us having poles, seemed to do the trick.  With the amount of downhill that this hike has, there is real risk of knee pain.  We made it and all felt good - tired, but good at the end!

Back to the hike.  We reached Waddell beach at around 4:45 pm.  Julie and Suzanne were waiting for us with sandwiches, fruit, snacks and beer.  Thank you so much - what a great way to end the hike!

With this long hike done, we still have two more long ones, along with regular shorter hikes in between. Gary will be on vacation so will find some good hikes on his own.  Greg and I are likely to do Mt. Diablo next.  I am looking at some routes that will get us more than 500- feet of elevation and more than 20 miles of distance.  And then one more super challenging killer hike.  We plan to do the hike I just wrote about - but in the opposite direction, Sea to Skyline.  This will be the same ~27 miles, but with almost 6,000 feet of elevation gain.  Wish us luck!

Rim-to-Rim - What to Eat

We expect the hike to take 14-16 hours.  That is a lot of time on the trail.  We need to make sure we eat and drink right.  I will talk about eating first and drinking in another post.

The first thing to think about is what to eat the night before the hike, and in the morning before leaving.  My approach is always to have a good balanced meal the night before, making sure that you get a mix of protein and carbohydrates.  I don't totally buy into carbo-loading, but some good carbs will be included in what I eat.  I will also lay off the wine and beer.  And I will make sure that I drink a good amount of water.  All of that will leave me in the best state when I get up.

Breakfast is about eating what I have eaten lots of times before.  I will not try something new.  My go to meal is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on toasted whole wheat bread.  My stomach likes this.  And I think it is a decent combination of protein and carbohydrates again.  I will drink water.  And I will have coffee (I am a bit of a coffee prude so will bring my own to the hotel).  I am not sure coffee is right for everyone, but I am a big fan and have it all the time before I hike or bike.  It will not cause any problems, and I think the caffeine gets me going!

As an aside, I will make sure I am up at least an hour before we start hiking.  I need that time to enjoy my coffee and to give my body time to wake up, shower, go to the bathroom, and be in the right state of mind to enjoy the day. 

Once we get moving, I like to eat something every 45 minutes to 1 hour.  That can be a gel or bar.  I like to mix it up a bit, but mostly eat bars, making sure that I have one that is high in protein.  This is not an advertisement, but I am a Clif fan.  I like the ingredients, the way they quickly disappear from my mouth, and most importantly the way they make me feel.  I am not a fan of the blocks.  They stick to my teeth.

I have read a lot on nutrition and hiking.  I know that some people eat dried meat, dried fruit, crackers, cheese, etc. I will likely bring along a bit of fruit.  In the end, it is your own preference.  The main thing is that it be something that you are use to eating, in similar conditions (long day of exercise), and that you eat regularly.  It is really hard to recover if you bonk!

Last thing. When we get to Phantom Ranch, there is a good chance we will have a beer.  I don't typically drink beer on a hike, but it may happen this time:) Lets hope the carbonation is not a problem!