Rim-to-Rim - Just the Facts

Looking for a hike that'll kick your ass and demand months of training? Head southwest and traverse the width of the Grand Canyon—here are 8 tips on how to do it. (Men's Fitness)

Thanks to www.JagatJoraJaal.com for the great picture above.

On to the facts about our Rim-to-Rim hike.

When: Early October
Distance: ~24 Miles
Direction: North to South
North Hotels: Grand Canyon Lodge - North Rim
South Hotels: Lots of Choices...
Depart: North Kaibab Trailhead (8241 feet)
Arrive: Bright Angel Trailhead (6860 feet)
Permit: Not Required (for a day hike)
Transportation: Our wives will drive around while we hike.  The drive is pretty long ~220 miles, 5 hours (an alternate is to take a Trans Canyon Shuttle).
Water: We will of course bring lots with us.  There are locations: North Kaibab at Cottonwood; in the valley at Phantom Ranch; and on Bright Angel at Indian Gardens.
Beer (and other stuff): Phantom Ranch:)

Here are maps that show the full route, distances, elevation, etc.

In future posts, I will get into our plans for food and hydration!

Poles or No Poles (aka Sticks, Trekking Poles)

How many times have you seen hikers with poles and thought - kind of whimpy...  I have.  I am now a believer.  I have changed my mind.  But it didn't start that way.

Since I started to take hiking more seriously, I have thought about whether I wanted or needed poles.  Knock on wood - I have never had any knee problems.  The worst I have had was a sore IT Band from riding my road bike a bit hard early in the season.  Nothing else.  So I didn't think that I needed them for my knees.  Even downhill has never been a problem.  And I have managed to stay in good enough shape that I assumed that I didn't need them to help me to finish a hike.

All of this started to change during a recent trip to Sedona.  I went to The Hike House to look at some new boots and to find a good trail.  While trying on just about every pair of boots in the store, I chatted with the sales guy.  He of course is a hiker, and maybe 25 years old.  We were talking about my planned Rim-to-Rim hike.  I asked him what he thought about poles.  He said he use to think they were for whimps.  But he no longer thinks that.  He said they are a must for a hike like I was going to do.  One guy's opinion.

After finding a pair of boots and socks and buying them (more on my boots in a future post), I headed across the walkway to their Energy Cafe, where they have maps, trail food and coffee:).  I started talking to another guy about which hike I should take while in Sedona.  He wanted to know how far I wanted to go.  I was looking for a long and challenging hike, and he gave me one.  To the highest point in Sedona, almost 19 miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation gain.  But I digress.  We started talking about the Rim-to-Rim hike.  He has done it in a day - a number of times.  He just smiled and said I would LOVE IT.  I asked him what he thought about poles.  He didn't hesitate.  He said "you and your buddies have to use poles."  He said we will need them. They will help  on the downhill and we would be happy that we had them on the climb as well. Oh, and did I say he was in his mid to late 20's?!

That pretty much clenched it.  These guys were both young, fit and do a lot of hiking.

I asked for poles for my birthday and my son Nick got them for me.  They are called Pacemaker Expedition. They are a pretty decent set.  They are adjustable.  They have an external lever locking mechanism.  They are lightweight and have cork grips.  And they do not have shock absorbers.  If you are looking for more information on poles, REI has a good summary "Trekking Poles and Hiking Staffs: How to Choose."  I have heard that poles are cheaper if you buy them at Sports Basement rather than REI, but I have not done the homework to know for sure.

I have since used them a number of times to practice.  I do think that they help on the downhill.  I can feel my upper body taking on some of the load that my knees would otherwise.  I am less convinced on the uphill.  I feel like I get more tired.  Kind of like doing the eliptical in the gym, where you work both your legs and arms.  I read the article "Ten Reasons for Trekking Poles" where their comments support my experience.

The final clencher was my recent hike (Training #2 - Sanborn Skyline Park to Castle Rock State Park). They really helped Greg.  He is in pretty good shape, but when his knees started to hurt, the poles helped him to make it down the hill.

I will not use my poles all of the time. But I will use them on long hikes, especially where there is a lot of elevation gain / loss - the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim for sure!

Training #2 - Sanborn Skyline Park to Castle Rock State Park

Before I get into the training hike today, I want to thanks those of you who are reading my blog.  I shared one of the posts to Facebook and got a number of comments.  Thanks, keep these coming and feel free to comment directly on my blogger page.

I also want to comment on the Blogger update that I made.  I added the list of future topics to the right and moved down the block about me.  That block was just too long.  If you want to know more about me, you will have to scroll!

Now on to the hike.  Today was a good one, and I was joined by one of the two guys that are going to do this hike with me, Greg.  As one sentence of background - Greg is not a big hiker, but he is active and  has run a couple of half as well as a full marathon, so he is in good shape but will need a bit of time in the boot (just made that up, kind of like time in the saddle for biking) to be ready for the Rim-to-Rim.

We decided on a good long hike, with a lot of elevation gain.  The hike really doesn't have its own name as it starts in one park, heads over to another and then comes back.  As a result, it is called the Sanborn Skyline Park to Castle Rock State Park hike. It is about 16 miles with over 3,000 feet of elevation gain. The views are awesome.  The trails are beautiful, loaded with trees and mostly empty of people except near the entrances to the parks.  The link describes the hike as "an excellent training hike for High Sierra adventures like Yosemite's Half Dome."  This is perfect as we will be dong Half Dome in about a month and a half.

We arrived at Sanborn park just after 7.  The park does not open until 8, so we had to find a parking spot on the side of the road. From there, we were quickly on the trail and enjoying the hike.  The beginning of the trail is mostly up hill.  We worked our way up to the summit and along the top until dropping into Castle Rock.  We headed down until the end of the loop, climbed back up to the summit and then back down to where we started.

Sounds simple enough.  It was not.  This is a good, challenging hike.  We did well most of the hike.  As we began heading down for the last time, Greg's knees started to hurt.  Good thing I brought my poles (Pacemaker Expedition).  I had them with me to practice with as EVERYONE says I need to use poles for the Rim-to-Rim.  I was not convinced, and I am still not sure that I need them for much of the hike, but I am becoming more and more of a believer.  But given that this is a future topic, I will save the longer discussion for then.  What I will say is that the poles really helped Greg.  That and a few Ibuprofen.  He is now a full convert.  He had been looking at poles, trying to decide what which ones to go with.  After this hike, I expect he will have poles the next time we go out.

That's it for now, hope that this is interesting. Comment if you have a recommendation for what I should talk about next.

Training #1 - How I approached it

There is so much to say about training. So this one will be just the first of many.

At the very highest level, I plan to hike in order to get ready to hike:). I will gradually build up to doing the Rim to Rim distance and elevation gain (or more). What this means to me with around 5 months to go, is hikes in the 10-15 mile range, and a few thousand feet of climbing. I will only be able to do these on weekends until the days get longer. So I will supplement with three other days of cardio and two with weights.

Today's hike was a perfect example. I hiked up Limekiln and a ways out into Siarra Azul in order to get the miles and elevation that I was looking for. It ended up being just over 3 hours, 11.7 miles and 3,370 feet of elevation. I don't like to stop, especially up hill, but had to twice to catch my breath and get my heart rate down. Shows that I have more work to do...

As a bit of a teaser, I plan to get a trainer as we get closet to the hike.

As a second teaser, I used my hiking / trekking poles for today's hike. They worked well. I am not convinced that they helped up hill, but am sure they did going down, especially where it was steep.

Rim-to-Rim - Why do it, and why in 1 day?

I am sure that I am like a lot of you.  I have a bucket list.  That list is made up of a whole variety of things.  As I check one thing off, I end up adding in a few others.  I wanted to jump out of a plane.  I did that at Skydive Monterey Bay.  Wanted to drive in a race car.  Did that at Skip Barber Racing School. Wow, this is sounding like an advertisement.  Not my intention.

One of the things that I most added is a one day Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike.  Why you ask.  This seems crazy.  Well, long story short, my body doesn't allow me to do everything that I want to do.  I have had back surgery and just a year ago got a new hip.  The old one wore out.  The doctor told that I can do pretty much whatever I want to do, but he recommends not running or other activities that are pounding.  I have continued mountain biking but have recently gotten more into hiking - and I really enjoy it.  I have a good time hiking with others or on my own.  The longer the hike the better.

Castle Rock Hiking Trail

Since I live in the Silicon Valley, we have great mountains close by, and some other great hikes only a short drive away.  I end up hiking a lot around Castle Rock State Park, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Almaden Quicksilver Park and St. Josephs Hill Open Space.  Needless to say, these are all beautiful and provide trails for everyone.

But what really convinced me that long hikes are the thing for me is something that I did with my two boys about 10 years ago, when we did the Skyline to the Sea trail in one day.  This is a 23-25 mile hike that is often done in two to four days.  We decided to do it in a day.  It is long, but overall, it is downhill - or at least that is what we thought.  There are a lot of uphill sections (>1700 feet in total) as you work your way from skyline at about 2600 feet down to the ocean.

Skyline to the Sea

We started the hike at about 7am along with two friends.  They went with us to Big Basin where we met other friends for lunch.  The others decided that was enough, so we continued the rest of the way just the three of us.  We had the absolutely best time.  We talked about everything.  Took very few rests and made it to the end at around 4pm where we had a friend pick us up and drive home.

Since then I have been looking at cool long hikes.  This one - the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, rose to the top of the list for me.  Here are just a few reasons.

• The Grand Canyon, need I say more
• It is long, but not too long
• The climb out will be quite a challenge, giving us some bragging rights:)
• I managed to find a couple of people that are excited to do it as well!

Later I will get into some others that I am interested in doing, and a couple more I have completed.

First post

Here we go with the first post...

Top of the Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon, from Hopi Point

There are so many things that I want to cover. I am not sure where to start.  Maybe the best place is with a list of topics.  I am sure that I will hit on some or all of these multiple times.

• Why
• Just the facts
• The overall plan
• Training for the hike
• What shoes to wear
• Poles vs no poles
• How about the socks
• Practice hikes
• Food and drink
• Where to stay
• Permits
• What to bring
• Hiking with friends
• Electronics

What did I miss?