Hit the Dusty Trail

Well, I'm finally back at work.  I did a couple of hill repeats today.......in the Grand Canyon.  The first one came at 9.6 miles and was 5800' of uphill.  The second little hill came at 37 miles and was alittle shorter, only 4500'.  Nothing like an uphill death march for the last 3 miles to cap off a great day.  Beautiful weather, scenery, wonderful company.  Olga, Larry and I started around 5am at the Bright Angel Trailhead.  The temps were cool, but pleasant.  We reached the Phantom Ranch at around 7:30.  We probably could have gotten there sooner, but we were way too busy taking pictures (I ended up taking over 100).  Olga and Larry were going back up the south Kaibab trail and I met up with Tina and Mike, friends of Olga's.  The three of us continued up North Kaibab trail to the north rim.  At times, it seemed like a freeway, there were so many people, not just hikers, but runners as well.  We never saw any of those runners on the way back so we assumed that they were just doing single crossings.  Once we got past Ribbon Falls, the traffic lessened considerably.  About 2-3 miles from the top of the north rim, we encounterd a hiker moving really slow.  We found out that he and his friends were attempting a double, but were never going to make it.  We topped him off with water and some Gu and kept going.  We later saw him near the top doing much better.  For me, the best part of the day was the trip back down to the ranch from the north rim.  Once you get down the steeper parts of the trail and into the canyon bottom, the slight downhill trail along the creek makes for a good time running.  Since I like running in warm weather, the run was even better since it was pleasantly warm in the canyon.  When we got back to the ranch, I got to see my wife and her family.  They had taken the mule ride down to the ranch and were spending the night.  I wanted to hang around since they were having a steak dinner, but we got going again.  The climb back up the South Kaibab trail was long and grinding.  All three of us were feeling the effects of the day.  It got dark on us about half way back up and every time we would shine our lights up the trail, it looked like a stairway into nothing.  Kind of strange.  Looking up at the stars was beautiful.  No moon out yet and no lights around.  I haven't seen that many stars in years.  We finally reached the top at around 8:30 that evening.  All of the hiker shuttles were done for the day, so we started walking back to the village and managed to flag down a passing car.  It was an off duty Ranger.  He kindly gave us a ride back to the village.  A nice hot shower, a beer and some food and I felt much better.  I was going to go for a little run on Sunday, but when I realized how sore I was the next day, I opted for sitting around and watching the tourists until my wife got back from her tirp.
Cost of a trip to the Grand Canyon including paying for a mule ride?  A fair amount.
Watching the expression on someone's face when you tell them that you're doing a double crossing......in one day........and not a 24 hour day, but 12-14 hours?   Priceless.
I'll post some pictures on my facebook this evening for everyone to see.  It was a great time.