If anyone is curious what November (NaNoWriMo time — start and finish writing an entire novel in one month) is like in our household, it goes a little like this:
I look at my calendar, which tells me the date only, not the month. I see it’s the 3rd. Oh no, I think. I’d better send my friend a happy birthday message. Geez. It feels like just a few months ago that it was her birthday before.
Of course, I did send her a greeting last month when it was her birthday. So somehow 1 month is both an entire year and only 3 months to my brain.
Now I’m heading out to pick up the girls from school. My neighbor is outside, and I ask if he’s looking forward to his daddy / sons weekend while mommy is out of town. “Does she leave tomorrow?”
“No, not until Friday.”
I mock whisper, “That is tomorrow.”
“No, today is Wednesday.”
Soooo, if you ask me to do anything for you or we’re supposed to meet up this month, I suggest you text me the day before and an hour before too.
It’s gonna be fun! And probably no one will starve or get forgotten at a gas station. Probably.
Bill and I gave each other a trip for our birthdays this year: a weekend at the Grand Canyon to hike from North Rim to South Rim.
We left on Thursday afternoon and drove to the desert above Flagstaff. Half an hour from the park we stayed in a box, which was already an adventure.
On Friday we woke up and drove to a parking lot within South Rim’s village and stashed our car. A shuttle service then took us the 4 hours around the Canyon to the North Rim.
Again, we stayed about half an hour from the trailhead at Kaibab Lodge. (It has just changed ownership and the intrepid new leaders are about to renovate and expand. Glad we got to stay here when it was still wee and wonderful.) We spent the afternoon sketching and reading and drinking lattes and playing games and doing puzzles and chatting with guests who were about to embark on the same adventure as us. It was a perfect afternoon.
At 4:30 the next morning, we trekked through the darkness to our waiting shuttle and were driven to the North Kaibab trailhead on the North Rim.
It took us about 5 minutes to actually find the trail in the dark. Whatever it was we found started to go quite downhill quite quickly, so we figured we were on the right track.
Eventually the sky lightened and we put away our lamp, and we could start to see the enormity of the task in front of us.
Both of us were pleasantly surprised by the grade, though. We thought, looking at the elevation profile, that it would feel much steeper, but we kept up a comfortable and solid 3 mile per hour pace.
It was just an absolutely gorgeous hike. Oh my gosh, the spires, the patina, the obvious layers and changes in sandstone. Our shuttle driver (quite a character) had given us a geology lesson the day before, with some math thrown in too. He has calculated, based on the age of the rock down at the Colorado River, that every step we took was going back 5000 years. Surreal! And it is much less arid in the canyon than either of us thought. Creeks and springs and seeps are abundant, and vegetation is everywhere.
And it was much less populated than we feared. There were people, of course (we passed all but one of the groups we knew who were going down). But knowing that all camping spots had been reserved and it being Labor Day weekend, we thought we would be in constant contact with other hikers. In fact, we usually couldn’t even see anyone else this first half of the day.
We pretty much stayed in blessed shade the entire 15 miles down. And since the trail parallels Bright Angel Creek, there was ample opportunity to dunk our hats and dip our feet too. When we arrived at Phantom Ranch around 11:15, the thermometer (in the sun) read 114 degrees. Ice cold lemonade has never tasted so good. So good!
We sat down at the ranch for about an hour, eating lunch and relaxing with our shoes off. But we knew the day wasn’t even close to over, so back on the trail again. We were both feeling really good, still strong, happy with our progress and timing.
Getting to the Colorado River felt momentous, like meeting the artist of your favorite painting. And we did catch a glimpse of those famous mules across the way. (Luckily for our shoes, they took the South Kaibab trail, while we opted for Bright Angel.) Walking over the bridge, looking down at that muddy surge, you can absolutely feel the power of that water.
It was time to climb — oh boy. We had 9.5 miles to gain about 4500 feet of elevation, mostly in the sun. But again, the grade was less steep than we feared, and we dropped our pace to close to 2 miles per hour. Plus, we took every opportunity to chill out and make evaporative cooling work in our favor.
Indian Garden (4.5 miles from the South Rim) marked the beginning of the end to us. It’s a destination you can see from the lodge overlook, and where a lot of tourists decide to make their big trek. We sat in the shade (thank you cottonwoods!) for a snack and watched ill-prepared folks come and go. We were grateful to still be feeling like we would easily accomplish our mission. We were tired, but not beat.
About a mile and a half up the trail, the sun had traveled far enough to the west that we were back in shade for half the switchbacks. Sometimes it pays to go slow!
The hardest section was from 2.5 to .5 miles from the top. It felt steep, there were lots of folks, and there was just a sense of “this will never end.” But we were in shade! And we knew we were close! And then a big horn sheep showed up!
Once we could see the buildings at the rim, our motivation returned big time. We weren’t above bragging to people who looked interested in us, and some people’s take-out containers were looking awfully good. We can do it!
And then, all of a sudden, we had! We made it! Furthermore, we weren’t totally wrecked, either. It felt like a miracle.
According to my phone tracker, we walked 25.9 miles (although I think something went scrambly down there in The Box) and gained 5204 feet. It took us a total of 12 hours, 27 minutes (which was pretty darned close to our dream goal). But most importantly, we felt like we accomplished something MAJOR and did it well.
A Gatorade, an ice cream float, and a salty soft pretzel later, we were back in our desert box fast asleep.
We are feeling good and proud and happy and amazed and grateful. And tired. But mostly all those other things. Thank you, Grand Canyon!
P.S. Just in case you’re ever tempted, choose someplace besides the South Rim to scoop water out of the toilet.
So I said I would answer questions anybody had, pretend you are as obsessed with thinking about this as much as I still am. And then I’ll let y’all rest in peace and we’ll move on, I promise. But there were a few curiosities, so here you go!
What foods would you repeat and/or recommend? Was there anything you never got tired of?
Ahhhh, food — my favorite thing to think about when it comes to backpacking! Let’s take it a meal at a time. For breakfasts, we all kept an enthusiasm for good, old-fashioned oatmeal. 2 packets per person (1 plain, 1 flavored), plus a Tbsp flaxseed and a Tbsp hemp hearts per person, plus a Tbsp coconut oil per person. We also pretty much always had an appetite for our porridge (grated cauliflower, apple, berries, flaxseed, peanut butter powder, coconut milk, cinnamon).
At lunch, we never tired of tuna or chicken salad, either with curry powder and craisins or with sweet pickle relish, and mayo and crackers of some variety. Freeze dried beef taquitos and popcorn shrimp were always popular, as was simply beef jerky with some fruit and/or veg and/or cheese. (Must of us also liked hummus and roasted peppers/squash/eggplant/onion spread on a tortilla, but some of us got tired of that.)
For dinner, we couldn’t go wrong with just cheap dorm room ramen (I know, I know). We did always have a protein and a vegetable to add, of which probably seaweed and tofu were the most universally popular. (The beets were a failure; it looked like brains. And definitely save beets for the day before you’re in civilization and will have modern facilities at your disposal.) Soup in general was always a hit: carrot ginger, broccoli bacon, chicken vegetable. Meatloaf was delicious, and mac n cheese with ground beef and diced vegetables, and Zattarains red beans and rice with lots of diced veggies. I’m getting hungry!
Snacks were tougher. We got sick of all the bars, and even trail mix could be a hard sell. But Chex mix with some salted nuts thrown in disappeared fast!
What did you do to vary the menu each day?
Well, I pretty much prepared the meals we eat at home for us to take with us. So as varied as our regular diet is, thus it was on the trail. When I filled our resupply boxes, I did make sure that similar meals were spread out with a couple of sections in between. So we had ramen in legs 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, meatloaf in legs 2, 6, 8, and carrot soup in legs 4, 7, 10, etc. I didn’t make myself crazy counting nutrients or calories or anything, just figured we’d ingest everything wet needed, get it all in there, over the course of a week or so.
Did you over- or under-prepareresupply boxes?
Generally speaking, they were really good. We often did have too much trail mix. Even though I tried to vary the flavors (peanut butter lovers, classic gorp, Tex Mex mix, tropical), we almost always ended up packing some out. And bars. I did pack a wide variety of brands (Kind, Clif, Lara, Luna, PowerCrunch) and flavors, but I often ended up swapping them all out for a load of Uncrustable PB&J sandwiches, which at least got eaten. Other than that, we pretty much came out perfectly! (Unless, of course, we decided to hike really fast and cut a whole day out. Then we, duh, had a whole day’s worth of food left over.)
What clothes/equipment worked best?
We didn’t really buy anything special just for this trip, so we pretty much knew everything was going to work well. That being said, some of our gear was ready for an update anyway, so we took advantage of the opportunity to do it now. Specifically, our sleeping pads (four new REI Flash pads which are insulated and have lots of little inflated bumpies to make side sleeping more comfortable); our cook stove (a “pocket rocket” that screws right into the fuel canister); a water filtration system (three Sawyer squeezes which just screw onto the top of plastic bottles). We did make a few splurges: inflatable pillows (2 months on our bundled hiking clothes wasn’t going to do it); a double quilt for Bill and I to share (same weight as a single mummy bag); sun shirts (light-weight, long-sleeved, hooded SPF-protected shirts). If there had been a really good, light, bug-proof, affordable 4-person tent, we probably would have bought a new one. But ours did us just fine.
One thing we should have brought with us but consciously decided to leave at home (and consequently purchased along the way) was rain pants. It was such a wet year, we definitely needed them, especially Tessa who tends to get colder quicker than the rest of us.
What helped each family member stay positive?
I think mostly it was each other, as we were very rarely all discouraged at the same time. Almost always there was at least one cheerleader, one person who believed it would eventually stop raining. We also had town visits to look forward to every 3-5 days, with grandparents to spoil us, and showers and toilets and cold drinks and TVs. We also had some tunes going sometimes (soundtracks of favorite movies and Taylor Swift and the Beatles). And candy, lots of candy.
What was each person’s highlight?
For Maggie it was segment 24, plunging off the top of the world down Elk Creek towards the Animas. It is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, requires some fun acrobatic hiking through the avalanche fields, and it’s downhill.
For Tessa, it was zero days. An honest answer! It’s hard to compete with ice cream cones, swimming pools, grandparently attention, and cartoons when you’re 8 years old. But I like to think it was all the sweeter because of the accomplishment of how we got there. We earned those days!
For Bill, it was the continual sense of accomplishment every time we reached a little (or big) goal. There were lots of finish lines before the Final Finish Line that we crossed all together, as a unit, all because of our family working together.
For me, it was watching the girls get along and play together. When we stripped away all the distractions of our own separate lives, we actually like being with each other!
How are you adjusting to “normal” life?
You know, we were ready to finish. We followed this journey as far as we could, did as much as we could, and it felt right to then be done with it. Of course the girls were excited to be with friends their own age, Bill and I were excited for quiet-ness, we all enjoyed hearing voices that didn’t belong to one of the four of us. It has been delicious to not worry about weather, track the clouds, wonder if we’ll get wet or sun-scorched.
There are things I miss about the trail, namely the simplicity of each day. What will we eat out of these limited choices? Where will we sleep in 10 hours? Do I need to fill a water bottle here or are we still full-up? And that’s about it. “Real life” is a much more complicated dance of decisions and schedules and relationships.
Alright. Enough is enough. Thanks for letting us get a little bit one-track-minded here. But we do realize there are other things to life, and we’re ready to move on to them.
Like school (which is going great, by the way)! Check out our 3rd and 6th graders! Oh these kids — just love em to pieces!
Stats: Distance: 11 legs, 28 segments, 56 days, 486 miles Best food: meaty mac, jumbalaya, and can’t beat curried chicken salad! Wildlife sightings: chipmunks, deer, little snakey (no bears or big horn sheep — oh well)
Day 52:
We were originally planning to have an entire week to do these last 80ish miles. But with all the rain, our last resupply spot got washed out and is inaccessible by vehicle. Hey, what’s a big project without a final challenge, right? So 5 days to home it is!
We started by hiking out of Molas Pass, a beautiful trail in and out of trees and over streams and rocks and views of familiar peaks.
On the first handful of miles, we kept getting reports that “your uncle and aunt say hello.” We must be close to home! (And hello, Ronald and Cecilia! But we can’t stop; we have to do 15 miles today, and for the next 4 too!)
We felt like we were wandering around backstage, seeing trails and roads from the opposite side than we always have seen them before. But we were firmly ushered over a pass to the “right” side again by a wind so strong that Pie’s ears couldn’t stay upright.
Over to Cascade Falls (somewhere most Durangotans have been but we never had), we were not the first to arrive at the party. There were tents already pitched in all the “good” spots. Not to be deterred (but not to walk any farther either), Bill led us bushwhacking to an island where there was just enough (mostly flat) room for our tent. Luckily none of us sleepwalk, because there are cliffs of cascading water all around us. Coolest campsite yet!
Day 53:
We started out kind of grumpy, actually. The air was thick with smoke from West Coast fires, so we had no views and it was harder breathing and the sun couldn’t get through to warm things up. Plus, there was an ultra marathon going the opposite direction so we were constantly stepping off the trail for people who were too tired and focused to say thanks.
And we’re ready to be home!
Of course, not everything was the worst. We talked to some hikers with whom we’ve become nicely acquainted. We did eventually get some warm sun. There was plenty of water. And just as we were about to go over Blackhawk Pass, a Search and Rescue helicopter started circling ama passing and returning.
We put on speed to try to get up to the top where it landed, and we almost made it. We were close enough to see the pilot get out, scramble down to the pass, talk to some hikers, get back in, and take off again. No one was left at the top to give us the scoop, but we’re pretty sure someone pressed their SOS button on their GPS and he was trying to find them. Never been so close to SAR before (knock on wood)!
Our target for the night was the last water source for the next 14 miles. We got there, and all the campsites were taken. I walked another quarter mile down trail, but it was a slopy slopy slope, and we didn’t want to get too far away from the stream, knowing we’d need a lot for the next day’s hike.
We did our best to look pathetic, and someone let us pitch right next to their tent on a “flat” area, only half in the fire pit. We spent the night slipping to the bottom of the tent, then waking up to scooch to the top, over and over again. Ufta.
Day 54:
Today was less smokey at least. We could see some of the hills rolling away from us as we did basically a huge ridge walk. It was pretty much a repetition of the same mile for 13 in a row. (We might be getting a bit jaded.)
But! When we stopped for lunch where the trail crossed a dirt road, who should drive past but a legion of ATVs. We are no longer shy about asking for favors, so we flagged down the lead rig to ask them to take our trash for us. They were very impressed with us (yeah, we know it’s the kids), and started showering us with all sorts of goodies. Rice crispy treats! Candy! Ice cool sparkling water! Jerky sticks! Trail magic can happen anywhere.
We did make it the 14 miles to water, and some of our favorite hikers had their tents set up. We found an actually flat spot for ourselves, and enjoyed a dinner with nice company and conversation.
Day 55:
We are not spring chickens anymore, folks. Today was a super exciting day, but pretty tough!
There were some significant climbs, and it took us longer than it would have, if we hadn’t just done 6 half marathons 6 days in a row. And on our less-than-fresh legs, a significant downhill also felt like we were barely controlling gravity.
But! We made it to the Highline Trail and Kennebec Pass. These are places that can be (and have been) day tripped from Durango.
We also started the last segment — no. 28 — of the whole trail. We remember when we entered segment 1!
Aaaaaaand … We got a glimpse of actual Durango! It was shiny way over there in the distance, just past the peaks we hike from our back yard trails. We are so so close!
16 miles later, the group with whom we’ve been kind of traveling lately welcomed us to our intended campsite. They saved us a nice big flat spot and let Tessa crash their dinner while we set everything up.
Last night on the trail, y’all! Yes!
Day 56:
We woke up early and excited! Today is the day! We’re going home!
We climbed all our hills early. And we hiked so fast that we got to Gudy’s Rest (a popular day hiking destination for us) for lunch. 10.5 miles before lunch — our new best time!
Those last familiar 4 miles seemed to stretch on quite a ways. We were all tired and excited and expected to see the parking lot around every corner, even though we knew exactly where it would be.
And when we got there … Baca Sue! Baba! Nana! Neighbors! Trail friends!
We! Did! It!
89,354 feet of climbing! (That’s climbing Mt Everest more than 3 times from sea level!) 87,892 feet of descent! Countless steps. Countless songs. Surprises and challenges and blessings and friends and support and victory!
Thank you all for all of your kind words and well-wishes and support. We are happy, tired, and proud!
(If you have specific questions or topics you’re curious about, you can leave them in the comments and I’ll do another post. We’re not tired of thinking about all we’ve accomplished!)
Stats: Distance: 10 legs, 24 segments, 51 days, 412 miles Best food: broccoli bacon soup, peaches Wildlife sightings: marmots and picas, of course; sheep; a horse
Day 47:
We expect rain and lots of it, for the next 5 days, and possibly forevermore.
This first day out, we didn’t get soaked like we were afraid we would. There were some sprinkles, but rain jackets and pants kept us dry and our packs stayed dry on the inside too.
We walked on top of a mesa with amazing views, even with the clouds. When we reached the end of the flat top, we came into a flock of sheep with a horsebacked shepherd. They were a good distance away (so we didn’t threaten the guard dogs — whew); we just got to admire the pastoral view over lunch.
Into a patch of forest to camp, we got the tent up and flied and dinner made and eaten before any real rain began.
Day 48:
The forecast said 100% rain today, with thunderstorms after noon. We got up and were out of camp by 7:30. And were greeted by the sun!
We started the long climb up to 13,259 ft, the highest point on the Trail. We watched clouds drift all around us, but were miraculously dry almost all morning! Just at the final ascent to the high point, we walked into a cloud and the sky had a little temper tantrum on us. (No lightning though.)
Apropos the rest of our trip, we took our photo at the top in the rain with very little visibility. But we started coming down in elevation right away, and the rain cleared, and the air got warmer.
We started up valley toward our next 13,000 ft saddle, expecting to pitch our tent somewhere in the willows while the afternoon thunderstorms raged. Instead, blue sky peeked through and we just kept walking!
We can’t believe we made it all the way to Cataract Lake, our pie in the sky campsite for today. Dry, fed, and warm, we lounged in the tent during the brief rainfall until we fell asleep.
Day 49:
We woke up chilly (at 12,300 ft), but quickly warmed up as we climbed out the gulch.
The sun never really broke through the clouds, and we oscillated between warm when climbing and cool when descending. And our rain jackets were always at the ready, with clouds moving all around us, but it was too hot to wear them on the ups and changed too often to want to take them on and off all the time.
But we never got rained on! Miracle of miracles! Climbing out of Maggie Gulch, we heard our first thunder clap, but the wind must have pushed it to our east, like all the other storm clouds we witnessed.
Our lunch spot was over the last of the really beefy passes, at the headwaters of the Rio Grande. How cool is that?!
Beyond Stony Pass, we set our sights on the lowest elevation point and got ourselves into a notch where our tent was protected from the wind. And nary a drop of rain fell.
Day 50:
Day 50! Whoa! Must be about time to wrap this sucker up.
We woke up excited this morning, knowing that we would be covering the same ground as we did on our backpack last summer. It was super fun and gratifying to reach a spot and say, “That’s the spot where we …!”
We finished our walk on the top of the world, saluted the alpine tundra, then plunged down down down down down next to Elk Creek.
Over the course of the 4,000-ft descent, we rediscovered the dramatic river of blood (actually iron), found a secret waterfall, strolled through the newly cleared avalanche fields, and reached our last big mark before the finish.
Cheers ensued when we came out onto the railroad tracks and saw the Animas — our river! It feels finally like we’re actually going to finish, like we’re walking in our home turf toward our home ground.
We pitched the tent between the river and the tracks and fell asleep, excited to climb up the last 3 miles to Molas Pass tomorrow.
Day 51:
We woke up excited to climb up to friendly faces! We had reservations at a camp ground right on the trail, and arrangements to meet Baca Sue and our besties.
We barely got a mile off the bottom when we turned a corner and there was Kenny and Zoey! He was carrying treats and just hearing another voice on the trail made the last couple miles fly by!
At the campground, we were gifted showers, fire wood, drinks, quesadillas, clean clothes, conversation … everything we could dream of!
Pad Thai and s’mores and games and just basking in love later, we are looking forward to home in just a few days!
Magrilless 