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ADVENTURE RUN Grand Canyon double Crossing 11-5-2001
by Eb Engelmann

It was 3:15 AM. I had just awakened from a fitful night of sleeping. I was hyper with excitement and anticipation. I lay quietly listening to the sound of Joe Dana and Craig Haymowicz sleeping in our room at Yavapai Lodge on the Grand Canyon's South Rim. The alarm signaling the start of our big day would be going off in just fifteen minutes. All too soon now we would do our long-awaited double crossing of the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon, one of the world's "seven natural wonders," is an uncommonly deep fissure in the earth's crust some 270 miles long, up to eighteen miles wide, and a mile deep. Here, in northwestern Arizona, the Colorado River has carved out and removed on the order of 1,000 cubic miles of rock and earthen materials exposing a kaleidoscope of geologic strata down to a level thought to be 1.7-1.8 billion years old. Truly, the canyon is a wonder without equal.

The South Rim at Yaki Point, the beginning of our adventure, is 7,262 feet high (about 500 feet short of the top of Oregon's Mt. Washington). The North Rim at the top of the North Kaibab Trail, our turn-around, is 8,226 feet high (just a bit shy of the summit of the present day Mt. St. Helens). Meanwhile, the Colorado River in the Canyon's bottom at the crossing of the South Kaibab Trail is at 2,400 feet. The Grand Canyon has imaginatively been called an "inverse mountain" by some, a very apt description.

Given its extremes of location, elevation, and topography, the Grand Canyon produces an amazing array of meteorological phenomena. Searing highs in excess of 120 degrees have been recorded in summer. Nighttime lows still in excess of 100 degrees are also not unknown during this period. By contrast, deep snows and bitter freezing temperatures cause the North Rim to shut down during the winter season. Intense summertime thunderstorms have caused severe flash floods and debris flows down many side canyons. And surprise blizzards have isolated unfortunate parties in winter. All of these phenomena, along with truly extreme topographic exposure, have taken over 700 lives since the park's inception, over 550 of them below the rims, inside this extraordinary canyon. People have died of falls, hypothermia, heat exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, drowning, stroke, and similar causes—a great many of them "environmental" in nature. These considerations must be in the back of your mind in preparing for a canyon double crossing. Clearly, summer and winter are to be avoided for this activity.

So, the alarm went off at 3:30 AM, and soon we were at the Yaki Point picnic area where we left our car at 4:15. We completed the short 0.6 mile hike to the South Kaibab trailhead, and we dropped over the rim at about 4:30 AM. We had found deep frost on our car, and the local weather report indicated a morning minimum temperature of 21 degrees. The early morning darkness was spectacular with clear skies, a harvest moon silently suspended on the edge of the rim, an explosion of stars overhead, brilliant moonlight over the varied landscape, and deep black "moonshade" produced by the canyon walls.

We scampered down the trail diligently with our flashlights and headlamp. This trail drops some 4800 feet over 6.7 miles, and there are many sheer drop-offs, occasionally on both sides. Couple that with numerous rock outcrops and many high stone water bars in the trail, and you make for some interesting and challenging running. We frequently walked, even downhill, out of concern for footing, darkness, exposure, and other challenges. In addition, since this is a primary route for the famous mule trains down into the canyon, there are also many mule droppings, urine puddles, and odors from these products. Running here is truly an exotic experience.

Shortly after daybreak, we had just turned off our lights when we heard a sudden, explosive clatter just in front of Craig. He was running in the lead with me in the middle and Joe following, at about twenty yard intervals. Two bighorn sheep had just bounded and leaped up about an 80% slope on an extremely rocky exposure onto the trail and then upon a rock pinnacle some ten-twelve feet above the trail. After that, they moved back down to the trail and then farther up the slope to an outcrop about thirty yards above the trail. There they stood fearlessly and intently watched our passing. Wow! With daylight now, we made good time, and we reached Black Bridge over the Colorado River in 2:20:28.

After passing Phantom Ranch, checking out the campers and breakfast crowd in the dining hall, and topping off with water, we moved up Bright Angel Creek and onto the North Kaibab Trail. Here we had a long, gradual water grade up the creek for some 6-7 miles. Much of this section was in a very steep sided, high, narrow canyon section with the trail traversing fills, retaining walls, half-tunnels with daylight sections, bridges, and much evidence of extensive trail work. Never have I seen a trail with so much obvious effort expended in its construction. Furthermore, there was a parallel telephone line along and water line under the trail—though both appeared to be out of service, obviously having been extensively damaged by past high water episodes and rock falls.

At length, the trail broke out into an open valley ringed by multi-layered and multi-colored walls, islands, and pinnacles of rock. Then, by seven miles or so, it began to earnestly climb toward the North Rim, still distant. Vegetation change was fascinating, moving from drought and heat-resistant plants, like the majestic agave, manzanita, buck brush, and many other cacti and brush species gradually up to cottonwoods and then into pine, fir, oak, and other forest species in the uplands. The trail continued to climb and the canyon narrowed again. Finally we approached Roaring Springs, a fullblown spring rushing cold and clear out of the opposing mountainside. Here the trail split, and we took the left member, the primary route of the North Kaibab Trail up the upper canyon. We reached Roaring Springs, about 9.5 miles from the Colorado, in 5:28:27 overall.

Now the trail really steepened, and our progress slowed considerably. The trail here was perched high upon spectacular red, green, and multi-colored ledges and walls, much of it blasted and chiseled into the rock. Exposure in some places was just breathtaking. Views of rock, gnarly trees, and steep slopes were similarly spectacular. Here, over a mile or more, we also passed a scattered large group of older hikers bound from the North Rim to Phantom Ranch for dinner. We proceeded over a number of bridges and numerous tight switch backs gradually approaching the big "white" layer, which signaled the summit (though to our dismay we were to discover a final basaltic layer perched above it). Finally, at 7:52:33, we reached the North Rim trailhead.

After a brief, anticlimactic celebration, we turned around to repeat our trip. Temperatures had cooled considerably by the rim from a presumed 80 degrees or so in the canyon. And here we were out of the direct sunlight, with all the shade now provided by narrow, steep canyon walls and thicker vegetation. With the cooler temperatures and the extensive downhill, we made much better time going back down to the river. Craig, the colt among us at 50, could no longer contain himself waiting for the old farts, Joe, 65, and Eb, 60, so he pranced ahead for a succession of 5-10 minute leads at various landmarks, where he waited impatiently for us to catch up.

Two more water stops to fill empty bottles, and a rendezvous with thicker early morning clothing discretely left behind by Joe and Craig, and we reached Phantom Ranch again. This time, it was almost 12:00:00 into the run. We were there around 4:15 PM. Here we had hoped to secure a dinner in the dining hall. Apparently a bunkhouse style dinner is served at the ranch each evening to those who have reservations and a limited number of others, such as passing rafters, when space is still available. We had counted on that dinner before starting our long trudge back up the 4800 feet to the South Rim. While there was still space, dinner is not served until 8:00 PM, a 3 hour and 45 minute wait for us. Hungry but anxious to get underway, we forsook our dinner and started the many steep switch backs up the south canyon wall.

It was pleasant now with a setting sun, mounting shadows, a breeze, and a very occasional hiker still dropping into the lower canyon. We made good time, but it was strictly walking from here on, and the frequent 12-18 inch vertical stone water bars across the trail were a decided labor and nuisance! Soon the last downward hikers passed. Just before the last one, we spied another six bighorn sheep 50 yards below the trail. It appeared to be a family unit, and we watched them graze for some time, but they paid us no mind. Now it became dark, and we broke out the lights once again. It continued to cool down and the breeze picked up, and soon we were donning our early morning clothing again—except for our tights. Our day long verbal prattle also gradually subsided as we each became lost in our own toil and with our own pace. It was a long trip back up after a long day's running and walking.

Well up the trail, but far below the summit, we overtook a young Native American we had seen much earlier in the day. We had passed him mid-morning above Phantom Ranch heading in this same direction. His progress was painfully slow as he appeared to be hobbling, but he smiled weakly as he listened to his Walkman. He had a light but no camping gear. At this pace, he would not reach the top until sometime long after midnight, but he appeared intent upon continuing.

Finally, a little more than an hour below the summit at about 6:30 PM, Craig in the lead encountered two walkers with lights looking very much as we did. One was from Phoenix and the other from the Midwest, and they were just underway to a planned double crossing, but they were going to march the entire trip. Then just below the summit we bumped into a final "double crosser," an ultra-running friend of Joe's from Tucson. He, too, planned to do the double, but we would discover the next morning that he turned back after Phantom Ranch with a recurrence of an old heel injury. Strange people, these ultra-runners!

We reached the South Rim trailhead shortly before 8:00 PM. It had taken us 15 hours 22 minutes to do the aggregate 41.8 miles and approximately 11,000 feet of climbing on the round trip. But we did do negative splits (7:29 versus 7:52) owing principally to the lower South Rim but also to our restraint early and intelligent pacing throughout. We rejoiced with high-fives and a little spontaneous whooping. Everything had gone as planned, and we did it! One more adventure run was in the bag. We drove south of the park and caught a roadside diner just 15 minutes before closing. The beer and burgers sure tasted good!

PS. Craig says "Hi" to all of his Salem friends.

(Take a look at pictures of Eb, Joe and Craig in the Grand Canyon: www.wvroadrunners.org/cmphotos