So I know that I've posted about these people a few times before but every time I get a new email about the crazy things my brother and sister-in-law do, I just want the world (aka the 7 people who read this) to know about it. Maybe it's not interesting to you but hey, this is my blog and it's interesting to me.
Here is a short tale of our recent adventure:
We climbed in Kolob Canyon outside Toquerville on Friday and did some gorgeous climbs on sandstone with huge huecos(holes) in the rock, some providing enough space for you to crawl inside. Very cool.
Saturday was the big day. We had found ourselves a beautiful campspot right outside the park boundaries on USFS land. It's Legal! We departed said campsite at 4:45 am and started running about 5:15. The run from the North to the South Rim is absolutely awesome. All downhill! You run through a few campsites and a spectacular slot canyon-like area called Box Canyon before arriving at Phantom Ranch which is about 12-13 miles in where you can buy a steak dinner for $40. We all felt great at this point. Then we crossed the bridge over the CO river and began the long trek up Bright Angel towards the South Rim. This section isn't terribly steep and we ran quite a bit of it, but the 10 miles still took us about 3 hours, landing us on top at the halfway mark about 6:15 hours among the throngs of japanese tourons. At this point we were quite tired and the only reason we didn't give up was it costed $80 a pop to take the shuttle back to the North Rim. So we then took the shuttle bus over to the South Kaibab trailhead, 1.5 miles away, to run down as it is shorter and steeper.(we wanted to see both trails) This was indeed very steep and we had to hold back in order to not lose our balance and trip over a rock and tumble to our deaths as we ran down a very narrow and exposed ridgeline. We hit the river again after about 8:30 hours of running. Our goal was under 10 hours but the stars were not aligned in our favor, neither were our legs. Steve hadn't run as much lately as he had decided to do the run with us 2 days before, so his calves were killing. Annie's right knee had "a knife jabbed in it" and for some reason my left ankle felt like a small rodent was biting me everytime I stepped. We hobbled, walked, shuffled our way the 4-5 miles of gradual incline back toward the North rim, then slowly we completed the walk of shame back up the steep, steep North Rim, finally finishing at about 7 pm for a time of 13:21.(we didn't count the shuttle time on the south rim in case you were wondering about the math) We started in the dark, and finished in the dark, so we never actually saw the view from the north rim proper, but we saw most of the rest of that dang canyon. We figured our mileage was around 43-44 miles total, with about 24,000 feet of elevation change. I think we decided it was like hiking Timp twice then running a half marathon or something. Spectacular scenery. We found some quarters in the hyundai and each bought a hot shower at the North Rim campground, then dried off with a dirty shirt. I know, somewhat counterproductive. We were too tired, sore, and sick of power bars and gu's to eat dinner, so we settled for some soda and sacked out. We then broke the Sabbath by buying 10 Sausage mcmuffins at mcdonalds while listening to conference on the ride home.
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| Typical that they'd be doing twice this distant in one day. |
So I'd like to think that maybe they're done for awhile. As soon as I think that though, I know that I'm wrong. They'll never stop. And that's one of the reasons I love them. Good on ya' guys. Good on ya'.
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