IGX

Heading to Grand Canyon Wednesday-Friday this coming week, south rim.

I am contemplating whether or not I can get down the South Kaibab and back out the Bright Angel trail in one day. Will have my wife in tow. We're fairly active, and regularly "hike" the LA fire-road type trails. We have hiked the 4-mile trail out of Yosemite Valley and down the Panorama trail in a single day last August (about 13 miles total, very hungover from camping). TripAdvisor has a bunch of people on either side of the issue, so I'm having trouble getting a read on the actual difficulty of this.

Anyone have any experience with south rim hikes?

I did the same hike in a day but reversed (I know there's some logic to coming back up Bright Angel - and maybe even some rule - can't remember now though.)

I did it around July 4th. It was a scorcher. I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim, but decided not to due to questions about water availability on the north side.

I went light and fast and left in the wee hours of the morning, and met several (mostly older) people that were hiking out. They had overestimated their abilities and underestimated the heat. They couldn't hike down and back in one day and had to finish the hike the next morning.

For me it wasn't a big deal, but trail running/fast packing was my thing then. A Rim-to-rim-to-rim would get a tip of the hat though.

Hard to say without knowing more about your and your wife's fitness level. Great hike though. One of those places that you've seen in photographs so often but it still blows you away when you are there in person.

Just did some googling, sounds like a 17 mile loop in desert conditions with huge elevation gain. I would love to do it, but it is something I would specifically train for. The total distance, the total vertical, and most importantly the heat.

I spent 6 months in the CA desert at China Lake, and did a 1100' el gain run/hike over 1.4 miles almost every day, including in mid-day heat. Tacked on to that were jaunts to the Sierra and Death Valley. I could feel the difference the training made, and would have tackled that loop as a day hike only then.

Construct a loop nearby with equivalent vertical and distance. Park at the top of a mountain and do a "down and up" hike to experience the suckitude of finishing on the uphill. Is there a trail from the Palm Springs tram down and back?

Edit: doh, see you are going there this week. What's the forecast? If the temps are cool, go for it.

nafod wrote:Edit: doh, see you are going there this week. What's the forecast? If the temps are cool, go for it.

Yeah, I think we're gonna try it if the weather is OK... I'll have to discuss w/ a ranger.

I'm comparing w/ previous hikes- The 4 Mile trail in Yosemite is 3870 ft over 4.6 miles, it was very tough but still made it in about 2-2.5 hours. Bright Angel (GC) is 4380 ft over 9.5 miles, w. 3060 over the last 4.9 miles. Should be considerably less strenuous, there is water along the way as well as populated rest areas. The whole loop is 16+ miles but a solid chunk, 2 miles or so it appears, is between trail heads at the bottom of the canyon w/ zero elevation change.

We'd be leaving at 4AM which should give us plenty of time to rest up and eat at the bottom.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:
Yeah, I think we're gonna try it if the weather is OK... I'll have to discuss w/ a ranger.

I'm comparing w/ previous hikes- The 4 Mile trail in Yosemite is 3870 ft over 4.6 miles, it was very tough but still made it in about 2-2.5 hours. Bright Angel (GC) is 4380 ft over 9.5 miles, w. 3060 over the last 4.9 miles. Should be considerably less strenuous, there is water along the way as well as populated rest areas. The whole loop is 16+ miles but a solid chunk, 2 miles or so it appears, is between trail heads at the bottom of the canyon w/ zero elevation change.

We'd be leaving at 4AM which should give us plenty of time to rest up and eat at the bottom.

Check the forecast first. Flash floods can be deadly there.

My wife and I, plus a couple of complete slug friends are planning to go in October. I think a slow raft trip or helicopter ride will do the trick instead. Don't quite get going on a vacation to work out.

A yeah, a rafting trip. What could possibly go wrong?

That got these slow ass boat ride trips. My wife was thinking white water, and I said fuck that.

If two numbskulls can paddle from California to Hawaii with no training experience and no navigation experience, you and your wife might be able to make it.

Have you tried raising money or some sort of "public awareness" campaign to coincide with your endeavor?

I would donate to one that wanted to cure his Irishness or Irishosity or Mickness whatever the PC term is for the condition.

Gingervitis.

Nah. Some of those fux are dark haired. I think the Irish "women" raped some poor bastard Spanish sailors who washed up on shore back in the day. And they got invaded/conquered ALL THE DAMN TIME back in the further back day.

Well this thread certainly took a turn for the rant.

Tirofijo wrote:I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim

That'll get you $50. But you have to wear fishnets

buckethead wrote:

Tirofijo wrote:I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim

That'll get you $50. But you have to wear fishnets

ooherr!

E2>200 wrote:

buckethead wrote:

Tirofijo wrote:I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim

That'll get you $50. But you have to wear fishnets

ooherr!

:twat

seeahill wrote:A yeah, a rafting trip. What could possibly go wrong?

Some dude basically died on the Colorado like a month or two ago. There was a big article in Outdoor magazine. http://www.outsideonline.com/1928081/ti ... -adventure

Phaedrus wrote:

E2>200 wrote:

buckethead wrote:

Tirofijo wrote:I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim

That'll get you $50. But you have to wear fishnets

ooherr!

:twat

:dunce

E2>200 wrote:

Phaedrus wrote:

E2>200 wrote:

buckethead wrote:

Tirofijo wrote:I wanted to do a rim to tim to rim

That'll get you $50. But you have to wear fishnets

ooherr!

:twat

:dunce

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=210149

By the way, Fuzzy. Let your wife know that if she's starting to lag, you'll just have to keep going and leave her for dead. Then you promise to hook up with some hot woman and procreate, because your wife would have wanted you to go on with your life, even if she's a little confused on the issue while you're telling her this.

Well I'm back... Pussed out of the rim to river to rim hike due to the scaremongering on tripadvisor and at the visitor center on the south rim. I'm pretty fuckin pissed that I didn't go for it. We hiked down the Bright Angel trail to Plateau Point (6 miles each way). The NPS graded this as extremely difficult/strenuous 9-12 hours... It took us 6 with ample picture taking, a solid 15 minute dump, and several 5-10 min rests. weather was perfect, about 62 on the rim.

I'll prob not go back anytime soon and feel like I wasted the trip by not getting into the inner gorge. Should have known that the fucksticks on TA were gearing their advice towards fat Midwesterners and French people.

Rim to rim is the way to go. Take 3 days/2 nights to do it. Make camping reservations well in advance and spend a night at Phantom Ranch. The object is to be in there, not "do it".

Thud wrote:Rim to rim is the way to go. Take 3 days/2 nights to do it. Make camping reservations well in advance and spend a night at Phantom Ranch. The object is to be in there, not "do it".

We only had 1 full day, the objectives were 1) see the inner gorge up close 2) get some good canyon views /pics & 3) get a physically challenging hike in. BA to plateau failed on two of those, plus we had to do an out and back rather than a loop which sucks.

There's too much to see/do in this country, let alone the rest of the world, to bother going back to GC anytime soon. I'm disappointed, mainly in myself for listening to people.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Well I'm back... Pussed out of the rim to river to rim hike due to the scaremongering on tripadvisor and at the visitor center on the south rim. I'm pretty fuckin pissed that I didn't go for it. We hiked down the Bright Angel trail to Plateau Point (6 miles each way). The NPS graded this as extremely difficult/strenuous 9-12 hours... It took us 6 with ample picture taking, a solid 15 minute dump, and several 5-10 min rests. weather was perfect, about 62 on the rim.

I'll prob not go back anytime soon and feel like I wasted the trip by not getting into the inner gorge. Should have known that the fucksticks on TA were gearing their advice towards fat Midwesterners and French people.

It was all about the temperature. We could easily be reading about you or your wife getting Seeahilled out of the canyon due to the dehydration on a typical hot day.

The great national parks are bottomless pits of awesome. I spent 3 months in the same park (Glacier) and just touched on what it is all about. You barely skimmed the surface of the GC. Go back sometime and do the trail. It will be there waiting for you. Same time next year.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Pussed out of the rim to river to rim hike . . . I'm pretty fuckin pissed that I didn't go for it . . .I'll prob not go back anytime soon . . . I wasted the trip