Rim to Rim Grand Canyon

 This past weekend Russell and I went with a group of friends and hiked Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon in one day. 24 miles in 12 hours. Russell and I have been training for the past two months 

hiking and hiking every week to get ready. I am glad we did because this was not an easy hike. 

But we felt pretty prepared and we did it!!

We started out on the trailhead at 6 in the morning, it was dark and cold. But that only lasted about ten minutes then it was light and warmer. So we had to carry our headlamps and coats for 24 miles and I don't know if that was worth the ten minutes we used them.

 Russell and I in the early morning light.

 There are water stops and bathrooms every few miles along the trail, that was very nice so we didn't have to carry too much water. We had wonderful weather and we found ourselves in the shade the whole way through the box. A section of the trail that can be very hot in the middle of the day. Here is Russell in the box.

We stopped at the bottom at Phantom Ranch for lunch it was over 14 miles of hiking to reach this point. Mostly down hill, which means the rest of the way is up. We got here at about 12pm and the Burgon's bought us all a delicious lemonaide to drink with lunch.  Here is most of our group, Joleen Liston, Jennefer Dayton, Kelly Sundberg, Jim and Janell Burgon, Tom Wright, Me (Russ is taking the picture) and not shown are Jesse and Jodi, Joleen's sisters.

Russell and I. The day was starting to warm up at this point and we had a lot of hard miles a head of us.

Enjoying our lunch in the shade. We tried to snack all day so that we wouldn't run out of fuel along the way.

After Phantom Ranch we got to the Colorado River. That was awesome to cross the bridge.

Russ and I on the bridge.

A shot of the Colorado from the bridge.

Jen, Jodi, Jesse and I just after we crossed.

The scenery was so pretty all day. This is were I started to get hot, from here to Indian Gardens about five or so miles. The trail started to climb and it felt like forever before we reached our rest spot.

We made it to Indian Gardens it was shady and a perfect spot to sit and have a drink before the last five miles to the top. When we got there, there was a thermometer that read 80 degrees so for sure not as hot as the Grand Canyon can be. 

This is me in front of where we came from. The dark mountains in the back is where we started and we came all all along the trail you can see in the background. What a long hike!

Hiking buddies Janell and Jennefer.

Janell took this cool shot of Russell. We just had a mile and a half left to go at this point.

We made it to the top!! We got to the top at 6pm. So 12 hours of walking.

 We walked the Bright Angel Trail from Phantom Ranch and before that we were on the North Kaibab trail.

 I am pointing to a little tunnel that we got to walk through. We got to walk through a few of them along the trail.

Here I am with a section of the steep trail behind me.

We stopped and saw this cool tower that looked over the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.

For my efforts I got two huge blisters the same size on both feet! I have never gotten a blister hiking and these were bad! But it was a great hike and now on to the next thing!