Have you ever met someone who told you a story and immediately you say “you need to write a book or blockbuster film!” That is exactly what I said to my friend Dan Gleason when he shared his experience on tackling Rim to Rim to Rim — a 50 mile trek with a double crossing of the Grand Canyon. This isn’t an endurance run, it’s unguided, unaided — just 50 miles of straight grit and determination. He and three total strangers (whom met on Facebook) planned, prepped and tackled this challenge. Check out Dan’s guest blog post where he shares the journey of 4 total strangers tackling the hardest journey of their lives.By: Dan Gleason
I have trained for this. South Kaibob to North Kaibob to Bright Angle. The map says 45 miles, my GPS says something more like 50. We started around 3:30 a.m. and ran down South Kaibob in the dark. Myself and three others I was with made good time running to Phantom Ranch before sunrise, but they were closed. All good, we’ll catch it on the way back. The four of us felt good all day. Had fun. Ran. Brisk walked. Power climbed. Took lots of pictures and had fun.
The scenery was beautiful. I was constantly just stopping and looking. Simply amazing. We started heading up North Kaibob. This was more of a power hike with a little bit of running, each turn looking more spectacular than the last. Lots more pictures, videos, and laughs took place. We climbed to over 8,000’ and the sky grew darker with each step. About 24/25 miles later, we climbed up and out of the north side. It was much colder here. The plan was to take a break, refill our water, eat a snack, and then head back down. Well…This is where we went from being happy to shit just got real.
The sky opened up and started to down pour. Now we are soaked and freezing. We made a b-line for an oversized port-o-jon, all 4 of us seeking shelter in there. This is where the mental game started rearing it’s ugly head. Again, now we are soaked and freezing. The forecast is heavy rains, wind and flash flooding. There is a shuttle that goes from the North Rim to the South Rim. It’s a 5 hour ride. There is only one. When the rain started it was around 11 a.m. or so, and the shuttle leaves at 2 p.m. But you still need to walk 2 miles to get to it. You need to reserve a seat to ride and if it is full, you are out of luck. All places to stay over night on the north side are completely booked. So, our options are slim.
The four of us each had our handicap. One of us had a broken foot. Another one was loosing the battle of the mind game. The third was slowing down and not feeling well. And me, I couldn’t get warm with no rain jacket to stay dry. Still freezing and wet, we told ourselves that we would warm up if we got running again. And it would warm up as we made it back down. Well, after about a half mile down, we weren’t warming up. It was hailing. And the mind game started playing on everyone. We stopped and contemplated our decision yet again. We are no longer unified. We are now four separate individuals arguing on what to do. After another 15 minutes or so, we calmed each other down and decided to move on.
The rain had stopped. We started warming up and things were good again. But, more storms, flash flooding, plummeting temperatures, and darkness all loom ahead. No longer are we laughing and taking pictures. It’s run as fast as you can. Eat even if you can’t. Drink even though you don’t want to. We are in pure survival mode at this point. We made it back to Phantom Ranch. And again it’s closed. But, the good news is there is water. The bad news is the sun is about to set, temperatures are dropping, and thunderstorms are rolling in. We quickly snack, refill water, put on our head lights and move on.
It’s only about 8 miles to the top of Bright Angel. But, it’s the hardest part of the trip with lots of climbing yet to do. We would only manage between 20-25 minute miles at this point. Within 10 minutes or so, it started raining again. The lightening lit up the canyon like someone turned on a switch in your dark room. The thunder just echoed all over. The sound of the roaring Colorado River as a constant white noise.
As we were climbing, the flash flooding got worse. There were points were we didn’t know which way the trail was vs. the flooding making its own trail down the mountain. A few times we thought we were lost. We are tired. And I myself was soaked and could not get warm. I had no rain gear. If I stopped, it would be the end of me. I started becoming selfish because in order to survive, I’d need to generate energy to keep from freezing. I was hiking fast to stay warm and that’s when I heard something that sent chills down my spine.
It was the scream of Kate’s voice yelling my name. I turned around and only saw Chantel behind me. No sight of Kate and William. They screamed turn around and I ran as fast as possible back to them. I imagined the worst. I thought they were right behind us. I thought Kate’s foot finally gave way and I needed to carry her. I am thinking I am not sure about getting myself out let alone carry her out. They weren’t that far back. The reason they stopped and called for us was that they saw a sign and thought we were going the wrong way. In our current state of mind, pitch black, nothing looking like we are on the right trail, we all second guessed ourselves. Luckily Chantel had hiked this trail before and had a screen shot on her phone. We concluded that we were still on the right trail and continued onward. This time, I am not letting anyone out of my sight.
I decided to stay right behind Kate, I was not going to have this happen again. Very shortly after, Kate’s headlamp broke so I was trying to light the way for both of us. This was difficult because as soon as you turn away you are back to pitch black. The trail is anything from smooth. It is rocky, root filled, unstable, and filled with obstacles. Not to mention the constant flash flooding acting like pop up creek crossings. Even in daylight it is tricky. So, the game plan now is to stay right in front of her and go back and forth of lighting my way then look back to light her way. This was not very successful because just the split second of not being able to see you were up against an obstacle or even the edge of the trail. And that’s a long way down if you trip and fall. Then we got the bright idea to get our phone out and use that as a light. This proved to work. Ok. Onward.
We hit the three mile rest house. This was good and bad. It was a place to go to the bathroom and even a touch of shelter. But, that’s not what we needed. It was a false sense of hope. A few of us wanted to stop and rest. And a few of us just wanted to keep moving. Three miles at our current state and conditions will take us between 1:15 and 1:45 hours. We are broken down at this point. We are all fading fast and not 100% stable. We decide to push on. At this point, my Garmin reads around 47 miles and it shuts off. So, now I am completely guessing on time and miles left. I am thinking we have to be close to cell service and I should try and contact Paul. But, I don’t want to waste energy trying to get it out only to be disappointed with no service. That would be deflating. I eventually muster up the energy to get it and turn it on. Yesssss, I have one bar. I call Paul and he answers. His voice was the best voice I have heard in a long time. I told him that I’m guessing we’re about 40 minutes out. This raised our spirits up. But, we still have lots of climbing ahead of us. About 20 minutes go by or so, then we see a light heading our way. I let out what I thought was a scream and loudly whisper “Paul!” I hear, “Dan!” Holy f. This was so uplifting. We were going to make it. Finally. Finally. We pop out. We did it.
Paul had been waiting for hours for us. He had cloths, a towel and food waiting for us. He was amazing. But, I was hanging on by a thread. I was not far from hypothermia. Paul had the truck only steps from us. But my shivering was uncontrollable. We all jumped in the truck and he speed us back to our room. That hot shower was amazing. I got out of the shower to find food and a Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim shirt on my bed. He had champagne and even held his phone up over like it was a radio playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Lol. That rocked. He was amazing. Couldn’t have done this with out him.
Four totally different people who mostly found each other on a Facebook group page. An ultra 20-something athletic girl from Atlanta. A tall, bearded, sweet tooth runner from California. An old endurance athlete who mainly runs and bikes. And a non-runner who works out all the time and doesn’t run. All drop in the bowl and make a life changing commitment to all come out. #4in4out.
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