With the lack of snow in the Wasatch, very little in the forecast, and the need to get away after 6 long and hard weeks of work, we planned a road trip.  We packed lots of running shoes and our road bikes and headed south with plans of seeing some of Buckskin Gulch in southern Utah, running Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) of the Grand Canyon, road biking a couple days in Sedona, and then spending Thanksgiving in Scottsdale with Chad’s Grandma and Uncle.

We drove to the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead Friday afternoon and after a very cold night camping (it dropped to the mid teens which our 20F sleeping bags did not handle real well), we enjoyed a 10.5 mile run from the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead up Buckskin Gulch, down Wire Pass and back to Buckskin Trailhead on the road.

Chad Running in Buckskin Gulch

Saturday afternoon we drove through the Grand Canyon and finalized our R2R2R plans.  We estimated we would need 12.5 to 13 hours to complete the entire trip down the South Kaibab trail to Bright Angel Campground, up the North Kaibab to the North Rim, back down the North Kaibab to Bright Angel Campground, and then up Bright Angel Trail.  In all, this would be just under 45 miles and 2 climbs equaling 11,000’.  It would be a different kind of run where you have only 2 climbs, the first being 14 miles (the first 7 being mostly runnable) and the second being 8 miles of pretty steep terrain.  We knew we would not be real fast since neither of us had run a total of 40 miles in 6 weeks (since Bear for Emily and Wild Duluth for Chad) and Chad had been fighting knee pain since the Wild Duluth 100K and some back problems the previous 2 weeks.  Even so, we decided the slower pace would allow us to enjoy the scenery more.  This would also be an interesting run as we have never done a long run like this together before and being that we are different paces, it was sure to be challenging for both of us. We also didn’t feel like we could pass up R2R2R since we would be driving right by the Grand Canyon and this is one of the ‘must do’ runs for any ultra runner.

We hit the trail at 5:22AM after stashing a bike at Bright Angel Trailhead in case we missed the last shuttle bus back to the Kaibab Trailhead and having to walk ¾ mile to the trailhead from where we could park.  The initial descent in the dark was much slower than we anticipated due to steep terrain.  We reached the Bright Angel Campground in 6.7 miles 1:50 instead of the planned 1.5 hours.

5:22 AM - the start of R2R2R at South Kaibab Trailhead

At Bright Angel Campground, we stashed a bag of food under the bridge for the return trip, filled our water, and head up to the North Rim.  The trail to Cottonwood campground was a gradual climb, but very runnable.

Emily running along the Colorado River on descent to Phantom Ranch.

We stopped at the caretakers cabin (1.5 miles past Cottonwood CG) to refill water.  This was the only running water between Bright Angel CG and the North Rim (including the North Rim). The last 5 miles of climbing up to the North Rim was tough and took a lot out of us.   We reached the North Rim (20.5 miles) in 6:16.  We took a much needed 10 minute break for some food and then headed back down.

A North Rim Picnic.

This was going to be a continuous section of running for close to 15 miles, something we never do in the Wasatch. 

Chad descending from the North Rim.

We refilled again at the caretakers cabin and reached Cottonwood campground in 1:42.  We were a little slower than hoped, but the descent was fairly steep and we were taking it easy as we had a long way to go.  After Cottonwood CG, we were able to pick up the pace, it was hard in this section to not really open it up and go.  We were back at Bright Angel CG to retrieve our food cache 1:26 later. 

Emily and Chad at Bright Angel Campgound.

Click here for more photos of the road trip.