Grand Canyon - Rim to Rim to Rim - Initial Highlights

Friday 19 October
- 11:00 am - Eat breakfast at Denny's in Paige, Arizona
- 1:00 pm - eat lunch overlooking the Grand Canyon at Desert View lookout
- 4:00 pm - go for a brief run and look at our route. Holy crap!
- 6:00 pm - have a beer and a burger at the only pub in town
- 8:30 pm - have a beer by the campfire

Saturday 20 October
- 4:00 am - alarms go off
- 4:50 am - hit the road
- 5:30 am - arrive at South Kaibob trail. It is very dark and very windy
- 7:30 am - arrive at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
- 12:00 pm - arrive at the north rim. Greeted by bugs and some wild turkeys
- 3:45 pm - arrive back at Phantom Ranch
- 7:35 pm - arrive at the top of the south rim via Bright Angel Trail
- 9:00 pm - given that the pub was full, we hit the road and feasted at the first Italian place we could find (Tusuyan, AZ)

Sunday 21 October
- 2:00 am - arrive at the first Motel 6 we can find. Crash for a few hours
- 7:30 am - dine at Denny's
- drive southward almost to Los Angeles, then onto the I5 at Sacremento

Monday 22 October
- 7:00 am - arrive North Vancouver

Highlights of the Rim to Rim to Rim Run

• the camaraderie of the trip there and back
• the camaderie of the run
• sleeping under the stars by our campfire at Mather Campground
• seeing shooting stars as we ran in the dark along the rim of the canyon
• getting sand-blasted as we entered the canyon
• seeing the sun rise over the canyon
• loosing Rick about 45 minutes into the run
• finding Rick about 10 minutes later
• getting a sermon on running from a park ranger at Phantom Ranch
• getting a soaker in the swamp at the bottom of the canyon
• finding so much green at the bottom of the canyon
• many types of cactus
• finding lizards and snakes along the trail
• the looooooong dropoffs next to the trail
• being greeted by wild turkeys at the 1/2 way point
• being told we picked the very best weekend of the year to run the trail
• taking lots of photos to share with our pals later
• being blessed with perfect running conditions
• nobody getting hurt, everyone keeping the same pace, everyone pulling together through a few tough patches
• meeting some interesting hikers and runners along the trail
• beating our estimated time of 17 hours by about 2 hours
• experiencing the Grand Canyon in a way that few people can imagine

All of the runners took a camera. Some of the photos are mind-blowing. Click here for a slide show. (photos of the trip uploaded to Flickr, added to the CFA group pool and tagged with GrandCanyon2007 will magically appear in this slideshow - please also tag photos with GrandCanyon ClubFatAss ClubFatAssEvents R2R2R)

The Grand Canyon is a magical place. Hopefully, you too will have a chance to run it one day. We will share our experience and recommendations here so you might benefit when you do give it a try.