Shut up and sing!

 R2R2R..

Too many Rs in there? Naah!! that’s how we roll. Rim to Rim to Rim is what a red-blooded adventure really looks like. 

Take the most dramatic, unique, visually-imposing, iconic landscape anywhere in the world; combine it with the arduous nature of a 50 mile hike, add 11,000 feet of ascent and descent; block 24 hours from your “oh so busy” schedule; throw in a couple of grown up kids that never want to grow up, put on a tight backpack with necessasities, lace up your dancing shoes and you have the makings of an adventcha!!! one that will get seared onto your memory and soul for eternity. 

That’s what happened to us. Really it did, when we decided to hike back and forth from South Rim of Grand Canyon to North Rim and back, in one shot.

The basic construct of Rim to Rim to Rim hike is quite simple actually. Start early morning, climb/run down to Phantom Ranch, about 10 miles; refill water, have a bite, make it to Manzanita Ranch about 8 ish miles away, recharge some, head into 6-7 miles of climb to North Rim with 4000 feet elevation gain, reach North Rim by noon. Rinse and repeat on the way back and you are done. It is quite simple really. As simple as life itself. Be born, get education, get a job, get married, have and raise children, have mid-life crises, retire and voila..you are done. There isn’t anything more to it, is there? Except that both those pictures have no color. And life like our hike, really is all about nuance and color. 

Talking about color, did you know that boring grey rocks when eroded enough through the passage of time, acted upon by nature’s instruments like water and air can reveal colors and facades so spectaular that it will positively take your breath away. Rocks and mountains that way are sort of like us people. When worked upon by abrasives such as adversities through passage of time reveal what’s inside us. Some of it, most of it actually, is quite stunning and beautiful. But one needs to zoom out some to appreciate it. Context is king here. Context is everything. 

Also, life, like the Colorado river, is nourishing and punishing both at the same time. Is it not? But more on that later. We will meet Colorado River, the shaper in chief of this scenery soon enough. Stop distracting me. 

So, back to our soiree. 2 am is pretty darn early to be starting a hike. The only thing earlier than 2 am is 1 am when we got up, cleaned up, shoved some food in us, drove to the South Rim of the Canyon to the Bright Angel Trailhead we had recce (reconnaissanced) the evening before. By 2:15 am we were marching down. Tickled pink, although you couldn’t make out because it was dark. Grown up children, who don’t wanna grow up really are like that sometimes. They have lava erupting into their heads which makes them turn pink about crazy shit like this. They can’t help themselves. 2 am, rushing down a steep cliff, with headlamps… for what? No answer. May be the Colorado River will have some answers. Ever flowing rivers, like mothers, seem to know everything. We will check with her later. 

The plan was to get to Phantom Ranch as fast and as best as we could. Covering some decent distance on fresh legs, quickly, made sense. It would give us a leg up on the overall outcome was the thinking. Except, running down a dark rocky trail despite headlamps was not easy. Not for me, it wasn’t. The other crazies moved bit faster. So be it. I shuffled and walked and picked up pace when I could. These two had to last fifty miles today, and I didn’t have any spares. Legs I mean. And so I made the switch from “our” adventure to “my” adventure with friends, somewhere in the darkness of the Canyon. It helped. It helped me take a brief moment to turn off the headlamp and belong to the Canyon. I was gaining a new friend, a million-billion year old Canyon that had stories to tell. An intimacy became available and started building up, only when I switched off the headlamp and switched off the rushing. I was there, in nature’s lap. The prettiest one ever.

We made it to Phantom Ranch(what a name hahn!!) in good time. By 6:30 am we all were there. The other crazies, Timir and John a bit earlier. But they may not have had a heart-to-heart with the Canyon on the way. Or, may be they did. We don’t talk about such things. But we do celebrate, and we did. The first leg of our journey was done. Some hot coffee, some replenishing, switching out layers, hi-fiving other hikers, pictures taken and we were off again. Brimming with lava flow in our heads. Just as high on life as those cliffs were. The Phantom, may-be was what we were chasing. A good name then, for our first stop. The Phantom Ranch. 

Next leg to Manzanita was time bound. We had lied to ourselves that if we don’t make it there by 10:30 am, would mean we did not have it in us that day to do the whole thing and we will turn around. We all had agreed to it during the planning stages. But they weren’t going to and I wan’t going to turn around. Who would make me? If I had got out of bed that morning to traverse the Canyon back and forth, I was fucking going to traverse the Canyon back and forth. The lava flows hot you see. Bright Angel Trail to Manzanita was the flattest part of the hike. It was early morning. Our legs were warmed up. The views spectacular, refreshing sound of water flowing, fresh morning air, some Elk grazing, gigantic colorful cliffs on both sides, desert Cacti, well marked trail, colors .. so many colors… on the ground and in them cliffs yonder, and we had legs. All the training we had done for this day was coming alive and we covered those 8ish miles in a hurry, beating our fake turn around time by an hour or more. It was working. We will get her done. The Phantom wasn’t so elusive afterall. 

We did the replenish ritual at Manzanita and were off to the next big leg before 10:00 am. This was a real leg. Our first climb up the Canyon. Climbing is work y’all. It slows you down. No matter how well marked the trail is. No matter the views. Add to that the 18ish miles of hyper activity prior. So we clambered up and climbed up. Some faster than others. Injuries sustained in the earlier part of the hike but hidden due to lava flow started surfacing. Both my big toes were badly busted climbing down. Trail running shoes I wore were too tight to prevent banging of toes into the shoe on the downward run/walk for hours that I had done. Too late to do anything now. Also now, 20 miles into the effort, food wasn’t sitting in the tummy as it needed to. Not much could be done. Just keep on keeping on. Get to the other side. The valiant music played in my head and eventually I did. 1 pm. North Rim. Not bad. A bit later that 12 noon I had anticipated but I could work with it. The other two crazies had been there already and were getting cold and anxious to head back as they did and soon after I did too. Not much to be gained just lumbering around. Places to go, promises to keep sort of thing. 

The jouney back to Manzanita was painful. Legs I had, but toes were busted. Have you knocked a tow into the bedpost sometime? Yes that, for 6-7 miles. But, but.. what about the those views? Fuck the views. I am hurting and slowing. Food is started to head back out the way I am putting it in. It’s all happening in the slow motion of a walk down the mountain. Nothing is quite stalled, but nothing quite moving either, at-least not as well as I would like it to. 

It’s all good I say to myself. It will get done and it did. I am back at Manzanita by 4 pm. Some much needed repair is tackled and I am out by 4:30ish. Only 20’miles left now. What? I have been out for 14 hours and still 20 more miles and a major climb left. But we don’t think such things. We only think about the next stop. Just get to Phantom Ranch. 10 miles. More doable. Mostly flat. It will work. And it did, except it worked wet. Mild drizzle progressively turned to cold harsh rain. And you are out in the open. Stunningly dark and cold and rainy for miles around. But we don’t think such things. Headlamp to the rescue. We see what the headlamp shows only and no more. And we keep moving, one step at a time towards the goal. It seems elusive, Phantomish, but it’s there. You will get there eventually. And you do I did. Eventually. I am back at Phantom Ranch by 9 pm. 

There were no thoughts left when I headed back out into the cold rainy night after some bagel and orange juice at Phantom Ranch.  Surprisingly the body kept it in. Unlike what it was doing to food bars and such . There was some pain, discomfort, rain, cold and distance. Everything else had melded back into those cliffs. Just one step at a time. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. On flat ground or climbing. Just keep moving along and get her done. And it did. A couple of hours later than I thought I would, but I was there. Back to Bright Angel trailhead where it all started. 

The Canyon, I concluded had showed me love today. It had let me traverse it. And I was grateful. I still am. I will always be. 

And oh! the Colorado River you ask. What about her? The one that shaped these cliffs. Gorged the Canyon out from Earth’s crust for all to see, how beautiful it really was inside. Rivers, I say, are like mothers. They nurture and feed and shape us. So when one gets to stand on a narrow walkway a few hundred feet above that ever flowing body of benign energy, with the brightest moon you ever saw dancing in the clouds, playing a lighting up game on the river surface, you just stand in awe. You are captivated by this sight of Nature as the divine mother that you are experiencing first hand. You reflect back on your own mother who brought you into this world and helped shape you. You reflect on life and on those magnificent cliffs that are emblematic of what lies within us that is so beautiful, and that is constantly being shaped by forces way beyond your control. You just stand there with the cold wind hitting your face, the waves splashing below you, and the river doing it’s ever flowing thing, and you just breathe in gratitude and breathe out homage. To someone, something that you will never know or understand but who is letting you experience this experience. 

You just shut up and sing.